Autism possible causes and prevention

Autism possible causes

The early human brain rapidly develops and forms extra neurons. The extra neurons probably develop to make sure there are sufficient neurons everywhere in the brain in case of damage or deficiency. Any neurons that form in excess to what is needed are later removed through a process called 'apoptosis'.

Apoptosis - is a controlled or programmed death of cells. It is an ancient process that multi-celled organisms developed early on in evolution process. It allows organisms to control excess cell growth. It is also used to control infections, viruses and abnormal cell proliferation. Apoptosis is the method used during development – i.e., fetal development to remove unneeded cells.  In our example, it is the method of removing excess neurons. The apoptosis process of reducing neural density of the brain will reduce neural density to a density that is optimum (in an evolutionary defined manner) for both learning and for speed of decision/reaction.  By evolutionary defined, I mean that over evolutionary time frames, those who learn fast and have fast reactions and fast decisions will be more likely to survive to pass on their genes. 

If the number of neurons in an area is slightly higher than normal, it may slow decision making and reaction speeds. At the extreme, too many neurons result in higher than normal numbers of synapsis. Too many synapses may degrade the ability of the brain to communicate internally. There are simply too many “wires” to connect them all correctly. https://psychcentral.com/news/2014/08/23/in-autism-poor-pruning-of-neurons-leads-to-excess-synapses/73982.html

Brain tissue contains cells that support neurons and their functions. If there are too many neurons in a part of the brain, they may simply overwhelm the brain’s ability to support those neurons. For example, they may overwhelm that part of the brain’s ability to remove damage brain structures and cells. The brain may not be able to supply sufficient energy making neurons in the area have fewer than optimum numbers of mitochondria or malformed mitochondria– such that the function of all neurons in an area of the brain may be impacted. (Note, a mitochondria is in effect a cells "power plant". Some cells have multiple mitochondria because they use more energy.  On the opposite side of the spectrum, too low of a neural density negatively impacts learning and complex thinking. There are simply too few neurons to think as well as someone with an optimum number. 

Adding to the overall complexity, parts of the brain develop at slightly different rates and times. Parts of the brain have slightly different neural density due to the intended function of different areas of the brain. I.e., parts of the brain interpret the images from the eyes. Other parts interpret language or social interaction.   

The processes the brain uses to regulate the density of neurons during fetal and early development of the brain are critical for future brain functionality.  For example, some neurons may be pruned - removed by apoptosis in different parts of the brain at different times in order for that part of the brain to work efficiently.  Therefore, how apoptosis works in the brain is very complex.

If there is  a substance that when ingested impacts the timing or efficiency of apoptosis in the brain', it could easily result in varying results depending on when the substance is ingested and how much of it is ingested.  At the extreme, such substances may cause severe forms of autism where the person can’t interact with others, never learns to speak and etc. It can also cause people to have less severe symptoms. I.e, a range of symptoms:  https://www.healthline.com/health/levels-of-autism

As multi-celled organisms evolved over hundreds of millions of years, complex regulatory pathways to control apoptosis developed. Some of the regulatory pathways will be redundant and better controlled. Those would mainly be the regulatory pathways for older parts of the brain.  I.e, the visual, auditory areas of the brain, or the cerebellum that controls movement, the ancient brain stem which controls breathing, heart rate, blood pressure and etc..  But the newer parts of the brain that distinguish humans from other organisms  – i.e, the humans ability for complex thought, for learning language, social interaction and the like are more newly developed and more error prone. These capabilities evolved relatively recently and it is possible that they may be disrupted more easily than something developed 100s of millions of years ago. 

I think that something new introduced in the human environment has figuratively tossed a monkey wrench into the control of apoptosis in early brain development resulting in an increase in autism.

I think the research showing that the 'pruning' process (apoptosis) is causing autism is the best current hypothesis for autism. https://health.ucsd.edu/news/2011/Pages/11-08-autism-neurons.aspx

The "apoptosis hypothesis" in brain development explains the disparate set of symptoms. Since apoptosis occurs at different times in slightly different parts of the developing brain and errors can have varying degrees of severity,  it explains why there is a "spectrum" of disorders associated with autism. It may also explain how some autistic people sometimes have greater than normal abilities. The explanation could be that while some areas of the brain   I.e., parts of the brain that controls language and social interaction are not properly ‘pruned’ resulting in too many neurons for proper operation.  But another part of the brain ends up with slightly more neurons that normal. But in some  parts of the brain, a slightly higher neuron count than normal results in better learning or improved
cognition.  

Iodine deficiency and 'Cretinism'

Cretinism was caused by low levels of iodine during pregnancy and early childhood. Cretinism was once thought to be genetic. Various levels of “cretinism” were seen. From people severely impacted to those barely impacted. In areas with low levels of iodine in the soil, such as the Mid-West and Great lakes region of the world, it was once called the “goiter belt” because so many had goiter – which causes part of the neck to be enlarged. Where there were many with goiter, there were also many children born with lower IQs and other development problems.  Many people were less sensitive to iodine deficiency and were impacted less by iodine. Partly this could be explained by the foods some people preferred to eat. Some foods even if iodine deficient soils have more iodine than others.

Iodine deficiencies have been well studied and I’m not suggesting that they cause autism. The point is to show how a deficiency can cause various types of symptoms which were once thought to be genetic.

I believe that some other change in the environment has similarly to cretinism caused a large number of symptoms by those impacted.  I think the reason that ‘autism’ has not been solved has been that scientists and individuals have been looking at the wrong potential causes of autism. When perhaps what they should be doing instead is considering more carefully that there is too much or too little of something in the mothers diet especially around the third trimester.

Does too much of a good thing become bad?

There is controversial research that too much folate and b12 can lead to an increase in autism. https://safebirthproject.com/folate-b12-and-autism/  Too much of a good thing is often not good. These extra nutrients are suspected to have caused an increase in autism although exactly how and why is not yet been proved.  However, at a guess, it could happen by influencing slightly when certain hormones are produced during pregnancy or when certain development happens.

How may Autism be prevented?

There is no known way to prevent autism.

However, given that the rate of autism is increasing, it is certainly possible that reverting to an older diet may help reduce the occurrence of autism. I think it is a good guess that changing the diet would help prevent autism. For example, in 1970, the rate of autism is estimated to have been 1 in 5,000 or 1 in 10,000. Currently, it is variously estimated that 1 in 59 to 1 in 110 children have autism.

For those who wish to try to prevent autism by changing their diet back to what was common at least 70 years ago, I think the way to do it is during pregnancy, consider what foods would have been available to your great grandmother. Then eat the foods your great grandmother could have eaten. And eat them prepared the same way she would have prepared and eaten them.   

Next, need to remove things that have been added since your Great Grandmother had her children. For example, need to remove chlorine and fluoride from water. This can be done with a water filter.

As cities grow, more and more water is from lakes and rivers where the water is cleaned and treated before it is used by the city. This water is mostly demineralized water. This is not the water drank by most great grandmothers.  Drink a bottle of real spring mineral water from time to time.  Perhaps 3 or 4 times per week.

Food tips for possibly reducing the probability of getting autism

1)      Avoid processed foods

2)      Avoid cereals and foods that have been “enriched”

3)      Try to eat more organic meat or real ocean grown fish. Drink organic milk. Eat organic vegetables especially in the third trimester

4)      Completely avoid margarine and unsaturated vegetable oils. Use instead animal fat, butter or saturated fats like coconut and palm oil.

5)      Take no more than one doctor approved high quality vitamin during pregnancy to make sure that you have sufficient iodine, folic acid and other vitamins. But avoid enriched foods that might add more than is healthy. The idea is to get sufficient vitamins (hopefully from food) to avoid health issues but to avoid getting more than is healthy. I.e, from eating too much of a good thing – which turns it into something bad for the health.

6)      Stay away from most candies, chips and etc.  However, most great-grandmothers would have enjoyed eating a pastry, cake or similar snack. They would have been made by hand without any enrichment,  vegetable oils or margarine. I.e, a pie made from fruit, or cake that was baked with butter or lard. 

7)      Eat vegetables and fruits. Most people would have eaten vegetables in the 1960s and before that were cooked with the exception of salads. Semi-raw and steamed vegetables were not often eaten by most people. For this reason, I recommend avoiding them. Many semi-cooked vegetables are harder to digest. Cooking makes most foods easier to digest. Therefore cook vegetables like your great grandmother would have cooked them.

8)      Avoid artificial sweeteners such as aspartame. If it was not available to your great grandmother, avoid it. Note, there are some people that think artificial sweeteners are linked to autism.

9)   Drink from time to time real spring mineral water. Remove chlorine and fluoride from the water.

Things that won't help

Avoiding vaccines

About the Author

I'm not a doctor. This advice is made from a purely theoretical viewpoint and meant for otherwise healthy adults. It is not intended to be a substitute for doctors advice. For anyone with special dietary needs or complicating illnesses, please follow your doctors advice.