Autism: Gut Flora, Immune Development, Brain development - All Tied Together
(05/05/2012)
Mercola.com sent out a youtube video of a phone interview with Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride (DrCM) on the topic of intestinal bacterial, fungal and viral population in our gut and the impact this population has on immune function and particularly on autism and related mental disorders. I recommend that my readers listen to the entire series of 6 segments of the interview. This is an unexpected self-inflicted consequence of our modern health practices, but in her clinic she has developed strategies to reverse the damage and, if started before age 4, nearly all the aberrant development can be reversed. Here’s the bottom line: Autism has gone from about 1 in 10,000 births at the turn of the century increasing with time until now with a rate of 1 in 66 births in the UK. She puts the direct cause as faulty brain/immune system/gut development because our gut microbe population is changing from generation to generation since the advent of anti-biotics and universal vaccination practices, along with the change in diet away from traditional fermented foods. Each generation is passing along populations that that differ from their parent’s gut flora because by the time they get to reproductive age their gut populations have been impacted by these factors. When their children are born, the flora in the birth canal, in the mother’s milk and on her skin is not the same as grandma’s, and the baby’s digestive system is inoculated at birth and while nursing with a new and more defective population. What has not been appreciated until now is that brain development, immune development and gut flora populations are inextricably tied together. This is because the nerves that manage the digestive system are part of the brain initially, and the control mechanisms for digestion and cognition share much of the same circuitry, and are in intimate communication with the living organisms in our gut. If that population is altered so that the unfriendly, toxin-producing microbes are dominant, development of the immune system, digestive system and brain are all impacted. That is my engineering way of looking at it, and to me it makes a lot of sense. The critical thing to understand is that there are corrective methods, and these have been proven over the last decade in DrCM’s practice. So for the details and a very good education on autism spectrum disorders, plus numerous other mental and digestive disorders please listen to this series, the first of which is here. The 0ther 5 parts are there as well and should show when the first is finished. She is successfully treating ADD, ADHD, autism, bipolar and even schizophrenic disorders by restoring beneficial gut flora, improving diet and using other adaptogenic formulas, and measurable improvement results even in adulthood. If your family has a history of any of this, this is a pathway to investigate for you and future generations. Looking further, I found another video series with DrCM and Donna Gates that covers the same material, but is more visual and plays as a series so you can just let them run - very informative. See it here. One key fact they point out that was not on the other videos is the brain's need for the fat Arachidonic Acid. Now most dieticians will tell us that we need to minimize this fat in diet because it is the precursor to series-2 prostaglandins which are pro-inflammatory and contribute to joint pain and other ills. But they point out that the autistic brain is starving for this fat, and when it is supplied, mental function improves. The autistic child needs rich sources of saturated animal fats to repair the damage done by the disease. The evidence keeps piling up for me that animal fats from naturally fed animals is and always has been health food. The main theme of all this is that in the past seven decades we have drastically altered the gut microbial populations we evolved with and that the resulting health issues are very significant. So regardless of whether we have these serious conditions or not, this altered gut flora is impacting our health to some degree, and we would be wise to fix it. The primary path to that is fixing diet, including fermented foods, avoiding antibiotics and chemical sanitizers and getting chlorine and fluoride out of our water. Other recent studies have demonstrated that obesity is clearly associated with altered microbiotic gut population, and that correcting that condition leads to reduced food intake and better nutrient utilization. I suspect that we are on the threshold of discovering s rather ancient body of wisdom that our bodies have understood for millions of years, but we have been ignoring, with severe consequences we are just beginning to understand. Good Living - Frank
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