Let's Cure Autism! (Health)

[Ishmael]

They're almost there now.... damn

Trillions of bacteria living in and on the human body play a vital role in preserving health. But C-section births, antibiotics and excessive hygiene have been disturbing our microbial balance and possibly contributing to intestinal ailments, obesity, allergies and Autism.
-- Western Lifestyle Disturbing Key Bacterial Balance?

[Wile E. Coyote]

I think they are in the right sort of area.

However, I don't hold out much sort of hope just yet.

Whacking in lots of so called good (in this case uncontaminated by modern life) bacteria into your gut is a pretty unsophisticated approach.

At least long term wheat- or dairy-free diets work on slowly identifying what's wrong.......

[Wile E. Coyote]

The most promising research area to my eyes is the baleful effects of antibiotics on the "second brain" the enteric nervous system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enteric_nervous_system

The argument is similar in outline in that a high level of antibiotics, to kill off so called "bad" bacteria, are in fact killing off equal numbers of "good" bacteria causing damage to the second brain.

Individuals on the Autism spectrum are known to be sensitive to foods such as wheat (gluten) and all dairy products (casein).

My guess is that glucose might also be a factor.

Hence my interest in a recent test.

http://www.futurity.org/health-medicine/gluten-free-diet-eases-autism-say-parents/

[Ishmael]

What they don't yet realize is that Asthma and allergies share common cause with Autism.

Is it possible to be too clean? Researchers say yes

[Ishmael]

Something that I've thought about as far back as my University days. Little did I realize that it might be significant.

Always remember this Applied Epistemological dictum: Every thing done is done for immediate effect. (that's my first take on writing it -- it's a riff essentially on "The truth is always obvious").

If your tallest buildings are knocked down in a sneak attack, always assume your greatest and most immediate enemy is responsible. Likewise, if you are attracted to a woman's buttocks or breasts, do not assume nature gave you this impulse as part of a track-way that eventually leads to her vagina; assume you are actually attracted to the buttocks and breasts for a reason immediately associated with that specific attraction.

That is, we want to kiss because kissing itself does something important. We want to touch and poke and prod and sniff and lick because all those activities, in themselves, do something important. They are not acts of "foreplay", so far as nature is concerned.

We've been confused because scientists, post Darwin, assumed the primary biological imperative of sexuality for all organisms was reproduction. But human reproduction requires one, well-timed sexual coupling every 18 months or so. The sex we are having the rest of the year has to have some different purpose (not to mention all the hours-long make-out sessions in high-school that don't lead to intercourse---much less babies).

[Mick Harper]

This is the human variant of my Acorn Thesis. I often point out that to reproduce itself an oak produces 57,985,873 acorns. Give or take. It is very unlikely that nature would burden the oak tree with such an arduous and wasteful method of reproduction. Therefore it follows that acorns are for a quite different purpose (or set of purposes) and that repoduction has been tacked on at the end.

[Ishmael]

Yes. Throughout all my recent thinking on this I have kept your acorn thesis tucked behind my ear. It is my hope that I shall be able to one day identify the reasons for acorn abundance.

I would say though that the acorn, like human sexual intercourse, existed initially for a solely reproductive reason (though in the case of humans at least, if not for oak trees, its focus upon reproduction likely blurred long before humans became human). Nature loaded up the human sexual act with secondary purposes as other avenues for those critical activities closed down (for reasons to be identified). Eventually, reproduction itself became a reliable bi-product of intercourse needing little to no support, as sexual activity was wholly insured by other interests.

[Mick Harper]

Never tuck acorns behind your ear. In case of squirrel attack. I had not thought that all the other things might be tacked on to the sexual part -- after all acorns are ace for all their other functions, see below, but only one fifty-seven millionth effective in their 'primary' sexual function. Still, you might be right.

[Free-Radical]

Well, this thread wanders all over the place, but I do have one point about autism that I wanted to toss into the pot. Have you ever heard that autistics are attracted to water?


"Too often, children with autism are often attracted to water sources such as pools, ponds, and lakes. Drowning is a leading cause of death for a child or adult who has Autism. Be sure your child knows how to swim unassisted."

Says the public service website AutismSpeaks.org

And:

"In 2012, the National Autism Association found that from 2009 to 2011, accidental drowning accounted for 91% total U.S. deaths reported in children with autism subsequent to wandering, and that 23% of total wandering-related deaths occurred while the child was in the care of someone other than a parent. "

Says the Autism Wandering Awareness Alerts Response Education (awaare.org) site.

Now, most of us should remember the story of someone in mythology who was attracted to water and drowned. But I don't think anyone as ever made the connection that this story may have originated from the presence of autism in the ancient world. But the juxtaposition of "self involvement" and drowning in the myth of Narcissus is certainly a curious parallel to a real world condition we now have some medical grasp of. The ancients would have had no clue, of course. To them it would have looked like certain children were just unwilling to pay attention to the world.

[Mick Harper]

Very interesting. A small and impure thought obtrudes: autistic children can be an incredible nuisance so their being deliberately drowned by their carers should not be entirely ruled out. It is difficult, from your posting, to judge what overall numbers we are dealing with.

[Wile E. Coyote]

I doubt this will be a scientific trial.

Commonsense tells us death subsequent to wandering most times will be an RTA.

So this will be as reported in the media. The media is obsessed by unusual deaths and child drowning is a favorite.

RTAs are far too common.

[Ishmael]

Please. No acronyms.

Really.

[Chad]

[Free-Radical]

[Wile E. Coyote]