Interesting article in Scientific American about how scientists believe that the brain is shaped by bacteria in the digestive tract.
This makes total sense to me, and makes me think about Mac (my eight-year old with ASD). On top of having numerous food allergies (eggs, dairy, shellfish, nuts), he also has bad problems with food digestion. We supplement his diet with good digestive bacteria, but if he skips a day or two, look out. Apparently this is very common in people with ASD.
"In autism and other pervasive developmental disorders, there are reports that the specific bacterial species present in the gut are altered and that gastrointestinal problems exacerbate behavioral symptoms. A newly developed biochemical test for autism is based, in part, upon the end products of bacterial metabolism. "
By the way, how's this for a mind blowing quote - there are approximately 30,000 human genes in the average human compared to 3 million bacterial genes inhabiting us, leading scientists to conclude that "we are at most one percent human." Did your universe just implode like mine did?
Scientific American
This makes total sense to me, and makes me think about Mac (my eight-year old with ASD). On top of having numerous food allergies (eggs, dairy, shellfish, nuts), he also has bad problems with food digestion. We supplement his diet with good digestive bacteria, but if he skips a day or two, look out. Apparently this is very common in people with ASD.
"In autism and other pervasive developmental disorders, there are reports that the specific bacterial species present in the gut are altered and that gastrointestinal problems exacerbate behavioral symptoms. A newly developed biochemical test for autism is based, in part, upon the end products of bacterial metabolism. "
By the way, how's this for a mind blowing quote - there are approximately 30,000 human genes in the average human compared to 3 million bacterial genes inhabiting us, leading scientists to conclude that "we are at most one percent human." Did your universe just implode like mine did?
Scientific American
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