Autsim diagnosis in the future - a simple urine test for babies?

[bochead]

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100603091641.htm

Please take 5 minutes to read this article as the potential possibilities being opened up by this research are mind boggling. Imagine being able to diagnose such a complex disorder via a simple urine test from your babe in arms - perhaps as standard in the first year of life.

I have noone IRL to discuss it with, and it again makes a link between brain and gut that goes way beyond the healthy eating tripe trotted out in our schools. The heel prick test for pku alerts people for a child's need for a special diet to avoid serious disability. Will the "cure" for some types of asd eventually turn out to be something as simple as this?

Has anyone seen any other articles around this topic recently? If so could you post links as I'm fascinated. I'm certainly going to revisit so of the existing dietry info we have re asd's.

Interesting that it's talking about a relationship between Autism and the gut. That's exactly what the GAPS diet is all about.......

Great minds Indigo ; )

What I'm now hunting for is a comparison of dietry interventions and impact on asd that's done as a proper clinical trial.

Though various bods (the sunderland protocol being another popular alternative to GAPS) have looked at it, there is very little hard quantifiable clinical data around iykwim.

I want to look again at my son's diet in the new year (If the food is not what he expects to be on the table at Xmas it'll destroy the holiday period for him).

On a different thread you mentioned how your D? in Eastern Europe was doing very well - the typical Eastern European diet is very close to the GAPS diet.....

(At least it's high in meaty stews and pro biotic yoghurt and fermented foods....)

I've looked at that the "typical" diet in his 1/2 bros country of origin. Masses of meat stocks, animal fats (lard on toast for brekkie?) and meaty stews in the winter. A very meditterean (sp?) diet in the summer, very similar to a lot of turkish cuisine. Vegtables prob 90% organic by default. A LOT of bread so lots of gluten in the diet, prob more so than here as it's consumed at EVERY meal. Very little dairy (DS is totally intolerant of dairy proteins).

Very interesting article. Especially the finding about different chemical fingerprints in each groups. Those with ASD, siblings of ASD and those completely unaffected by ASD. Would love to know more detail about the diferences between the sibling and asd group..

Thanks for posting!

Interesting article! Can you actually get this urine test done then?

I wonder how the results of it would differ from the Sunderland Urine Test, which seems to give incomprehensible (and therefore of limited use IMO) results.

Wonder if it gives a simple positive or negative result?

Can I respectfully ask people to keep an eye out for other articles by these researchers/topic. Sadly the test isn't available yet but I do wonder why the nas et all aren't fundraising to try and push it forward asap. The sibling stuff interests me, as I'd love to know why some siblings are affected & not others.

I've just got a gut feeling that this could be a really useful line of research that really challenges an awful lot of current thinking.

Bochead re clinical trial of dietary intervention. My mum had breast cancer a few years ago and read a book by a woman called Jane Plant who looked at the epidemiology of breast cancer and concluded that dairy eating cultures have high rates of b cancer and non dairy cultures ie China and Japan have almost no b cancer. (interestingly Poland also has low b cancer rates.) It may be that the answer to the asd dietary link is in big epidemiology studies rather than clinical trials.
(Mum has been dairy and cancer free for nearly ten years which wouldn't prove anything for a western doctor)

you may like to read The Potential Role of Probiotics in the Management of Childhood Autism Spectrum Disorders2011 which cites Urinary Metabolic Phenotyping Differentiates Children with Autism from Their Unaffected Siblings and Age-Matched Controls

Thanks dollfrog as this article identifies a specific pro-biotic as being helpful (there are sooo many strains that it's tough to know which to try). Next step is to dig out my gaps book and compare to the strain of pro-biotic that author reccomends.

This article In search of biomarkers for autism: scientific, social and ethical challenges also cites "Urinary Metabolic Phenotyping Differentiates Children with Autism from Their Unaffected Siblings and Age-Matched Controls"