Maybe it's a gene thing?

[wombat_socho]

Apparently a research team has come up with a link between genetic damage and autism. This might explain why autistic kids are more common in some marriages than others, and why autistic behavior is linked to allergic reactions (there are some folks who think that autism is in fact an allergic reaction to various triggers) and digestive disorders. It would be interesting to see if they can find a link between Asperger's syndrome and an increased frequency of things like celiac, lactose intolerance, etc. (Kate)

Comments

[thaadd.livejournal.com]

Celiac disease is simplely a matter of diagnosis. It was really pretty unknown in the states before the 1960's - it was called Tropical sprue, and they thought a bland diet of bannanas and such helped it.

Prior to that - kids just 'failed to thrive' when they were weaned, and people who like me got sick at adulthood were thought to have paracites or tumors or whatnot.

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but it's a genetic problem, right? It's not like you woke up one morning and suddenly had no tolerance for gluten, right?

[thaadd.livejournal.com]

Actually, that's not far off. It's a genetic trait that needs to be 'switched on'. That's the irritating thing about testing for it - all they can do is tell you if you can not have it. (which is helpfull in figuring out if it's celiac or crohns' disease).

There are people diagnosed at weaning, and those as adults (me). Generally the adult symptoms are 'mild' enough so people grit their teeth and bear it for a while. As it's malabsorbtion of nutrients, it's alot more apparent in childhood (kid does not grow). Plus most adults don't like talking about medical problems that involve their bathrooms.... In any case, there are all sorts of factors like age of first cereals, excessive cereal diets....

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

Ah. So it's more like a predisposition, similar to Type II diabetes: one can have the genetic markers for it, but if one stays fit and eats right one will never know. Interesting. The article I read didn't mention that aspect of it.