From: deputydog23x@gmail.com   
      
   Merry Microbiome: Treatments for Autism   
      
   Santa Tummy   
      
   By Teresa Conrick   
      
      
   The Christmas season always warms my heart and gives me hope.  I have a very   
   ill daughter but her condition, called AUTISM, does not reflect the countless   
   abnormalities in her body nor the pain and suffering that she has had to   
   endure.  Life for her    
   though, is slowly but surely improving as we continue to focus on those   
   abnormalities, especially the MICROBIOME. Megan and thousands like her,   
   experienced profound regression in skills, communication and in health after   
   vaccination.  I thought it would    
   be helpful and HOPEFUL to write about treatments being explored for autism and   
   other conditions in which the microbiome is being implicated.   
   Food and the Microbiome   
      
   For all of the parents, researchers and doctors who have relentlessly pushed   
   special diets and then saw improvements -- you were correct as the microbiome   
   is involved:   
   A link between autism, gastrointestinal problems, and gut microbiota suggests   
   that diet has the potential to impact symptoms, and parents of autistic   
   children have long been exploring the impact of dietary and microbiota   
   manipulations on behavior, for    
   instance commonly using gluten-free and/or casein-free (GF/CF) diets,   
   probiotics, and nutritional supplements. Two randomized controlled trials of   
   the GF/CF diet indicated that it may improve symptoms in some children,37,38   
   although these trials were    
   small, both in terms of size and duration. Although the GF/CF diet may improve   
   symptoms by inducing changes in the microbiota and/or their metabolites,   
   another mechanism is by increasing gut integrity. Abnormally high intestinal   
   permeability (IPT), or a â   
   €œleaky gut,â€� has also been associated with autism, suggesting that autistic   
   individuals may have increased sensitivity to components of our diet and their   
   metabolites, because they can more easily access the bloodstream.56 Autistic   
   individuals on a GF/   
   CF diet had significantly lower intestinal permeability compared with   
   individuals on an unrestricted diet.56   
      
   Then there’s fermented foods, beneficial bacteria for the gut and brain:   
   Modern research is highlighting the potential value of ancestral dietary   
   practices on mental health, and on resiliency against depression in   
   particular. At the same time, there has been tremendous progress toward better   
   understanding of the role played    
   by the low-grade inflammation and the intestinal microbiome in human health   
   and mental well-being [162,163]. Evidence would suggest that the two major   
   themes of these mostly separate highways of research should converge; in other   
   words, the fermented    
   foods so often included in traditional dietary practices have the potential to   
   influence brain health by virtue of the microbial action that has been applied   
   to the food or beverage, and by the ways in which the fermented food or   
   beverage directly    
   influences our own microbiota. This could manifest, behaviorally, via   
   magnified antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity, reduction of intestinal   
   permeability and the detrimental effects of LPS, improved glycemic control,   
   positive influence on    
   nutritional status (and therefore neurotransmission and neuropeptide   
   production), direct production of GABA, and other bioactive chemicals, as well   
   as a direct role in gut-to brain communication via a beneficial shift in the   
   intestinal microbiota itself.   
      
   And let’s not forget the FIBER:   
   Still, some foods look promising. Dietary fiber serves as food for many of the   
   bacteria that live in our guts, says microbiome researcher Jeff Leach of the   
   Human Food Project. "It doesn't hurt as a general rule to eat more fiber,"   
   Leach tells The Salt.   
      
   Too little fiber could starve the bacteria we want around. "When we starve our   
   bacteria they eat us," Leach says. "They eat the mucus lining – the mucin in   
   our large intestine."   
      
   Knight adds that when we do keep our bacteria well fed, they, in turn, give   
   off nutrients that nourish the cells that line our guts. Fiber, Knight says,   
   "is thought to be good for your gut health over all.   
      
   There are a lot of different ways to get fiber. Leach recommends getting it   
   from vegetables. Eat a variety of veggies, and eat the whole thing, he   
   recommends. "If you're going to eat asparagus, eat the whole plant, not just   
   the tips," he says.   
      
   Fiber was also central to Leach's suggestion to Stein to eat more garlic and   
   leek. Those vegetables contain high levels of a type of fiber called inulin,   
   which feeds actinobacteria in our guts. In fact, inulin is considered a   
   prebiotic, since it feeds    
   the good bacteria, or probiotics, that live inside us.   
      
   Garlic actually has antimicrobial properties, which paradoxically, could also   
   be good thing for our microbiomes. One study shows that garlic hurts some of   
   the bad bacteria in our guts while leaving the good guys intact.   
      
   Whole grains are another good source of fiber — but evaluating its benefits   
   is a bit trickier. Whole grain consumption seems to be associated with high   
   levels of a type of bacteria prevotella, Leach says. "Prevotella has been   
   associated with    
   inflammation in HIV patients [and] it's been associated with rheumatoid   
   arthritis." We don't know why that is, Leach says. "So the jury's still out on   
   whole grains."……..Fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut and yogurt might   
   be surer sources of    
   probiotics.   
      
   Which brings us to the importance of PROBIOTICS:   
   While harmful bacteria can ramp up anxiety, several studies have shown that   
   beneficial bacteria can cause anxiety-prone mice to calm down. In a 2011 study   
   published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, for example,   
   Bienenstock and    
   colleagues fed one group of BALB/c mice broth laced with Lactobacillus   
   rhamnosus, a microbe frequently touted for its probiotic qualities. Mice in a   
   control group got just broth, with no microbial bonus. After 28 days, the   
   researchers ran the mice    
   through a battery of tests to detect signs of anxiety or depression.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)