Scientific evidence shows autism isn’t just a neurological condition, according to the authors of a scientific review published Tuesday on Preprints.org.
Brian Hooker, Ph.D., Children’s Health Defense (CHD) chief scientific officer; Jeet Varia, Ph.D., CHD science fellow; and Martha Herbert, M.D., Ph.D., a pediatric neurologist and neuroscientist, co-authored the report, which is undergoing peer review with Development and Psychopathology, a Cambridge University Press journal.
The authors examined the findings of 519 studies to illustrate how autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects multiple body systems, including the immune, digestive and central nervous systems.
Herbert, an autism researcher since 1995, told The Defender the science of autism has become “enormously richer” and ASD “can no longer be considered just a ‘psychological’ problem — it’s a whole-system problem … involving many systems that influence each other.”
She and her co-authors also contend that the latest scientific evidence suggests ASD is largely driven by environmental factors. These include exposure to toxins in food, the environment, medicine or personal care products.
The authors point out that although over $1 billion has been spent on genetic autism research over the past 10 years, researchers have found no unequivocal evidence of a purely genetic cause of autism.
“Although genomic differences may make certain individuals more vulnerable to developing ASD,” Herbert explained, “there are clearly environmental factors that play a huge role in leading to ASD.”
Varia told The Defender that the scientific community needs to acknowledge and explore these environmental factors. “Something is happening in our environment for us to see such an increase in autism,” he said. “We need to ‘get over’ the scientific consensus of genetic causes and accept environmental ones.”
The authors wrote in their report:
“Only once we understand that ASD is not genetically inevitable or a genetic tragedy but an environmental and physiological catastrophe, will we truly be able to grasp and address the root causes of the dramatic rise in its prevalence.”
They said the scientific evidence they reviewed suggests that people with ASD are the “canaries in the coal mine” — meaning that they are responding to toxins in their environment that may “eventually reach us all.”
“The point henceforward,” they wrote, “becomes not just to support and seek full recovery for those diagnosed with ASD, but also how we as individuals, families, communities, and society in the contemporary era can most effectively protect future generations.”
Multiple body systems play a role in ASD
In their report, the authors reviewed new research showing that the brain and the immune system communicate with each other.
In previous decades, scientists didn’t think ASD was linked to lower or altered immune system function because the brain was “viewed as an immune-privileged site,” they wrote. “However, over the last decade, mounting evidence has uncovered the role of the immune system in CNS [central nervous system] health and functioning and disease.”
“Now that we know definitively that the brain is not an ‘immune-privileged’ organ, it is high time to approach autism from a neuroimmune standpoint,” Hooker told The Defender.
Varia agreed. “Philosophically speaking, the immune system and nervous system are essentially two sides of the same coin.”
Varia pointed out that there’s a lot of research showing how the immune system and the gut microbiome communicate with each other. That means that at least three major body systems affect ASD: immune, neurological and digestive.
“I call the immune-neuro-microbiota-axis the ‘magic triangle,’” Varia said. “I feel it’s the ‘gatekeeper’ not only to the pathophysiology of ASD but also everyday ‘normal’ physiological and psychological health and well-being.”
Hooker said the paper helps drive forward the scientific conversation on ASD because the paper “lays out the neuroimmune components of autism in a scientifically robust fashion.”
For example, he and his co-authors explain in the report the concept of a “toxic ‘tipping point’” due to exposure to environmental toxins, Hooker said.
The report states:
“Chronic or acute xenobiotic activation of the immune system would trigger self-reinforcing disease processes through failed shut-off of stress-responsiveness.
“ASD therefore is an example of a situation that emerges as things ‘go beyond the tipping point’ at various vulnerable states of neurological and immunological development.”
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ASD treatments need to reflect its complexity
In their review, the authors argue that future treatments for ASD need to “go beyond the current reductionist and ‘magic-bullet’ medical paradigm.”
Pharmaceutical drugs have their place in the emergency room, Varia said, but they generally do more harm than good for treating diseases like ASD. “There is no ‘magic bullet,’” he emphasized.
Nonetheless, many modern clinicians often use pharmaceutical medication as if it were a magic bullet that can eliminate a disease’s cause or symptom.
The authors wrote:
“This single-target perspective tends to neglect consideration of how these medications unintentionally impact the overall regulatory ability of the human organism … Medications should be designed to mimic, modulate, or promote the body’s natural resolution mechanisms instead of interfering with them.”
The authors said more holistic treatments, including “non-pharmacological, nutritional and botanical therapeutic modalities,” for addressing ASD symptoms have shown promise.
For instance, parents of children with ASD and clinicians have reported success in treating — and sometimes, reversing — ASD symptoms through food and diet. There’s also clinical evidence that mind-body modalities, such as breathwork training, can boost social communication and cognitive functions while mitigating anxiety.
The authors called for more research to assess whether breathwork is effective at treating ASD.
