Hi, Dr. Theresa Lyons here, creative navigating autism and eat to heal autism. And this week’s ask dr Lyon’s question is, does my child with autism also have an immune disorder? There are poor immune disorders that can commonly be comorbid with autism. So if you want to heal autism, really need to make sure you understand all of your child’s comorbidities, including immune disorders.
[00:00:28] So let me get back to the slides. Autism, common quiddity treatment for optimal outcomes. Today I’m discussing immune disorders, autism, comorbidities. Comorbidity is defined as the simultaneous presence of two chronic diseases or conditions in a patient. And if your goal is to heal your child from autism, you definitely need to take into account and treat any comorbidities.
[00:00:57] There’s evidence of an association between various pathophysiological abnormalities and autism, but the exact relationship has not been defined yet. Treatments for some of the comorbidities are well known. Therefore, there’s absolutely no reason for your child to suffer with certain comorbidities.
[00:01:17] Here’s a list of autism, comorbidities, seizure and epilepsy, neurotransmitter disorders, sleep disorders, metabolic disorders, and there are six of them, immune disorders. And gastrointestinal disorders, and I have videos on YouTube for each one of those. Today we’re focusing on immune disorders. We’re going to look at auto antibodies, hypogammaglobulinemia, neuroinflammation.
[00:01:44] Cytokine abnormalities. So there’s a working hypothesis and increasing scientific evidence that inflammatory events during pregnancy, such as an infection, may disrupt the normal expression of immune molecules during critical stages of neurodevelopment. And thereby contribute to the risk for neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism.
[00:02:08] There are other maternal theories involving stress and over a health, and there are also paternal theories in bobbing age, so there’s definitely a lot of theories out there, and please don’t get caught up in blame. I know I first did when my daughter was diagnosed, and I read some of these scientific articles talking about, you know, the returnal theories, and it’s very easy to then start blaming yourself and get stuck.
[00:02:37] But healing autism is about taking informed action. So please do not feel depressed or guilty or blame yourself and stay stuck. Please don’t blame yourself. All right, let’s get into auto antibodies. There are numerous scientific studies on the autism population that have found elevated levels of auto antibodies.
[00:03:03] Auto antibodies, specifically anti-nuclear, anti nucleosome and C reactive protein. Those are the ones that have been shown to be elevated in those with autism. Unfortunately, some with autism also have unique auto antibodies to brain elements. Such as myelin basic protein, serotonin receptors to rebel our tissues, glutamic acid, decarboxylase enzyme, and mitochondria.
[00:03:33] And many of these auto antibodies to those certain elements of the body can also be correlated with severity. Saying that the more antibodies you have to a specific part of, let’s say the brain that is correlated with an increase in severity. So some of these studies have gotten very detailed and very specific, a little bit more about auto antibodies.
[00:03:59] There’s also a disorder called pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infection. That’s abbreviated pandas. Penda sounds very nice, but it is not. And then send them ham. Chorea are associated with auto antibodies in autism. Maternal antibodies to fetal brain is also being researched and correlated to severity.
[00:04:25] So there are. Quite a few specific antibodies that can be correlated to severity in the autism population. Alright. Hypogammaglobulinemia. Yeah, it’s a mouthful. This is a condition in which the level of immunoglobulins, specifically IgG antibodies in the blood is low, and the risk of infection is high.
[00:04:50] Many of those with autism that have this as a comorbidity. Are sick quite often. So in autism, IgG levels have been found to be both increased and decreased compared to control. So it’s not as straightforward as some of the auto antibodies that I just previously discussed in a slide or two beforehand, IgG concentrations have been inversely correlated with aggressive behavior.
[00:05:18] So again, there are some very specific correlation. With autism symptoms based upon antibody levels, neuro inflammation. Many of these studies are done on autopsy studies. Look at microglia cells and what those cells are. They’re the innate immune cells in the brain, and they actually make up 12% on average, and also depending on health of your brain, and they’re the brain’s immune defense.
[00:05:49] So studies of those with autism have shown that these cells, these innate immune cells in the brain, when there’s activation of them in different areas of the brain, they’re associated with neuronal loss. So then obviously if this is happening in your child, certain capabilities will be decreased.
[00:06:12] Another immune disorder is called cytokine abnormalities. Now, cytokines are small proteins that are released by cells, specifically for cell to cell communication. Cytokine is a general name. There’s many cytokines. Other names are lympho kind motto, kind chemokine, and interleukin. You might be familiar with some of those names.
[00:06:34] Cytokines can act on the cells that secrete them. They can act on nearby cells, or they can actually act on distance cells. So again, cytokines, just think of them as communicators. They’re small proteins that are released from one cell to communicate with others. Cytokines can be proinflammatory or anti-inflammatory, so please don’t think all cytokines are bad.
[00:07:03] All cytokines aren’t good either, but they’re used very specifically within our body for communication. So they are vital, but you want them at the optimal levels. So abnormal levels of cytokines have been found to be present in blood brain and cerebral spinal fluid of those with autism, interleukin one B, interleukin six and interleukin eight as well as interferon Lambda and MCP one are consistently elevated in those with autism compared to a control.
[00:07:39] So these are known scientific facts. Other cytokines in the brain are also found to be elevated, and there’s a research article. I was going to kind of explain certain things, but the title is so descriptive. I just put the title here. So the title is children with autism spectrum disorders who exhibit chronic gastrointestinal symptoms and marked fluctuation of behavioral symptoms, exhibit distinct innate immune abnormalities.
[00:08:11] And transcriptional profiles of peripheral blood monocytes. It’s a total mouthful. It’s a long title, but it’s just saying that those with autism who also have GI symptoms as well as kind of changing behavior, they actually have cytokine abnormalities. So here you’re able to link GI symptoms with behavior.
[00:08:39] And immune dysfunction. It’s a very important link to understand. So immune disorder treatments, I’m sure everyone’s like, okay, I know about these disorders. How can I help my child? So intravenous immunoglobulin treatments have been shown in numerous studies to improve core autism symptoms. And this is also a Pandis treatment.
[00:09:04] So those who have autism and pandas, sometimes. Get huge benefit and see huge improvement by one treatment. This intravenous immunoglobulin drugs have been used successfully to improve symptoms, and most people watch. My videos are not really interested in drugs, but when it comes to immune disorders, it’s very, very specific.
[00:09:26] So many times drugs are used. And low partial pressure. Hyperbaric oxygen improves C reactive protein levels. And this is where I’m sure you’ve heard a lot about H bot, which is the hyperbaric oxygen. And the thing with that is you want to make sure that your child actually has high levels of C reactive protein levels.
[00:09:52] Because if you put a child who doesn’t have. A lot of inflammation, specifically from the C reactive protein levels, and you put them in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, you probably are not going to see that many changes. So hyperbaric oxygen chambers, if you buy them or if you use them as treatments, it’s quite expensive.
[00:10:17] So it’s really important. To know why you’re doing a specific treatment. And that leads me to immunologists involvement. So immune disorders, comorbid with autism, need to be treated by highly specialized physicians. Immune disorders are not going to be treated by, you know, supplement or two. These are very, very specific and you really want a highly specialized physician to guide you through this.
[00:10:46] There’s a lot of supporting and scientific evidence showing inflammation is caused by foods. So I’m going to give you a huge tip because I speak with many, many immunologists. Please before going to see them, it is optimal to have implemented a special diet. So eating. The wrong foods make treating immune disorders much more difficult.
[00:11:14] So the treatment that is trying to bring down inflammation will be countered if your child is eating food that causes inflammation. So if you want a really easy and efficient appointment with an immunologist. Then it is best to have implemented a special diet first, so that food is not a causation of inflammation and it just makes the immunologist job so much easier and you’ll see results in your child.
[00:11:48] If they have an immune disorder, comorbid with autism, those results will be much, much quicker to achieve. So again, involve an immunologist, but it’s best to have implemented a special diet before even seeing them. And here are some references in case you want to do further reading.
