978-1572305441

Sally, Ann, and Danny 125
There have been many alternative theories about the causes of
autism. These include the idea that autism is caused by a fear of social
interaction, with subsequent retreat from others, by a motor disorder
that makes speech impossible, by a sensory abnormality that encourages
withdrawal, by yeast infections, by allergies, by Lyme disease, by
deprivation, and so on. The list goes on and on, and a new theory seems
to crop up every two years or so. The attraction of many of these theories
is that they suggest immediate cures such as (in order of the preceding
“causes”) holding therapy (hold the child tight to get through to
him or her), facilitated communication (hold the child’s hand while typing),
auditory integration therapy (put headphones on the child and
train him or her to hear other frequencies), antifungal medications, steroids,
vitamins or secretin, or play and psychotherapy. Eventually every
one has been discredited by good-quality scientific evidence or simply
by the failure of the promised cures to materialize, in which case they
just fade away.
The problem with these alternative theories is that there is always
some evidence to support them, though the various bits and pieces cannot
be brought together into a convincing story based on the evidence
rather than on conjecture. For example, there is no question that children
with ASD have allergies; it is just that the rate of allergies is no
greater than in children without ASD. There is some evidence that children
with autism may have depressed immune function; this may
indeed make them more susceptible to colds and the flu and may be
associated with an increased frequency of allergies in some complicated
way. But that is still a long way from saying that allergies caused autism
in the child. In fact, it may be that the immune system is depressed because
the brain of the child is dysfunctional in a number of ways. The
brain exerts a powerful influence on the immune system, so the causeand-effect
relationship may in fact be the opposite of what these explanations
propose.
It is also true that blood levels of certain proteins may be unusually
high or low among children with autism. Changing the diet of a child
with autism may lead to changes in these levels of proteins. But it is
quite another thing to say that these children have a leaky gut that has
allowed these substances to enter the body and specifically to poison
those brain systems or that the change in diet caused the improvement
in behavior. That is pure conjecture. It is just as likely, if not more so,
that the unusual food preferences and the restricted diet of children
with ASD cause the abnormal levels of proteins in the blood and even