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Originally Posted by WereBear
As I understand it, there's a whole network of diet/vitamins plans that claim they can help while charging ridiculous prices. It is these marketing schemes which has triggered the scorn about using such an approach.
Part of it is the misconception that autism happens to "normal" people and can be "cured." This is completely untrue; the autistic brain is wired differently and is usually struggling with too much input, the wrong input, and high sensitivity to the input.
I find it fascinating that protein, especially in a growing child, would turn out to be so vital. Because my own theory is that the autistic brain is always juggling all these extra functions and uses up neurotransmitters as a higher than normal rate. This could be why protein, especially meat which has all the amino acids, could make a such a difference.
I use pregnenolone for its hormone precursor and its neurotransmitter precursor qualities; it's been extremely helpful.
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I'd like to provide an alternative.
There's several precedents of diseases and disorders that affect behavior, and curing the disease also returns behavior back to normal. Even on this forum, we often talk about bran fog and how it goes away once we go low-carb. Brain fog is just what we feel, but in fact it manifests itelf as behavior, i.e. work performance, focus and attention, sleep quality, social interaction, etc.
Well, at its foundation, the autism spectrum could simply be symptoms of some underlying disorder, rather than a physical difference in the brain itself. If diet alone has such a significant effect, we look at the diet and ask whether this diet is special enough that it addresses equally special brain physiology. Is a ketogenic diet that kind of special? Certainly not, it includes all the regular foods we eat on low-carb and other diets. Therefore, brain physiology in autism is not special.
Then with growth and experience, these symptoms could lead to physical differences in the brain, as the brain compensates, i.e. the brain wires itself differently. We can see this phenomenon with people who have lost use of some sense, where the brain rewires itself to take in more input from the other senses to compensate. This is kinda weird because instead of the common idea that autism is a sort of sensory overload, it would be sensory deficit. Anyways, here again, brain physiology in autism is not special.
Am I the only one who noticed this? Look again at that little girl in the movie. She has a brain disorder, and also a gut disorder. The diet that made a difference with the brain disorder, also made a difference with the gut disorder. I can't help but make the connection. The food we eat hits the gut before it hits the brain, right? Even if I don't know anything about anything, I can reasonably and easily conclude that whatever the brain disorder, it starts in the gut. Maybe it's just the food, maybe it's something else. We talk about gut bugs and their significant effects on our health, well, let's look at that too.
It's just an idea, don't take it too seriously, but when you get right down to it, it starts to make sense.