Low carb best for autism?

[codergal]

My son is 30 years old and has had autism all his life. However we are now seeing some more aggressive behavior and mood swings. I have read some articles concerning gluten free - has anyone had any experience with this? I would love some feedback on this.

[PS Diva]

Google "autism ketogenic diet" and you should get a lot of info about low carbing and autism. People have used it successfully. There is another chain of thought that thinks that gluten and casein free are beneficial. There are those that relate vitamin d deffiency to the disorder.

It really makes sense to me that the condition may be diet related. I'd try it... what do you have to lose?

[bike2work]

There's at least one guy in the paleo subforum with autism. Since you don't have enough posts to search yet, I'll see if I can come up with some threads for you.

[Nancy LC]

My son is 30 years old and has had autism all his life. However we are now seeing some more aggressive behavior and mood swings. I have read some articles concerning gluten free - has anyone had any experience with this? I would love some feedback on this.
There's lots of info about gluten free and casein free on the Internet. There are a lot of parents swearing by it, even if their doctors aren't convinced. You might want to search on the Info. I keep seeing the name "Jenny McCarthy" when the subject comes up.

I'd suggest adopting a paleo sort of diet, who knows what food additives might also be contributing to the behavior issues?

[bike2work]

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=346605&highlight=autism

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?p=6752513&highlight=autism#post6752513

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?p=6755982&highlight=autism#post6755982

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?p=5722129&highlight=autism#post5722129

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?p=6637643&highlight=autism#post6637643

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?p=5669642&highlight=autism#post5669642

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?p=5648189&highlight=autism#post5648189

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=351242&highlight=autism

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showpost.php?p=6799344&postcount=135

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=322845&highlight=autism

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?p=6230199&highlight=autism#post6230199

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?p=7033096&highlight=autism#post7033096

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?p=6806632&highlight=autism#post6806632

HTH.

[kebaldwin]

I don't have my Atkins books with me ... don't recall Atkins mentioning autism specifically. But Atkins did believe that many childhood diseases / problems are the result of parents and then children not receiving proper nutrition.

In which case a low glycemic (not necessarily low carb - unless the person needs to lose weight) diet, plus a high quality "mega" multi-vitamin and lots of fish oil would be a good start. Try it for 2 to 3 months and see how it does.

I would recommend

http://www.vitacost.com/NSI-Synergy-Mens-Multi-Vitamin-Version-2

(4 capsules immediately after breakfast and 4 capsules immediately after dinner)

http://www.vitacost.com/NSI-Mega-EFA-Omega-3-EPA-DHA-240-Softgels

(at least two immediately after breakfast and at least two immediately after dinner)

OR you can try the bottled cod liver oil which will raise the vitamins A and D faster.

http://www.vitacost.com/Carlson-Norwegian-Cod-Liver-Oil-High-In-EPA-DHA

(take one Teaspoonful immediately after breakfast and one Teaspoonful immediately after dinner)

or try the cod liver oil first and then when you run out - switch to the fish oil capsules.

You might find other ways to introduce more healthy fats into his meals.

I can't find many other resources

http://search.lef.org/search/default.aspx?s=1&QUERY=autism

http://www.vitacost.com/articleResults.aspx?ss=1&Ntk=articles&Ntt=autism

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=autism+omega+3

it appears that autism (which I know nothing about) is tied to inflammation. High glycemic foods greatly increase inflammation and a low glycemic diet and supplements will greatly reduce inflammation.

Other information regarding inflammation (if indeed the primary cause of autism is inflammation):

http://www.vitacost.com/articleResults.aspx?ss=1&Ntk=articles&Ntt=inflammation

Note that inflammation ravages throughout the body - so many health problems are related to inflammation. So when you see words like Bursitis, Gastritis, Bronchitis, arthritis - even some mental disease - these are caused by inflammation. So decreasing inflammation is key to many diseases. So don't hesitate reading information regarding some other inflammation disease. In other words - I would expect that one person's solution for Bursitis - would beneift another persons bronchitis

http://www.lef.org/protocols

you can go through some of the neurological but also go down to "Health Concerns" and then "Inflammation".

[codergal]

Thank you all for your responses and information. I will certainly research all of these!

As always, these boards are full of helpful and informative people. Thank you also for the encouragement.

Codergal and Mark's Mom

[kebaldwin]

I assume you are new to low carbing - so I forgot to tell you something else.

Most low carbers require potassium added to their diets. Go to the grocery store and buy "Salt Substitute" - should be right next to the salt. I think there is also "Lite Salt". Ingredient should be potassium. A mixture of 2/3 potassium to 1/3 salt works best for me - if you buy the Morton Lite Salt it will be 50-50 which is fine.

Also many find that more magnesium helps to prevent constipation. I get 300 mg of Magnesium (oxide) in my multivitamin and still take one of these every day to prevent constipation

http://www.vitacost.com/NSI-Magnesium-Ultra

If you are constipated take two of those pills (one at night and one in the morning) and it should get things moving in a day or two

[kebaldwin]

good news!

The December 2007 edition of Life Extension magazine has an article titled "Nutritional Support For Autism".

Bad news is that the November isssue is currently on line (not the december version)

website is http://www.lef.org/

you might contact them to see if you can get a copy of the article emailed to you

I tried to send you a private message to make sure you got this information but I got the error message

codergal has chosen not to receive private messages or may not be allowed to receive private messages. Therefore you may not send your message to him/her