I have Aspergers!! !! My parents have Aspergers!! ! Gluten

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In the past 3 weeks I have discovered that I have Aspergers, not diagnosed yet. I am a 32 year old male. Below are my symptoms as to why I KNOW I have it.
1. I scored a 40 on the online test for AS.
2. I failed the first two grades of school and didn't graduate until I was 19. I was about to be put into special education until someone gave me an IQ test which showed there was nothing wrong with my intelligence.
3. I matured extremely late. When I was 10 I looked like I was 6. I was short but also just extremely immature.
4. In order to communicate with people I either picked on them or just stayed quite.
5. I have an extremely great memory when it comes to events that have happened in my life. I can also remember times when people have done me wrong.
6. I was horrible at math and didn't learn to read until I was like 7 or 8.
7. I get fixated on dates and always look back at a certain year, for example in the 80s, with mysteriousness and awe.
8. I never had a girlfriend and didn't meet my wife until I was 23........online. She was 19.
9. In school I was obsessed with hamsters for a year, then the Lakers, then karate, and so on.
10. I catch myself talking at people and them getting bored. I'll just go on and on about my favorite topic.
11. When I was in school I couldn't get to sleep until 2am in the morning, every single night.
12. I catch myself not looking people in the eye when talking to them.
13. Through my life and today I would catch myself doing the same thing over and over. The last 3 years I would play an online board game for hours upon hours, way up into the morning. I watch tv hours upon hours. I think this is a form of stemming.
14. I have horrible hygiene. I would go days without showering or brushing my teeth.... until people started to complain about it.
15. My older brother has none of these symptoms.
16. In work environments I would get in arguments or disagreements with almost everybody. My last job I had a disagreement with a front desk clerk, 2 security guards, an assistant manager, and a manager. This happens at all my jobs.
17. My wife is leaving me because of this "wall" that is between us. I use to thing she was mostly at fault, now I know that no one could live with me.
18. I eat the same foods over and over again.
19. I have no taste in clothing, culture, or literature.
20. I really really really want to enjoy places, parties, going out................but I don't.
21. I've been called dry.
22. I have a very hard time concentrating on work.

The worst part about it is I think both my parents have aspergers. It is so obvious to me now. I use to feel that my mom didn't hold me enough as a baby. Maybe she didn't, but my brother is fine.

This is extremely depressing. Extremely. The crazy part of it is, I have a degree in Hospitality Tourism Management. Can you believe it? The service industry, working with people is what I have my degree in. After a few years of torment in that field I started to work in sales with my brother. Sales!! !! !! !! No wonder I am struggling.

My only hope now is to go on a casein and gluten free diet. To be honest, I have had success in the past with removing portions of dairy products and gluten out of my diet. I vividly remember losing 40 pounds when I was in grade school. The next year I got all As, made the basketball team, and started to retain friends. As the year went on I started to eat what I wanted to again without gaining weight. Literally the next year one of my "friends" that I had acquired who obviously was not my friend any longer said "what happened to you"? I didn't understand what he meant until now. I removed him and everybody else in my life. My grades went back down. I couldn't socialize anymore.
Another time I mostly removed these things out of my diet was when I was an assistant manager of a hotel. I went on the Atkins diet, removing a lot of the diary and gluten products from what I ate. I did lose weight but I think I was more confident. My district manager looked at me and noticed how much more confident I was. I was promoted to GM at another hotel but started to eat the way I use to. Needless to say I was fired 3 months later because of Asperger behavior. Has anyone experience this with gluten and dairy?

Actually, we tried removing glutein and dairy from our son's diet when he was five years old, but didn't see a positive response. It doesn't "appear" to be his issue, but I'm tempted to try again now. I'm very interested to hear your story and how you seemed to improve socially when you removed those foods.

Do you FEEL poorly when you eat the foods you like? Do you feel better when you take dairy and gluten off your diet?

Kris

Officially casein/gluten free diets are no better than placebo for people on the autism spectrum. Though some of the people in the studies did claim alot of benefits. Do you have chronic constipation or diarrhea? If not it tends to reduce the likelihood you would see benefits.

Well, one theory is that some people with asperger traits have porous bowels. The protein peptides in casein and or gluten are released into the blood stream and effect the functioning of that part of the brain.

The thing about my situation, is that the placebo effect really can't come into play because at the time I didn't know I had Aspergers. I just needed to lose weight. Keep in my I just have come to the realization that I have Aspergers the last few weeks.

1. Case 1: When I was in the 7th grade I was an overweight child. I went on a strict diet and exercised losing 40 pounds. Before I had problems sleeping, making friends, etc. The next year in the 8th grade I was sleeping like a baby (enjoying sleep), making all As, doing my homework as soon as I got home. I was invited to friends houses and socialized. I at times would become quite and reserved, but I still had friends. I really didn't have friends before this year. After I made the basketball team my schedule got off wake again with my sleep and eating. I started to eat anything I wanted (junk food) without gaining the weight back because I was exercizing. I started to notice at the 2nd half of that year that I was losing friendships, but didn't know why. By the time I was in the 9th grade I was eating like crap and couldn't go back to sleep until 1 or 2am. I had no friends at all and was gaining some weight back until I joined karate. So literally I went through my whole high school days without friends. During graduation I was looking around at everybody being so sad because I didn't have one connection.

2. Case 2: After meeting my wife on the internet at the age of 23 I started to gain all my weight back and then some. While working in hotel managment I went on the Atkins diet (not recommended because of the lack of carbs). However, this diet removed most of the diary and gluten I was eating. I remember having feelings that I never exerienced before. I really didn't get along with my wife's brother, but I started having intense feelings with being his friend and a need to be with people. Very strange. My district manager couldn't believe the confidence I was getting. I don't think it was from the weight loss, I truly believe my the chemistry of my brain had changed some. I was promoted and sent to another hotel. From the stress I was eating anything and everythng. I lost my job because of Asperger disagreements and stemming.

3. Case 3. Last year to lose weight I went on a 3 week water fast followed by a 5 month vegan diet (no dairy or meat). I ate very little gluten products. I focused on vegetables and fruits. Honestly I didn't lose that much weight after the fast. I may have lost 10 pounds. However, I noticed that I was talking to one of our product managers for like 40 minutes. Before I would rush the conversation and get off the phone as soon as possible. It was almost like a tennis match. I was enjoying the back and forth conversation, but I didn't know why. My brother noticed how confident I was. I was and still am overweight. But I just really didn't mind taking off my shirt in front of my brother for swimming. Before I would just not swim or wear a shirt. At the trade shows I would be able to focus to set up the booth. My brother mentioned that before I would just pace around and not really help, but this time I was getting involved and focusing. I would enjoy talking to customers and didn't worry about little things.

Unfortunately, for the last several months I have been eating like a pig. Needless to say all the traits of aspergers have come back. I found out a few weeks back that I have it. I have been on a gluten free and casein free diet the last 4 days. There have been some results. I have noticed that I have been able to go to bed at a normal time, am not stemming with video games on the computer all the time.

Even if those diets worked, how would you get enough calcium without milk products? Calcium supplements have issues for me, and probobly don't work as well as the real thing.

And wheat free means ANY wheat at all in any form? How would you avoid it?

My wife is on a gluten free diet for autoimmune thyroid disease - not easy, but worth it.

Even a small amount of wheat products can quickly bring back symptoms. Wheat is in so many foods. She pretty much eliminated processed foods and doesn't eat out much. We found some Chinese foods are ok - rice noodles, chicken battered in corn starch instead of flour, etc. So Great Wall is our preferred weekend quick meal.

We have to read and re-read the ingredients on every label for hidden sources of gluten. Even then, she will sometimes react to a food product that should be ok. If a product is suspect, she makes a note and will do a challenge or two at a later time. If her thyroid swells or she feels cold, we don't buy that anymore.

We mostly eat whole foods or foods we prepared ourselves. Cooked veggies, meats, eggs, corn and rice, fruits, nuts. She misses Papa Johns pizza and beer, but can eat homemade pizza (gluten-free crust mix) and have a glass of wine. There are gluten-free breads, cookies, etc. In terms of sensory experience, most are a notch or two below wheat and are more expensive. But it beats feeling like crap.

She doesn't have to worry about calcium, as she can have dairy with no obvious effect. There are a variety of supplements and fortified foods - calcium enriched OJ, for example.

There's also a fair amount of evidence for a 'leaky gut' theory of psoriasis. Things like oatmeal and slippery elm may help reduce the porosity and minimize undigested protein that moves into the blood and triggers immune reactions. Short chain fatty acids (the acetate/butyrate/proprionate in vinegar) can have a beneficial effect on the gut in moderation (high doses are not good). Alcohol seems to trigger cell death in some people's intestines and increase leaky-gut ... this may be a factor behind alcohol's intensification of psoriasis, or it's ability to cause liver disease.

my grandma was a ceoliac, and my mums allergic to wheat.

when i was very young i was so under developed i almost got sent to a special needs school, i didnt speak untill i was 6 and my behaviour was erratic. luckily dairy and chocolate was the first thing that my mum thought of when she decided to put me on a diet and i became calmer because of it and i started to talk.

its a shame that its so hard to erradicate something like wheat and dairy from our diets is so hard nowadays becasue most convenience foods have wheat or milk in, i started eating chocolate again when i started secondry school because there was little else on offer at break time, if there was a tasty alternative to cheese id probably still be dairy free now

steff

What does "Gluton free" mean, and how is it related to wheat? My aunt had my mom buy some English muffins that supposedly don't have wheat, except the first ingreadient is...WHEAT! It's "sprouted" or something, whatever that means.

Besides (I guess) having AS, I've got an underactive thyroid, which is apparently an autoimmune disease (your immune system damaged it).

So it sounds like no research has actually been done? Plus anything they find for autism might not carry over to AS.

I don't have diarrhea but I did have horrible acid refux and stomach pangs. And yes, when I eat gluten I get a high that is unbelievable. Literally I'll yelp with glee. It is a drug for me.

Why not post the original? No problem - it still contradicts what you said. I said that there were significant reservations about the quality of the studies. You said that it was officially a placebo. I think my interpretation is more accurate.

To actually prove something is no better than placebo is very different from having six studies that found a treatment effect, and then saying that the research could have been designed better.

The section you highlighted "... owing to significant methodological flaws, the currently available data are inadequate to guide treatment recommendations" means that members of the conservative medical profession should not tell their patients to try a gluten/casein free diet, because it is not a treatment that is absolutely proven.

It does not mean that such a diet might not help a person with ASD - we don't know. It does not mean that such a diet is not safe, or that patients should be discouraged from trying it if they are interested. It has been proven to help 100% of patients with celiac disease, 30-40% of patients with Hashimoto's thyroid disease, maybe it helps with ASD, maybe not. But to discourage people from trying it? I don't see the value in that.

"We don't know" is different from "that can't help you."