Binge drinking affects social cognition via gut microbiome

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It is well known that autism is multi-factorial. Any involvement by gut flora would just be another factor. I am instinctively sceptical of claims that children become autistic, or revert to allistic, at particular ages or because of particular events - though a small minority may, just possibly, be true. I suspect that differences in brain wiring that occur prenatally are the overwhelming cause.

In my case school could be blamed as the cause of me 'becoming autistic'. Up to starting school at four and a half years old, I was a happy, contented apparently totally allistic child. Being an attractive blond child, with big brown eyes, I was made a pet of by the neighbourhood older girls, which I enjoyed. I spoke early and became very talkative. When I started school, however, I became selectively mute, initially for 3 months. I developed high levels of anxiety and had to be, literally, dragged to school.

Did school cause my autism? No, it did not. It was the case that the school environment, with lots of new sounds and smells and sights, and above all the many strange, loud, unpredictable children that overwhelmed me, both through my senses and socially. I had always been autistic, but my autism was not apparent until my environment was too much for me to cope with.

What is your health regime like now goldfish?

Maybe she meant antibiotics. They can annihilate large parts of the beneficial microbiome in your guts. So you may want to buy probiotics to fill that hole. Some of these bacteria have antidepressant effects btw.

^^^^Definitely Agrees with above by Silence23^^^^

Right, so I got the terms wrong, but apparently the point of parent's bacteria potentially affecting a child still stands... at least, if I'm understanding what I'm reading correctly?

The intestines kind of look like a brain. I wonder if some yogurt brands have nanobots in them.

Yes, you're understanding what you're reading correctly & I personally do believe that is fact vs. theory. Medical studies have shown there's a lack of biodiversity in gut flora in autistics - too few strains in our microbiome's. If a mother inherited too few from her mother, then had a bunch of antibiotics throughout her life & consumed foods that fuelled other micro-organisms in her gut flora makeup (yeasts, fungi, bad bacteria etc) then the mix of microscopic flora she passes along to her offspring is going to be imbalanced, and then that baby is going to develop as a symbiotic being just like all other humans.. except without the proper blend of bacteria to grow and develop alongside, resulting in some neurological missfirings in the enteric nervous system - and quite possibly (my guess) a neuro-diverse development of said enteric nervous system IF the special blend of gut bacteria within us influence the growth & structure of the nervous system they interact with.

But yes, in a nutshell, you understand correctly. Baby inherits an imbalanced blend of gut flora, baby develops differently alongside those bacteria vs. the ideal blend that would grow an NT healthy human.

Ha!

The gut is referred to as the second brain. There are more signals sent up via the vagus nerve from the gut to the brain than the other way around. We need a proper balanced and functioning gut in order to send the right signals to our brains to have them operate our bodies & behaviours properly.

Based on my experience of altering my gut flora, it's as if various probiotic bacteria act like neurotransmitters within the digestive tract, and other micro-organisms (yeast/fungi, maybe other bacteria strains) can act to block proper signal sending. So, in essence, the probiotics in yogurt or sauer kraut aren't exactly nanobots.. but they are little biological organisms performing much the same function as you'd imagine a programmed nanobot to do.

WAY less strict than when I was eating nearly a 100% medicinal diet for a couple years. I believe I've healed my intestines a lot and can tolerate a lot more foods without significant negative effects. I do still try to eat gluten free dairy free as much as possible and Should limit carbs. I eat high fibre and still try to remember to incorporate drinking organic acv in water but tend to forget for long stretches at a time. I take my vitamins/probiotics etc, but also have to remember to eat a bit of sauer kraut or kimchi every single day because if I run out and slip and I'm not consuming those trillions of probiotics on the regular then compound that with eating sugar and drinking alcohol and bit by bit like a frog in boiling water my brain functions suffer and I end up making costly mistakes like when I F'd up a really good job about a year ago. I do still also do intestinal cleanses, just not as frequently. The type of work I do now doesn't require perfect social interactions, but I still try to keep on top of things because even in various construction/contracting settings I don't want to inadvertently make mistakes that cost me contracts or referrals etc - but the industry is more forgiving than tech company office environments.

I do still hypothesize that if I were to get my ducks in a row and then pursue FMT that I might be able to achieve a more permanent balanced gut situation like has been done in children. But I've yet to do it mostly because I have all these things I've procrastinated on in life - taxes/paperwork etc - over the last couple years that I just have this mental block about completing first before I consider diving into a new project of any sort. Maybe I'll get around to all of these things sometime.

But overall, I'd say the amount of effort and energy I have to put into maintaining myself Today is maybe 10-15% what it was when I was very ill a decade ago and had to commit 100% to a strict regimented medicinal routine of cooking/eating all the right things to cleanse, heal, and rebalance my digestive tract. The hardest work was the first couple years for sure.. but I was very VERY motivated to do it because life sucked so bad I'd have done anything it took to think/feel/behave better. Now it's been so long that my baseline level of normal is pretty good - work, social life, attend parties, work at parties, athletic things, money, car/motorcycle/van, money in the bank etc my functioning level has remained far higher and along with it my socioeconomic level has risen from deeply in debt and bankrupt to being in a very comfortable position. Change yourself, change your life and all that.

Is this the same with other neurological disorders, like ADHD and intellectual developmental delays?

Different autisms different causes.

Gut microbiome may well be a cause in some cases its not impossible

Undoubtedly, there are some autistic people, a small minority, whose causal genetic variants have been positively identified. I have taken probiotics for many years, and although it has helped my various gut problems, it has had no discernible effect on my autistic traits. Touching nylon fabric still creates visceral revulsion in me, leaving me with a feeling like all my nerves are frayed, a feeling lasting for many minutes.

^^^^ This ^^^ but no problem with nylon unless its on my skin too long .

Thank you for a good example of a person being on the spectrum all along, but it not being super obvious until the environment was too much.

And in general, I think school is a lousy environment, whose main purpose seems to be to warehouse kids so that parents can work.

One subset that school does “work” for are highly sociable kids whose environmental filters are turned up pretty high. They don’t mind the chaos. Their goal is to make friends in spite of noise, cafeteria smells, AC units which rumble when they turn on and off, etc, etc. And in spite of mean teachers, and often even meaner kids.

* for the cafeteria, I don’t know if it’s cleaning chemicals or badly-cooked grease or both. The only restaurant which smells similar is Denny’s here in the States.

I went to Montessori school from about age 4 which is all about freedom and learning. Public school is about regimentation! We moved around a lot due to my Dad’s job, and I had four different elementary schools. I did okay until 5th grade (age 10), and that school really was appreciably meaner and harsher than the others.

This was school year 1973 - 74.

As an adult, I decided they were mean in large part because they were gearing up for a desegregation which didn’t happen and all their stereotypes about supposedly “wild” African-American kids and Mexican-American kids.

I had actually attended a desegregated school three years earlier in another state, and the black kids in general were very polite.

Anyway the 5th grade was a case of “Your phobias become foreign policy,” self-fulfilling prophecies and all that.

The silver lining was that I learned to judge authority from early on [this is actually a very mixed blessing! ]

Anyway, we as a society could organize schools so much better.

How's the doctor training going?

Thanks goldfish

I'm trying something similar,I'm on week two.
But I'm not that strict. I drink kefir cos I don't like sauerkraut.
I'll check out kimchi though.