10 May 2015, 12:33 pm
11 May 2015, 3:22 pm
Sweetleaf
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Age: 36
Gender: Female
Posts: 35,278
Location: Somewhere in Colorado
11 May 2015, 3:33 pm
11 May 2015, 4:23 pm
11 May 2015, 8:44 pm
The researchers have also hypothesized that synaptic pruning is important and found some damaged parts in mouse models I believe.
Naturally occurring synaptic pruning though...what is to say there isn't some reason autistic people have more, like what if we need more for some reason? Sure maybe that is one thing they see that is different between our brains and neurotypical brains but how do they know its the 'cause', what if its more of a way the brain makes up for some other issue. Artificially pruning them or using an external drug to do so might mess things up more than it would help.
But the drug itself isn't what does the pruning. It increases autophagy and helps restore normal pruning or helps the body do that. There's still much more research to be done Indeed. No one yet knows if this is true, or people if all people with autism do have more connections or why more connections are needed.
If we can take a drug to help social impairments for a short period of time, it's worth it in my opinion. The drug was administered for about a week, also because mice's synaptic pruning occur faster, and for people it would take predominantly longer. Question is, how much longer which remains unknown at this time.
11 May 2015, 8:51 pm
Sweetleaf
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Joined: 6 Jan 2011
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Posts: 35,278
Location: Somewhere in Colorado
11 May 2015, 11:36 pm
The researchers have also hypothesized that synaptic pruning is important and found some damaged parts in mouse models I believe.
Naturally occurring synaptic pruning though...what is to say there isn't some reason autistic people have more, like what if we need more for some reason? Sure maybe that is one thing they see that is different between our brains and neurotypical brains but how do they know its the 'cause', what if its more of a way the brain makes up for some other issue. Artificially pruning them or using an external drug to do so might mess things up more than it would help.
But the drug itself isn't what does the pruning. It increases autophagy and helps restore normal pruning or helps the body do that. There's still much more research to be done Indeed. No one yet knows if this is true, or people if all people with autism do have more connections or why more connections are needed.
If we can take a drug to help social impairments for a short period of time, it's worth it in my opinion. The drug was administered for about a week, also because mice's synaptic pruning occur faster, and for people it would take predominantly longer. Question is, how much longer which remains unknown at this time.
What is to say it would cause a natural level of pruning and not an excess? Also what is to say 'normal' pruning for a neurotypical is beneficial to people with autism? Not to mention its an immune suppressant, with nasty digestive/bowl side effects not something I'd care to take on a regular basis even if it did reduce some of the more bothersome autism symptoms.
12 May 2015, 12:16 am
why
_________________
Unapologetically, Norny.
-chronically drunk
12 May 2015, 2:34 am
My problem with curing autism is... what's autism?
I mean, I have the following problems which are apparently common problems for autistic people:
Depression
Social anxiety/phobia
Debilitating sensory defensiveness
Executive dysfunction (trouble planning and organizing)
Irrational but debilitating stress when faced with most tasks or obligations
Gastrointestinal problems
Trouble concentrating and thinking clearly (ADHD)
Proposagnosia (minor)
Auditory processing problems (minor)
The last two problems aren't a big deal, but the rest are horrible. I would LOVE to be cured of them. Two items on that list in particular I would totally take weird brain-modifying drugs if I thought there was a tiny chance of curing or even treating myself with them. I think a lot of people who suffer these problems would like to get rid of them, although they may not be desperate enough to risk as much as I am.
But! Only one item on that list is actually an official symptom of autism according to the DSM! And that one item wasn't even added until the DSM5. Lots of non-autistic people have those problems too, and it sucks just as much for them, especially since they can't use "autism" as an excuse to get treatment for them. Most of those problems have their own specialized disorder, but in some cases you usually can't be diagnosed with because no one's ever heard of it....
But autism is actually defined by things like low amounts of eye contact, repetitive motions, intense interests, etc. Those aren't actually problems. I'm not even saying that in an "I HATE PEOPLE SO I DON'T CARE IF PEOPLE HATE ME" kind of way; I have those weird traits, and people seem to like me just fine. Even the ones who start out with a negative misinterpretation of my quirks (e.g. a coworker once told me that she mistook my leg bouncing for a sign of anger) tend to be won over. Maybe it's because of the culture of the region I live in, or maybe it's the fact that I actively study the art of being nice, or maybe I accidentally radiate charisma somehow. But I don't feel inclination to "cure" these traits, and I would actually be offended by any suggestion that I should.
There are apparently some people out there who are really big on body language, who have very rigid ideas about the meaning of certain nonverbal communication cues and will disregard anything else that's being communicated if it contridicts their interpretation of body gestures and tone of voice. But NTs have trouble with those people too.
12 May 2015, 2:20 pm
12 May 2015, 9:54 pm
why
Because it's a useful trait, and will only become moreso as human societies grow in complexity.
Show me someone really good at troubleshooting DNS resolution issues and I will bet you dollars to donuts that, ASD diagnosis or no, that person has greater-than-average synaptic connectivity.
Except that if it were true those synapses wouldn't be like the excess found in autism, being that those synapses would not contain damaged/dysfunctional parts.
It reminds me of the idea of 'too much' empathy, where people think that must be a good thing because it sounds like the person is very caring etc, when in reality it is a bad thing, hence the 'too much'.
I can't find sufficient literature that would suggest the unpruned synapses to be largely beneficial. They probably cause some of the positive traits of autism but it makes no sense to me to describe the comparatively normal as being deficient when negatives are absent.
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Unapologetically, Norny.
-chronically drunk
13 May 2015, 1:21 am
13 May 2015, 1:45 am
goldfish21
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Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
13 May 2015, 2:25 am
Um, no. A healthy diet can't make people sick. Some herbs and spices can't make people sick. Nor can herbal/acv/coffee enemas for that matter.* And probiotics aren't going to make people sick, either.*
*It's possible for it to cause vomiting when done incorrectly/at too high of dosage, but neither is going to make someone sick in terms of having an actual illness/chronic illness.
Call it BS/placebo all you want. I call it living a second, happier healthier wealthier, life.
_________________
No
for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.
13 May 2015, 7:58 am
I see autism as a challenge in life eventhough it has many problems, it's who i am 
people have to learn to live with autism (just as i am learning to live with them)
and never forget it there is nothing wrong with us (maybe they are wrong)
evolutionary we have have both advantages and disadvantages
- out of the box thinking and absurd ideas are my favorite one (advantage)
- difficulty coping with changes (disadvantage)
but the beautiful part of it==> at the end of the day we are gonna need each other dealing with different things
think back historically ==> i would have been a watchman in a working society ==> I'm always very strong visually and would be perfect to sound alarm when a problem arose. or i could be a smith (but never make me deal with customers
I m no leader for i lack communication skills, nor a good planner (for i am chaos incarnated/ spawn of loki)
...
there are thousands of reasons why to be happy with who you are
maybe others don't understand us, but we will never be alone
