Could Autism Be Caused by Gut Microbes? | Dr. Emeran Mayer

Part of the rise in autism is due to better diagnosis, but Dr. Emeran Mayer thinks it's something in our environment, and within us, that has played a role in causing this increase. Mayer's latest book is "The Mind-Gut Connection: How the Hidden Conversation Within Our Bodies Impacts Our Mood, Our Choices, and Our Overall Health" (https://goo.gl/vKFPZt).

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Transcript - Autism is both a devastating problem and it’s still a puzzle largely what causes or what has been causing the dramatic increase in the prevalence of this disease in the last 40 years or so. So it’s almost like an exponential increase. Part of that is really due to better diagnosis and the diagnostic criteria. But a lot of people think that something in our environment has played a role in causing this increase. And it’s worldwide. It’s not just in North America. It’s in Asia, it’s in Europe. So something environmental. The genes, the genetic risk factors for autism have obviously always been there but something else must have triggered it. So some people think it’s something in the diet and that is possible. It could also be something what we do to our gut microbes. So the use of antibiotics, the obsession with keeping things more and more sterile from the day we’re born, you know, throughout our lifetime.

So people have thought about this as potentially a change in microbial composition, diversity inside of us are a cause of this. There’s many observations that link the brain and the gut in autism. Clinically the majority of autistic children have digestive problems – constipation, abdominal pain, discomfort. Part of that is most likely due to the diet, the unique diet that autistic children self-select for. Many things are excluded from the diet that we normally would like fiber, fermented foods. And so it’s very possible that that plays a role. And there are people that have thought about this why do kids select such a diet. It seems to have to do a lot with the texture of foods. So very unique disturbance in the sensitivity for the texture, not so much for the content. So things that are soft are much preferred over crunchy and chewy things. And then, you know, people have started to look at the microbial composition. So they looked at the gut microbes in fecal samples from patients with autism and have found abnormalities. Read Full Transcript Here: https://goo.gl/LUkNjo.