Autoimmunity, Autism, and a Mother’s Responsibility
November 29, 2006 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
- Do autistic children have compromised, and even abnormal, immune systems?
- What signs of autoimmunity—”a phenomenon in which the body’s protective system goes haywire, turning on the very tissues and organs it’s supposed to safeguard from attack”—are detectable in autistic children, whose bodies do not always respond as “rigorously” in the face of certain environmental factors?
- How might such an unusual immune system—in which cytokines, “immune proteins, which normally get into gear when a response is needed to injury or irritation,” are constantly inflamed and seemingly “switched on” in autistic persons—have an effect on sleep?
- What to make of a finding that mothers with the chronic condition psoriasis might have an increased “risk” of having an autistic child—-and of another finding that expectant mothers with asthma and allergies are twice as likely to have an autistic child?
The November 28th Ped Med: The biological factors in autism considers these questions about autistic children’s immune systems and about whether there might be a “possible link between autism and pre-birth exposure to an autoimmune ailment.” (What this “ailment” might be is not precisely stated.) In particular, reporter Lidia Wasowicz notes notes a mother’s health while pregnant might or might not affect a child being at “risk” for autism.
On the one hand, the list of what you might have or do during pregnancy and the impact of this on your “risk” of having an autistic child continues to grow. On the other hand, a number of other “autoimmune diseases that turn the body against itself” —-45, to be exact, with rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, rheumatic fever, certain heart complications, lupus and multiple sclerosis on the list—do not appear to be linked to whether one may have an autistic child or not, according to researchers including Judy Van de Water, an immunology specialist at the UC Davis Center for Children’s Environmental Health.
It really is not easy being either a parent today or, indeed, an expectant one with the responsibility of eating, drinking (as a New York Times reporter worries), breathing, or being.
I am wondering if there is any evidence or even suspicion that breast feeding can reduce the risk of developing Autism. There has been some evidence in the scientific literature that breast feeding reduces the risk of some autoimmune diseases (Type I Diabetes)is susceptible individuals. My great uncle, my dad, my sister’s son and one of my brother’s sons had/has Type I Diabetes. I breastfed both of my daughters for over 18 months and neither have developed the disease. Our girls are currently 16 and 19 years old and in good health. In an effort to reduce their exposure to environmentsl toxins, we have lived in areas of Southern California where we felt the air was as clean as possible and have had reverse osmosis water purification systems for the drinking and cooking water in our homes.