I would fully expect that a monotonous diet leads to a heavy skew in the gut microbiome as specific bacterial species that thrive on that diet are selected for, others against. It makes some sense that a fecal transplant could repair the damage. If the diet has shifted or expanded, the transplant could lead to long term benefits by restoring newly-viable bacterial species, perhaps by facilitating digestion of the new types of food.

I’d be curious to see a factoring out of the diet composition, gut microbiome, genetics, and severity of autism symptoms.

Now that is something that should be done more often - especially in science journalism, but not only. We cruelly lack long-term vision - not only forward but backwards too.

It is marked as having results submitted but quality review has not been completed.

N=60 and a placebo group, which is better than the N=18 and no placebo group of the first study.

There have been so many small scale trials showing amazing autism improvements that failed to replicate in larger, better controlled trials. I wouldn’t get excited yet.

The typical pattern is to show unbelievably good results in the first open-label trial with a small number of patients (their n=18 trial that claims to have cured severe autism in many children), squeak by with some marginal improvement in the next trial over placebo, then the third trial becomes a game of trying to keep the study small enough that they can hope to p-hack a result that the FDA might accept.

> reduce autism symptoms

> chronic gastrointestinal issues are a harsh reality

> boosting microbial diversity

> when [...] treat those gastrointestinal problems, their behavior improves

Through my opinionated take is:

- gastrointestinal issue are a common comorbidity of autism

- fixing that help autistic people to mask better/easier

- which makes a lot of sense as gastrointestinal issue are very stressful and so is masking. It's quite common that autistic people under stress have a harder time masking

- and masking is removing many of the "symptoms" of autism at cost of stress and other risks (e.g. depression), and society(^1) is conditioning(^2) children to mask autism subconsciously all the time

(^1): Pretty much any society out there.

(^2): Both intentional and accidental. For most autistic people masking isn't a conscious choice, but something through live so strongly reinforced that it's done unconsciously even if they don't want to in any situation except a private one with at most some very trusted people around.

---

Through a much more disturbing implication from this article is that at least in US/Arizona children with gastrointestinal issues commonly do not get appropriate treatment... Or else they couldn't have done the test as they wouldn't have found a non highly selection biased sample of autistic children.

Like treating of gastrointestinal issues shouldn't be a thing you do to reduce autistic symptoms, but something you do anyway. Even if not for quality of live, then for the reason of such issues often causing much more server long term issues if they stay untreated for years.

I was a little surprised to see this.

So the university researchers use time and money from the university to make a discovery, extending on previous published research, and then patent it and start their own for-profit?

Excuse my ignorance, but is that how it's done generally? Where's the upside for all those who are potentially affected?

It kinda makes sense - Presumably the university is involved somewhere still, and it needs to be commercialised somehow, but..

Pretty incredible if true!

I have IBS - which could lead to nutrient deficiencies - and I've passed the initial pre-screen gate for ADHD assessment (coming soon). I also suspect autism, but the reward to cost ratio for assessment of that doesn't thrill me at the moment.

A different gut microbiome might simply be a way to solve nutrient deficiencies.

More like fecal food?

An unexpected result for sure.

I understand a newborn gets its microbiota naturally by contact with the mom in the first days, maybe all the sterile environment involved in surgery changes that.

My slightly more serious experience is that in my late 20s I started getting digestive problems and gaining weight. I feel like my neurodiversity got worse, but that could easily be that environmental factors exposed it.

How does one take advantage of a study like this? I would be difficult to get medically sanctioned poo right now. So what can I do? Coprophilia seems high risk.

I mean I can eat Kimchi and oats, but that seems more about encouraging the bugs that are already there than replacing missing bugs. Are we close to over the counter poo pills?

Just stop eating chicken nuggets and french fries, kids. Have some vegetables.

All applicants will be fed recycled byproducts for free.

> my deepest fantasy is that one day I'll be in the hospital for some random thing, they'll take blood for some test, and then when they read the results, their eyes will go wide and they'll call for a consult. The other doctor will read the results and say "you don't have the nutrient?! How do you live? You're so brave". They give me a shot, and just like that, I'm able to conduct myself in society, understand social cues, hold my attention on anything i want for any length of time, etc

... so perhaps the Nutrient is a product of a gut bacterium.

It's like the medical community wants all high functioning autistics to get bullied like hell in their formative years. Similar irony to "lisp" being unpronounceable by the very people who have a lisp.

https://news.asu.edu/20190409-discoveries-autism-symptoms-re...

actual paper:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-42183-0

In fact it is the subject of the paper, not the MMR vaccine which was the cause of the "controversy".

Is kind of impressive.