There is talk from time to time of this or that cure for autism. They range from gluten free diets to chelation therapy and other various attempts. While there has been some minor successes they are always met with the caveat that well obviously the child was not autistic in the first place.
Or were they?
Autism is a sliding scale illness, it ranges from high functioning people who barely are noticed as different at all, to those who are low functioning, with no verbal ability and even possibly low intelligence and they encompass whole ranges of combinations of these factors.
A range of symptoms like this and even varying diagnosis within the ASD label such as Asperger’s, autism, PDD-NOS and other handles actually make this a hash of an illness. The main feature of autism becomes the communications difficulties and the issues with finding the causes and therefore the cures become compounded by the fact that scientists looking at the illness look predominantly at the high functioning end of the scale (generally including Asperger’s and PDD-NOS usually with standard or above average intelligence). Even this group is large and varied and the results are often all over the place. This study finds that there is little evidence of a genetic factor and is likely environmental, another study finds there is little evidence of environmental and keys on a single genetic factor, another study finds a different genetic factor, and we must not when looking at the total body of evidence completely discount the “leaky gut syndrome” either.
So who is right and who is wrong because obviously they can not all be right with such different results? Or can they? Because autism is such a sliding scale illness and because there is so much variation from the various ends of the scale, the question needs to be asked “Can there be a single factor causing autism, or is the vastness of the scale causing various causes to be overlooked because it is not the case on another end of the scale?” I am starting to believe this may be the case and that perhaps scientists need to start looking from a different perspective when looking at causes and cures.
When Cancer is discussed as an illness, amongst the first questions asked is “What kind of Cancer do you have?” This encompasses the question of malignant or benign tumours, of breast, liver, lung, or brain cancer and various other variations. For purposes of this discussion I am going to focus on two different Cancers and two completely different causes. For example skin cancer is often said to be caused by excessive sunlight while lung cancer is often attributed to smoking. So why then are we not breaking down Autism into it’s various smaller categories and starting to look at each individually to see if we can find a cause this way?
The same holds true for cures. If autism covers such a wide variety of potential causes is it not just as likely that it would also cover a wide range of cures, in those cases when cures may be possible at all. For example the idea that mercury poisoning could potentially cause autism and ultimately be cured by chelation therapy while ridiculed by some begs the question, “Is it possible?” the answer is that if the symptoms fit the criteria for autism and symptoms are generally all that are available at this time to designate a person as autistic then it would appear that chelation can cure some instances of autism and various other potential cures may work just as well.
Does this also mean that any and all autism can be cured? That is to hard a question to be answered. What is important is that the likelihood is that at least some instances of autism can be treated to a reduction or potentially a removal of symptoms, however because there is no hard and fast answers, there is also no guarantee that any given cure would work on any specific individual, and in some cases depending on the severity or lack of severity the question that also can arise is does all instances of autism even need to be cured. Some individuals who lead fully functioning lives may feel that they do not require any form of cure, others who find the illness holding them back may be quite willing to try to see if a cure is possible.
In each situation it would almost have to be up to the individual or their carers to make this decision based on how they feel the results would improve or impact on their lives or the lives of their child.
However in all honesty I do believe it is imperative that scientists start to look at a more specific group and forget the “autism designation” as the one key to separating these individuals from the rest of the world. When they look at smaller more closely similar groups I suspect they will be more likely to find a cause then by looking at a wide ranging group that could potentially be caused my many varying triggers over such a broad spectrum
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