Yes, you are right. There is a great deal of evidence to suggest for the link between Candida and autism. The yeast Candida can be behind many of the health and behavioral problems faced by the individuals with autism. Scientific reports suggest that there is good rationale behind the association between the two. The basic way to make one understand about the role Candida plays in exacerbating symptoms of autism are toxins that it may release while multiplying within our system. Such toxins lead to the impairment of your immune responses as well as the central nervous system. It is a well known fact now that there exists a gut-brain axis connecting our gastrointestinal system with the behavioral pattern.
What is autism?
A neurological disorder associated with brain, autism reflects through an individual’s inability to relate, socialize or communicate. The persons affected by autism spectrum disorder suffer from impaired body movements and repetitive behavioral pattern and are unable to cope up with changes in their routine. The processing of information in the brain of an autistic individual is significantly different from that of a normal person. All these symptoms may have significant link with the variation in the gut population of the individual. The processing of the information in such people is extended for longer periods which make them unduly non-sensitive to physical contact, sound and other stimuli or become over sensitive. According to a recent report by the US Health Resources and Services Administration, there is one autistic individual among eighty eight people and accordingly the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has an annual budget of $169 million for autism.
The relationship:
The neuro-specialist MD, Dietrich Klinghardt, known to successfully handle cases of neurological diseases is of the opinion that autism is mainly caused due to certain toxic substances released within our system that interferes with the activities of our brain. Well can you recognize who this culprit can be? Absolutely there are high chances of the Candida being the one releasing those toxic molecules. Our body has a detoxifying capability that can render such chemical compounds ineffective, however the presence of Candida can lead to reduced levels of molecules like cysteine and glutathione (majorly involved in the detoxification process alongwith other enzymes). As a result of this the body cannot metabolize the unwanted compounds and they accumulate to a drastically high level leading to autistic like characteristics.
There are a whole lot of literatures citing the instances for the ability of the microbial community present within your gut to communicate with the brain thereby maintaining a balance of our system and resulting in the in-demand concept of gut-microbiota-brain axis. Therefore, both the presence of beneficial and unwanted microbiota can modulate our behaviour depending upon their population. So, if the population of the probiotic like bacteria within our gut is compromised and the Candida gains significantly, it will lead to modulation of our behaviour in a negative way. But our aim should be to reduce the Candida number and increase the probiotic population.
Accordingly a number of researchers have found connection between autism and the inflammatory responses within our body. Now, you know quite well that Candida can act as the trigger factor for the immune system to give rise to exaggerated inflammatory responses. The Lipoteichoic acid and Lipopolysaccharides present in the walls of the yeast have been found to induce enhanced release of the pro-inflammatory cytokines. These all point to the fact that Candida has a definite role to play in leading to the symptoms of autism.
Dr. William Shaw who has worked extensively in finding a relationship between autism and the yeast has recently demonstrated the presence of unusual toxic metabolites in the urine samples of autistic children. Similarly, Dr. Burrus from Psychology and Neuroscience Department (Duke University) has established a biochemical rationale for the involvement of our gastrointestinal yeast with autism disorder.
Therapeutic intervention:
Scientists like Critchfield come with significant good study for the potential role of probiotics in the control of autism. Hence, a good diet with regular supplements of probiotics can help to relieve from the symptoms of autism. Reports suggest that the probiotic bacterial strains can establish themselves on the gut epithelial layer thereby positively modulating the gut functions and hence the associated behavior. You should choose a proper and well balanced probiotic product like ‘probacto’ that can help you immensely in your fight against autistic disorder.
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