Chapter One
ASD
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental health condition characterized by two main categories of symptoms. These categories are persistent impairments in social communication and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior.
There are often many other symptoms of ASD depending on individual health. Some ASD people have a severely limited ability to function, while others only have slight social difficulty. The diagnostic category of ASD exists on a wide spectrum because of these massive differences in symptom severity.
Sometimes ASD children are born with severe symptoms, but more often, ASD symptoms become more noticeable later. Parents may be less aware of symptoms until the second year of the child’s life but, in hindsight, see that behavior differences were already present.
The rate of autism has significantly increased since the 1980s. Chart One, found in Appendix A, shows the rise in the ASD rate in California alone. The increase in the rate of ASD over the last three decades is unlikely to be just because of improvements in diagnosis. Researchers found only a small percentage of the rise in rates of ASD was because of diagnostic improvements (1). There is likely a real significant increase in the incidence of ASD.
An important point discussed in this book is how ASD people are like a canary in the coal mine, which warned coal miners when working conditions became dangerous. ASD people are frequently more sensitive to the multiple lifestyle and environmental factors that negatively affect everyone to some degree.
Significantly, the rates of many other health conditions have also increased since the 1980s (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). Chronic inflammation may be the main cause of many of these health conditions. These increased rates show there is an overall health crisis in modern society.
Unfortunately, serious health conditions are now all too common. As an example, the disease type II diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions in the United States (8). While high-blood pressure is killing up to nine million people worldwide every year (9). There are numerous other examples of diseases that are rapidly increasing. Fortunately, this book contains information about how environmental and lifestyle changes might improve many of these health conditions.
Although this book discusses multiple health conditions, the focus of the book is on ASD. This book dives into how ASD is likely a result of inflammation impacting a child in the mother’s womb, which is a critically sensitive time when neurons are first starting to form connection with other neurons in the brain. Inflammation may damage neurons, increase excitation, decrease inhibition, disrupt neuron network organization, and reduce connections between neurons. This book also discusses the different factors that increase inflammation and affect ASD.
Critically, the neuron network may get so disorganized in the womb that someone might have ASD symptoms and not have inflammation problems later in life. However, most ASD people will likely have increased inflammation.
Unfortunately, some types of ASDs may be so severe that reducing inflammation will only have a limited positive effect on ASD symptoms. Fortunately, most ASD people may experience significant health benefits from reducing inflammation by using the ideas in this book.
Besides these considerations, variations in inflammation timing can affect anyone by causing health conditions, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, epilepsy, bipolar, anxiety, depression, autoimmune issues, and ADHD. Furthermore, inflammation negatively impacts cognitive performance, limiting daily achievements. Therefore, the information in this book might affect the personal, social, and business success of most people.
All Connected
Also discussed in this book are the multiple connections between the outside environment and the inflammation inside the body. The primary way that the environment affects inflammation is through food choices made by the consumer. Other significant sources of inflammation are environmental pollution and soil mineral depletion. In general, many different environmental factors can affect inflammation and, consequently, how the body activates genes.
One of the central ideas in this book is that the body connects as one functional whole. For example, inflammation in the intestinal area of the body can influence the amount of inflammation experienced by multiple other areas of the body, including the brain. Seeing the body as interconnected and how sources of inflammation impact the entire body will likely lead to effective solutions for many health conditions.
Unfortunately, overspecialization is a massive problem with modern medicine. The increasing use of technology that allows researchers to zoom in closer and closer to a health problem influences overspecialization. Technology enables researchers to become increasingly focused on one specific part of the body rather than focusing on how the various systems of the body interact with each other.
Overspecialization also happens due to the large amount of knowledge that is now available about each specific area of the body. As a result of the need to maximize understanding of one area of the body, such as the brain, researchers often concentrate all intellectual efforts upon their one area of research. For example, one person could know a significant amount about the digestive system, while someone else knows the brain very well. Still, each person often does not understand much about the other subject. Therefore, the important connection that exists between gastrointestinal health and brain health tends to be poorly understood by most people. This is significant because researchers have recently found a bi-directional connection between the gut and the brain in people with inflammatory bowel disease (10). This example is just one of the hundreds of critical relationships that occur between completely different areas of the body.
In contrast to overspecialization, a deeper understanding of the human body as an interconnected organism may be the secret to solving the mystery of ASD. Seeing the body as an interconnected system may also reveal the causes of other health conditions as well.
This view of an interconnected whole must also expand to include the outside environment. Considering the environment is essential because factors, such as pollution, processed foods, stress, and mineral depletion, affect the overall health of the body.
Critically, this book makes the argument that the outside environment influences the body much more than many people assume. The viewpoint of the body as connected with the environment can make a massive difference for understanding and improving many health conditions.
Uniquely Human
Although this book uses words like disorder and health condition, this does not mean anyone is less valuable as an individual. These are simply words used to describe a situation. Everyone is equally valuable.
Currently, there is a growing movement about protecting the unique diversity ASD people bring to modern society. Some ASD people have remarkable intellectual skills, are great artists, or help compassion blossom in people that have an ASD person in their life. Using the information presented in this book will enable many ASD individuals to experience significant improvements in symptoms and greater expression of talents.
Importantly, I think there is no cure for ASD in the sense of changing the neuron network to be just like a non-ASD individual. Instead, ASD may be improved so much that functioning and quality of life are significantly enhanced.
An ASD person may always think and behave differently than others. This is not something to fix. This difference is valuable. Some ASD people have unique perspectives to offer the world and increased capabilities, which might improve the lives of everyone.
These differences result from neuron network variation, which is also known as being neurodivergent. In contrast, people that do not have major neuron network variations are neurotypical. Some ASD people were first to use the neurodivergent label, but now more people are applying the term to anyone with neurological conditions that are not average.
Socializing
Increased sensitivity to stimuli is a significant issue for most ASD people. This happens because of a combination of inflammation and differences in neuron organization. Due to these differences, many ASD people dislike social events, which overwhelm the senses and require efficient coordination between many areas of the brain.
Instead, because of altered localized connectivity, ASD people often have an intense interest in specific subjects. This focus is responsible for many of the inventions and fresh ideas that move society forward.
With this in consideration, imagine making a potentially genius ASD inventor socialize, which often involves small talk about what someone did or said to another person. That may be boring and stressful for this ASD individual as well as a big waste of time. Even more importantly, this might prevent the creation of an invention or great idea that benefits society.
However, socializing could be fun and rewarding if about an idea or information that matched the ASD inventor’s passion. The problem is most people socialize about topics that are often uninteresting to an ASD individual. Also, as discussed, socializing can be extremely uncomfortable for an ASD person because of neuron network differences and increased sensitivity. Therefore, it is important not to require an ASD individual to be like everyone else.
Severity
The severity of ASD symptoms varies widely. Some ASD individuals have severe dysfunction, whereas other ASD individuals are high functioning. In severe situations, the neuron network is already very disordered since birth. In addition, inflammation can change genes, which impairs critical functions in the body, such as the ability to create connections between neurons. Therefore, attempts at improving these connections may have only a minimal effect in more severe forms of ASD. However, ASD people with less severe symptoms will have significant improvements by using the ideas in this book.
Research Suggestion
ASD researchers looking to make a real difference should create year-long studies using the ideas discussed in this book. Also, since inflammation affects so many different health conditions, a wide variety of medical researchers should also apply these ideas to improve research results.
Reducing inflammation often requires a comprehensive approach, with many lifestyle choices needing to change to achieve the best effect. New research needs a different way that most people conduct research, which often only tests isolated lifestyle changes. Seeing health conditions from the viewpoint of inflammation and knowing how to reduce inflammation naturally will lead to more useful research and actions that create beneficial results.
Purpose
The purpose of this book is to improve the understanding of ASD and many different health conditions. This book discusses how many factors in the body and the outside environment affect ASD. I hope that using the ideas in this book will reduce the symptoms causing suffering for so many people. I also hope these health improvements allow people to express their unique minds and abilities. The world requires creative solutions to many problems.
The following chapter looks at the relationship between autism and inflammation. While in other sections, this book describes how inflammation can cause ASD in the womb and affect the severity of symptoms. As a further exploration, there are some interesting ideas about other health conditions, such as cancer, anxiety, depression, epilepsy, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s.
Reading the book from front to back is important because ideas build on each other. Also, since this book presents new ideas, please read the entire book before forming an opinion. Keeping an open mind is powerful.