Autism Spectrum Disorders Case Study

Many overlook the importance of digestive health and often take good digestion for granted. Digestive health has its importance in many different aspects of your wellbeing. It is responsible for the intake and absorption of vitamins, fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. All of those are considered some of the most essential parts to having a functioning human body. However, not only does your digestive system regulate what you consider fuel for your body, it also nourishes your immune system and is directly connected to your brain through the existence of a bi-directional gut-brain axis. Within your digestive system there is something called Microbiota or the Microbiome, which are the different types of microbe populations that cohabitate in

Autism Spectrum Disorders play a significant role in representing how psychological abnormalities from birth and gastrointestinal function are linked. Autism Spectrum Disorders are characterized by debilitating social communication skills, the need for familiarity, and/or repetition in activities. Some biological symptoms often coincide with ASD patients like seizures, anxiety, sleep disorders, metabolic deficiencies and most often and significant, gastrointestinal disorders. Diagnosing and treating ASD patients is an ongoing event, it is believed that the cause is a combination of genetic factors and maternal environment while pregnant. Maternal infections have been the most heavily researched environmental factor in ASD and it is thought to be an influence on gastrointestinal disorders in ASD patients. Post-natal microbiota therapies where found to improve gastrointestinal function and improve some common behavioral characteristics in ASD patients. This shows that behavioral abnormalities are correlated with Autism Spectrum Disorder patients and gastrointestinal dysfunction because of the successful therapies. In a germ-free mice study by Vuong and Hsiao (2017) where the male mice represented similar obsessive, anxious and negative behavioral characteristics to male ASD patients, microbiome probiotic therapies were shown to decrease the frequency and severity of the anxiety and obsessive need for repetition and increase a positive behavior outcome. In addition, Krajmalnik-Brown, Luzupone, Kang & Adams (2015), reviewed ten different population studies of children with ASD and found that gastrointestinal dysfunction is common in all of their ASD patients. Their most significant study was of a group of 58 children, where they determine a correlation between ASD and gastrointestinal dysfunctions and found that microbiota function