As the discredited Andrew Wakefield observed years ago, children with autism are far more likely to suffer gastro-intestinal (GI) problems such as constipation, diarrhea and food sensitivities. In fact, autistic children are eight times more likely to suffer from a gut upset, researchers report this week.
Although Wakefield mooted that the MMR vaccine could be triggering GI problems-and was struck off for his troubles-researchers from the University of California are more non-committal, and say they don’t know the cause.
Nonetheless, the association is there, as the researchers found when they examined a thousand autistic children. The children were six to eight times more likely than a non-autistic child to have a GI problem, which is linked to autistic behaviour such as social withdrawal, irritability and repetitive behaviour.
(Source: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2013; doi: 10.1007/s10803-013-1973-x)
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