Is the goliath in autism research aboout to fall

Authored by Amy Denney via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Autism is increasing at rapid rates, and researchers may be looking in the wrong places for the answer as to why.

An extensive meta-analysis of 25 autism studies could shift the focus of research into the cause of autism from genetics to environmental triggers. That shift could open up new, revolutionary avenues for potential treatments.

The research ties the disorder to changes in the gut microbiome, a community of microbes that live in the colon and are responsible for creating metabolites and other compounds crucial to our health and wellness.

Many influences outside of the human body are killing these beneficial microbes, which aren’t genetically part of us but live in symbiosis with humans. The new study, published June 26 in Nature Neuroscience, has linked autism spectrum disorders (ASD) to a distinct microbial signature that’s dysbiotic, or unnaturally out of balance. As in an ecosystem, too much of certain problematic species can destroy the overall ecology or lead to problematic consequences, such as too many of certain metabolites and not enough of others.

Meanwhile, autism rates are increasing at a speed that defies improved screening and diagnostic practices, as well as genetic patterns. The Centers for Disease Control released statistics in April that show the latest autism rate was 1 in 36 children in 2020, up from 1 in 44 in 2018, and 1 in 150 in 2000.

Taken together, the evidence suggests that it’s time to direct resources to pinpointing exactly what it is in our environment that appears to “turn on” autism development, according to doctors who are treating patients with ASD.

“Genetic diseases aren’t responsible for epidemics,” Dr. Arthur Krigsman, a specialist who treats children with ASD around the world, told The Epoch Times. “There’s something in the environment that’s triggering a gene that otherwise would be silent. There is no gene responsible for an epidemic.”

Our genes are wound up tightly in DNA spirals—many of them never being used—similar to blueprints that never make their way to the manufacturer. But cues in our environment can trigger epigenetic processes that trigger some genes to get turned on or others to get turned off, dramatically changing our likelihood of developing certain diseases or attributes.

The new research suggests that autism is linked to epigenetic triggers, which are influenced by the microbiome and modifiable over the course of our lifetime.