Friday, October 8, 2010

We need a better look at Autism

I just ran across the following article, Siblings of autistic children may share some symptoms, and it reminded me (again) about something I had heard a while back about a scientist proposing an little-talked-about theory linking Autism to prenatal androgen exposure (example of research on the androgen link).  I will be really interested to see where future research in this field leads.  If the Androgen hypothesis is correct, it could also account for the findings in the science article that I found today.  If we could some day get something solid that will lead people away from the oft-refuted, but still accused immunization link, that would be a good thing.  Trying not to harp on another subject, it's also making me wonder once again if this is at least partially influenced by the shitty state of the Standard American diet...  I've heard a lot about how PCOS, which is also characterized with abnormal androgen levels, is influenced by diet and insulin resistance.  Just something I'm pondering right now.

For the record, this is just the pondering of a layman with a general science background.  I'm not a medical professional, nor do I play one on TV.  But I still wonder about these things.
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UPDATED:  Link to the guy from whom I first heard about the hypothesis