Summary of Biomedical Treatments for Autism, by James B. Adams, Ph.D.
page 4Food Allergies
Rationale: Many children with autism have food allergies, due to abnormalities in their digestive and/or immune systems. If food is not fully-digested into individual sugars, amino acids, etc., then the partly digested food can pass from the gastrointestinal tract into the bloodstream, especially if the child has a “leaky gut” due to inflammation. The immune system recognizes those foods as foreign, and may launch an immune response to those foods, resulting in an allergic response.
Explanation of Treatment:
- Avoid Allergic Foods
- Consider digestive enzymes to more fully digest foods.
- Consider other methods to heal the gut – many food allergies will disappear when gut inflammation is healed.
- Consider using a 4-day diet rotation, in which a given food is only eaten 1 day every four days, so that there is less likelihood of developing an allergy to it.
Testing: Some allergic reactions are immediate, and some are delayed by hours or days; the latter are much harder to detect. Some responses are very strong, such as rashes or even anaphylactic shock, whereas other reactions are milder such as headaches or stomachaches.
Testing can include observations, diet log, skin testing, and blood testing.
Observations: Look for red cheeks, red ears, and dark circles under eyes which may indicate allergies. Also look for changes in behavior.
Diet Log: Keep a diet log, and look for a pattern between symptoms and foods eaten in the last 1-3 days.
Blood testing: IgE and IgG testing is offered by many commercial labs. IgE related to an immediate immune response, and IgG relates to a delayed immune response.
Skin testing: less useful than blood testing, as it only checks for immediate response.
All allergy testing is limited, in that IgE tests can be negative even if there are clinical symptoms of food allergy. IgG and IgE tests can be positive but not correlate to a clinical symptom. Use allergy testing to suggest foods to avoid, and then observe the effects.
Benefits: Removing allergic foods can result in a wide range of improvements in some children, especially improvements in behavior and attention.
| % worse | % no change | % better | # of reports | |
| Food Allergy Treatment | 3% | 37% | 61% | 560 |
| Rotation Diet | 2% | 50% | 48% | 792 |
| Removed Chocolate | 2% | 49% | 49% | 1721 |
| Removed Eggs | 2% | 58% | 40% | 1096 |
Duration: Some food allergies (like peanuts) seem to be lifelong, whereas others can disappear when gut inflammation is healed and/or the immune system is normalized.
Research:
A study by Vojdani et al. found that many children with autism have food allergies.
Vojdani A, O'Bryan T, Green JA, Mccandless J, Woeller KN, Vojdani E, Nourian AA, Cooper EL. Immune response to dietary proteins, gliadin and cerebellar peptides in children with autism. Nutr Neurosci. 2004 Jun;7(3):151-61.
A study by Lucarelli et al found that an 8-week diet which avoided allergic foods resulted in benefits in an open study of 36 children. Lucarelli et all, Food allergy and infantile autism. Panminerva Med. 1995 Sep;37(3):137-41.
A study by Kushak and Buie found that children with autism may have low levels and/or underactive digestive enzymes for complex sugars, which reduces the ability to fully digest starches and sugars.
Several studies by Horvath, Wakefield, Buie, and others have demonstrated that gut inflammation is common in autism. This may result in a “leaky gut” that may allow partly-digested food to pass into the blood, potentially causing an allergic response..
Horvath K et al, Gastrointestinal abnormalities in children with autistic disorder,” J. Pediatrics 135 no. 5 (1999) 559-563.
Horvath K and Perman JA “Autistic disorder and gastrointestinal disease,” Curr. Opinion in Pediatrics, 14 (2002) 583.
Wakefield et al., Enterocolitis in children with developmental disorders. Am J Gastroenterol. 2000 Sep;95(9):2285-95.
Kushak R and Buie T “Disaccharidase deficiencies in patients with autistic spectrum disorders,” presented at DAN! New Orleans Jan 2004.
Summary of Biomedical Treatments for Autism:
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