Autism....?!
Question: I see a lot of fund raisers to find a cure for autism, aren't autistic people missing a chromosome or something? How do they think they're going to find a cure for it?
Can they?
It would be amazing if they did but I don't understand how you would be able to correct that.....
Answers: I see a lot of fund raisers to find a cure for autism, aren't autistic people missing a chromosome or something? How do they think they're going to find a cure for it?
Can they?
It would be amazing if they did but I don't understand how you would be able to correct that.....
Autism is a complex developmental disorder that appears in the first 3 years of life, although it is sometimes diagnosed much later. It affects the brain's normal development of social and communication skills. Chromosomes have nothing to do with it. It is linked to an unregulated Immune system.
Common features of autism include impaired social interactions, impaired verbal and nonverbal communication, problems processing information from the senses, and restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior.
The symptoms may vary from moderate to severe. Two related, milder conditions are Asperger syndrome and "pervasive development disorder not otherwise specified" (PDD-NOS).
Causes
Autism is a physical condition linked to abnormal biology and chemistry in the brain. The exact causes of these abnormalities remain unknown, but this is a very active area of research. There are probably a combination of factors that lead to autism .
Genetic factors seem to be important. For example, identical twins are much more likely than fraternal twins or siblings to both have autism . Similarly, language abnormalities are more common in relatives of autistic children. Chromosomal abnormalities and other neurological problems are also more common in families with autism .
A number of other possible causes have been suspected, but not proven. They involve digestive tract changes, diet, mercury poisoning, vaccine sensitivity, and the body's inefficient use of vitamins and minerals.
Amazon.com has many books on the subject. Look up Donna Williams. She is a high functioning woman with autism who has written several books and is an amazing human being.
Autism is not caused from a missing chromosome. The cause of autism is unknown.
If you define "cure" as changing one's personality; then there is no cure.
If, like Freud, you define mental health as nothing more than the ability to work and love, then lots of people have already been cured of autism.
However, as long as researchers refuse to look any further than neurology--or dumb diets--there will be no cure of any kind.
Some with autism have a chromosome disorder called Fragile X, but not missing one. Autism is primarily a neurological disorder.
You do hear alot about 'cures' these days, but it isn't really an accurate term. It's more like managed, kind of like diabetes. The underlying deficit still exists, but through a variety of interventions our kids learn how to better cope and build skills to overcome them.