Could Autism Be Caused by Gut Microbes? | Dr. Emeran Mayer | Big Think

Could Autism Be Caused by Gut Microbes? | Dr. Emeran Mayer

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Part of the rise in autism is due to better diagnosis, but Dr. Emeran Mayer thinks it's something in our environment, and within us, that has played a role in causing this increase.The genetic risk for autism has always existed, but in the last 40 years the prevalence has risen dramatically – and not in any one location, but across all developed nations. Many researchers are looking to identify the trigger and, as a gastroenterologist and neurologist, Dr. Emeran Mayer is following the trail of evidence that points to the microbial composition of the digestive system and its relationship to the brain. The gut microbes of those with autism differs from people who aren’t on the autism spectrum, but so far many of the studies have not been sufficient to draw solid results. Dr. Mayer runs through one of the more compelling studies and explains how a yet unapproved strain of probiotic may be the answer to the decreasing the incidence of autism in the future. Dr. Emeran Mayer's most recent book is The Mind-Gut Connection: How the Hidden Conversation Within Our Bodies Impacts Our Mood, Our Choices, and Our Overall Health.

Dr Emeran Mayer's most recent book is The Mind-Gut Connection: How the Hidden Conversation Within Our Bodies Impacts Our Mood, Our Choices, and Our Overall Health

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EMERAN MAYER :

Dr Emeran Mayer is a world-renowned gastroenterologist and neuroscientist with 35 years of experience in the study of clinical and neurobiological aspects of how the digestive system and the nervous system interact in health and disease. His current research focus is on the role of the gut microbiota brain interactions in emotion regulation, chronic visceral pain, and in obesity. His research has been continuously supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Dr Mayer is a professor in the Departments of Medicine, Physiology and Psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, executive director of the G Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, and co-director of the CURE: Digestive Diseases Research Center at UCLA.

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TRANSCRIPT :

Emeran Mayer: Autism is both a devastating problem and it’s still a puzzle largely what causes or what has been causing the dramatic increase in the prevalence of this disease in the last 40 years or so. So it’s almost like an exponential increase. Part of that is really due to better diagnosis and the diagnostic criteria. But a lot of people think that something in our environment has played a role in causing this increase. And it’s worldwide. It’s not just in North America. It’s in Asia, it’s in Europe. So something environmental. The genes, the genetic risk factors for autism have obviously always been there but something else must have triggered it. So some people think it’s something in the diet and that is possible. It could also be something what we do to our gut microbes. So the use of antibiotics, the obsession with keeping things more and more sterile from the day we’re born, you know, throughout our lifetime.

So people have thought about this as potentially a change in microbial composition, diversity inside of us are a cause of this. There’s many observations that link the brain and the gut in autism. Clinically the majority of autistic children have digestive problems – constipation, abdominal pain, discomfort. Part of that is most likely due to the diet, the unique diet that autistic children self-select for. Many things are excluded from the diet that we normally would like fiber, fermented foods. And so it’s very possible that that plays a role. And there are people that have thought about this why do kids select such a diet. It seems to have to do a lot with the texture of foods.

So very unique disturbance in the sensitivity for the texture, not so much for the content. So things that are soft are much preferred over crunchy and chewy things. And then, you know, people have started to look at the microbial composition. So they looked at the gut microbes in fecal samples from patients with autism and have found abnormalities.The problem is most of those studies are small. They’re often not well controlled. We now understand that autism is a spectrum, autism spectrum disorder. And it probably contains several different subsets of patients. So if you just take a small number of patients, measure their gut microbes it’s, you’re likely to pick up variable patterns because it’s not a homogeneous group of patients.

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