However, what about the alternative practitioners who are talking about all sorts of other causes? The people who talk about leaky gut syndrome and food intolerance? Or vaccinations? Or Toxins like heavy metals, organophosphates or MSG?

Well, as diverse as these two fields have been in the past, recent research has taken some exiting new directions which may provide a link between the two. I would like to discuss two key concepts introduced in the past few years.

1) Firstly, the concept of Cellular Detoxification Issues. James Lyons-Weiler in his recent (2018) review article presents compelling argument that ASD people (and children) commonly have detoxification problems that may aggravate their underlying genetic susceptability. Rossignol and Frye (2014) also discuss this concept of stress on cells and tissues (oxidative stress) in ASD linked to detoxification issues. This may make people on the spectrum much more sensitive to environmental toxins and chemicals, to heavy metals, glutimate and MSG as well as metabolic toxins. This toxic stress could allow more of the ‘bad’ genes to be switched on or expressed. The accumulation of certain toxins could affect (or irritate) the immune system and potentially result in things like inflammation in the nervous system (or brain) or inflammation in the gut.

2) Secondly, the concept of Neuroinflammation. This is a state where the immune cells within the nervous system and the brain react to toxins, injury, aging or infection. This is part of a normal healing process, but if the trigger is prolonged (like toxins) then the inflammation can become chronic. This could then put additional stress on those nerve cells, and potentially result in cell death. (Please feel free to read more on the subject from ScienceDirect ). This tendency toward increased inflammation in the brain is now well linked to Autism and other neurological disorders. (See Dipasquale et. al 2017;  Rossignol and Frye 2014; Hong et. al, 2016, among many others)