What Causes Autism?
So what exactly causes Autism?
Holy Cow is this web site going to actually tell me what the cause of Autism is? Well before I go into causation please allow me a brief moment to explain. This is a very sticky subject in the Autism community. If you are a parent of a newly diagnosed child with autism then this may well be the number one question you desire to be answered. Unfortunately, there is no scientifically proven answer as to what causes Autism. There are a number of competing theories for example mercury in vaccines is one possibility. Autism could be purely a genetic trait that no one has any control over. Autism could be triggered from some heretofore unknown genetic trigger that manifests itself through some unknown environmental impact. The truth is there is no one in the world who can definitively say, “XYZ causes autism.”
It is the intent of this website to bring all autism related information to you. We do not support all treatments we recommend none but we will bring you the information. We believe in the shotgun approach to autism. Since there is no known cause or cure then we believe research in all theories should be supported. Once those theories are scientifically disproved the we believe that theory should be taken off the table of discussion. By following this approach we will eventually discard all things proven not to be a cause and we can then focus like a LASER beam on what the cause is and then treat it effectively.
That having been said please allow me to take a shot at causation.
Scientists aren’t certain what causes autism, but it’s likely that both genetics and environment play a role. Researchers have identified a number of genes associated with the disorder. Studies of people with autism have found irregularities in several regions of the brain. Other studies suggest that people with autism have abnormal levels of serotonin or other neurotransmitters in the brain. These abnormalities suggest that autism could result from the disruption of normal brain development early in fetal development caused by defects in genes that control brain growth and that regulate how neurons communicate with each other. While these findings are intriguing, they are preliminary and require further study. The theory that parental practices are responsible for autism has now been disproved.
I hope this at least removes a bit of the mud from the water.
