What If We Could Understand Why Some With Autism Are More Severely Affected Than Others?

To explore the link to autism, scientists recently published results from a study that used lasers to map heavy metal exposure starting from the second trimester in pregnancy until the teeth are naturally shed in early childhood. But there was important information for parents of those with severe autism that was left out of most mainstream articles about the research. Let’s do a quick review of the science and I’ll point out the missing important information:

Let’s Start With What’s Well Known

Exposure to toxic metals and deficiencies of key nutritional elements are known to alter normal brain development and overall health in both animals models and humans. That’s pretty basic. Detoxification is not localized to one organ. To get rid of these toxic metals our GI tract, kidneys, and liver, just to name a few organs, are involved in the detoxification process. Over the years, there have been many studies of environmental toxins and the role they play in autism but as usual there are mixed results. It would be easy to say “Well, that’s just autism. It’s so complex and really hard to understand.” But the researchers of the baby teeth study state that there are methodological shortcomings of many of those environmental studies, such as:

1. Exposure is measured using blood tests only after the ASD diagnosis
2. The study samples do not include healthy participants
3. There’s a lack of understanding how environmental factors interact with genetic factors.

Baby Teeth are the answer… from twins…

So the researchers devised a way to use lasers on baby teeth, they call this method tooth-matrix biomarkers but you could think of it like measuring tree rings on a cross section of a tree trunk. By using this technique the researchers were able to directly measure and map exposure of 10 metals from fetal to early childhood. Are you now reminded of the TV show Bones? Lol Yes, this is something that Dr. Temperance Brennan would probably do! The researchers specifically studied twins so that they could account for intra-twin correlations. The researchers focused on lead, a known neurotoxin, manganese and zinc both essential nutrients although 10 elements in total were studied.

Results

Manganese levels were lower in the ASD twin between 10 weeks prenatally to birth and 5 to 20 weeks, postnatally. For those with autism zinc levels dropped off before birth whereas in the non-ASD twin zinc levels didn’t drop off until after birth. A second difference was observed with zinc in that those with ASD eventually had higher levels of zinc than their non-ASD twin. Lead levels were usually higher in those with autism between weeks 10 and 20, postnatal. This is important information to know for those who are pregnant and those with young children so that they can be proactive in using this information. But what about the parents who have older children with severe autism? How can this research help those with severe autism?

Important information about severity

Thankfully, the researchers went one step further. They wanted to see if exposure in early life to any of these metals had long-term effects on the severity of autism as measured by scores from either the ADOS-2 (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule Second Edition) or SRS-2 (Social Responsiveness Scale Second Edition, this test is even modified for use in different countries).These tests were taken and scored nearly a decade after the heavy metal exposure…that’s how they are exploring long term effects of heavy metal exposure and autism severity. Higher levels of lead in early childhood were associated with higher ADOS-2 and SRS-2 scores…meaning the higher the lead levels, the more severe the autism. Manganese, a controversial essential elemental nutrient, levels in early childhood was inversely associated with higher ADOS-2 and SRS-2 scores…meaning the lower the manganese levels the more severe the autism.

Is it really so difficult to understand why there is a range of symptom severity in autism?

The technique of using lasers to be able to map out heavy metal exposure all the way from the second trimester in pregnancy until the teeth are shed naturally in early childhood is brilliant and insightful. This research is great because it supports the logic of being careful to limit heavy metal exposure in early life. This work also supports the logic of testing for heavy metals for those suspected or diagnosed with autism. And for parents of those with severe autism, it’s reassuring to start to know that the severity of autism is quantifiable, at least for lead and manganese exposure. When parents have severely autistic children it at times can feel like there is nothing that can be done to help the child and that science doesn’t understand those who are severely affected with autism. But that’s not true. The science of severe autism is researched but many times the explanation doesn’t fit easily into a short article that can be shared easily on Facebook.

Autism is becoming less and less of a mystery. What if we could understand why some with autism are more severely affected than others? Actually scientists have. The spectrum of autism is becoming less and less of a puzzle and replaced with safe, actionable steps towards healing based on real, quality science.