Autism is a mitochondrial disorder - and restoring their function can improve it, demonstrated beautifully in a recent trial.
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Mitochondrial dysfunction is any abnormality in this organelle's ability to generate energy or other substrates.
Depending on the criteria, anywhere from 5% up to 90% (in this study) of people with autism spectrum disorders suffer from some form of mitochondrial dysfunction.
Thus, the goal in this study was to identify that subset and treat accordingly.
This was done with the use of a mitochondrial targeted supplement.
It contained various essential vitamins and minerals,
as well as other nutrients like carnitine and CoQ10 that are also important for mitochondrial metabolism.
This study came out in 2010 in the British Journal of Nutrition.
People were enrolled who had:
◈ BMI >25 kg/m2
◈ Visceral fat area >100 cm²
So they were "considered to be visceral fat-type obese, but had not been treated at an out-patient department and had no serious disease."
For those of you who don't know, visceral fat is the type of fat that accumulates around the organs and is much more inflammatory and metabolically dangerous.
They were given 300 mg of enteric coated lactoferrin per day for 8 weeks (or placebo).
This study came out in 2010 in the British Journal of Nutrition.
People were enrolled who had:
◈ BMI >25 kg/m2
◈ Visceral fat area >100 cm²
So they were "considered to be visceral fat-type obese, but had not been treated at an out-patient department and had no serious disease."
For those of you who don't know, visceral fat is the type of fat that accumulates around the organs and is much more inflammatory and metabolically dangerous.
They were given 300 mg of enteric coated lactoferrin per day for 8 weeks (or placebo).
Low dose naltrexone is legitimately a life changing drug for many - its anti-inflammatory benefits are able to help in a multitude of conditions. Let's talk about it. (🧵1/8)
Naltrexone is classically an opioid antagonist.
At its normal doses (50-100 mg) it's used to block opioid signaling in conditions like addiction, which reduces dopamine output from drugs.
This makes it easier to get off the drugs.
However, when used at lower doses it has some amazing other actions.
When used in low doses of 1-5 mg - this opioid receptor blockade has an interesting effect on the immune system.
Essentially, by blocking the mu opioid receptor, the body responds with an upregulation of endogenous opioids - mainly endorphins.
Endorphins have anti-inflammatory properties on a number of immune cells.
Perhaps more importantly, naltrexone has an antagonistic effect on the toll like receptor 4 (TLR4) - a receptor that scavenges for bacterial endotoxin and is probably the primary receptor for initiating inflammation throughout the body.
This is HUGE since these systems can cause symptoms in essentially every tissue throughout the body.