Gluten Intolerant Women more Likely to have Autistic Children

A new study has found that women with an autoimmune disease are up to three times more likely to have a child with autism than the general population. The autoimmune diseases included in this study were celiac disease, type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease whereby ingestion of gluten causes damage to the lining of the small intestine. This can cause digestive problems such as bloating and diarrhea, however many cases of celiac disease cause no digestive symptoms at all, yet damage still occurs to the body. In type 1 diabetes the immune system attacks the insulin producing cells of the pancreas, leaving the body unable to manufacture sufficient insulin. In rheumatoid arthritis the immune system attacks the joints, causing pain, immobility and disfigurement.

Autoimmune diseases are extremely common and they are more common in women than men. Other examples of autoimmune diseases are Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (causing an under active thyroid), Graves’ disease (causing an over active thyroid), ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease (affecting the digestive tract), multiple sclerosis, lupus and others.

Research carried out at the Johns Hopkins University collected data on 3,325 Danish children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The children were born between 1993 and 2004. The data showed that women with an autoimmune disease are more likely to have a child diagnosed with autism. The increased risk for mothers with type 1 diabetes was a little less than double; for rheumatoid arthritis it was 1.5 times, but for celiac disease it was more than three times greater.

Autoimmune disease causes a great deal of inflammation and tissue damage in the body; the inflammation can affect the developing fetus while in its mother’s uterus. Women with celiac disease are also more prone to giving birth prematurely and having a small birth weight baby. Both of those factors are associated with an increased risk of autism.

Autism is thought to be an immune system disorder (rather than a brain disorder), and this study further confirms this belief. Approximately 80 percent of your immune system is located in your digestive tract; therefore digestive problems affect your immunity as a whole and your child’s immunity if you become pregnant.

Luckily there is a lot that can be done to correct immune system function and overcome autoimmune disease. This particular study referred to undiagnosed or untreated celiac disease. If a celiac sticks to a gluten free diet 100 percent of the time and addresses nutritional deficiencies that go hand in hand with the condition, their children are not at increased risk of autism.

We actually recommend that anybody with an autoimmune condition avoids all gluten and cow's milk, regardless of the specific type of autoimmune disease. These diet changes, combined with the right nutritional supplements are extremely successful in the treatment of autoimmune disease.

Source: Association of Family History of Autoimmune Diseases and Autism Spectrum Disorders. Pediatrics July 5, 2009

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Case histories from the Camden Clinic

Georgina had come all the way from New Zealand to see me as she was desperate to find relief for her chronic abdominal and pelvic pain. This was caused by endometriosis growing on her bladder and bowel despite having had a hysterectomy, which unfortunately had provided only partial relief. She was in her late 30s and had not had children. Georgina was a lovely lady with a bright bubbly personality and I admired her positive attitude and toughness, as she had managed to keep working despite this chronic pain.

Georgina was using a progesterone cream that was not strong enough to reduce the endometriosis growing on her bowel and bladder and when I checked the strength of her cream it was only 4 % (40mg per gram) and she had been using only half a gram providing her body with a daily dose of 20mg of progesterone. I prescribed progesterone vaginal pessaries of 200mg strength and she was to insert a pessary once daily into her vagina as high up as possible. I also prescribed a progesterone cream of 10% strength (100mg per gram of cream) which she was to rub into the skin of her inner upper arm once daily after her shower. If natural progesterone was going to be able to control her severe endometriosis we had to use an adequate dose.

I explained to Georgina that it was vital to strengthen her immune system and reduce inflammation with nutritional medicine. To achieve these goals I recommended the following –

• Liquid fish oil in a dose of one tablespoon just before every meal
• Magnesium powder in a dose of ½ teaspoon twice daily to ease her bladder and bowel cramps
• A probiotic powder that also contained fermented fruits and vegetables
• Raw vegetable juices from fresh green herbs (parsley, basil, mint, etc), carrot, ginger, citrus, cabbage and apple. This would reduce inflammation and improve liver function.
• A powerful liver tonic containing the herb St Mary’s Thistle, B vitamins and sulphur bearing amino acids. In all cases of oestrogen dominance it is vital to improve liver function, so that the liver can break down the excessive oestrogen produced from the ovaries and fat tissue.

I also noticed that she had a slight goitre with a few small nodules on her thyroid gland and on checking her serum vitamin D levels I found these to be deficient. Her urinary spot iodine concentration was very low thus revealing a deficiency of iodine.

Thyroid problems are often caused by deficiencies of vitamin D, iodine, zinc and selenium. Thyroid problems will often cause imbalances in the function of the ovaries leading to progesterone deficiency. Progesterone deficiency leads to oestrogen dominance and this worsens endometriosis. Thus it was vital to improve her thyroid function so I prescribed a capsule containing vitamin D, selenium, zinc and iodine to improve thyroid health.

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