Is Autism a Protective Mechanism?

[LUH 3417]

I apologize in advance if this post comes across as disorganized/scatterbrained, but I wanted to share a few thoughts that I had and maybe some individuals smarter than I could weigh in.

I recently read the book Niacin: The Real Story. In this book, Dr. Hoffer details how niacin was used to cure pellagra. Through his work with pellagra he realize that pellagra and schizophrenia mirrored symptoms exactly and that schizophrenia could also be healed with niacin. He called those who suffered from pellagra “niacin deficient” and those who suffered from schizophrenia “niacin dependent” as it took extremely large doses of niacin, over time to heal schizophrenia and these patients would often have to remain on relatively high doses permanently. Pellagra could be healed with relatively small doses and then a healthy diet would suffice.

Dr. Hoffer stated that those who developed schizophrenia actually had desirable genetics, in a way, and that the schizophrenia was a protective mechanism, because though he believed pellaga and schizophrenia were essentially the same disease, those who developed schizophrenia were less likely to die from their symptoms and instead would develop the severe mental symptoms. Pellagra, on the other hand, could kill people fairly quickly. It was a bit more complicated, but I’m paraphrasing. He also stated that those who developed schizophrenia were significantly less likely to die from other diseases, especially cancer. In fact schizophrenics are highly resistant to developing cancer.

This got me thinking a bit that maybe Autism could also be a protective mechanism. My anecdotal experience is that my 2 year old son who is autistic seems perfectly healthy in so many other ways. He has good digestion, beautiful skin, hair, and teeth. He’s strong and robust. When he gets sick it’s mild and he’s over it quickly. I worry about him so much, because of his autism, but then I got to thinking that the only real physical health problem I can think of is that he gets dark circles. Physically he seems to be my healthiest child. I know many other families with autistic children who report similar. I also have several men in my family who would have probably been diagnosed as autistic had they been born in this day and age, namely my Dad, maternal grandfather, and brother. The former two were nonverbal until ages 5 and 4, respectively and had extremely high IQs. They both had a lot of social quirks, but were very successful in their own rights. My dad made it to his 80s before he was taken out by pharmaceuticals (very long story) but until that point he had no health issues, was muscular, very active, almost no grey hair, and had all his teeth. He conceived me in his 60s and then went on to have 4 other children (I also have 4 older siblings). My maternal grandfather is 92. He has no health issues, doesn’t use medication, still lives alone, drives, is 100% still there mentally. His mom lived to be 103. My brother also seems extremely healthy physically. He was late to talk and has a very high IQ, but unfortunately struggles a lot mentally. Though he appears to be extremely charismatic at first, he doesn’t make friends easily especially long term friends, hates social situations, and is prone to meltdowns and depression.

A quick google search brought up several articles/studies showing that autistic individuals have a reduced risk of dying from many different diseases, especially cancer. (It will say that the life expectancy for an autistic individual is 36, but that average comes from the fact that many autistic children tend to elope and are at a significantly increased risk of dying from accidental causes. Autistic individuals that make it to adulthood do not have a lower life expectancy.) Another thing I noticed is that children who are vaccine injured tend to develop chronic disease OR severe autism, not usually both. (To clarify though, my own son has never had any vaccines or meds of any kind. He was born at home)

Now to be clear, I’m not saying that it’s desirable to develop severe autism, just as it’s not desirable to develop schizophrenia. However, what if those who are prone to developing autism actually have the desirable genetics? Autistic individuals are often incredibly smart and creative, which is something Dr Hoffer also remarked about schizophrenic patients. What if the drastic rise in autism is actually a type of evolutionary response to how toxic our world has become and those who do not develop autism are at more risk of dying quickly and developing severe physical diseases from toxicity, such is the case with pellagra versus schizophrenia? I am not educated enough to be able to understand the exact mechanism by which that would happen (why some would display their toxicity through physical chronic disease while others suffer more mentally) but it just got me thinking and would be interesting to see more research done on this topic (though I know there’s really no hope for that).

Obviously, please take this all with a grain of salt, as these are simply just thoughts that have been on my mind lately.

Please share your own thoughts! : )

Ray wrote about how schizophrenics are “too weak” to develop cancer, because cancer needs an excessive or large electron pool, whereas in schizophrenia the cells are not “charged” enough to produce things like allergies, cancer, infection etc.

http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/1975/pdf/1975-v04n03-p189.pdf

 

[lilrawhoney]

Ray wrote about how schizophrenics are “too weak” to develop cancer, because cancer needs an excessive or large electron pool, whereas in schizophrenia the cells are not “charged” enough to produce things like allergies, cancer, infection etc.

http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/1975/pdf/1975-v04n03-p189.pdf

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Wow thank you for taking the time to share this. This definitely makes a lot more sense.

 

[LUH 3417]

Wow thank you for taking the time to share this. This definitely makes a lot more sense.

You’re welcome