Many autistics also suffer from intestinal problems, such as poor digestion that fails to absorb some nutrients and allows toxins to enter the bloodstream. Researchers at Caltech explored the link between gut issues and autism by inducing autism-like symptoms in mice (by giving their mothers a viral infection), then feeding the ‘autistic’ mice probiotics to improve gut function. The mice showed improvement in their mental symptoms, suggesting that some forms of autism may result from imbalanced gut bacteria. The researchers plan to try the same experiment on human subjects; but for the time being, caution against generalising the results of the mice experiment to autism in humans, which may have a variety of causes. Read more about it at EureKalert.

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