+100%-
+100%-

I remember thinking Rich Von Konynenburg had gone off his rocker when he proposed, years ago, that  autism and chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) were somehow related.  Looking at autism’s  severe cognitive, communication and emotional issues, the male gender bias, the vastly younger age of the patients and the two just didn’t fit at all for me.

Autism and chronic fatigue syndrome similarities

Autism and ME/CFS look very different on the outside but they share some similarities on the inside

It’s not clear that they are but appearances can be deceiving.  The Klimas/Broderick/Fletcher team is making it  clear, for instance,  that two people with Gulf War Illness and chronic fatigue syndrome can look exactly the same clinically but differ enormously under the hood.

It’s also possible that people who look very differently clinically, say people with autism and people with ME/CFS, might look much more related physiologically.  Dr. Kogelnik, Dr Nathan and Dr. Hornig have all remarked on possible similarities and when Neuro-Immune institutes show up, both autism and ME/CFS are often in the mix. It  was the pathophysiological similarities between the two which enticed Rick Von Konynenburg to take up his glutathione work. They include:

  •         Poor natural killer cell functioning (low cytotoxicity)
  •          Low glutathione levels (brain -ME/CFS)
  •          High rates of oxidative stress
  •          Th2 immune shift
  •          High sensitivity to toxins
  •          Many gastrointestinal problems including dysbiosis, leaky gut, gluten intolerance
  •          Sleep disorders
  •          HPA axis dysfunction  (decreased morning salivary cortisol)
  •         Possible glutamate excitotoxicity

Advances in autism were summed up in  a recent article in the New York Times.  Substitute ME/CFS for autism in many places in this blog and see what kind of  a  fit you get.  Sometimes you have cheat a little; autism is far better studied than ME/CFS but if you connect the dots what you get is an infection triggered disorder causing inflammation and immune activation in the brain….that show up looking like autism in some cases perhaps like chronic fatigue syndrome in others.

Inflammation

Dr. Klimas, Dr. Maes and others believe ME/CFS is, among other things, an inflammatory disorder and it’s pretty clear that inflammation is a key driver in about one-third of autistic patients.  (There’s another similarity – subsets :)).

Infection triggered Illnesses

Just as in ME/CFS infection, a very early infection – in the case of autism – can be a trigger.  Population studies indicate an infection during pregnancy increases the  mother’s odds of having an autistic child. A bacterial infection in the mother during the second trimester increases her odds by 40%.  Getting a serious enough infection  to land the expectant mother in the hospital triples her child’s odds of getting the disease.

Now replace autism with ME/CFS and shoot forward several decades in a baby’s lifespan and watch  some bug,  maybe any bug, from Epstein-Barr virus to giardia to enteroviruses  knock adolescents and adults for a loop – often permanently.  The boomers are getting exposed to fewer infections but when they do encounter them, they appear to be  getting hit harder by them.

It turns out that the  pathogen, though,  is probably  little more than an innocent bystander.

The Inflammatory Disorder Epidemic and ME/CFS

Infection per se does not appear to be the culprit. Autism rates are  up at same time  mothers and others are getting fewer and fewer infections. Paradoxically, a dropping incidence of serious  infections  over the past 30 years has coincided with a  boom – what some people call an ‘epidemic’ – of  inflammatory  and autoimmune disorders. Asthma is now believed to strike 1/10 children in the US – double the rate since 1980 and autoimmune disorders effect about 1/20 people in the US.  Both can be triggered by infections.

Inflammatory have increased dramatically

is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome part of the inflammatory disorders ‘epidemic’ appearing over the past 30 years in the U.S.?

Does ME/CFS belong in this group?  Did ME/CFS explode in the 1980’s or were a large number of very sick people simply just finally uncovered? Nobody knows but its possible chronic fatigue syndrome is just another example of something going wrong on a very large scale in recent years. That something is the female immune system.

In autism the problem appears not to be the infection, but the  mothers’ immune system. Dr. Hornig noted in her NSU talk on chronic fatigue syndrome that she believes the immune response to the pathogen was probably more important that the pathogen itself.

Researchers now know that, infection or not,  the amniotic fluid of  fetuses who later develop autism  is inflamed – not a lot, apparently, but possibly  just enough in this early stage of growth to contribute to  a devastating process. They know that  a mother  diagnosed with asthma  or allergies during pregnancy – two signs of her immune system going off the rails a bit –  increases her child’s risk of coming down with autism.

The same general trend runs  true with  metabolic syndrome, a disorder associated with insulin resistance which is also characterized  with, yes, low-grade inflammation.  A  mother with rheumatoid arthritis increases her child’s risk by 80%, and if she happens to have celiac disease her child’s odds go up by a whopping 350% and that takes us to the gut.

Immune Activation

The big question, then, may be what has gone wrong with our  immune systems?  One answer could lie in our environment.  Researchers, taking note of the reduced prevalence of  autoimmune and inflammatory disorders in developing countries, are asking what’s different between the two and one difference  is very clear; the number of bugs present….

Gut-bacteria-chronic-fatigue-syndrome

Would adding some ‘bugs’ to our internal ecosystems reduce the inflammation present in ME/CFS and other disorders?

People in developing countries are exposed to more bacteria and other bugs and that exposure could be key. Studies find that wild rats exposed to lots of different pathogens can quickly put a lid on their inflammatory response, but laboratory rats can not.  Why? Nobody’s sure but some believe the parasites the wild rats carry – and they’re loaded with them – are responsible.  (Some pathogens have figured out a way to blunt the inflammatory immune response.)   It may be that to be human, has, until the 50 years or so, meant being loaded with ‘parasites’ and that includes things like (ugh) worms and s here we are at gut; i.e., the ‘second brain’ and the biggest single immune repository in the body.

In her NSU talk, Dr. Hornig linked low gut enzymes and massively changed gut flora  in Autism to low antioxidant levels in the blood which  lead to inflammation which lead to brain issues.  Bacterial imbalances in the gut have been associated with arthritis, diabetes, autism and other disorders.

How to fix the problem? If the theory of bacterial/parasite imbalance is correct the fix is simple; replenish our natural ecosystem by returning the bugs to our guts by  using such therapies as  probiotics, worms (yes, worms) and fecal (yes) transplants and the inflammation that is knocking so many people about will go away…..

The Gut Series on Health Rising

All this is really an introduction a new series on the gut on Health Rising that will appear over the next couple of months.  We’re going to look at gut composition, how to diagnose and treat small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), how the gut can affect the brain and the mind, how probiotics, fiber and diet fit into all this, and we’re going to explore some new, different and some would say disgusting, therapies that just might help such a fecal transplants and worms.


 

 

GET FREE ME/CFS AND FIBROMYALGIA INFO

Like the blog you're reading? Don't miss another one.

Get the most in-depth information available on the latest ME/CFS and FM treatment and research findings by registering for Health Rising's free  ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia blog here.


Stay on Top of the News!

Subscribe To Health Rising’s Free Information on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Fibromyalgia (FM), Long COVID and Related Diseases.

Thank you for signing up!

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This