Autism

[Zileska]

Is it true that cholesterol helps people who don't have enough of it to fight autism?

[achilles2]

I forgot to mention that the disease is called Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome.

[achilles2]

I do not know if people with autism have low cholesterol but there is a disease where a person has too low of cholesterol levels (in the single and double digits) therefore the body does not have enough. Cholesterol is needed by the brain for metabolism.People with this disease do show symptoms of being on the autism spectrum. Here is a link to a research article and it is from Oregon Health Science University (a huge research hospital)

http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/research/clinical-research/hgi/consortium/investigators/upload/autism-spectrum-in-Smith-Lemli-Opitz.pdf

I hope this helps,

achilles2

[karalianne]

I seriously doubt it.

Where did you hear that, and why would anyone say such a thing? (I'm seriously curious here, not trying to insult you or anything - at least you asked!)

Autism has to do with differences in the way the brain works. The brain uses - I think it's glucose - to function adequately. That's a lot different from cholesterol, which I'm pretty sure isn't really involved in glucose production or absorption or whatever. (I am not a biologist of any kind, just a wanna-be psychologist, so do take that paragraph with a grain of salt.)

People who have autism need accommodations for things like sensory processing differences. They need help to learn to communicate effectively. Often they need help with academics, depending on how they learn best, and they almost always need some coaching in social skills. All of these things have more to do with how the brain processes information.