Reading the Research: Complications

Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects, then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and observations.

Today's article puts the high health and welfare needs of autistic people into context.  It's fairly common for any given autistic person to have at least one condition besides the autism adding to the difficulty of their lives.  This study shows that's not only common, but pretty much to be expected.  This is true even after you account for the lifestyle conditions that would normally cause these issues, like smoking, drinking problems, and obesity.

The types of additional conditions vary widely.  Epilepsy, cerebral palsy, gut dysbiosis, muscular peculiarities, asthma, diabetes, heart conditions, and thyroid conditions are a small selection of the possible options.  No two autistic people are the same.  

This is true not only in terms of genetics, but also in terms of brain differences.  Autism, as I've mentioned previously, is a trashbin diagnosis.  Vast swaths of deeply different humans are tossed into the diagnosis, which has no subtypes in the current diagnostic manual.  While any three autistic humans might have commonalities, there can also be deep differences in communication skills, executive functionality, and self-regulation skills.  

Autism is part and parcel of the brain.  Everything the brain touches is affected.  You'll note that effectively includes the entire body.  Movement is controlled by the brain.  Your ability to process sounds, emotions, and thoughts, is the brain.  The function and regulation of your internal organs is the brain.  

Depressingly for me in particular, biologically female autistic humans tend to suffer a much greater incidence rate of these conditions.  That trend is borne out in the adult autism groups I've attended.  I myself count as overweight and have the beginnings of blood pressure issues as well as gut dysbiosis and various other issues.  Most autistic women or assigned-female-at-birth adults I've met have had at least one complicating factor, sometimes significantly more.  

This study is an exploratory study.  It found no answers to the question of why autistic people have such high incidence rates of complicating conditions.  Its purpose was to establish the fact, and rule out the common causes for the fact, and that, it accomplished.  In the research article proper, the scientists toss out genetic risks, hormonal issues, increased use of drugs (no mention of pharmaceuticals, which... shouldn't those be included? They have side effects!), and lack of appropriate healthcare services.  

I'll be interested to see where this line of research goes.  Figuring out what's stacking the deck against autistic people's health, and how we can work to change it, would improve all our lives.  

(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)