Research summaries for autism therapy: amino acids

definition of amino acids: Natural chemicals which are present in the body and other living things. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins.

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Special diets may be able to help some children with autism.

Many children with autism have problems with their gut. Some people think that children with autism are not able to do a good job digesting some proteins and therefore they have little pieces of proteins that act on their brains (opioid peptides). This study looked at urine of children with autism to see how they break down and use protein and sugar. The study had 63 children with autism (aged 5-15 years) and used their 29 siblings as a control. The authors found that children with autism seem to break down protein and sugar differently than other children. Read more...

Children on gluten-free and casein-free diets should be closely watched to make sure that they are eating enough good quality protein.

This study was designed to measure levels of amino acids in children with autism and compare those levels to levels found in children who do not have autism. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. Previous studies have shown that children with autism have similar types of amino acids in their blood and hair as other children. In the current study, the authors found that children with autism are more likely to be missing certain amino acids when compared to other children. This problem was even bigger in children on gluten-free or casein-free diets.
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Synonyms for amino acids include: amino acid
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