What’s Good for the Gut is Good for the Brain: A New Perspective on Autism
A global scientific conference on gut microbiota took place this week in Spain. Presenter Elaine Hsiao explained that autism is often marked by GI disturbance and in an animal model of autism, symptoms can be reversed with microbiome rebalancing. What’s good for the gut is good for the brain: A new perspective on autism Read more here.
IMFAR – Research Needs to Improve Lives of Those Living with Autism
The International Meeting for Autism Research, commonly known as IMFAR, just concluded its annual three-day conference on May 17, 2014. SafeMinds Board and Research Committee Member, Laurette Janak, reviewed the Autism Speaks roadmap of the conference to see what she missed out on. The roadmap can be found here. “Autism Speaks began the conference with […]
Autism’s Environmental Component: New Research Upends Scientific Orthodoxy Strangling Autism Progress
By Sallie Bernard, President, SafeMinds New research has just come out which will hopefully drive a stake into a scientific theory that has strangled scientific progress in autism. The theory – that autism’s cause is almost entirely genetic – hasn’t matched the evidence for decades and has undermined promising avenues to prevention and effective treatments. […]
NIH Grant Opportunity for Researchers – Due Date 8/26/14
NIH Environmental Contributors to Autism Spectrum Disorders R01 Research Project Grant due August 26 (Letter of Intent due 30 days before application).
New Study Correlating Mercury and Air Pollution with an Increased Risk of Autism Spectrum Disorders
This new study published by the Harvard School of Public Health demonstrates further evidence of the association between environmental exposure to neurotoxic pollution and increased rates of autism. Not only did the study show mercury air pollution correlated with increased autism rates, it also demonstrated the pollution resulted in increased rates in boys. That this […]
Impact of the DSM-5 Criteria for ASD – Community Update – May 2013
Introduction This month, the American Psychiatric Association will publish the latest edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual – the DSM-5. The manual contains significant changes to the diagnostic criteria for individuals with autism. The name of the category will be changed from Pervasive Developmental Disorder to Autism Spectrum Disorder. The four previous diagnoses: Autistic […]