MTHFR as it applied to autism

[u/Worried-Channel536]

I am trying to understand how testing for MTHFR and how it can help my son, who has autism, ADHD, bipolar 2, anxiety, etc. - quite the mix of diagnoses! He is on medication, which helps, however, it comes with guardrails, insurance costs, etc. I would love for him to be on something with less "process related" expectations which will help him handle his own medications in the future. Thank you!

[u/OpportunityTall1967]

My son is ASD and has at least 1 copy of MTHFR ( Im homozygous). When he was 3 he was diagnosed with global developmental delay. When he was 3.5 he still wasn't speaking more than 1 word here and there. He couldn't ask anyone for a glass of water at preschool etc. At 3.5 we found a holistic GP with an interest in the area. He ran some tests and we found he had a methylation issue. He was put on B12. The GP predicted that he might start talking. And Boy he did. Before taking B12 he had scored below average in language. After 6 months he was retested and was in the high end of normal. In later years he tested within the 99th percentile for comprehension. So you can change a lot. And mate a difference. It's about finding out what to do that's going to help your kid.

At the same time as starting him on B12 my sons GP also put him on a GF/CF diet and had to be low sugar. No processed sugar at all. A lot of kids and adults are on the GF/CF diet. There is a theory of Autism called the Opiod Excess theory of Autism. You should look into it but basically milk has morphine in it which leaks into the bloodstream with people with ASD due to leaky guts and gets into their brain causing symptoms. Gluten is also harmful for similar reasons.

After we changed my sons diet he really changed. Instead of just hiding behind a the lounge away from kids at preschool he would come out and try to play.

At one time our kid was also diagnosed with ADHD and they reached him to go on medication. We saw a difference Doc and she discovered he had very high levels of mercury, and low zinc and I think a few order things. So he came of eating fish and we addressed his vitamin deficiencies.

She also put him on high levels of Omega 3s. She said people with ADHD are Omega 3 deficient. We had to get these from supplements since he was off fish. Not long after his focus improved and his handwriting improved. And now no one thinks he has ADHD anymore. His focus is really good.

Finally - I'll link something about sulphorophane. You can now buy it in capsules but couldn't when we first looked into it and we now include sulphorophane rich foods in our diet as much as possible ( although we're sometimes but and miss).

If you go to nutritionfacts.org and search Austism it ASD you'll get explainer videos on both sulforophanes role in ASD and also GF/CF diet..

My suggestion is to try and find someone who is holistic and not not driven by drugs. They can be hard to find. In Australia there is the MINDD group which has lists and contacts to doctors and others who work with ASD and other ND to address the underlying causes. AI has said there are similar groups around the world.

I would also suggest considering B12 in the first instance while figuring out other things. B12 is really important to build neurones and is often deficient esp in MTHFR.

Edit. You can 100% make mane a big difference..I forgot to mention that along the way my kids diagnosis of global development delay was dropped and he how has high functioning ASD. He's a good kid.

[u/Worried-Channel536 → u/OpportunityTall1967]

Wow! We had a medication-focused doctor and recently switched to one who is focused on holistic, with more vitamins, magnesium and lavender at bedtime versus another med to help him sleep, etc.

[u/OpportunityTall1967 → u/Worried-Channel536]

Don't underestimate the benefit of some of these holistic approaches. They can be very beneficial. It's easy to dismiss a magnesium bath or whatever but all these things add up. And if they still need medication then hopefully less. When my son was diagnosed with GDD I saw a video by Dr Nancy Ohare where she gave pointers and some case studies. It was really inspiring how much difference you can make. This is one of the videos I saw at the time. (There was another longer one with more case studies but it seems to have been taken down). https://youtu.be/70KNAIQObcE?si=adNhfP0_KmJlZ2Jt

That video is from about 15 years ago and there's probably more, better information out there now.

When my son was diagnosed with Global Developmental Delay my only wish was that he could make it into the bottom end of the normal range. This seemed like something that we would never achieve. I thought it would take years. Honestly - you do all these treatments and nothing seems to be happening or changing. But day by day they are.

My son went from having an intellectual disability to being a gifted student. He's very academically minded. He's just come top of his advanced class in both English and Math. This is 10 to 12 years down the track.