i can see how gluten enteropathy can cause vit K deficiency. i was not aware of the brain (nor bone) connection of the K2 though.
now, coming back to the gluten vs autism conundrum, especially as the gluten-free diet didn't work in that one study, it just occurred to me, the study was flawed. the success of diet in autism is reported in Gluten Free/Casein Free: http://www.gfcfdiet....cessstories.htm or Gluten Free/Dairy Free/Sugar Free: http://www.dailymail...-cured-son.html
but, i would not be surprised if autism had several causes and the bad bacteria/leaky gut was just one of them.
BTW, i started taking home made kefir with L. reuteri and not having any major breakthroughs yet. sadly it's milk based, so not casein free.
But what I posted was a systematic review, not a single study - no results, or to be accurate no verifiable and consistent results. Now, that may be caused by the reviewed studies simply being rubbishly made, which may explain the results of the review, so perhaps there's still some merit to the idea.
What I would vaguer, and guess, is that these dietary interventions are simply effective for a very small subset of Autistic children.
It should also be recalled, that the vast majority of celiac-sufferers do not display anywhere near enough behavioural alterations from their diet, that the symptoms can be likened to Aspergers Syndrome, or other, more disabling autistic disorders.
Most just feel pain and diarrhoea.
And the original idea behind cassein-free and gluten-free diets was that similar behavioural symptoms have been recorded among opiate-abusers - i.e social difficulties and stereotypical behaviour - hence, by using reverse-engineering from schizophrenic theoring, (it's been known for AGES that NMDA-antagonists can cause psychosis and schiz-like behaviour, even the brain-fog is similar to negative symptoms) the theory went that perhaps Autists have an overload of endogenous opioids, causing permanent alterations to behaviour.
The gut-problems was then found to be a recurring commorbidity with Autism, hence some started wondering if perhaps these hypothetical endogenous opioids were entering the Autists through diet.
The search then went for finding potential dietary sources of opioid-like substances, and dairy and gluten-containing plants were found to be the most potent sources. (they both also, incidentally, taste DANGEROUSLY good! Holy sh*t, I got milk! ^^ And buns! Cinnamon-buns are droool... so many active substances! )
However, while this research was going on, the original idea of endogenous opioids were found to be failed: no exagerated amount of opioids or metabolites were found in Autist pheces and urine.
Now, there are a few possibilities to take into account here:
Opiod-receptor mutations - like ADHD have mutations in faulty D-receptors, Schiz in mGlur and so on, then perhaps the problem for Autism ISN'T over-production: It's super-sensitivity to opioids!
This could explain why they don't have more metabolites or higher serum-levels: they don't need to, to get the behavioural issues.
However, since the proof of these diets aren't yet set in stone, we shouldn't get hung up on that: after all, there are more than one opioid-type receptor in the body, these compounds may not all be selective to the same ones!
Meaning, you could have hyper-sensitivity to Sigma-agonists, but if Gluten and Cassein are only selective for Delta, then there's no point in excluding them. It won't change sh*t.
Maybe it turns out corn-starch has Sigma-agonists, so while excluding Gluten you're eating a giant heaping of corn STILL... well, then your symptoms won't change worth a damn.
SO... returning to this:
1. What other Auto-immune-disorders are common among Autists? What other auto-immune disorders, other then the gut, has a WIDE systemic effect?
2. What other substances are there, than Gluten and Cassein which contain opiate-like substances?
3. Have opiate-antagonists, SELECTIVE ones, been trialed for the treatment of Autism? Are there other options than Naltrexone?
4. Is there genetic data on opiate-receptors, transporters and the like? Does anyone with Autism, to ANY extent, have any unusual mutations in these genes?