Collecting neo-natal cerebrospinal fluid as soon as your baby gets born would be a ground-breaking method for early detection of autism. This should become a protocol in every hospital!
I have found amazing and extraordinary the results of research done by dr. Karen Parker when it comes to autism and my own problem after listening to this long podcast was to find out how underfunded research is when it comes to autism. If we want to have better solutions we need to invest the money in order to level up in the medical field.
A key idea to take from this podcast is that low vasopressin levels correlate with social cognition deficit. When children with autism received a vasopressin treatment their social ability improved and overall there was a significant improvement.Imagine if today you would be able to detect from birth a predisposition toward autism and you would be able to intervene super early by using a vasopressin treatment, imagine how much that would make the difference!
The cerebrospinal (CSF) fluid collected from babies showed very low levels of vasopressin since birth. The same kids got tested for autism years later. The data showed a direct correlation. I have found this discovery amazing, it could literally change lives if a protocol of early CSF testing would happen in every medical facility where babies are born! Karen’s idea is revolutionary I would say:” What if you can intervene earlier and maybe put the children on vasopressin compensation so they would have a different developmental trajectory?”
The biggest issue in autism is the waiting time. It could be 18 months until someone can get their child tested for autism. This is precious time that the child is losing! Collecting CSF makes sense because it is the closest thing to the brain that you can test and autism is a brain disorder.
Significant improvements also happened when vagal nerve stimulators and oxytocin intranasal spray got used for children with autism.
Another fascinating thing that is currently happening in the medical field now is fecal transplant. Yes it sounds disgusting, but there are amazing benefits to it. There are trials with fecal transplant ongoing on patients with autism which have positive results.
There are new ways to tackle with this issue and I can only hope that these new findings will become available in all corners of the world.
The conversation of Andrew Huberman with dr. Karen Parker captivated me so much that I have listened to it at least two times. I highly recommend this to you!