Autism and cholesterol are two different things. While cholesterol is a health factor, autism is a health condition. Nobody would have imagined a link between these but researchers have found one. According to them, a subtype of autism originates from genes that manage cholesterol. This lead could help in the prevention of autism.
An autistic child is very difficult to handle. Most of the times, you cannot predict what may trigger them. The only thing parents can do is identifying the warning signs of autism in the child since no child is born autistic but become one with age. Various environmental and genetic factors are held responsible for autism. Now, after this study, researchers believe that a change in lipid blood, as well as cholesterol levels, can also be a prominent factor in the development of autism which is a neurodevelopment dysfunction.
Research About Autism-Cholesterol Link
Three institutes Harvard Medical School, Northwestern University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology did joint research which is published in the journal ‘Nature Medicine’. The research team conducted a DNA analysis of the brain after which they found that autism and lipid dysfunction have similar molecular roots. The researchers went on to study the profile of autistic children and their parents for clarity. Surprisingly, the findings confirmed their analysis. Both children and parents had evident lipid blood alterations.
Also Read: 7 Ways Parents Can Help Their Autistic Child Lead A Normal Life
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How are these linked?
This has raised many questions as to how cholesterol levels can impact neurodevelopmental dysfunctions and can such diseases be controlled after normalising the lipid metabolism. Secondary autism is also a big threat. To this, senior researcher Isaac Kohane who is also heading the Department of Biomedical Informatics in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School says, “Our results are a striking illustration of the complexity of autism and the fact that autism encompasses many different conditions that each arise from different causes–genetic, environmental or both.”
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“Identifying the roots of dysfunction in each subtype is critical to designing both treatments and screening tools for correct and timely diagnosis–that is the essence of precision medicine,” he added.
It is not easy to manage an autistic child and parents need to identify the early signs of autism in a kid to prevent their condition from worsening. Timely diagnosis and the right treatment can help kids lead a normal life.
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