Autism Causes

The question of what causes autism is something that every doctor has been asked when a diagnosis is made for a child. The research does not show one particular cause of autism and there are a few theories on the topic. Some people believe that autism is caused by genetic factors. The doctors who are working on the answer to this question believe that there are genes that cause the person to be predisposed to having autism. There has not been any success at locating the genes that are responsible. The recent theory is that a combination of the genes that cause autism and certain environmental factors will make it likely that a person will be autistic.

It is more common for boys to be autistic than girls. There is some thought that environmental pollution is a contributor to autism. In studies that analyzed the data of towns with a high percentage of autistic children, the areas all had some form of pollution. The particular towns that were analyzed for having higher rates of autism than is typical all had some source of pollution that was responsible for releasing chemicals and toxins into the environment.

There are also many people that believe that Mercury that was in vaccinations caused autism. The reason that this theory became prevalent is because the diagnosis of autism came during the same time period that the vaccinations that contained Thimersal or Mercury. This has resulted in a great many research studies, but there has been no link found between the vaccinations and autism.

There have been studies that have shown that children who are exposed to higher levels of Mercury have a higher chance of being autistic. This is what caused the fear about the vaccinations. Most of the vaccinations that children receive dont contain any Mercury today. If there is Mercury or Thimersal in the vaccination it is in very small quantities. The higher levels of Mercury that some people are exposed to can be caused by fish or other industrial sources. It is thought that pregnant women who are exposed to these levels of Mercury will have children who are autistic. The studies that have been conducted will test pregnant women to determine the amount of Mercury that they have in their system and then checking the babies when they are born. This can allow the doctors to check back with the children who were born with high levels of Mercury in their system to see if there is a connection with autism.

Other theories on the cause of autism are focused on health problems that might cause the syndrome. There are diseases and illnesses that might increase a childs risk of being diagnosed with autism. The diseases that have been the focus of the research are Rubella and Fragile X Syndrome. There are still other theories that autism is caused by an imbalance on the metabolism.

A theory that was once popular was that children who were autistic were exposed to a trauma early in their life. Still others blamed the parents and bad parenting. The doctors in years past would try to blame mothers of autistic children by telling them that the cause of their childs autism was lack of love and affection. All of these theories have been unfounded. There is no real understanding on the true cause of autism yet. There will be a need for continued research in the area. Once a cause is determined it might be possible for doctors to develop a way to cure it or prevent it from occurring at all.