Parents of autistic children all understand what to expect with their children, and John Rodakis is no different. Like so many, he was familiar with many of the symptoms that include lack of energy, delayed speech, the strict need to routine and more. However, when John's son came down with strep throat and placed on antibiotics, his son's symptoms began to decrease dramatically.
When he spoke to other parents, he discovered that this was not an isolated incident and even came across a paper written in 1999 by Ellen Bolte exploring the link between autism and gut bacteria. In her research, she found that autistic children had less gut bacteria than children without autism, but here sample size was small and in 1999 the idea that gut bacteria could influence a mental disorder seemed far fetched.
Rodakis began to keep detailed notes about his son's improvements, using customized software that tracked 20 different parameters of autism, along with room for him to note qualitative changes. His son's therapists, unaware of the antibiotic treatments, also remarked on the improvements made by his son.
Rodakis then began to seek out further medical research only to be disappointed that no follow-up studies had been conducted based on Ellen Bolte's findings. However, he refused to give up and his search led him to Dr. Richard Drye, the head of the Autism Research Program at Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute.
"Careful parental observations can be crucial," Dr. Frye says. "In science we take these observations, put them through the scientific method, and see what we find. This is what can lead to ground-breaking scientific discoveries and breakthroughs in the field." Together, they gathered researchers from around the world for the "First International Symposium on the Microbiome in Health and Disease with a Special Focus on Autism," held last June.
The breakthrough of a possible microbial link to autism is monumental but only represents one piece of a much larger puzzle. It would be unwise, for example, to keep children on antibiotic treatments indefinitely because of their effect on microbiome balance and its potential contribution to bacteria resistance. But, this latest breakthrough demonstrates that autism is a disorder that should be tackled by a host of fields from immunology to microbiology to neurology.
"At the time of his diagnosis, we had been led to believe that our son's autism was a hard-wired neurological condition from which he would not emerge, but during the fall and winter of 2012 and subsequent periods since then we have seen our son with the veil of autism partially lifted" Rodakis says. "I love him unconditionally regardless of his autism or how he is doing on any given day, but because I have seen what is possible, I will endeavor to promote research that benefits all children with autism and to remove all impediments from him becoming the fullest embodiment of who he can be and until it is definitively proven otherwise, I will strive to foster research consistent with the evidence of the microbiome's involvement in autism."
