Can Epigenetics explain autism's causes?
Before going into Epigenetics we first have to address all or most of the other theories out there. Problem with most theories, they all have holes or inconsistencies that thwart consistent provability. For instance, if it's Thimerosal then how is it cases have only increased since it's removal? And how about children showing autistic signs (like my son) since birth? Some say it's genetic, but that's utterly incomplete as well. There are many documented cases of identical twins in which the genes are compared and confirmed identical - yet one is typically developing while the other severely autistic. Some say it's tied to older men, that our genetic material breaks down over time, but there are plenty of young adults siring autistic children. Others say it's pesticides and or methylmercury from coal burning power plants, but when we look for the suspect compounds in our afflicted children's systems - they aren't there.
These theories have pulled scientists and parents in all directions searching for The Answer - The Smoking gun that we can find, sneer at and put away to never hurt our children again.
The new science of epigenetics may be able to finally tie together all the loose ends and finally be up to the task of explaining autism's causes. What science has found is that there is a layer of programing over the hard gene sequence that basically turns a gene on or off. (Expressed or suppressed) So in the case of the twins - though they may have the same exact genes that are undamaged, the programming that turns the autistic child's genes on and off is off kilter. What causes this? Scientists have discovered environmental toxins that even your grandparents were exposed to could affect the children being born today. Here's an example. Scientists exposed lab animals to a particular pesticide. Expectantly they exhibited neurological damage and autistic like behaviors. Here's the catch - they compared the animals hard genes before and after exposure and determined they were undamaged. They then bred the animals... Surprisingly four generations later the great great siblings exhibited the same percentage of autistic like behavior and neurological damage - even though they were never directly exposed to pesticides and it would not be found in their blood stream. Scientists have discovered that our epigenetic systems to be so much more susceptible to minute amounts of toxins like pesticides and worse yet the epigenetic mutaltions can be passed down through the generations making the causal relationship or "evidence of harm" so elusive. But that is all soon changing as scientists will soon begin experiemnts where they can see epigenetic changes caused by suspect toxins and correlate them to the epigenetic hot spots in autism victims.
To learn more you can buy the new book Dads And Autism, How To Stay In The Game. Go to www.dadsandautism.com
This is also a great resource to help fathers (and mothers) learn specific tactics to instill affection in their children.