Autism And Stem Cell

                                             

stem cell bookAutism is a wide range of conditions that are characterized by difficulties with social interaction, speech, behavioral and communication. Persons affected usually have it challenging interacting and expressing themselves. This condition is usually noticed by parents and guardians when the child is around two to three years old. It’s a progressive disease, and the persons affected can be assisted to live a normal life by paying close attention to them, and learning what suits them, and what turns them off. Autism is caused by a combination of factors. The most popular are genetics and environmental factors. Other factors that increase the risk of this condition are infection, especially when a woman is pregnant, predisposes the child to have Autism. An example of such disease is Rubella infection. In addition, pregnant women who engage in the use of illicit drugs such as cocaine, amphetamine, and alcohol increases the risk of their children having this condition.

Parents who notice any delays of their kids in achieving the different milestones, and also other symptoms listed above should not hesitate to see a doctor. The earlier it’s diagnosed, the better and faster the improvement.

Symptoms Of Autism

Autistic patients are usually challenged in three areas. This triad can be used in the diagnosis of the disease. They include difficulty in interacting with people and their mates, poor communication skills, and repetitive behavior.

  1. Interaction difficulties: People that have autism find it difficulty interacting with people. It has been observed that kids affected by autism respond less to stimuli such as smiling, crying. They also usually don’t give a response to their own name when called.  Autistic children are more interested in the quality of interaction they have with people than the number of interactions they have. They feel a sense of loneliness when they feel like they do not have a strong interaction, with whomever they want to connect with. It has been shown that they surely do tend to have a good relationship with whoever cares for them. This could be their mother, father or even the nanny. They are usually not capable of having interactions with a lot of people. In addition, they feel uncomfortable in parties and get-togethers; generally, anywhere there are many people
  2. Communication: More than a third of kids affected by autism find communication difficult. They do have delays in achieving the speech milestones. They usually are incapable of pronouncing words, consonants and combining words. They are also fond of repeating words in an irregular manner. It has been observed that autistic children tend to shy away from talking and commenting on things. They like to keep to their shell, basically, to avoid communicating.
  3. Repetitive behavior: Autistic individuals like routines. They do not like to alter the way they do things. This can be attributed to their repetitive behavior. Some of the repetitive behaviors found in autistic children are as follows
  4. Repeated body movements: Autistic children usually do repeat somebody movements such as the flapping of their hands, and body shaking.
  5. Self-inflicted injuries: Kids affected by autism are fond of inflicting injuries to themselves. The severity of these injuries varies in people. While some cause major injury to themselves such as hitting their head against the wall, others just bite their fingers. There is no specified pattern of injury caused.
  6. They hate changes: As earlier said, autistic kids try their possible best to resist changes. They like doing things the same way and achieving the same result. This is also evident in the way they arrange their things. As an illustration, an autistic kid might insist that the color of his room should not be changed, or the arrangement of his room not altered. They do not like anything to change the way they think or see things.
  7. They have limited interests: People affected by autism do not have a lot of interest. They are usually focused on one thing, and they dedicate themselves totally to it. As an illustration, they can watch just a particular television channel all day. Also, they can choose to play a particular game every day, every week for months.
  8. Routine lifestyle: Autistic people tend to live their lives in a particular pattern, and they resist changes. They do the same things, every day. For example, they might have a routine of waking up at a particular time, then proceed to go shower, then to watching television and so on. They also resist anything that tries to alter their routine. They like to do things the same way. They dress the same, eat the same kind of meal.
  9. Other symptoms: About ten percent of persons affected with autism often display exceptional abilities in performing some tasks. Some of these unusual abilities include excellence in paying attention to details, brilliant memory, excellent artistic abilities and so on. In addition, over half of the people affected by autism do display motor dysfunction such as imbalance, abnormal gait, inability to walk, poor muscle tones and so on. Also, eating disorder used to be one of the criteria for diagnosing autism. Autistic kids are selective about the kind of food they eat. This might be attributed to the gastrointestinal problems associated with a percentage of them

                

How Is Autism Currently Being Treated?

The goal of autism management is to improve the quality of life of affected kids and also to better the relationship they have with their family. Generally, the kids need a lot of support from their families and guardians. However, it has been observed that kids with higher intelligent quotient improve faster than the ones with less IQ. There is no general method of managing the patients, each management style is tailored for the patient’s need. The help of professionals is needed to help the patient improve their speech, communication, and interactive skills.

 

How Is Stem Cell Therapy A Good Alternative?

Stem cell therapy is an effective way of treating autistic kids. Stem cells have the ability to repair and replace dead or injured brain cells. They are also good immune modulators. The stem cells migrate towards the abnormal brain cells and try to repair them. In the case that the nerve cells cannot be repaired, they regenerate and replace the brain cells. They are capable of restoring the brain to normal function.

 

References

Anon, (2017). [online] Available at: http://autism stem cell [Accessed 30 Dec. 2017].

Bailey, A. (2014). Autism Treatment Research. Autism Research, 7(1), pp.1-3.

Scadden, D. and Srivastava, A. (2012). Advancing Stem Cell Biology toward Stem Cell Therapeutics. Cell Stem Cell, 10(2), pp.149-150.Siniscalco, D. (2012). Stem Cell Research: An Opportunity for Autism Spectrum Disorders Treatment. Autism- Open Access, 02(03).