B12 is three times lower in autistic brains and schizophrenics', healthy old people have v low levels too.

A stunning study of dissected brains has shown that autistic children under 10 have three times less b12 in their brains than normal children. This is obviously independent of blood levels, which may be deceptive. Levels were ten times lower ithan in younger adults in healthy older people.

The researchers, led by the wonderfully named Dr Deth, at NSE university, think oxidative stress may account for the low b12 in the children!s brains, but they don't have much to say on why b12 in the brain of the elderly is so low, except that possibly it is protective.

I realise this is not directly relevant to the thyroid, but autism is linked to untreated thyroiditis, and b12 seems so often low amongst those with thyroid disease. The fact that serum values are no guide to brain fluid values is interesting in itself.

[shaws Administrator]

Thanks for your post. It is interesting and I like the name of Dr Deth.

[humanbean]

Do you have a link to the research?

I'm curious about the definition of "healthy" in the elderly people. They were dead, so they couldn't have been that healthy before death, unless they only used people who died in accidents.

[Hidden]

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/267...

Good point, humanbean, presumably they didn't have known diseases.

Other studies point to low brain iron in ADHD, which does not seem to co relate to serum iron levels, and which may not be helped by taking more iron.

Maybe it is due to something going wrong in the womb, or maybe something complicated is going on - to speculate, maybe low levels of brain antioxidants might mean the brain would put the brakes on allowing certain minerals in.

There are high levels on anxiety both in ADHD and among autistic children, so I think it is probably a very important co relation - a clue.

[Joburton]

Could be a dysfunction in the blood/brain barrier...

[Hidden in reply to Joburton]

yup, which they don!t begin to understand...

[Jose651 in reply to Hidden]

Also associated with MTHFR.

J

[Hidden in reply to Jose651]

Yes, several studies have found a very high rate of anomalies on the hilariously named mother.. er gene, which encodes the ability to metabolise both b12 and folate I think.. please correct if I am wrong.

[Jose651 in reply to Hidden]

You are perfectly right Aspmama. 

I have that mother..er gene and have had to read up on how to make the best off it. It's a bit complicated but I'll get there hopefully.

J