Recently a lot of attention has been focused on whether there is a link between celiac disease and autism this is probably due to the fact that many parents with autistic children have tried a gluten free diet with their children with considerable success. While a recently published study claims there is no link between autism and celiac disease you will have a hard time convincing the moms of these children this since many of them have seen their child function outside of themselves and communicate for the first time ever on a gluten free diet.

In fact it seems as though a diet that is gluten and casein free is one of the more helpful things for these children but the question remains does this mean that these children have celiac disease?  Research on these questions and why a gluten free diet helps those with autism is underway, even if it is found that the gluten intolerance that autistic children have is not from celiac disease, studying any possible connections between the two may help researchers to come up with a cure for autism.

Current research suggests that in autism peptides that are the products of protein in wheat, oats rye, barley and casein have an opiate type activity in autistic children; this opiate type of activity has an effect on brain function.

Like celiac disease, autism appears to be an immune system dysfunction that has to do with the inability of the body to properly digest gluten or casein, interestingly enough these two proteins are thought to be the only two proteins that the body in incapable of completely breaking down, which may explain at least a bit why they tend to cause so many allergy and immune response problems. Our body sees them as being invaders and makes the appropriate immune response, unfortunately when that happens often our body will turn on itself, and that is the trouble starts.

Only time will tell what the link between celiac disease, gluten intolerance and autism truly is, in the mean time it is important to note that families have had tremendous success implementing a gluten and casein free diet for these children.