The connection between gut bacteria and mental health is, ­thankfully, a growing field of research these days, but unfortunately, not much has changed in terms of medical ­treatment.

Most children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (which includes ADD, ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia), or any adult diagnosed with depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder or schizophrenia, are ­generally offered a pharmaceutical to mask their symptoms.

Very few of those affected are ­encouraged to significantly improve their nutritional health to address the ­common underlying issues of such disorders. Such issues include blood ­sugar imbalance, nutrient deficiencies, ­inflammation (from regularly consuming foods/substances that provoke an immune reaction) and, perhaps most importantly, toxicity from byproducts of gut bacteria.

A personal journey
I have learned about this gut-brain connection firsthand. My son was diagnosed on the autistic spectrum (late-onset) at the age of three-and-a-half. He has been my teacher, guide and inspiration throughout this whole learning process and dietary journey.

By the time my son was ­officially diagnosed, he had stopped answering to his name, responding to questions and looking at us; rarely offered a comment or an interaction; played by himself all day long (driving the same toy train back and forth along the same piece of track for hours at a time); asked for no food or water; had meltdowns for reasons we couldn't understand; panicked and dashed in crowds or any noisy situation; hit himself and bit himself (and others); still wore diapers; showed no ­interest in playing with other children or at playgrounds; and was unable to ­recognize family members or remember peoples' names.

He only wanted to play by himself and existed on a diet of milk, cheese, toast, cereal, potatoes and sweet things. His short-term and long-term memories were apparently completely ­unavailable to him.
This pulling away had happened relatively gradually, following an inoculation and post-inoculation illness at the age of two. It wasn't until he started preschool that the developmental issues ­suddenly became glaringly apparent. There was a mixture of relief and fear when we realized that his "behaviours" had a ­label: autism spectrum disorder.

I tried to quell my growing sense of fear by voraciously reading ­several books about autism. It was when I opened Karyn Seroussi's book, ­Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder (Simon & Schuster, 2000), that my fear began to shift to hope and determination. She described a child very like my own and the incredible journey she had travelled to help facilitate his healing. The most powerful thing she wrote about was the dietary changes she had made using the gluten-free/casein-free diet (more recently popularized by Jenny McCarthy).

Gluten- and casein-free
I stayed up almost all night reading that book and, the next morning, with my husband's blessing, we decided to have a dairy-free day "just to see."

That evening, we went to a friend's house for dinner and, just before we sat down to eat, my husband and I, in mid-conversation with our host, went quiet. Our focus had shifted to our son, who was not driving a train back and forth over in the corner, but was playing a game of peek-a-boo with one of our friends. We were absolutely stunned and watched with silent amazement as this game continued for ­several minutes with more interaction than we had seen from our son in months.

After dinner, despite a torrential ­early October downpour, our son asked if he could go outside on the deck off the living room. He had such a joyful desire in his eyes that I said yes. He stayed out there for the next 20 minutes, dancing delightedly in the rain as we watched through the window-it was as though he was revelling in a new consciousness of the world around him. He was very aware of us watching him and came to the window every so often, delivering a huge grin and then continuing his ­celebration.

Needless to say, we decided to stay dairy-free and I started familiarizing ­myself with gluten grains, so that I could start educating myself on what they were and how to avoid them. (As it turned out, they are in almost everything processed!) My son's communication abilities and desires continued to blossom, and he no longer seemed so distant all of the time.

Gluten grains were removed from his diet over a period of several weeks, and although the effect was subtle, we noticed his highs were not so high and his lows were not so low. He was less likely to be violent, with himself and others, and less volatile overall. He still had meltdowns on occasion and still got overwhelmed at times, but he started reaching out more and more. It was a gradual process, and his milestones were different than the other children in his preschool class, but each step forward felt as dramatic as if it had truly ­"happened overnight."

Gut-brain connection
The logic behind the gluten-free/casein-free (GFCF) diet is sound: remove from the diet key proteins that are not able to be completely digested by certain individuals because the proteins travel through the bloodstream as morphine-like peptide chains that interfere with brain function. Many parents, including me, would describe their autistic child as appearing "stoned" and "in their own world"-a possible result of this morphine-like ­action on the brain.

For me though, GFCF diet still didn't answer two important questions I had: 1) Why were my son's immune and digestive systems compromised in the first place? 2) Why, even after ­several years on the GFCF diet, would he still not be able to eat a wider range of food?

It was clear to me at this point that the GFCF diet was not a healing diet, but a lifelong crutch that possibly helped ­alleviate some of the worst symptoms. As helpful as it was, this diet did not ­actually heal the core imbalances in the body. I did not relish the idea of following a teenaged son around in the years to come, ensuring that he never had a slice of regular pizza or a McDonald's meal, and I knew that it would be a fairly difficult feat to ensure he stayed GFCF for the rest of his life.

GAPS diet
As my son embarked on kindergarten, we also embarked on another dietary ­adventure, learning of a diet pioneered by British neurologist and nutritionist, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. This diet sought to completely heal the gut lining, restore a healthy foundation of gut bacteria and therefore a healthy immune system through the use of probiotic foods and supplements, whole foods with minimal starch (starch tends to be the food of choice for pathogenic bacteria), healthy fats and gentle detoxification. The diet is called GAPS, a short form of Gut and Psychology Syndrome, a name that Dr. Campbell-McBride coined.

Under this "syndrome," Dr. Campbell-McBride includes dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADD, ADHD, OCD, PDD-NOS, autism, Asperger's, depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. On the surface, many of these diagnoses may seem unrelated, but when underlying health ­issues are examined, there is an incredible amount of overlap in the symptoms.

The neurotoxic byproducts (such as acetaldehyde and ethanol) produced by pathogenic bacteria, which have populated the digestive tract, have been linked to the chemical imbalances in the brain that characterize so-called "mental health problems." For example, many autistic people are highly sensitive to light and sound. This is also a typical symptom of Clostridium tetani bacterial overgrowth.

As I began exploring the GAPS diet, the reasoning behind the effectiveness of the diet answered my key questions that could not be answered by the GFCF diet alone. 1) My son's immune and digestive systems were compromised because he had inherited a pretty shaky hand from me to begin with and then had had further assaults that had essentially set the stage for ­pathogenic bacterial overgrowth. 2) He would not be able to eat and tolerate a wider range of food until the essential foundation of gut bacteria had been altered and his gut lining had healed.

Within four days of beginning the introductory stage of the GAPS diet, our son's appetite, which had ­always been bird-like, increased three-fold. ­After ­being stuck at a weight of 30 pounds for over two years, he gained 10 pounds by the end of the first month on the GAPS diet. His food choices opened right up, and he was trying and ­enjoying ­everything we gave him. Huge ­advances were noticed at school, both scholastically and socially.

Now, a little over one-and-a-half years on the diet, our son regularly ­requests play dates with friends and is highly social and caring, understanding the wonderful reciprocity of feelings and thoughts. There are still things he will take his own time to catch up on, like reading and writing, but to be honest, I am not at all worried about those things. They will come. He has embraced this "special diet" because it helps him manage in the world with more clarity, ­ability and connection.

Dr. Campbell-McBride recommends following the GAPS diet for a minimum of two years to ensure the integrity of the gut bacteria and the immune system. ­Nature, of course, does not work ­quickly. Ultimately, for us, committing to this new way of eating is not about resolving a health ­issue and quickly ­returning to old habits. There is so much ­nutritional wisdom in the ­basics of this diet that there are very few things we would change if we were not ­"following" it.

The convenience of being able to eat out more easily will be welcomed, as will the reintroduction of some grains, and perhaps the odd baked potato, but by and large we are not missing much. In return we have gained a deeper connection with our son than we ever thought possible, a significant improvement in our whole family's state of health, and a profound appreciation for food and its intimate role in the miraculous workings of our bodies.

This learning experience has been so profound for me that I chose to change my career pathway and returned to school to become a registered holistic nutritionist (RHN). I now have a practice in Vancouver that focuses on working with families who are interested in addressing behavioural/mental health concerns through nutrition.

When dressing, my son has ­always insisted on putting his right sleeve on first and his right shoe on first. This ­started as a compulsive behaviour but has now just become habit. Knowing this, I playfully questioned him ­recently: "Are you ever going to put your left shoe on first?" He answered, "When my special diet is over, I will be able to put my left shoe on first." I have no doubt he will.


Kate Hutchinson, BA, RHN, operates a Vancouver-based practice, Whole Family Nutrition, and specializes in nutrition guidance for behavioural concerns for both children and adults. (604) 708-8205 www.wholefamilynutrition.ca

Bacteria in the Beginning
The foundation of our gut bacteria is established in the first 20 days of life. Our guts are sterile at birth and populated first by the colonies received from passing through our mother's birth canal or, if a caesarian birth, from our mother's breast milk or formula and from contact with our parent's skin.

If our mother's own colonies of gut bacteria are out of balance, this will be the foundation we inherit. Equally, if our main source of bacteria comes from a formula without a good probiotic component, gut ­flora will be compromised. As we grow, we potentially add in our own use of antibiotics, pharmaceuticals and food as well as other influences on our gut bacteria (such as illness or chronic stress), which can all compromise the composition of our gut bacteria. Some of us then have children and pass on this inheritance.

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