Now there is a common bacteria that is present with many kids on the spectrum called clostridia. There is a wide variety of clostridia bacteria. One particular form of clostridia called clostridia dificil can actually cause a form of inflammatory bowel disease, that is not specifically what we are talking about when we talk about these behavioral changes. That particular bacteria may lead to certain toxins that could contribute to that but what we are talking about is the family of clostridia, not just one specific type of clostridia.

There is a test called an Organic Acid Test from Great Plains Lab, they also have something called a Microbial Organic Acid Test and it looks at the markers specific to yeast and specific to clostridia bacteria. The clostridia marker is specifically something called HPHPA and it is a metabolic toxin of clostridia. It is that metabolic toxin that seems to interfere with different brain chemicals that can to contribute to some of the behavioral problems we see with kids on the spectrum.

Now why it is tied back to antifungal use is that yeast and bacteria, particularly yeast and clostridia bacteria, are living in somewhat competition in the digestive tract. When you lower one, the other one if it is not being treated at the same time, can sometimes get worse. So if you have a yeast overgrowth and you are just treating the yeast and you also have an overgrowth of clostridia bacteria, many times that clostridia bacteria can increase because it is no longer being inhibited or it is no longer in competition with yeast. If you had a regression in your child where you’ve recently given an antifungal medication or if you’ve given an antibiotic, antibiotics can also deplete the normal bacteria in the digestive tract and that sometimes can spur on this opportunistic bacterial called clostridia to get worse. Those two situations can be very common.