Individuals with health issues ranging from autism to epilepsy are increasingly experimenting with dietary supplementation of gamma-amino-butyric acid (GABA), one of the body’s most important neurotransmitters.

Addressing autism is challenging owing to the disease’s diverse symptoms, uncertain causes, and disabling effects. Autistic individuals are commonly affected by a broad array of sensory issues, sociobehavioral difficulties, and gastrointestinal malfunction, all of which can severely diminish quality of life.

When parents of autistic children ask what causes the condition, the answers are never satisfying. Although therapy would be far easier if researchers could pinpoint a single causative factor, there is a wide range of genetic and environmental factors that contribute to the characteristic symptoms of autism. 

In the United States, millions of patients and caregivers struggle endlessly with the multidimensional impact of autism. With diverse symptoms like social withdrawal, repetitive behavior, self-injury, stereotyped gestures, and gastrointestinal distress, therapies for autism must impact multiple neurobiological mechanisms to provide benefit to patients.

Curcumin—the yellow pigment found in turmeric—has long been studied to understand its influence on the biological mechanisms associated with several chronic health conditions.

Autism is popularly considered a disorder of the brain that manifests itself via behavioral and social difficulties. Recently, however, researchers are realizing that profound gastrointestinal and metabolic abnormalities might be inextricably linked to patient behavioral symptoms.

For parents of autistic children, there are few symptoms that can cause as much day-to-day concern as stimming. Stimming—which is more formally discussed in scientific circles as self-stimulation or stereotypic, repetitive behavior—can be frustrating and concerning for parents who find themselves unable to get through to a child who is rocking, flapping, spinning, or repeating the same sets of words, over and over