> There is some evidence that autism may be caused by an immune disease; One publication speculated that the lack of early childhood exposure could be a cause of autism.
The hygiene hypothesis has wider use than just autism - that a bunch of allergy and auto-immune stuff is caused by excessive cleanliness. There is strong evidence that might be true. But the link between autism and excessive cleanliness is, to quote one link that you provided, "speculative".
The abstract of the other study doesn't mention ASD; maybe I'm missing something?
(Just to be clear, because sometimes I'm not: The hygiene hypothesis is strong and important when talking about allergy and maybe auto-immune diseases; I need convincing that there's any link to ASD.)
Yes -- but my remark is about the hygiene hypothesis, not about autism. Read the post to which I replied. The poster said "There is no evidence for the hygiene hypothesis." I replied to that specific remark.
> The hygiene hypothesis has wider use than just autism ...
What? The evidence for the hygiene hypothesis is strong in many areas, but as to autism, it's mere speculation.
> But the link between autism and excessive cleanliness is, to quote one link that you provided, "speculative".
Yes -- and on what basis do you think I have taken any other position?
> The hygiene hypothesis is strong and important when talking about allergy and maybe auto-immune diseases; I need convincing that there's any link to ASD.
So does everyone else. There's no basis for this assumption in present evidence.
The comment you responded to was clearly talking about the hygiene hypothesis and autism. I'm not sure how you read it otherwise.
Since the post you responded to was saying that there is no evidence for the hygiene hypothesis (as a cause for autism) and you then replied to say that there was strong evidence for the hygiene hypothesis it's a reasonable assumption that you're still talking about causes of autism.
You link to a wikipedia article.
> There is some evidence that autism may be caused by an immune disease; One publication speculated that the lack of early childhood exposure could be a cause of autism.
The hygiene hypothesis has wider use than just autism - that a bunch of allergy and auto-immune stuff is caused by excessive cleanliness. There is strong evidence that might be true. But the link between autism and excessive cleanliness is, to quote one link that you provided, "speculative".
The abstract of the other study doesn't mention ASD; maybe I'm missing something?
(Just to be clear, because sometimes I'm not: The hygiene hypothesis is strong and important when talking about allergy and maybe auto-immune diseases; I need convincing that there's any link to ASD.)