yes they kind of are and you denying quite possibly the most likely cause of autism symptoms are also part of the problem. im not saying what they are doing is right since they clearly arent lmao but you are now outright denying countless experiments and case studies just because you are upset at your sister and her husband for being brainwashed by social media. please read that paper to educate yourself and i can send you more after you are finished
you said they think it is caused by gluten in his diet. according to studies done on this it can actually be the cause. you are now insulting me and denying scientific research because it doesnt support your viewpoint. you are no different from an antivaxxer or some other facebook conspiracy theorist
alright if we are going to use appeals to authority then i spent 3 years of my undergrad degree studying this exact topic and have spent my gap year before medical studying it in an actual lab. when i finish medical school i will be specializing in pathology with a focus on mental health condition research since i suffer from multiple and wish to see a cure for them if possible. i also highly doubt you have a dissertation regardless since why would a phd student be on yikyak
The gut microbiome stuff is super interesting. One of my favorite papers on it was this one I read for my medical microbiology class about a boy with a C. diff infection who got treated with the wrong antibiotics that made the infection worse, and then he developed low-functioning autism symptoms. It was super weird, though, since they later treated him with an antibiotic against C. diff, and he basically lost all those symptoms, but they came back after the bacteria grew resistant to it.