 Attacks of apnea, where babies temporarily stop breathing, and muscular atony, where babies go limp after exposure to cow's milk, may also be explained by extra-central activity of casomorphin, meaning outside the brain. Casomorphin, this opiate-like peptide produced by cow's milk, is also responsible for triggering pseudo-allergic reactions and other abnormalities seen in crib death. And moreover, similar to morphine, they delay the gastric emptying time and so may increase the risk of infants refluxing stomach contents back up into their lungs. Thus, it can be said that the so-called milk apnea effect may consist of several components, an opioid-induced respiratory depression, an opioid-induced pseudo-allergic histamine-related respiratory response, and influence on the peripheral nervous system, a cow's milk-induced reflux followed by aspiration-induced apnea. Sudden infant death syndrome is not the only condition linked to these morphine-like compounds. From another medical journal recently, casomorphins liberated from the cow's milk protein, beta-casin, are accused of participating in the cause of such conditions as autism, crib death, type 1 diabetes, postpartum psychosis, circulatory disorders, and food allergies. In terms of autism risk, whereas the human casomorphins, which are the only ones found in the breast milk of women who don't drink cow's milk, are associated with normal psychomotor development of muscle tone. In contrast, elevated levels of bovine casomorphin, found in cow's milk-based formula-fed infants, for example, was associated with a delay in psychomotor development and muscle spasticity. This evidence suggests that the inability of some infants to adequately eliminate bovine casomorphin may be a risk factor for delay in psychomotor development and other diseases such as autism.