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Vitamin D Deficiency During Pregnancy Linked To Autism (newatlas.com)
New submitter future guy quotes a report from New Atlas: The researchers examined around 4,200 blood samples from pregnant women and their children and discovered a link between autism and low levels of vitamin D. More specifically, they found that pregnant women who were vitamin D deficient at 20 weeks gestation were more likely to have a child with autistic traits by the age of six. Rather than taking in more sunlight and the heightened risk of skin cancer that it carries, the researchers suggest that making inexpensive and safe vitamin D supplements available to at-risk groups may be a better path forward. "This study provides further evidence that low vitamin D is associated with neurodevelopmental disorders," says Professor John McGrath from the University of Queensland. "Just as taking folate in pregnancy has reduced the incidence of spina bifida, the result of this study suggests that prenatal vitamin D supplements may reduce the incidence of autism." The research was published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
That's the recipe for Aspergers!
Where is the news?
This seems to just confirm previous data, which is important to researchers, but not that interesting to the public.
The vitamin-D hypothesis has been around for years. It would be interesting if a causal link, or treatment, could be demonstrated,
e.g. a randomised placebo controlled trial of supplements during pregnancy. But there seems to be none of that yet.
1. Autism is primarily genetic
2. Autistic individuals seem to have real problems metabolizing some vitamins and minerals from food. Vitamin B-12 is one well-known example... basically, autistic individuals aren't able to adequately metabolize forms like cyanocobalamin into something that can cross the blood-brain barrier, but giving them injectable methylcobalamin (which CAN cross the BBB) can reduce some symptoms of autism by giving their brain access to a vitamin it would otherwise be deficient in.
3. By extension of 1 and 2, aspie mothers might show vitamin D deficiencies and, for reasons completely independent of their own vitamin D deficiency, be more likely to have kids who are themselves on the autism spectrum.
No, you look after them for the rest of their lives, just like any responsible society does for those not able to look after themselves.
Maybe something crazy like taking inexpensive vitamin D pills
Don't forget schizophrenia too. Vitamin D3 deficiency (Calcitriol) is why black mothers who give birth in winter months have a significantly high percentage of having a child that develops schizophrenia. D3 has a strong catalytic effect on glutathione production in the brain (PMID 10428085), and without adequate glutathione the body will not have a way to control reactive oxygen species. This oxidative stress then irrevocably damages the brain during fetal development and you end up with a wide range of problems down the road like Autism and mental health problems.
Also don't forget that the half-life for the active metabolite of vitamin D is on the order of 21 days. That means it takes about 5 months to reach steady state. One of the best advice I can recommend is that all pregnant women take at least 2,000 IU of D3 per day, with a 21 day 4,000 I.U. loading dose.
This is consistent with studies going back to the late 1990's.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/vitamin-d-and-autism/
>... Swedish researchers published a study in Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology that found the prevalence of autism and related disorders was three to four times higher among Somali immigrants than non-Somalis in Stockholm. The study reviewed the records of 2,437 children, born between 1988 and 1998 in Stockholm, in response to parents and teachers who had raised concerns about whether children with a Somali background were overrepresented in the total group of children with autism.
>
> In Sweden, the 15,000-strong Somali community calls autism "the Swedish disease," says Elisabeth Fernell, a researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and a co-author of the study.
In Minnesota, where there are an estimated 60,000 Somali immigrants, the situation was quite similar: There, health officials noted reports of autism among Somali refugees, who began arriving in 1993, comparable to those found in Sweden. Within several years of arrival, dozens of the Somali families whose children were born in the U.S. found themselves grappling with autism, says Huda Farah, a Somali-born molecular biologist who works on refugee resettlement issues with Minnesota health officials. The number of Somali children in the city's autism programs jumped from zero in 1999 to 43 in 2007, says Ann Fox, director of special education programs for Minneapolis schools. The number of Somali-speaking children in the Minneapolis school district increased from 1,773 to 2,029 during the same period.
No, you look after them for the rest of their lives, just like any responsible society does for those not able to look after themselves.
Many of them can look after themselves, especially if they get some help to get started. In America, 80% of autistic people are not employed. But with coaching, and targeted help, most autistic people are employable. Some countries do a far better job of this than others. The Economist recently had an article about the effectiveness of education and employment policies for autistic people.
Presumably peoples who live at the extreme latitudes near the poles, who would get a lot less sunlight in winter, would have a seasonally higher incidence of autism?
People who live near the poles tend to each a lot of oily fish that have a plenty of vitamin D.
As an autistic person I find your comment far more offensive and ignorant than the obvious flamebait above it. Autistic people who cannot take care of themselves are a minority of a minority of a minority.
Physics was not one of your best subjects in high school, was it?
Melanin make skin dark, and does indeed cause more light to be absorbed, but the light is absorbed before it generates vitamin D. People with darker skin living in northern climates are more likely to be vitamin D deficient.
Because the amount of vitamin D available in food sources is piss poor in general. The effective natural way to get it is to go on the sun. This has orders of magnitude more effect than diet.
Not everyone with autism is an 'antisocial nerd' that's living in the gutter, thank you very much. People with autism may be even more productive in some areas than neurotypical people.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
And the vaccine contains mercury...
Oh wait, both those statements are bollocks.
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
Eventually, the Market will sort all that out. People with autism will choose to be born in countries that have better public health care, which will bankrupt themselves by subsidizing the weak and useless. America will become greater by not having so many autistic people born here. Of course, once they're born, we won't let them in, unless they can get an H1B visa.
There's plenty of sunlight on Vega, so, problem solved.
Have you noticed how civilizations in history have most of the time been located near waters abundant in fish?
Did you know fish is very important for health, especially for the health of our brains?
Have you wondered what would happen to a human population where fish is all but cut out from their diets?
Why people living inland away from seas, lakes and great rivers seem stupider on average?
Yes, I have noticed this. Thankfully, those advanced Polynesian islanders will use their advanced techno-wizardry to bring their fishy goodness to backward, impoverished places like Switzerland in the near future.
Well, as an austenitic person I find your sub-912C body temperature and non-FCC crystal structure to be disturbing and unnatural.
What "people living inland away from seas, lakes and great rivers"? The reason you see populations of people near bodies of water is because water is essential for life, not because it contains fish. Ancient Egyptian civilization was by the Nile because its floods provided water and nutrients to their crops, not because some lack of fish would have transformed them into blithering idiots. Same with Mesopotamia. Same with the Indus valley. Same with the early Chinese civilizations.
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
Given that you think eating fish is directly linked to being smart, I'm assuming you're from an inland region.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
Blood draws are required to measure efficacy. For instance, most vitamin D supplements did not improve my wife's vitamin D levels. Science requires measurement and the science people should care the most about is the science of their own health. Doctors telling patients to take supplements without follow up are poor practitioners of medicine.
Reading this, all I can think of is how much sooner would we have figured this out if we hadn't wasted millions of man-hours and 10s of millions of dollars fighting against all the anti-vaccine idiocy.