Folic Acid Supplements

Folic acid can cut risk of autism almost half

A study of Norway suggests that folic acid supplements prevent more birth defects such as spina bifida only
Women are told to take folic acid even before becoming pregnant, as a means to prevent neural tube defects in their babies. But it should be revised to also include advice to reduce the risk for autism?

 A new study from Norway told to take a folic acid supplement beginning one month before pregnancy and continuing into the early first trimester could reduce the chances of a child being diagnosed with autism nearly half.

As new reports ABC, Norwegian researchers followed more than 85,000 babies born between 2002 and 2008 to determine whether folic acid supplementation during pregnancy has an effect on autism rates.

Checking back with the women and children in 2012, researchers found that women who took folic acid, beginning four weeks before becoming pregnant and continuing at least until the eighth week of pregnancy, had a 40 percent lower risk of giving birth to a child later diagnosed with infantile autism (classic autism) compared to mothers who did not take folic acid supplementation during pregnancy.

What is so special about folic acid? Vitamin B is essential for the construction and repair of DNA molecules, the genetic material that controls all body cells, including brain cells. Enough folic acid during early pregnancy is now known to prevent neural tube defects in developing babies, including spina bifida. The March of Dimes recommends that all women of childbearing age get 400 micrograms of folic acid per day from a multivitamin.
 Pregnant women should continue to take 400 mcg of folic acid during early pregnancy as a way to prevent a deficiency.

"We know that folic acid deficiency causes defects in nervous system development [in the form of spina bifida and neural tube defects]," Dr. Ari Brown, a pediatrician in Texas, which was not involved in the study, says ABC News. "So it is not surprising that a deficiency can also affect brain development by other means."

It is also important to note that this is folic acid, folate not, the form of vitamin unsynthesized found in abundance in green leafy vegetables and other foods, is important here.

"It seems that the reduction in risk of infantile autism reflects only folic acid supplements, not dietary supplements or other ..." Dr. Pål Suren, lead author of the paper and a researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, said in a statement.

Timing is also important. For example, the study found that in terms of risk autism supplements folic acid does not seem to have an impact beyond the 22nd week of pregnancy. As Suren adds: "The interval of time is four weeks before conception to eight weeks." This is similar to the "critical period" for the development of neural tube defects.

1 of 88 children with autism today, according to Autism Speaks, this kind of news is encouraging, and we hope that further research will find more on the connection between folic acid and autism.

But what if you're in your third trimester and are now worried because you do not start taking folic acid until you found out you were pregnant or relied on vegetables in your diet to provide you with enough folate? Or if you have an autistic child and I remember that time you forgot to take your prenatal vitamins?

What has become clear in the last decade is that the cause of autism is a complex web of underlying genetic and environmental factors, there really is no "smoking gun." And as Dr. Jennifer A Ashton , senior medical contributor for ABC News, said the message to all the moms here should be: do not feel guilty.

"The company can sometimes do a very good job of blame and guilt, and when there is no medical evidence that it is the fault of the mother," she said.

"I used to say women pregnancy is not different from parenting. There is never guaranteed 100 percent of nothing."