Increased amounts of folic acid causes autism?

[ItTakesTwo]

What do you ladies think?

A case report of Angelman syndrome caused by a mutation in a gene coding for an enzyme involved in folic acid metabolism led Dr. Beaudet and his group to look at published data of folic acid levels in the population, which seemed to parallel the increase in the incidence of autism. Folic acid blood serum levels were found to be nearly threefold higher in people who take vitamin supplements regularly. This increased intake of folic acid has also resulted from attempts to make sure that pregnant women ingest plenty of folic acid, to prevent spina bifida and other neural tube defects in the newborn.

The public health concern is that this increased consumption of folic acid has resulted in a welcome decrease in the incidence of spina bifida, but also an unwelcome increase in the incidence of autism and other neurdevelopmental disorders due to dysregulation of the expression of the Angelman gene. The mechanism may be an alteration of DNA methylation in regulatory regions of the DNA helix due to an increase in the activity of a folic acid-dependant biochemical pathway which results in more methyl groups being available to the enzymes which can then attach them to the DNA regulatory regions.

This particular hypothesis has not yet been published, but if proven correct, could result in changes in government-mandated vitamin supplementation. I would hope that we could find an optimal level of folic acid intake, a “bottom of the U shaped curve”, which would protect babies against spina bifida, but not raise the risk of autism.

http://asmonline.org/dec04news/autismneurology.htm

[Plummeting]

Ugh, they canNOT be serious.

Okay, reality? When we were all eating diets of animals grazing the plains and fruits and vegetables grown before the advent of fertilizers and pesticides, we were getting a LOT more folic acid in our diets than we do with our freakin prenatal vitamins. I guess people will believe anything you tell them, though, as long as it doesn't involve believing that the 2nd most toxic element on earth could be responsible for it. Geez! Yeah, it wasn't mercury - it was VITAMINS. Duh! How could we all have been so stupid to think that a toxic heavy metal could poison children, when it was clearly a vitamin found in green vegetabls?

[Electra375]

I think they do not know what causes autism. I also think that it's because they do not want to look at our food supply.

In this case of the Folic Acid being linked...
What items are fortified with Folic Acid? Are they whole foods? Are they natural foods?
No, it's the junk Americans eat that is nutritionally devoid of anything good all "goodness" is artifically put there and it's an artifically made equivalent of a naturally occuring substance such as Folic Acid.

When you look at nutrition, then logical will tell you why the GFCF diet is so good for a lot of Austic children -- literally every processed food product on the shelf of any grocery store is a No No -- no soup, no mac and cheese, some hot dogs, no cereal, no bread, no crackers, no cookies, some salad dressings, some chips, even frozen foods are out for the most part.

It leaves the child able to eat whole foods, more natural foods, and most GFCF foods are found in the health food stores so they are usually organic, but not always. The diet is just much more nutritionally dense.

[Laurel723]

If there really is any kind of a link, I think Electra just found it.

Synthetic versions of nutrients are just that-copycats. And often, not very good ones.

But as far as anyone actually doing the research is concerned, it's 'just the same' as the original. Vitamin A is a prime example.

[mommy & reggie]

I wouldn't be too hasty to blame too much folic acid for the increasing rates of autism - I tend to think it is an imbalance in a lot of things - vitamins, minerals, digestive bowel problems, liver, endocrine, immune etc and caused by enviromental toxicity.

I found this study that found a significant increase in angelmans syndrome with using fertility treatment and in subfertile couples. Possibly hormonal imbalance rather than too much folic acid.

http://jmg.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/42/4/289

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Scientist says "Oh, look. There is a link between patentable vaccines and autism! What shall we do???"

Other Scientist..." Oh, now... where did I read about one case of Engelmann's happening right after the mother supplemented with Folic Acid... that might do as a decoy..."

Scientist says "But look, all these mothers say it happened after the kiddo's shots!!"

Other scientist: "Now look here, don't be stupid. Patentable compounds are so well tested it couldn't possibly be them, but these vitamin supplements that aren't patentable, haven't been tested nearly so well, and its no skin of our nose, so lets get on with the job shall we? Now where are those books. I have some cooking to do...."

[wonderwahine]

exactly MT! its all just a decoy so we forget about the mecury causing it.

A big factor may not be the prenatal vitamins, but the TUNA that govt aid programs give pregnant women and also the FLU shot they reccomend to pregnant mothers as well. Just another thought to add to the pot.

[Sherlock007]

This hypothesis doesn't make any sense to me at all.

Children with Autism don't have Angelman's Syndrome, and children with Angelman's don't have Autism. Angelman's isn't even an Autism Spectrum Disorder. SOoo... could someone please explain why they are looking at folic acid in relation to children with Autism?

Do they know if any children with Autism have highly methylated Angelman gene regulatory regions? I don't think so. Do they know if any mothers of children with Autism took too much folic acid while they were pregnant? No.

Looks to me like they want to blame folic acid for the increase in Autism, not vaccines, and yet how many mothers in the eighties and nineties took supplements, or food fortified with folic acid while they were pregnant? And how many of those have children with Autism? Wouldn't it help to study those things first?

They are only just starting to fortify bread with folic acid.

Anything to take the heat off vaccines!:

[krissi]

Goodness that's nuts. :

Most DANs actually recommend supplementation with high doses of folic acid because the kids are deficient in it. High doses of folic acid have actually worked wonders for a number of kids on the spectrum. DD gets 1.6mg per day in the folinic acid form. We supplement it because she is at least heterozygous for the MTHFR gene mutation, which I have in the homozygous form, and that gene is known to impair absorption of folate -- and has higher than average incidence in children with autism.

I also fail to understand what Angelman's Syndrome has to do with ASD.

[minkl]

This is not an absurb theory, but touches on the underlying genetics that are at work with methylation genetic mutations that are often present in autistic children. Folic acid in the USUAL form may indeed be in over abundance in autistic children because many have at least one form of MTHFR gene mutation. This abundance may be because they cannot use it in the regular form, so it is free-floating in the methylation cycle, unusable. Most kids with multiple MTHFR gene mutations will, in a sense, be deficient in USABLE folic acid, so that's why many DAN drs will supplement with folinic acid or even better, 5-methyl-tetrahydrofolate (the active form of folic acid) in order to get the MTHFR genes operating properly and stimulating methylation in other areas.
I am not saying for one second that underlying genetics CAUSE autism. But multiple gene mutations, the MTHFR being one of them, do play a part when mixed with excessive heavy metal levels and overstimulation of the immune system. Vaccination can and often is the trigger, but it's interesting to try and understand what else is going on in the body for it to occur. Unfortunately, for this article, they are probably looking at it from the wrong angle...and will probably just recommend lowering folic acid intake in order to prevent autism....gimme a break!

[Plummeting]

Originally Posted by minkl

Unfortunately, for this article, they are probably looking at it from the wrong angle...and will probably just recommend lowering folic acid intake in order to prevent autism....gimme a break!

Yes, and then 10 years from now they'll be wondering why there are so many more babies born with neural tube defects. :

[Ruthla]

Originally Posted by Sherlock007

This hypothesis doesn't make any sense to me at all.

Children with Autism don't have Angelman's Syndrome, and children with Angelman's don't have Autism. Angelman's isn't even an Autism Spectrum Disorder. SOoo... could someone please explain why they are looking at folic acid in relation to children with Autism?

Maybe those big fancy scientists are getting a little mixed up. Anglemen's? Autism? Eh, they both start with the letter "A" so they must be the same thing.

[Spy]

Hey, wait till they get to Sodium Ascorbate and reveal what 'increased amounts' of this one causes :

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

They tried that a while back Spy...

The papers were all full of how vitamin C damaged DNA, and made the blood vessels if your neck become hard. :

They were slammed there and back again, and have shut up, until their next little effort. The problem for them, is that there is now so much in pubmed that shows that vitamin C is totally non-toxic, and of considerable benefit across all dis-ease modus operandis,.... that any more such pronouncement will make them (in the eyes of those who know their stuff) look even more stupid than they do now.

If that is possible.

[wonderwahine]

yeah, they bashed it here last year saying that and echenechia had no effect on a cold or the flu

[Ruthla]

Originally Posted by romans_mum

yeah, they bashed it here last year saying that and echenechia had no effect on a cold or the flu

Well of course not! If you take 60 mg a day of Vitamin C it WON'T have any effect on a cold or flu! Let's throw caution to the wind and give 500 mg a day- it still won't have much effect!

I'm willing to bet they used similar dosages of echinacea to "prove" it's inneffective.

[wonderwahine]

they actually said mega doses had no effect either, it was all over the local news' health watch segment last winter

[HeatherHeather]

What I really don't understand is why (amid all this reasearch on x, y and z), no one ever comes out and researches or says that a healthy diet is the best disease preventer there is. Get rid of all the fast food and processed crap and voila, we would all be a ton healthier. It just seems that no one has the wherewithall to state the obvious.

[Electra375]

Originally Posted by HeatherHeather

It just seems that no one has the wherewithall to state the obvious.

On that note I have the following information to share -- there is a drug company in MD working on a drug that would allow Celiacs to eat gluten! No Celiac I have talked to said they would ever take it. But the why is interesting.

Doctors claim that the GF diet is too hard for most patients so they don't want to have that as their only option when presenting the dx and the cure. Doctors do not believe that patients have the knowledge, understanding, desire etc to be compliant to the diet!!!:

: Most doctors and nutritionist don't get the GF diet, how then can they possible understand it to teach it to their patients who need it??? Doctors have very little nutrition training, 1 class. Most nutritionist I've met are worthless as well b/c they are going on the government food pryamid, dietetic association information, daily requirements for the average person etc. Ask a regular nutritionist about the benefits of a Palo diet and they wouldn't know what the beep you are talking about. I went to a Celiac specialist nutritionist and she told me not to purchase anything with more than 4 ingredients in it b/c it was just too hard!!!: I went to another and she refused to tell me how many milligrams of calcium my child needed daily, I heard her at a conference for ROCK telling the group the information I went to see her for.

So anyway the point being -- Doctors apparently think the general public is too stupid to know what is health and what is not, so why bother. Or as I like to think, Doctors are too stupid to know what is healthy to share with their patients -- prescribing Miralax for long term therapy for my 7 yr old!!! Read up on Miralax, it is not to be used for more than 2 weeks! Man I am so glad my mother taught me to read everything and not to trust doctors!!!

[RAF]

OT: celiac comment

Originally Posted by Electra375

Doctors claim that the GF diet is too hard for most patients so they don't want to have that as their only option when presenting the dx and the cure. Doctors do not believe that patients have the knowledge, understanding, desire etc to be compliant to the diet!!!:
:

I just wanted to say something about this comment. I too am celiac, and the reason the diet is difficult for me is that there are so many contamination and cross contamination issues. Also food companies are constantly changing their formulas and ingredients, and it is extremely difficult to be aware of every company's product changes at all times in order to avoid ingesting gluten. I don't even buy many products that are premade, as I make just about everything from scratch, but I can totally understand why a drug could be helpful for some celiacs when you look at how difficult it is to stay on top of all the products and companies, etc. And heaven help you if you want to eat out at a restaurant every once in a while! I mean, I could see where having something you could take for those times that the contamination is questionable would be very helpful for some people.