If you could ask any mother what her number one worry for her newborn is, she’d probably say Autism. It’s on our minds a lot lately because of such unknown factors surrounding it.
If you asked any doctor what the number one nutrient you should be taking during pregnancy is, they would say folic acid. But does having folic acid take as much precedence as the awareness about Autism?
What if I told you that they were connected to each other in some way, folic acid and Autism? Which would take greater importance in your worries then?
What Is Folic Acid?
It’s just a B-vitamin. You often see it on your cereal box as folate, two slightly different versions of the same molecule.
Your body doesn’t naturally make folic acid so you have to get it from your diet, mainly from green leafy vegetables.
Its primary job in your body is to help our cells synthesize and maintain our DNA, very important. This makes it VERY key in cell growth and division.
And when is your body undergoing tremendous cell growth? During pregnancy, especially in the first trimester.
It is the NUMBER ONE nutrient that you need to be taking right now, even yesterday.
Folic Acid Protects
When your baby is being formed right from conception, those first few cells that grow and divide are the building blocks with which all of the other trillions of cells will be based from. If something goes wrong at the start, the end result won’t be good.
This is why folic acid is so important in the beginning. If your body doesn’t have enough bank stores of it or you aren’t getting enough, this process of cellular growth BEFORE you even know you’re pregnant can be easily harmed.
Lack of sufficient folic acid is directly linked with conditions such as:
- neural tube defects
- spina bifida
- congenital heart defects
- cleft lips
- limb defects
- urinary tract anomalies
The first three are severe problems that will likely result in a baby’s death very quickly after birth. This is because one of the first things formed in your fetus is the brain cells and spinal cord-everything neurological in nature.
Fortunately for most, you have folic acid naturally supplemented in your cereal and flours you eat every day. Since 1998, the US and Canada (many other countries too) have instituted its regular placement in some of our foods for these very reasons of importance.
Folic Acid And Autism
Recently, folic acid and autism have been studied more deeply alongside each other. Because Autism is a neurological disorder it makes sense that having folic acid from the very beginning in surplus would also protect against Autism’s development.
But if we’ve had folic acid naturally supplemented in our foods since 1998, why hasn’t the rate of Autism gone down? Some research can help answer that question.
From the Journal of the American Medical Association, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, 2013, a large study was conducted in Norway with mothers and their babies.
The folic acid intake by the mothers was monitored from before their pregnancy and throughout. Then once their children were old enough for any form of Autism to be diagnosed, that was noted with the correlation of how much their folic acid their mother’s took.
Here’s a news broadcast of the study:
The mothers that took sufficient folic acid before pregnancy and throughout, their children were 40% less likely to develop Autism.
Milder forms of Autism, such as Asperger’s syndrome were also tracked in the study to see their significance as well. But it wasn’t clear how much the folic acid helped those cases. The more extreme cases of Autism Spectrum Disorder were more greatly affected.
Important Take-Aways
As with any research, the setup of the study can make a different interpretation as to the usefulness of the results and where they can be applied appropriately. Here are a few things I want you to understand:
I found this great image from epidemicanswers.org. It gives a clear idea of just how many factors are at play in the development of Autism.
- This study was done completely with Norwegian mothers and children. This is notable because Norway doesn’t require folic acid supplementation in their food. So these mothers that were taking extra weren’t getting more beyond the naturally occurring folic acid in their diet.
- This means that you may not be able to fully rely on just your breakfast cereal to give you the levels of folic acid that you need. You have to consciously incorporate specific foods into your diet or rely on an over the counter supplement.
- The mothers that had more favorable results with their children took sufficient folic acid at least one month prior to conceiving. So most of those women likely didn’t have natural levels of folic acid stores to rely on before they realized that they were pregnant.
- This is yet another reason why you have to make sure you’re getting enough before you even know that you’re pregnant. Once that window is gone, it’s gone and you can’t help it by taking in extra later on.
- The results do NOT show that taking folic acid will directly prevent the development of Autism. A tiny fraction (0.1%) of children whose mothers had enough folic acid still developed a form of Autism. But there is a CLEAR association between the prevention aspects. (Explore a more in depth discussion of cause versus association in this post here.)
Directly from the study abstract, the authors write:
Although these findings cannot establish causality, they do support prenatal folic acid supplementation.
So remember, folic acid can make a BIG difference in the development of your baby. But it will NOT eliminate the risk of developing Autism. Multiple other factors are at play, even epidurals and C-sections have been studied as associated with some of the believed causes.
What I Can Do
I’ll say it again: DON’T delay taking folic acid. Even if you’re not trying to have children right now, take it anyway. If you’re sexually active, you need to be on a supplement, even prenatals because you never know. This third baby I’m carrying wasn’t planned on. But I’m glad I was still take prenatal vitamins around the time I conceived, having just finished breast feeding my last baby.
If you prefer to not take a supplement, up your natural folate in your diet from these foods:
- leafy green vegetables like spinach
- citrus fruits
- beans
- rice
If you live where folic acid is supplemented in your foods, it may be easy to get enough from:
- breads
- cereals
- pastas
- milk
But I still recommend that you take a supplement anyway. If you have excess, your body won’t absorb more than it needs. And if your natural storage is low, you can build a backup for when an influx of needing it will peak when you become pregnant.
Sometimes I wish all OBGYNs encouraged their sexually active patients to be taking a prenatal anyway. Because your doctor often doesn’t mention it until you’ve been in to visit them for the first time when you around 10 weeks pregnant. A LONG window has already gone by where things could have easily been prevented from a little education from doctor to patient.
>> Help Your Body More With This Excellent Pregnancy Kit <<
So what are you going to do today? Take your folic acid.
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Remember … you can do hard things
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Gary says
The argument that the increasing rates of autism is just that it is being diagnosed and reported more I think is now mute.
Something is happening to the developing baby that didn’t happen in years gone by. Is it vaccinations? The data says no,
Is it vitamin deficiency? Vitamins are important as you have just described, but they are not the whole story.
Is it radiation from all the radio and cell phones and wireless computers? That could be part of it. What about cosmic rays due to the decrease in the Earths magnetic shield.
Is it environmental contamination? Hormones in our meat? Weed killer in our grains? Stress hormones in the mothers blood? Too much sugar?
There are long list of could be’s, but which ones is it?
I think it’s all of the above in combination that is affecting the developmental “morphogenetic field” that controls the baby’s development from conception to newborn.
It’s not a simple problem. There is no simple solution.
Vitamin B deficiency is certainly a big player so lets take those supplements and grab that 40% improvement. But there is still a lot more to this story.
I completely agree with your Gary. There are SO many things at play, which is why I included that graphic showing all the variables that are known. But certainly doing what we can with what we know can make even a big difference for us.
I believe that our bodies and our environment are so complex that we’ll never be able to completely know the exact causes of so many things. Even the healthiest person in the world can still come down with a condition like cancer, versus someone living a terribly unhealthy life that seems to outlive the rest of us without battling a disease.
It’s all about what we hold important and what we feel we can contribute to our health as a whole. Thank you so much for your commentary. You may find the data on how birth month affects the future health of our children interesting too.
TheDopestMatrix says
Weird, never knew what folic acid really was, or why it was important in that case. and 40% less chance of autism just by intaking a little more folic acid? That’s crazy. gotta show this to my fiance, she will love it! We might have a baby one day and it’s probably a good thing to be prepared! 🙂
Thanks!
Matt TheDopestMatrix
Isn’t it amazing what some little molecules can do? I would definitely make sure your fiance is taking some if you ever start trying to have kids. There are plenty of things to consider beforehand that people don’t realize, even the mother’s age can make a big difference. Make sure you’re aware of that too. If you even have any questions Matt, feel free. Thanks!
I never really looked into why I needed to take folic acid when I had my children. There were no Internet resources then so I just took my health visitors word for it.
Being a vegetarian, I’ve always eaten lots of leafy greens, beans and rice so perhaps I wouldn’t have needed a folic acid supplement.
The research into folic acid and autism is very interesting. I’ve never seen advice about folic acid given to people who are trying to conceive.
Do you think there should be more awareness made of the possible link between lack of folic acid PRIOR to pregnancy and autism?
Absolutely Kathy! You did it right on the head. Every mother who is trying to conceive should be taking folic acid, or at least a multivitamin that contains it. It’s amazing how we don’t hear about it until we start have our doctor visits months later when some damage may have already been done. I also think that educating mothers about the risks they put on their children based off of their weight and age should also be communicated long before as well.
Thanks for your questions Kathy. It’s always good to hear from you!
robert lawrence says
Sarah,
First of all your website is very nice. Second, this is a great post on a very important topic.
I know my wife has been looking into what she should be taking. We don’t have children yet but we plan to soon. I’ll certainly be directing her to your website. Thanks
Robert
Thanks for sharing Robert. Yes, your wife can learn all about her nutrition needs during pregnancy right here. Start with those prenatal vitamins and get through that first trimester morning sickness best she can. Thanks for your comment!
I love this site. The theme really suits the topic. Funily enough I chose the same theme, but my website doesn’t look half as good as this one yet.
I especially found the article on Folic Acid and Autism interesting. My friends baby was and still is autistic, and she was a midwife who took her folic acid regularly.
That’s good she did take her folic acid regularly. Her baby’s Autism may have been even worse without it. Hence why I emphasize that things can still affect our children even after all we can do. But I bet here baby’s such a sweet charm. 🙂
Thanks for your comment Michel. Feel free to stop by anytime!
nkay says
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Thanks nkay! Feel free to share or follow on social media. If you enjoy it then I’m sure some of your friends may too. Best!
So what used to happen before Folic Acid supplements?… I mean, was there a much higher rate of autistic births??… Or I suppose it wasn’t a label decades ago so it wouldn’t be documented as such…
The rate of Autistic births has actually increased over the past few decades. So that tells us there are many other factors involved, how we birth our children, plus a myriad of other things I can’t even cover here. That’s the hard part about understanding such complex systems affecting our health. Sometimes we just have to chip away at things from one point of view at a time. Thanks for your questions Steve.