Micah Stanley
Folic acid can reduce the risk of autism. For women who want to have children, taking it before conception is ideal.
Lower risk of autism with folic acid
Folic acid is commonly taken by pregnant women to prevent open back (spina bifida). A connection to the risk of autism, on the other hand, is known to very few people.
Folic acid – a vitamin from the group of B vitamins – can only prevent spina bifida if you start taking it 4 weeks before conception (which would be ideal) or during the first 8 weeks of pregnancy. Taking it later has no preventive effect on spinal ulcers.
The doctor usually prescribes preparations with 400 to 600 µg of folic acid. It has to be, they say because you couldn’t even consume this amount with an above-average healthy diet.
However, you do not take in folic acid with your diet, but folate. Folic acid is the synthetic form of this B vitamin, folate is the natural form. For the sake of simplicity, people usually only speak of folic acid, simply because this term is familiar to most people.
Folic acid improves autism in children after 12 weeks
However, folic acid not only seems to be able to protect the unborn child from an open back but also to have a positive influence on the risk of autism. We previously reported here (Folic Acid in Autism s) about a 2016 study in which autistic children received a high dose of folic acid for 12 weeks and their autistic symptoms improved as a result.
However, folic acid therapy was only effective in children in whom so-called folic acid receptor antibodies could be detected at the same time, which means that folic acid is certainly not a cure for every individual autistic child.
Folic acid compensates for the increased risk of autism due to exposure to pesticides
In September 2017, researchers from the University of California wrote in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives that folic acid, when taken by the expectant mother, can reduce the risk of autism during pregnancy. They thus confirmed the results of a Norwegian study from 2013.
The autism-protective effect of folic acid prophylaxis has even been found in a specific group of women, namely those exposed to pesticides during pregnancy, e.g. B. live in an agricultural region.
It is known that women who come into frequent contact with pesticides during pregnancy increase their risk of having an autistic child. Apparently, taking folic acid can also prevent this pesticide-related autism.
The Californian study uses 800 µg folic acid – autism risk decreases
The Californian study showed that children of mothers who took 800 µg of folic acid daily during pregnancy had a significantly lower risk of becoming autistic than children of mothers who took less or no folic acid.
“We found that the children also had a lower risk of autism when their mothers were regularly exposed to pesticides but had been taking folic acid since conception,” said Rebecca J. Schmidt, an assistant professor in the School of Health Sciences. “Of course, expectant mothers should try to avoid pesticides. But if exposure to agricultural toxins cannot be avoided, folic acid could offer a solution to actively reduce the increased risk of autism.”
The data from the Childhood Autism Risks from Genetics and the Environment (CHARGE) study were examined – namely from 296 autistic children between the ages of 2 and 5 years and 220 children who had developed “normally”. The exposure to pesticides was found on the one hand by surveying the mothers, but also with the help of the Californian report on the use of pesticides, which is published annually and contains important details on pesticide exposure in individual residential areas.
Take folic acid three months before a planned pregnancy
The results of the investigation were as follows:
- Mothers who took less than 800 micrograms of folic acid and were exposed to pesticides had a much higher risk of having an autistic child than mothers who took 800 micrograms of folic acid and were also exposed to pesticides.
The risk of having an autistic child increased even further when the mothers were regularly exposed to the toxins. - The best protected were mothers who could avoid pesticides and took enough folic acid.
- It is ideal to take folic acid at least three months before a planned conception and to keep it at least up to and including the third month of pregnancy. Of course, this cannot completely eliminate the risk of autism. However, according to the researchers, it could definitely be reduced.
Folic acid influences the switching on and off of genes
‘Folate plays a very important role in DNA methylation – a process by which genes are switched on and off – but also in DNA repair and synthesis,’ said Professor Schmidt. “Especially in times of rapid growth, when there is a very large number of cell divisions (as is the case with an embryo), a perfect flow of these processes is crucial for the later health of the child. However, if there are disturbances – e.g. E.g. due to a folate deficiency – genetic health problems can appear that would not have appeared at all with a good folate supply.”
Too much folic acid is also not good
However, since a study was published in May 2016 in which excessive folic acid levels in the blood of mothers increased the risk of autism in children, the corresponding article could unsettle expectant mothers.
This study examined 1,391 mother-child pairs and discovered the following:
- One in 10 women had postpartum folic acid levels four times higher than they should be (higher than 59 nmol/L). The autism risk of the children of these women doubled. According to the WHO, healthy folic acid levels in a woman in the first three months of pregnancy should be between 13.5 and 45.3 nmol/l.
- However, the vitamin B12 levels of the new mothers were also examined. If this was very high (higher than 600 pmol/l in the serum; in 6 percent of the mothers), the autism risk of their children tripled. (Note: According to some sources, values of up to 665 pmol/l are still completely normal. On the other hand, a deficiency is present at values below 220 mol/l – whereby the serum value alone is not suitable for detecting a vitamin B12 deficiency).
- If both levels were extremely high, then the child had a 17.6-fold increased risk of autism.
Possible causes of high folic acid levels
But how did the mothers get these high levels of folic acid and vitamin B12 in the first place? The majority of the mothers studied had been taking multivitamin supplements throughout their pregnancy. Since some foods in the USA (many finished products, as well as flour and thus baked goods and pasta) are fortified with B vitamins, an overdose can easily occur. Of course, it could also be the case that some people, for genetic reasons, absorb higher amounts of vitamins than others or have problems breaking down the excess.
In Europe, fortified foods are not yet so widespread. If you shop carefully, you can already see in the list of ingredients whether the product in question is fortified and can avoid it if you are currently taking a folic acid supplement.
How to take folic acid to reduce the risk of autism?
We recommend taking a folic acid supplement before conception and during the first three months of pregnancy. We would base the dosage on the average folate content of the diet.
From the fourth month of pregnancy, we would no longer take high-dose folic acid supplements and instead advise relying solely on the natural folate content of the diet.
However, since a folate-rich diet is also a healthy diet rich in vital substances and you generally want to eat healthily during pregnancy, the supply of folate should not become a problem in the manner described, nor should there be a risk of oversupply.
Blood is repeatedly taken during pregnancy, e.g. B. to check the iron value. If in doubt, simply suggest checking your folic acid level. Then you can see whether your values are within range, whether they are too low or possibly too high, and you can then adjust your dietary supplements or diet accordingly.
In order to further reduce the risk of autism in the child, as few medications as possible should be taken during pregnancy. Again and again, antidepressants, paracetamol, or asthma medication are associated with the risk of having an autistic child.
