Research from Cyprus Identifies Various Maternal and Neonatal Factors Linked to ASD
Last month, SafeMinds Shares reported on nine new research papers that investigated environmental factors during prenatal and neonatal periods. These studies associated inflammation, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, chlorpyrifos, lead, methylation problems, low vitamin D levels, and PFAS exposure as possible culprits for the development of autism. This month, we share a similar paper that also investigates possible autism risk factors during the same time periods. This research involved conducting an unmatched case-control study composed of 56 cases of autism and 85 control children in North Cyprus. The study’s authors used parental questionnaires to mine data from their answers. The results showed there were increased odds of developing autism in mothers with mental disorders, mothers with medical conditions such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, mothers using aluminum-containing antacids, mothers exposed to loud noises during pregnancy, mothers with two or more previous miscarriages, neonates with low birth weight, male gender neonates, and infants exposed to MRI or CT scans during the first year of life. The study’s authors also investigated factors associated with a decreased chance of developing autism. These lower risk factors include: maternal use of multivitamins during pregnancy, maternal consumption of slight amounts of baking powder during pregnancy, mothers with threatened abortion, and infants taking iron supplementation during the first six months of life.
