Could Folic Acid Inadvertently Cause Autism?

April 20, 2004

http://autism.about.com/cs/newtheories/a/folicacid_p.htm

From Adelle Jameson Tilton,Your Guide to Autism/Pervasive Developmental Disorders.Apr 19 2004

Concern Raised by Researchers

Folic Acid is something that every woman expecting a child knows about. It is stressed by physicians as necessary to prevent neural tube birth defects. 400 mcg per day is the recommended amount as determined by the FDA in 1992. But the FDA did not feel that women would adhere to their recommendations and food has been fortified with Folic Acid since 1998.

Neural tube defects have dropped substantially. There has been no question that the Folic Acid did help prevent this tragedy that was affecting far too many children. And it had another, somewhat unexpected benefit as well – the number of strokes also dropped dramatically. But now a concern has come to the forefront. Could Folic Acid also be responsible for the rise in autism?

It is impossible to not think of the physics law when looking at the Folic Acid debate. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Researchers believe that Folic Acid may stop the growth of many cancers, yet fuel the growth of others. Some studies say that the additional Folic Acid may prevent miscarriages, and others studies say that it is not involved in miscarriage counts at all. Additional studies say that women who have taken supplemental Folic Acid may have babies that require extra amounts of the supplement for the rest of their lives – other studies do not show this.

Part of the problem is that this may be the largest uncontrolled trial in history. There is no government system in place, through the FDA or any other health organization, to monitor the effects of this supplement. But by adding it to the food supply, it is essentially a clinical trial of 250 million people. "This is the first major change in the food supply ... for quite some time," said Dr. Irwin Rosenberg, dean for nutrition sciences at Tufts University in Boston. "When you put 250 million people on an uncontrolled experiment by adding something to their food supply, I think it is legitimate to say – are you getting it right?"

The food supply did not have the supplement added until 1998 and autism rates began to rise substantially before that time. But considered with the fact that physicians were recommending the 400 mcg long before that, from at least 1992 or perhaps earlier. And as stated, the drop is neural tube defects was substantial.

"Practically no studies have been done to look directly or even indirectly for the adverse effects of elevated folate intakes," wrote Barry Shane of the University of California, Berkeley, in a 2003 editorial in the “American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Until people can demonstrate there's a lot of benefit to adding more to the food supply compared to the risk, I think it would not be a good idea to add more.” The problem as viewed by scientists such as Shane is simple math. If only one per 1000 people were affected, that will still be over a quarter-million victims.

There is no solid evidence that Folic Acid causes a person to be more likely to have autism than if they had not had the extra supplemented through the food supply. But there is also no evidence proving Folic Acid is not in some way responsible. Research is the only possible way to determine the risk/benefit ratio which may be hard, if not impossible, to do. Every American is now consuming Folic Acid and that removes the possibility of any reliable control group.

And to further confuse parents of children with autism, there are many proponents of large amounts of Folic Acid as an autism treatment. The Autism Research Institute, founded by Dr. Bernard Rimland, has a page recommending large amounts in a therapeutic course.

This recent news only stresses how important research is for the children and adults who have autism. Parents are frustrated by the abundance of questions that have no firm answers. Meanwhile, the statistics continue to rise, with no answers as to what has caused this disorder to increase so dramatically and so quickly.

Erin MBksfld, Ca

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