Vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy is linked to autism traits in the child
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Re: Vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy is linked to autism traits in the child
#2Looks like it's at stage two in the science hype cycle.
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?n=1174
I'll pay attention when a randomized control study shows that supplementing vitamin D lowers rates of autism.
Re: Vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy is linked to autism traits in the child
#3To extrapolate a bit too far; Basement dwellers beget basement dwellers.
Serious thought: Can these traits be considered (de)evolutionary after 2 generations? Will more wealthy bloodlines become better due to improved diet and care? Do we need to start incentivising going outside more often? Or just scale back the demonization of sunlight exposure? Or do we just start a social program mailing out sunlamps as a preventitive measure?
Re: Vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy is linked to autism traits in the child
#4From my quick skim of the article, I think this is the key part:
> These results imply that, after correcting for confounding variables (see notes under Table 3), those who were deficient at time of birth had on average 0.06 point higher gender-weighted SRS score, which corresponds to an increase of approximately one fourth of the s.d. (s.d. of the SRS in the total sample=0.23). When treating SRS as a dichotomous outcome, that is, comparing children with SRS scores above the suggested cutoff with children below the suggested cutoff, those who were vitamin D deficient at mid-gestation were 3.8 times more likely to be screened positive than those who were vitamin D sufficient at mid-gestation (see also Supplementary Table 4).
(SRS is the Social Responsiveness Scale)
Re: Vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy is linked to autism traits in the child
#5Wouldn't we be seeing "hot spots" in darker northern climates and trouble-free zones in sunnier southern locations?
The most compelling linkages I have seen are to certain pesticide / herbicide exposures and pollution exposures.
Re: Vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy is linked to autism traits in the child
#6It'd be interesting to see if there's a seasonal correlation here - since most of our vitamin D comes from the sun, expectant moms are probably more deficient in the winter. Wonder if third trimester during those months, when there's rapid neurogenesis, leads to an even higher incidence of these traits.
Re: Vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy is linked to autism traits in the child
#7To extrapolate a bit too far; Basement dwellers beget basement dwellers. Serious thought: Can these traits be considered (de)evolutionary after 2 generations? Will more wealthy bloodlines become better due to improved diet and care? Do we need to start incentivising going outside more often? Or just scale back the demonization of sunlight exposure? Or do we just start a social program mailing out sunlamps as a preven…
No, Vitamin D supplements are cheap and plentiful.
Re: Vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy is linked to autism traits in the child
#8To extrapolate a bit too far; Basement dwellers beget basement dwellers. Serious thought: Can these traits be considered (de)evolutionary after 2 generations? Will more wealthy bloodlines become better due to improved diet and care? Do we need to start incentivising going outside more often? Or just scale back the demonization of sunlight exposure? Or do we just start a social program mailing out sunlamps as a preven…
Too far indeed. Please don't include these things in your comments here, they violate the guidelines for being uncivil.
Re: Vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy is linked to autism traits in the child
#9Looks like it's at stage two in the science hype cycle. http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?n=1174 I'll pay attention when a randomized control study shows that supplementing vitamin D lowers rates of autism.
Be aware that this study is about vitamin D deficiency. It's not start for some crazy health trend. You can go and check you vitamin D levels and if you don't get enough, use supplements to correct the situation.
Re: Vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy is linked to autism traits in the child
#10It'd be interesting to see if there's a seasonal correlation here - since most of our vitamin D comes from the sun, expectant moms are probably more deficient in the winter. Wonder if third trimester during those months, when there's rapid neurogenesis, leads to an even higher incidence of these traits.
There is correlation at least in Northern countries in Europe.