June 2016 Moms
sorarose
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Science Rant
sorarose
member
It just popped up on my Facebook newsfeed that too much folic acid may increase autism risk. This comes just days after we learn swaddling may increase SIDS risk. Granted, the folate study has not yet been peer reviewed and the swaddling findings are much more nuanced, but SERIOUSLY?!?!
Pregnancy and being a mom are hard enough...Can't scientific findings provide any good news for a change?!?!
Pregnancy and being a mom are hard enough...Can't scientific findings provide any good news for a change?!?!
Re: Science Rant
Also makes me feel better!
The autism thing.
-Its a preliminary study, the authors next step, according to them, is to confirm their findings.
-They measured blood levels of folate and B12 in the days following delivery and assumed they would be the same as during the last trimester.
-They have NO data on maternal nutrition or supplementation. None. The mothers could have been over supplementing or could have a genetic predisposition that causes issues with folate and B12 metabolism as well as predisposes their child to Autism (MTHFR is a potential candidate).
-They were very clear in the interview I read. They are not recommending against supplementation, they actually said low levels of folic acid are known to cause problems and prenatals need to be continued.
Interview with senior researcher on the project https://www.researchgate.net/blog/post/high-folate-levels-during-pregnancy-double-risk-of-autism-johns-hopkins-study-finds
In case you don't want to read the interview, the most important part IMO:
RG: For women who are currently pregnant, how would you recommend they best manage their folate intake?
Fallin: We are deeply concerned about this particular messaging: Our work is very consistent with previous work showing that supplementation is critical to maternal health and child development and health, so at this point the recommendation is definitely to continue supplementation. What this study finds is that while maintaining adequate levels of folate is important, extreme levels may be harmful. As we move forward, we want to understand if that is consistently true – that extreme levels are harmful – and if so, how we would go about optimizing dosage in ways that achieve maximum benefit without additional risk.
Folic acid study is not peer reviewed. I believe it was taking too much of it may cause problems, but normal amounts should be fine. I'm not worried.
The swaddling issue is common sense. Don't swaddle and put on belly or side. Don't swaddle when they can roll over. Simple. I hate the media for the way they tell the story without the facts or the science.
As a scientist, science is not dumb, but there are dumb scientists and there are lay people who don't understand everything they read when an article is published, and like a pp said some things get misconstrued. Are there bad scientists? Absolutely, just look at the scientist that fabricated the vaccines cause autism data, and people still believe it.