Obesity, Autism and Pregnancy

Since the Lancet article linking Vaccine and Autism has been shown to be fraudulent, researchers have been looking for other probable causes. In an epidemiological study published in the May issue of Pediatrics, Obesity during pregancy was linked to ASD.

From Science News:

“Reporting in the May Pediatrics, researchers also found that women who were obese or had some form of diabetes during pregnancy were more likely to have kids with developmental delays other than autism. And tests show that a woman’s obesity, diabetes or high blood pressure during pregnancy might even have an effect on her otherwise healthy offspring, placing them at risk of slightly impaired learning....The authors note, however, that the findings show associations — not causes — of autism or developmental delays. “We can’t establish causation from this study,” says coauthor Irva Hertz-Picciotto, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Davis. “But it is interesting that obesity and diabetes are increasing as autism incidence is.”

In addition, the researchers also showed links between obesity, diabetes and hypertension during pregancy for impaired learning.

“In this study, we observed that diabetes, hypertension, and obesity were more common among mothers of children with ASD and DD compared with controls.

Furthermore, diabetes, in particular, was associated with statistically significantly greater deficits in expressive language among children with ASD, although the magnitude of the deficits was relatively small.”

Full article can be found here.
Maternal Metabolic Conditions and Risk for Autism and Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders