Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurobehavioral disorder that medical professionals worldwide have yet to fully understand. Usually affecting children from the age of about six, autism is a serious condition that impacts on the social behavior, anxiety, the emotional and mental well-being of the autistic individual. It physically manifests in a larger-sized and uniquely-shaped brain.
For a long time, Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to the prevalence of autism among human beings. A study going as far back as 2012 showed that people who were more exposed to Vitamin D had a lower chance of developing, or giving birth to children with ASD. The survey was conducted on Somalis who had emigrated to Australia and the United States. The results of the study concluded that Somalis in foreign lands were more likely to develop autism than those in their homeland as they were exposed to less sunshine in foreign countries thus had lower Vitamin D levels.
A more recent study conducted in 2016 put in the proposed hypothesis that pregnant mothers could be more responsible in preventing their children from developing autism. Speaking to ABC by the researcher in charge of the study, John Mcgrath remarked that his team had conducted our study on women with and without autistic children. “We found out that women who were taking prenatal Vitamin D supplements about twenty weeks into the gestation period were less likely to have children with ASD.”
This year, scientists from the University of Queensland, Australia, have taken research into ASD prevention out of the survey zone into the testing arena. Darryl Eyles, a professor at the university, was in charge of the research project.
Eyles reported to IFLScience that his team’s objective was to prove the validity that Vitamin D deficiency was a major factor contributing to the widespread case of ASD. “While there are many factors that may lead to a child developing ASD, Vitamin D is the most seasonally regulated factor known,” Eyles and his team wrote In the Molecular Autism journal. The factors the research group mentions are genetics and environmental influences such as viral infections and air pollutants.
The group conducted their research on mice because that species of rats displayed similar behavior to autistic persons under the similar conditions. For the behavioral study, the research team tested the rats using maze tests, marble-burying exercises, and fear conditioning. Rats which had been injected with active Vitamin D (this is not the type used in supplements) during the first trimester of pregnancy birthed offspring that did not show the anxiety and social isolation that the progeny of the non-injected rats did. The research team concluded that intake of Vitamin D during the early stages of pregnancy could, therefore, be the key to preventing autism.
The research team also made another important discovery. By looking at the brains of their test subjects, the team discovered that unlike was previously thought, Vitamin D intake did not affect the inflammation of the brain with regard to ASD.
What next for the team
Eyle says the study is not ready for human testing yet but he will ‘hitchhike’ on others’ research to find the working dosage for vitamin D that could effectively put an end to ASD.
