By Lisa Pecos
The important role of vitamin D in a child’s early years was making headlines just last year after a study linked a lack of the vitamin to an increase in allergies and asthma in children. A new study has found the vitamin plays an important role before a baby is even born and has linked low levels of vitamin D to autism.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis, MIND Institute have found that exposure to certain synthetic pesticides is linked to a higher risk of autism and developmental delays in children whose mothers were exposed to the pesticides while pregnant.
The study team found that the risk for autism increased from 60 to 200 percent, depending on the type of pesticide used, how close the mother had lived to the treated areas, and when in the pregnancy the mother was exposed.
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With autism rates soaring at an alarming rate in the United States, medical researchers are looking for answers as to what causes this mysterious condition, both on an anatomical and physiologic level.
A study published online in late March, 2014 in the New England Journal of Medicine is adding weight to scientific belief that autism may start in the fetal or even the embryonic stage of child development.
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