Hey, everybody, to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays.

Today's topic touches on something that affects millions of families around the world, and it is autism spectrum disorder or ASD.

Now, while admittedly there's a hell of a lot that we don't know, research is beginning to reveal some pretty fascinating insights into how premaal nutrition and even childhood diet might play a role in autism risk and symptoms.

So let's start with a big picture look at human pregnancy and supplements.

So autism affects about one percent of children globally, but it is on the rise, and prevention strategies are pretty limited.

But a new umbrella review, which is a meta analysis of meta analysis, has given us pretty compelling data.

And what these umbrella reviews do is they pull all the data from different meta analysis and then we start to get more confidence in the data that comes out of that.

And this one was conducted in Australia and it pulled together eight systematic reviews covering over one hundred studies and three million mother child perrs across the globe.

So this is a pretty good bloody sample size right here.

And their question was a simple one.

Does taking pre natal supplements like folic acid or multi vitamins before or during pregnancy reduce the risk of autism?

And the results were pretty interesting.

Six out of the eight reviews found a protective association, and across the board, using fullic acid and or multi vitamins was linked to about a thirty percent lower likelihood that a child would be diagnosed with autism.

And I just want to repeat that again, a thirty percent lower likelihood, So that is pretty compelling stuff.

And when they looked at multivitamins alone, the reduction in risk was roughly thirty four percent, and fullic acid alone showed a similar trend, and that is really very significant.

Now let's explore why this might be, and it's really not a surprise because nutrients and play crucial roles in early brain development, and multivitamins support neurotransmitter production and neuron maturation.

Fullic acid helps run the biochemical machinery needed for the brain and spinal cord to form properly.

And there's even a genetic twist.

Some people carry variants that slow fullic acid metabolism or inhibit it, leading to un metabolized folic acid build up and lower unstable foliate, which has been linked to poorer pregnancy outcomes.

And a good work around for this is to take methylated folio known as five methal foliate, which bypasses this generic bottleneck entirely.

And actually other research has shown that people who take folic acid supplements when they have that gene variant, it can actually be a real negative for them because that unmetabolized folic acid actually builds up and creates some damage.

So we shouldn't really be recommended everybody takes fullic acid supplements unless we know their genetic variant.

But anyway, that's a little sidebar conversation.

But the take home here is clear now why this is mostly observational data and it can't prove causation, And when you understand the plausible mechanisms at play, that starts to make make a strong case for making sure that women get the right nutrients at the right time, ideally even before they get pregnant.

Right now, I want to jump sideways to another study.

Now, this is a mouse model, and I talk about my concerns about mouse models, but it really is pretty interesting and it was a recent study out of Taiwan and It looked at whether specific nutritional supplements could improve brain function and behavior in mice with autism like traits.

So they weren't just any mice.

They carried genetic mutations associated with autism spectrum disorder.

These were genes like TBR one, NF one and ctt n BP two if you really want to know.

But what the researchers did was they gave these mice who had these autism spectrum disorder behaviors a blend of zinc el seering and branch chain amino acids, loosine, isolucine, and valid and they tested both short term which was one week in adulthood, and long term, which is from juvenile to adult interventions.

And here's what happened.

In the short term, the nutrient blend excuse me boosted brain proteins involved in synaptic communication, made overactive neurons behave more normally during social interaction and improve social behavior.

But only when the nutrients were given as a blend.

Interesting giving zinc sellin or branching amino acids on their own didn't have the same effect.

Now, in the long term group, the mouse showed better learning and memory, spent more time with other mice and preferred social contact over objects all signs of behavioral improvement in AST so it's worthwhile.

As I said, this is a mouse study, but they help us to generate hypothesis that we then should go and test in humans.

And it's interesting to look at what's happening here.

These nutrients help the brain build and remodel synapses, the tiny junctions when urons communicate, so zinc we know organize as receptor structures.

Sein gets converted to d celling to support those same receptors, and branch gain amino acids, fuel protein synthesis, and activate growth pathways like mTOR.

Now this is early days, but it does suggest that nutritional interventions could potentially support brain circuitry in some forms of autism.

And there are research in humans that show that having good nutrition can actually reduce the symptoms of people who do have autism.

And that leads us to something else.

I think we have to talk about ultra processed foods.

And I've talked about this before almost ad nauseum in the con texts of obesity and metabolic disease, but also mental health.

But recent evidence is now linking these foods to worsened autism symptoms.

And a study published in Scientific Reports found that exposure to ultra processed food additives, so these are things like preservatives, artificial sweeteners, and mulsifiers, flavor enhancers, exposure to them during pregnancy or in early childhood may contribute to changes in brain chemistry and gut microbiome that are linked with autism traits.

And then another twenty twenty three study in Nutrients reported that children with higher intake of ultra processed foods had worshened social responsiveness and communication.

Now, it's not that these foods cause autism, but it appears that they may exacerbate symptoms or inter with existing vulnerabilities.

So what can we take from all of this.

Look, First, micronutrient sufficiency before and during pregnancy matters.

We know that, and it matters a lot.

And Secondly, targeted nutritional supplementation may in the future help support neurodevelopment and kids already diagnosed with autism.

And third, and this is really important, steering clear or minimizing ultra process foods using my eighty twenty rule that I talk about both during pregnancy and an early childhood, and I actually think before pregnancy, and this may be one more way that we can support brain health and reduce both the incidents of autism happening in the first place, but also the severity of it whenever kids are born with it.

Now, as always, we need more research, but this is a pretty powerful reminder that the food that we eat, and also when we eat that food, and the type of food that we eat in certain periods has a profound influence on the body, the brain, and even our children's future health.

And for me, this really adds to the whole stale story, particularly on ultra process food consumption.

We know that most developed nations are increasing massively their consumption of ultra processed foods.

We know that in the United States and United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand it's around our above fifty percent of all calories consumed, and we know that for kids it's even worse.

And to think that this is not affecting their brains, you just have to be completely and utterly bonkers.

And it really does add some urgency here to do something about these ultra processed foods, because they are killing us, they're killing our kids, and there's increasing evidence that they're causing neurodevelopmental disorders, and there's already very established evidence, class one evidence that they dramatically increase the risk of mental health conditions as well as things like cardiovascular disease.

And I have said it before and I will say it again that this is the biggest health crisis of our time and we really need to do something about it for both for our futures and our kids' futures.

That's it for this week, folks.

Catch you next time.