Persuasion, instincts, and the color red

Persuasive tactics can be used by individuals or by groups. Our natural instincts include some behavioral patterns that may be used individually or within groups. Instincts are deeply rooted behavioral tendencies that may have developed over time because they helped promote the survival of the individual or group.

Before continuing on that topic though, in yesterday’s post I mentioned that white Americans from Minneapolis and Somalian-Minneapolis refugees might have hypothyroidism in common compared to Black Americans from Minneapolis and Hispanics from Minneapolis but I didn’t explain why — Somalian refugees may be more likely to have simple iodine deficiency than the average American of any ethnic background — and White Americans from Minneapolis may be more likely to have been eating the standard American diet (which contains fluoride, bromide, and perchlorates) for more generations than Black Americans or Hispanic Americans. The grandmother/mother/child body burden of toxins probably adds up to a greater toxic burden over the generations. A child is created from an egg that was created in their mother while she, herself, was a fetus growing within her own mother, so grandma’s prenatal diet and stress level can have direct impact on her grandchildren — if grandma was iodine deficient or bromide excess than her grandchildren may also be iodine deficient or bromide excessive from their very first day of creation (when momma’s egg meets poppa’s sperm and joins to create a one celled baby zygote).

The standard American diet would be more likely to contain the minimal recommended quantity of iodine than an African refugee diet might contain but the African refugee diet would probably not contain as much fluoride, bromide, and perchlorates, (halides that are chemically similar to iodine and which can take the place of iodine within the body and may increase the risk for thyroid cancer and fibrocystic breast disease). I don’t know if Mexico’s standard diet contains as much of the halides, but bromide is used in most breads and bakery items in the U.S. and fluoride is added to most of the U.S. city’s water supplies and is an ingredient in many commonly used medications.

Perchlorates (ClO4) are more typically found in the environment as contaminants from industrial sources and rocket propellant:

“…the detection limit was reduced from 400 µg/L to approximately 1 µg/L in the late 1990s due to improved analytical methodology.

“Sites that have been identified with high concentrations of perchlorate contamination (in the thousands of ppb or more) involve manufacturing, testing, or disposal of solid rocket propellant; manufacturing of perchlorate compounds; and industrial manufacturing operations where perchlorate compounds were used as reagents.”  — by Trumpolt CW, et. al., “Perchlorate: Sources, Uses, and Occurrences in the Environment,” Remediation, Winter 2005 [http://yosemite.epa.gov/r10/CLEANUP.NSF/PH/Arkema+Technical+Documents/$FILE/Perchlorate-Sources-Occurance-In-The-Environment.pdf]

Iodine and halides have nothing to do directly with persuasion or the color red however I have learned the hard way that writing about iodine deficiency and halides can have colorful repercussions. In nature groups of animals of the same species sometimes will start harassing a member of the group until it leaves the group or dies from the harassment or lack of nourishment. Mothers have been known to neglect an infant that is ill or blemished in some way. She would know that the survival of an infant might put the survival of herself and any older children at risk. Fathers in some species may sometimes eat all of the infants of a litter so a mother of that species may have natural instincts to hide herself and her brood from the father.

A mother with older children who has limited income may be more likely to seek an abortion than a first time mother or a woman with adequate support for herself and her older children. A mother knows that growing a baby is far more than a one day event, (conception), or a nine month event (pregnancy), or a two and half year event, (breastfeeding), or even an eighteen year event (childhood), because she would know that motherhood is a lifetime event that might eventually even include grandchildren (to worry and care about).

A mother’s instincts can be very strong and risk to her children may illicit instincts to fight to protect her children and herself. I have never been in a fistfight type situation but the day I gave birth to my first child I felt my first surge of a huge protective instinct something like – “Don’t you touch my baby, or I will bite and scratch, and do whatever I have to in order to protect my baby.” — and that feeling has never left — “Don’t you touch my baby,” — that is a warning to heed — don’t get between a mother bear and her cubs – it’s a dangerous place to be.

Mothers have instincts to protect the whole family though too, so a newborn that is sickly or a pregnancy at a time when resources are scarce, might be viewed as too much of a threat to the survival of the whole group. This may seem sad but starvation is also sad.

The color red enters the story as a blemish on a baby chick:

Blemishes

The element of strangeness is also symbolically related to blemishes, not only as that word applies to physical and behavioral blemishes but also as to what one might call ideological blemishes such as differences in religious or political views. Since there does not seem to be a comparative ethological study dealing with the role of blemishes in social behavior, I will describe an incident that I observed that will serve as an illustration. On our farm we had a white Muscovy duck that was unusually capable in rearing a large brood. She would lay so many eggs in her nest in the horse’s stall that they would extend beyond her body surface. Nevertheless, most eggs would hatch, and she would be followed by as many as 21 ducklings. After one of the little ducklings developed a blood spot on the right side of its head from a slight injury, it began to suffer harassment by the mother, which, during the next few days, persistently drove it from the brood. One evening, at the fall of darkness, she drove it away, and this time the duckling swam to the opposite side of the pond and into the woods where surely it would have been snatched up by a predator. Consequently I rescued it, and we reared it separately. I was curious to learn whether some other factor that I did not recognize, had contributed to this “child abuse.” Perhaps the blood spot on the head that I regarded as a blemish, had resulted from the mother’s own pecking for some other reason. Consequently, I took another duckling and made a like spot on its head with a red marking pen. Two days went by, and it was treated no differently from the rest of the brood. Then on the third day, the mother began a relentless harassment, and we found ourselves with a second duckling to rear with the first.”

“It is a familiar observation among those who are pigeon fanciers or who raise poultry that a fowl with an open injury may be relentlessly pecked to death by members of the flock, an observation illustrating that blemishes also precipitate group harassment. Hence, the occurrence of harassment of strangers and of individuals with blemishes by reptiles and birds indicates that this form of behavior is phylogenetically deeply ingrained and, in the light of the neurobehavioral studies, might be inferred to have its neural basis in structures of the forebrain belonging to the R-complex.” [Dr Maclean’s term for the brainstem area of the brain].

“The inferred built-in propensity to nativism and intolerance of blemishes invites special attention because the increasing world population will be conducive to an increasing number of human contacts. Such a situation is calculated to aggravate the needs of each individual for a certain amount of territorial “surround” (See Chapters 6, 9, and 16). Moreover, the population pressure conducive to both intranational and international migration will multiply the opportunities for nativistic reactions and the intolerance of what are physically, behaviorally, or ideologically regarded as blemishes, such as, for example, differences in color, race, ethnic forms of behavior, religion, and political beliefs. An innate propensity to an abhorrence of blemishes would perhaps help to explain why, even in the absence of severe crowding, there are now so many ethnic and racial groups locked in prolonged and bloody struggle because of physical, religious, or ideological differences.”

— Paul D. Maclean, “The Triune Brain in Evolution: Role in Paleocerebral Functions,” page 568, (Plenum Press, 1990, New York) National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland, “written by the author in his capacity as an employee of the United States Government and is thus considered a work of the United States Government.”

[For more information about the book and his theory regarding instinctual behaviors, see my earlier post: Books about thinking and non-verbal behavior patterns, June 24, 2015.]

So persuasive tactics can become life threatening in some situations and the color red can be a signal to some of our deeper instincts which may have developed to help promote our survival as individuals or groups.

There may be a part two to this but I’m going to pause here for now.

/Disclosure: This information is presented for educational purposes within fair use and includes material provided within a publication of the U.S. government which can be reproduced for educational purposes when the author and source is appropriately cited./

Newborn screening for autism – 3 sets of 5 potential biomarkers

I bought the research study regarding newborn screening for autism and it is exciting but was based on a small number of patients with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (n=16, control group n=32).

  1. Newborn screening for autism: in search of candidate biomarkers. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23547820 ]

The research study evaluated the newborn umbilical cord blood for 90 biomarkers (various types of lab tests), 76 biomarkers were found to have consistant data available for all study subjects,  and three sets of five biomarkers were found to be consistently increased or decreased in the infants who were diagnosed with autism later in life compared to the infants in the control group (the research study only used patients with an autism diagnosis who had been screened and diagnosed by the same physician in order to reduce risk of inconsistent diagnostic standards in the experimental group (n=16).

The three sets of five biomarkers need to be tested with a larger group of children with autism diagnoses to see if the results can be repeated. Feasibly to save money on lab tests all newborns might be screened with the set of five most predictive lab tests and the infants who are positive for those five might then be screened for the second set of five tests or all ten of the other biomarkers. The fifteen biomarkers include calcitonin (increased) and Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH, decreased). Low TSH levels can cause increased calcitonin levels which causes reduced blood calcium levels. Elevated blood levels of calcium may cause an increase in calcitonin and having adequate levels of hormone 1, 25 D may be necessary for keeping calcitonin levels within a normal range. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC442503/]

Vitamin D was not one of the 90 lab tests that were included in this research study, however the sibling study performed in Sweden suggested that low vitamin D at birth is involved but that other factors are also involved because all of the children born to Somalian refugees were found to have low vitamin D so that lab value would not be helpful as a screening test. 2) Swedish Study Suggests Low Vitamin D at Birth May Increase Autism Risk [https://www.autismspeaks.org/science/science-news/swedish-study-suggests-low-vitamin-d-birth-may-increase-autism-risk]

Alpha feto-protein (AFP) is one of the fifteen biomarkers found to be predictive for autism later in life. Levels of AFP have been found to be increased in both the mothers of infants who develop autism later in life and in the infants who develop autism later in life. Buy the research study to find out the other twelve – feasibly a concerned parent (with money and a cooperative physician) might be able to have their newborn’s blood screened for the fifteen biomarkers on their own initiative, right away, rather than waiting for the mainstream medical industry to do further research studies.

— The fact that autism was unknown in Somalia suggests that it is unlikely to be a naturally occurring condition and that it is unlikely to be caused by a lack of anti-autism medicine or by the lack of an anti-autism vaccination, so waiting for the for-profit medical industry to devise a for-profit strategy to prevent autism seems like it might take awhile. Concerned parents should have a right to seek effective care for their children and for themselves.

Autism seems to be a condition that occurs prenatally which leaves the newborn infant with metabolic differences but who otherwise appears normal and then, depending on nutritional and environmental conditions, at around age two to four the child’s development shifts towards symptoms of autism. The goal of newborn screening would be to identify which infants are most at risk for that later shift towards autism so that they might be able to be given additional care in order to prevent the damaging autoimmune like changes to the child’s brain. A few different genetic defects that affect nutrient needs may be involved so a newborn who is identified as high risk for developing autism symptoms later in life might then benefit from being screened for genetic defects in the methylation cycle, or with the vitamin D binding protein, or with hemoglobin metabolism. Infants identified as more at risk for autism later in life may also benefit from being screened for hypothyroidism, iodine deficiency, or an excess of bromide, chloride and fluoride.

In summary, for now, this is complicated but very exciting — we have the information we need in order to help women prevent autism before conception and to help identify which newborns may be more at risk for developing autism symptoms later in life so that we can help give the infants the additional nutritional and environmental support that might help them prevent the longterm autoimmune like brain damage from ever occurring.

Older individuals who already have autism diagnoses may also be helped by additional nutritional and environmental support (reduce their exposure to pollutants and foods or foods additives that their unique metabolism can’t digest as well as average) but a “cure” for the changes that already occurred in the brain may not be possible for children and adults who have already been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Individualized nutritional support might help reduce negative symptoms and improve quality of life for patients who already have an autism diagnosis.

/Disclosure: This information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes./

BVO, Brominated vegetable oil is in the same chemical family as PBDE, a flame retardant

Good news about the food additive brominated vegetable oil — the Coca Cola and Pepsi companies are phasing out use of the flavoring agent in order to have a product line that is consistent across global food markets — the food additive has been prohibited from use as a food additive in Japan, India and the European Union.

BVO is in some citrus soft drinks including Mountain Dew, Squirt, Fresca, and Fanta. It’s also in sports drinks like Powerade and some pre-mixed cocktails.”  It is a food additive that is in the “same chemical family as flame-retardants like polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE).” “Early studies suggest that flame-retardant chemicals disrupt normal hormone function, leading to problems with brain development in children, fertility, thyroid function, and possibly cancer.” [http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/20130129/brominated-vegetable-oil-qa?page=2]

A study in 2012 found that in the U.S. on average we take in more BVO than PBDEs, 4000 times more for adults and 1000 times more for children. BVO was approved for general use in 1958 in the U.S. and then in the 1970s it was modified to approval for use in beverages for an “interim” time period awaiting further research — but we’re still waiting. Use of BVO as a food additive has been banned in Japan, India, and the European Union. In the U.S. it is approved for use in beverages at a level up to 15 parts per million and on average it is added at a level of 8 parts per million. There is some concern that consumers who drink larger portions of the beverages containing BVO on a more frequent basis may be receiving too much of the chemical.    Read More:  [http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/20130129/brominated-vegetable-oil-qa?page=2]

So how much soda per day might be enough to cause acute bromide toxicity? — Snopes.com (March 16, 2015) write-up on BVO includes two medical reports of bromide toxicity where one patient reported drinking 2 to 4 liters of BVO containing soda per day and the other reported drinking up to 8 liters per day. According to the Snopes report both the PepsiCo and Coca Cola beverage companies have been actively working to phase out use of BVO in all of their beverages. Use of BVO in the Gatorade line of beverages by PepsiCo has already been phased out. The Coca Cola company plans to have the ingredient phased out of all of their beverages by the end of 2015. The companies stand by the safety of the ingredient but also respect the individual consumer’s desire for more natural products and the value of having a product that is consistent across global markets.

Non carbonated fruit flavored beverages also may contain BVO, (citrus flavors more typically). If an adult male can develop bromide toxicity by consuming 2 to 8 liters of a beverage containing BVO per day then a child or toddler, roughly, might get sick by regularly consuming half or a quarter of that amount — or 1/4 liter to 4 liters per day (or approximately 8 ounces to 4 quarts of ‘juice drink’ per day) — however an infant or toddler may be more at risk than adults due to their having less well developed liver function and due to their brains and thyroids still being in developmental stages, so the infant or toddler drinking a BVO containing ‘juice’ drink may be more at risk than adults for having neurotoxin damage or thyroid dysfunction occur. A developing fetus may also be more at risk than adults so avoiding BVO containing beverages during pregnancy and the perinatal time period may help protect the developing infant’s brain and thyroid.

Over the long term any use of brominated products may be adding to the risk of eventually developing hypothyroidism later in life for men, women or children, so while it might be a very good idea to avoid brominated vegetable oil while pregnant or trying to get pregnant, it  might also be a good idea for everyone to avoid it for the sake of their own thyroid’s health. Bromide is chemically very similar to iodine and it may be incorporated into the thyroid hormone instead of iodine in cases of long term iodine deficiency — but the molecule of bromide (or fluoride or chloride) may be making the larger molecule of the thyroid hormone no longer able to function properly — the bromide might be used to produce thyroid hormone that seems like thyroid hormone to a lab test but might not be as functional as a thyroid hormone within the body.

For more information about iodine, and the other halides/halogens: bromide, chloride and fluoride, see Dr. Brownstein’s book:

/Disclosure: This information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes./

Preventing autism perinatally – before conception

As a dietitian I was trained to individualize nutrition therapy for special need clients, whether they had an odd diagnosis or just had odd symptoms, I was trained to just go look up the whatever medical research might be available about the unusual diagnosis or symptoms. My goal while reviewing the available research was to look for any clues about what nutrients or metabolic pathways might be essential during normal function of the problem diagnosis or symptom and to see if there might be any nutrient deficiencies that could be causing the dysfunction. And then I would work with the client to figure out where their food preferences might be leaving them with unsuspected nutrient deficiencies.

Autism can be detected from umbilical cord blood so it is a condition that develops due to the perinatal or prenatal environment. Babies are not grown out of medicine. Women grow them out of food and stored nutrients. Autism is not due to a lack of anti-autism medicine. A for-profit medical industry that is determined to find a patent protected medication that will ‘cure’ autism is likely to waste a lot of time and money in the search for something that is impossible. It takes an incredible variety of nutrients to grow a baby over 40 weeks of gestation and ideally an additional couple of years of breastfeeding, — not just one nutrient or a dose of some anti-autism ‘cure.’

Several frequently missed genetic defects that can cause several significant nutrient deficiencies may be now overlapping in enough women who then can not detoxify the levels of formaldehyde or other toxins that are now commonly found in our food supply and in our surrounding environment. Prior to conception we need to help women identify and correct any underlying metabolic defects or chronic infections before they try to get pregnant. And men’s alcohol consumption in the days prior to conception or other health factors may also be involved in the infant’s risk to develop autism later in life.

An excerpt from the last very long post that has been grouped slightly differently: A summary of the factors that may interact during the prenatal and/or perinatal  (three months prior to conception) time period in a way that may lead to the development of autism within the fetal brain.

Formaldehyde, a known neurotoxin, might be accumulating from several sources [3, 5], and it is difficult for humans to detoxify, and it accumulates more in the fetus and is even more difficult for the fetus to detoxify:

  • Aseptically packaged juices
  • Nutrasweet
  • Neotame
  • Smoking
  • Badly ventilated air.
  • Workplace exposure

Possible Folate issues. The B vitamin Folate is essential for detoxifying formaldehyde. A genetic defect can make the commonly used supplemental form, folic acid, not useful for the fetus or expectant mother who has the genetic defect (which is not commonly tested for or treated by the mainstream medical industry – nutrients are not able to be patent protected and therefore provide less of a profit). (and methylation cycle defects may also affect supplies of B12):

  • Simple folate/folic acid deficiency/lack of prenatal vitamin during the perinatal time period. [4]
  • Genetic defect in mother affecting the methylation cycle makes her more susceptible for folate deficiency. [4]
  • Genetic defect in the fetus affecting the methylation cycle makes it more at risk for autism. [4]
  • A methylated form of the vitamin may be more effective for reducing risk of developing autism. The natural food form, folate, is more bioactive than the supplemental form, folic acid, that is used in prenatal vitamins. [29]
  • obsessive-compulsive disorder, – can be early symptoms of a B12 deficiency. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3271502/] Has been associated with folate deficiency, elevated homocysteine levels and impaired methylation function: [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16194269]
  • schizophrenia, Symptoms of schizophrenia may sometimes simply be due to an underlying deficiency of folate or B12, which could be due to an underlying genetic defect in the methylation cycleAnd folate and B12 have both been found to help treat schizophrenia symptoms for some patients (or it is helping treat those patient’s whose symptoms are actually due to an underlying deficiency of folate and B12 and providing the nutrients simply is helping the brain to function normally again.)
  • depression, – can be a symptom of folate deficiency. And the methylated form was given as a supplemental treatment, L-Methylfolate, rather than the unmethylated form, folic acid, which is the form used in prenatal vitamins.   [psychologytoday.com/blog/the-integrationist/201310/depression-wont-go-away-folate-could-be-the-answer] Depressive disorders have been associated with impaired methylation: [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16194269

Possible Vitamin D Issues – it might not just be a lack of vitamin D or sunshine (essential for the mother’s body to accept the foreign DNA of the new fetus rather than develop autoimmune antibodies against it – which may be able to cause brain damaging changes prenatally or later in life):

  • Simple vitamin D deficiency
  • An underlying genetic defect in the Vitamin D Binding Protein causes a tendency to become vitamin D deficient more easily than normal. [10, 11, 12] (Might a simple protein deficiency then also add a risk to a simple deficiency of all important proteins?)
  • allergic reaction, and the vitamin D receptor and the Dendritic cells are what control the immune system’s allergic reaction. Excerpt: “1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) (calcitriol), the biologically active form of vitamin D, is an immunomodulatory hormone, e.g. it inhibits IgE synthesis in B cells. As its clinical application is limited by hypercalcemia, synthetic vitamin D receptor (VDR) agonists that mediate immunomodulatory activities without adverse hypercalcemic effects are of great interest.“- [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21121929]
    1. Getting sick during the first trimester may be creating antigens in the mom that may then affect the babies brain development, and it involves the vitamin D receptor part of the immune system. Pregnant ladies should avoid sick people and possibly avoid getting vaccinations during the first trimester – but research is still in the early phases. —  rubella, – also known as German measles, it is the R part of the MMR vaccine. It is rare in the U.S. now with less than ten cases per year but can cause defects in an expected infant if a pregnant woman gets sick with the infection prior to 20 weeks gestation. [http://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/pregnancy-health/complications/rubella.aspx]
  • An underlying infection is present with a pathogen that is suppressing the vitamin D receptor system. 
    1. cytomegalovirus, a viral disease that may affect vitamin D levels: “However, when outliers were removed, the association was not apparent. The effect of outliers could not be assessed when vitamin D was dichotomized because no patients with CMV antibodies had sufficient vitamin D levels after outliers were dropped.” [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3134182/]
    2. autoimmune disease, – associated with vitamin D deficiency and malfunction of the dendritic cells ability to promote self tolerance of the immune system. The dry cleaning chemical and degreaser tetrachloroethylene has been shown to cause autoimmune disease in lab animal studies on toxicity: [http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/sites/lejeune/tce_pce.html
    3. hypothyroidism. – may be associated with iodine deficiency which prenatally can cause mental retardation and thyroid defects in the expected infant but it might also be caused by autoimmune disease which involves a disrupted vitamin D receptor system. Hypothyroidism in female workers has been associated with the flame retardant, polybrominated diphenyl ethers,  [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26606679], and the insecticide chlorpyrifos,  [http://www.iss.it/binary/inte/cont/CPF_ENG.pdf], and the pesticide known as DDT dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane also  [https://preventdisease.com/news/10/022510_pesticide_exposure_underactive_thyroid.shtml], [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24064777], and polychlorinated biphenyls [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/26873383_Hypothyroidism_Induced_by_Polychlorinated_Biphenyls_and_Up-Regulation_of_Transthyretinand fluoride are also associated with risk of hypothyroidism.
    4. schizophrenia, vitamin D deficiency is more common in people diagnosed with schizophrenia. [http://psychcentral.com/news/2014/07/23/vitamin-d-deficiency-common-in-schizophrenia/72813.html] It can be a symptom of later stage HIV/AIDS due to increased calcium levels in the brain [Infectious Madness, book] and schizophrenia symptoms can be caused by a late stage Toxoplasma gondii infection.
    5. Excerpt from an earlier post about intracellular pathogens that have developed ways to block or suppress the vitamin D receptor immune functions. “Other pathogens that have been shown to reduce the activity of the Vitamin D Receptor, in addition to the pathogen that causes Tuberculosis, include the mold Aspergillus, the viruses that cause Epstein-Barr chronic fatigue syndrome and HIV/AIDS, and the autoimmune diseases sarcoidosis, Crohn’s Disease, and Rheumatoid Arthritis. Elevated levels of 1, 25(OH)2D are seen with the bacterial infections: “Elevated 1,25(OH)2D appears to be evidence of a disabled immune system’s attempt to activate the VDR to combat infection.” [page 19, 1]” [https://transcendingsquare.com/2015/08/11/whether-to-be-compliant-or-to-be-healthy-seems-like-an-easy-question-to-answer/] Women with rheumatoid arthritis who get pregnant have been found to have some relief from their symptoms. Levels of the active hormone D seem to be elevated only in the areas of joint damage in RA rather than throughout the entire body. However while the woman might feel better the baby may end up being born with an intracellular bacterial pathogen – so mom might feel better for a few months but baby might suffer from juvenile RA because currently the mainstream medical industry does not recognize, test for or treat, the bacterial pathogen involved in Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Iodine deficiency and excess of fluoride, bromide or perchlorate and be a cause of hypothyroidism

Stress is bad for pregnant women. It uses up good nutrients and creates inflammatory chemicals.

Alcohol is bad for the fetus whether it’s dad drinking in the days before conception or mom drinking prior to conception or during the pregnancy and the risks to the infant may be worse if there is also a deficiency of the mineral zinc.

  • alcohol, – alcohol use by the mother during pregnancy or by the father during the days prior to conception can be a cause of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in the infant. A zinc deficiency in the pregnant woman may increase the risk of the expected infant developing FAS. [search term alcohol FAS zinc deficiency]

Zinc deficiency and B6 deficiency can be due to pyroluria, a genetic defect that can cause significant loss of zinc and B6 in the urine but it is a condition that the mainstream medical industry does not typically test for or treat. Nutrients are not able to be patent protected and therefore can not be sold for a large profit.

Other, other factors that may be involved in development of autism may include a variety of chemicals known to be toxic for brain development and which may be common in our modern environment.  From the Abstract of a review article by Dr. Philippe Grandjean, MD and Philip J. Landrigan, MD, Neurobehavioural effects of developmental toxicity., (The Lancet Neurology, 2014):  “In 2006, we did a systematic review and identified five industrial chemicals as developmental neurotoxicants: lead, methylmercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, arsenic, and toluene. Since 2006, epidemiological studies have documented six additional developmental neurotoxicants—manganese, fluoride, chlorpyrifos, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, tetrachloroethylene, and the polybrominated diphenyl ethers. We postulate that even more neurotoxicants remain undiscovered. To control the pandemic of developmental neurotoxicity, we propose a global prevention strategy.” [30]

And other factors associated with autism that were mentioned in the other hypothesis about autism and folic acid included: “valproic acid, thalidomide, alcohol, rubella, cytomegalovirus, depression, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, autoimmune disease, stress, allergic reaction, and hypothyroidism.”  – CR King [29]

  1. valproic acid, a medication commonly used to prevent seizures in epilepsy, may also be prescribed for bipolar disorder or to prevent migraine headaches. (Valporate (VPA), sodium valproate, and divalproex sodium, Depakote). It has been known to cause serious abnormalities in babies when used by pregnant women and is no longer typically prescribed to women of childbearing years. [Wikipedia]
  2. thalidomide,a medication that was prescribed to pregnant women for preventing nausea in the 1960s but it was discovered to cause serious birth defects. It is still used for the treatment of leprosy and still has been known to cause birth defects in the babies of women with leprosy who become pregnant. [http://toxsci.oxfordjournals.org/content/122/1/1.full]

A summary of the developmental neurotoxicants: “lead, methylmercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, arsenic, and toluene. …manganese, fluoride, chlorpyrifos, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, tetrachloroethylene, and the polybrominated diphenyl ethers.” [30And the other factors associated with autism that were mentioned in the other hypothesis about autism and folic acid included: “valproic acid, thalidomide, alcohol, rubella, cytomegalovirus, depression, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, autoimmune disease, stress, allergic reaction, and hypothyroidism.”  – CR King [29]

Autism can not be called a complete mystery anymore. When all of the known risks are combined it is clear that something is going wrong prenatally from as early as the day of conception when the sperm and egg first combine into a new baby zygote (the single cell stage of fetal development). And to be fair we have to leave God out of this — autism is not God’s will after all –lead, arsenic, manganese, fluoride and stress are products of nature but the formaldehyde producing Nutrasweet and Neotame are man made products and I don’t think nature invented refined sources of methylmercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, toluenechlorpyrifos, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, tetrachloroethylene, or the polybrominated diphenyl ethers.” [30] or valproic acid, thalidomide, or alcohol.”  – CR King [29]

/Disclosure: This information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes./