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Wisdom Wednesdays: The role of diet in Autism Spectrum Disorder incidence and severity · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

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  Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. Today's topic
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  Speaker 1: touches on something that affects millions of families around the world,
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  Speaker 1: and it is autism spectrum disorder or ASD. Now, while
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  Speaker 1: admittedly there's a hell of a lot that we don't know,
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  Speaker 1: research is beginning to reveal some pretty fascinating insights into
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  Speaker 1: how premaal nutrition and even childhood diet might play a
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  Speaker 1: role in autism risk and symptoms. So let's start with
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  Speaker 1: a big picture look at human pregnancy and supplements. So
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  Speaker 1: autism affects about one percent of children globally, but it
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  Speaker 1: is on the rise, and prevention strategies are pretty limited.
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  Speaker 1: But a new umbrella review, which is a meta analysis
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  Speaker 1: of meta analysis, has given us pretty compelling data. And
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  Speaker 1: what these umbrella reviews do is they pull all the
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  Speaker 1: data from different meta analysis and then we start to
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  Speaker 1: get more confidence in the data that comes out of that.
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  Speaker 1: And this one was conducted in Australia and it pulled
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  Speaker 1: together eight systematic reviews covering over one hundred studies and
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  Speaker 1: three million mother child perrs across the globe. So this
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  Speaker 1: is a pretty good bloody sample size right here. And
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  Speaker 1: their question was a simple one. Does taking pre natal
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  Speaker 1: supplements like folic acid or multi vitamins before or during
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  Speaker 1: pregnancy reduce the risk of autism? And the results were
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  Speaker 1: pretty interesting. Six out of the eight reviews found a
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  Speaker 1: protective association, and across the board, using fullic acid and
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  Speaker 1: or multi vitamins was linked to about a thirty percent
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  Speaker 1: lower likelihood that a child would be diagnosed with autism.
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  Speaker 1: And I just want to repeat that again, a thirty
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  Speaker 1: percent lower likelihood, So that is pretty compelling stuff. And
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  Speaker 1: when they looked at multivitamins alone, the reduction in risk
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  Speaker 1: was roughly thirty four percent, and fullic acid alone showed
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  Speaker 1: a similar trend, and that is really very significant. Now
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  Speaker 1: let's explore why this might be, and it's really not
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  Speaker 1: a surprise because nutrients and play crucial roles in early
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  Speaker 1: brain development, and multivitamins support neurotransmitter production and neuron maturation.
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  Speaker 1: Fullic acid helps run the biochemical machinery needed for the
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  Speaker 1: brain and spinal cord to form properly. And there's even
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  Speaker 1: a genetic twist. Some people carry variants that slow fullic
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  Speaker 1: acid metabolism or inhibit it, leading to un metabolized folic
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  Speaker 1: acid build up and lower unstable foliate, which has been
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  Speaker 1: linked to poorer pregnancy outcomes. And a good work around
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  Speaker 1: for this is to take methylated folio known as five
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  Speaker 1: methal foliate, which bypasses this generic bottleneck entirely. And actually
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  Speaker 1: other research has shown that people who take folic acid
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  Speaker 1: supplements when they have that gene variant, it can actually
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  Speaker 1: be a real negative for them because that unmetabolized folic
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  Speaker 1: acid actually builds up and creates some damage. So we
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  Speaker 1: shouldn't really be recommended everybody takes fullic acid supplements unless
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  Speaker 1: we know their genetic variant. But anyway, that's a little
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  Speaker 1: sidebar conversation. But the take home here is clear now
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  Speaker 1: why this is mostly observational data and it can't prove causation,
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  Speaker 1: And when you understand the plausible mechanisms at play, that
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  Speaker 1: starts to make make a strong case for making sure
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  Speaker 1: that women get the right nutrients at the right time,
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  Speaker 1: ideally even before they get pregnant. Right now, I want
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  Speaker 1: to jump sideways to another study. Now, this is a
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  Speaker 1: mouse model, and I talk about my concerns about mouse models,
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  Speaker 1: but it really is pretty interesting and it was a
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  Speaker 1: recent study out of Taiwan and It looked at whether
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  Speaker 1: specific nutritional supplements could improve brain function and behavior in
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  Speaker 1: mice with autism like traits. So they weren't just any mice.
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  Speaker 1: They carried genetic mutations associated with autism spectrum disorder. These
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  Speaker 1: were genes like TBR one, NF one and ctt n
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  Speaker 1: BP two if you really want to know. But what
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  Speaker 1: the researchers did was they gave these mice who had
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  Speaker 1: these autism spectrum disorder behaviors a blend of zinc el
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  Speaker 1: seering and branch chain amino acids, loosine, isolucine, and valid
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  Speaker 1: and they tested both short term which was one week
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  Speaker 1: in adulthood, and long term, which is from juvenile to
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  Speaker 1: adult interventions. And here's what happened. In the short term,
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  Speaker 1: the nutrient blend excuse me boosted brain proteins involved in
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  Speaker 1: synaptic communication, made overactive neurons behave more normally during social
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  Speaker 1: interaction and improve social behavior. But only when the nutrients
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  Speaker 1: were given as a blend. Interesting giving zinc sellin or
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  Speaker 1: branching amino acids on their own didn't have the same effect. Now,
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  Speaker 1: in the long term group, the mouse showed better learning
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  Speaker 1: and memory, spent more time with other mice and preferred
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  Speaker 1: social contact over objects all signs of behavioral improvement in
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  Speaker 1: AST so it's worthwhile. As I said, this is a
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  Speaker 1: mouse study, but they help us to generate hypothesis that
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  Speaker 1: we then should go and test in humans. And it's
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  Speaker 1: interesting to look at what's happening here. These nutrients help
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  Speaker 1: the brain build and remodel synapses, the tiny junctions when
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  Speaker 1: urons communicate, so zinc we know organize as receptor structures.
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  Speaker 1: Sein gets converted to d celling to support those same receptors,
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  Speaker 1: and branch gain amino acids, fuel protein synthesis, and activate
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  Speaker 1: growth pathways like mTOR. Now this is early days, but
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  Speaker 1: it does suggest that nutritional interventions could potentially support brain
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  Speaker 1: circuitry in some forms of autism. And there are research
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  Speaker 1: in humans that show that having good nutrition can actually
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  Speaker 1: reduce the symptoms of people who do have autism. And
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  Speaker 1: that leads us to something else. I think we have
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  Speaker 1: to talk about ultra processed foods. And I've talked about
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  Speaker 1: this before almost ad nauseum in the con texts of
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  Speaker 1: obesity and metabolic disease, but also mental health. But recent
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  Speaker 1: evidence is now linking these foods to worsened autism symptoms.
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  Speaker 1: And a study published in Scientific Reports found that exposure
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  Speaker 1: to ultra processed food additives, so these are things like preservatives,
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  Speaker 1: artificial sweeteners, and mulsifiers, flavor enhancers, exposure to them during
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  Speaker 1: pregnancy or in early childhood may contribute to changes in
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  Speaker 1: brain chemistry and gut microbiome that are linked with autism traits.
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  Speaker 1: And then another twenty twenty three study in Nutrients reported
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  Speaker 1: that children with higher intake of ultra processed foods had
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  Speaker 1: worshened social responsiveness and communication. Now, it's not that these
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  Speaker 1: foods cause autism, but it appears that they may exacerbate
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  Speaker 1: symptoms or inter with existing vulnerabilities. So what can we
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  Speaker 1: take from all of this. Look, First, micronutrient sufficiency before
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  Speaker 1: and during pregnancy matters. We know that, and it matters
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  Speaker 1: a lot. And Secondly, targeted nutritional supplementation may in the
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  Speaker 1: future help support neurodevelopment and kids already diagnosed with autism.
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  Speaker 1: And third, and this is really important, steering clear or
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  Speaker 1: minimizing ultra process foods using my eighty twenty rule that
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  Speaker 1: I talk about both during pregnancy and an early childhood,
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  Speaker 1: and I actually think before pregnancy, and this may be
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  Speaker 1: one more way that we can support brain health and
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  Speaker 1: reduce both the incidents of autism happening in the first place,
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  Speaker 1: but also the severity of it whenever kids are born
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  Speaker 1: with it. Now, as always, we need more research, but
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  Speaker 1: this is a pretty powerful reminder that the food that
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  Speaker 1: we eat, and also when we eat that food, and
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  Speaker 1: the type of food that we eat in certain periods
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  Speaker 1: has a profound influence on the body, the brain, and
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  Speaker 1: even our children's future health. And for me, this really
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  Speaker 1: adds to the whole stale story, particularly on ultra process
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  Speaker 1: food consumption. We know that most developed nations are increasing
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  Speaker 1: massively their consumption of ultra processed foods. We know that
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  Speaker 1: in the United States and United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, Australia,
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  Speaker 1: New Zealand it's around our above fifty percent of all
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  Speaker 1: calories consumed, and we know that for kids it's even worse.
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  Speaker 1: And to think that this is not affecting their brains,
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  Speaker 1: you just have to be completely and utterly bonkers. And
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  Speaker 1: it really does add some urgency here to do something
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  Speaker 1: about these ultra processed foods, because they are killing us,
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  Speaker 1: they're killing our kids, and there's increasing evidence that they're
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  Speaker 1: causing neurodevelopmental disorders, and there's already very established evidence, class
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  Speaker 1: one evidence that they dramatically increase the risk of mental
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  Speaker 1: health conditions as well as things like cardiovascular disease. And
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  Speaker 1: I have said it before and I will say it
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  Speaker 1: again that this is the biggest health crisis of our
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  Speaker 1: time and we really need to do something about it
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  Speaker 1: for both for our futures and our kids' futures. That's
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  Speaker 1: it for this week, folks. Catch you next time.