environment – ASF Weekly Science Podcasts

Another study on acetaminophen (known as paramecetol in Denmark) on probability of having a child with autism, this one with over 1.5 million pregnant women, 31k who were exposed to acetaminophen. The HHS Secretary is calling it “garbage in and garbage out” because it showed no link, but in fact, it is a strong study … Continue reading "Why is paramecetol safety so perplexing?"

Air pollution, specifically one part of air pollution called PM 2.5 (named for the size of the crud in the air pollution) has been linked to autism. It’s also been tied to cancer, heart disease, asthma, obesity, and premature births. Air pollution typically comes from industrial sources and car exhaust, but it can also be … Continue reading "Wildfires, air pollution, autism and the EPA...

Contextual factors, or external factors, are environmental influences and can impact not just a diagnosis but the life course of a person with autism and their families. A recent commentary by autism researchers around the world highlights the importance of these factors and provides resources on how they can be collected in a rigorous, but … Continue reading "Contextual Factors in Autism: W...

New research points to a previously understudied but fascinating mechanism by which environmental factors may lead to autism: it’s called the “GABA/glutamate switch” which is a critical period in development when certain cells turn from turning on cell activity to turning them off. These environmental factors may delay this process leading to long term effects … Continue re...

The media has just called another biological marker a “diagnostic test”, when in this case, it was always intended to be an aid, not a test itself. It involves using baby hair strands to look a variation in metabolism of certain chemical elements across time. Remarkably, it showed similar results in autistic children in Japan, … Continue reading "A potential biomarker to AID, not...

Is it genes or is it the environment? or is it a combination? This question has plagued researchers and scientists and caused a lot of confusion in families about what caused their own or their child’s ASD. This week we review the mechanisms by which de-novo mutations could be the work of gene x environment … Continue reading "What causes autism? Genetics or the Environment? Or maybe b...

There are many many potential factors that influence a diagnosis of ASD that have been underexplored, and recreational drugs are one of them. Of course it would never explain all the cases of ASD, not one singular thing does, but does cannabis consumption during pregnancy lead to an increased probability of having a child with … Continue reading "From being high to being aggressive"

This week the ASF Podcast explores two ways to better understand the environmental influences in ASD diagnosis: 1. through potential cost savings of avoided cases of ASD due to reduced air pollution and 2. by studying pre-conception exposures going back as far as the grandparents exposure. These two concepts do not prove any one thing, … Continue reading "Beyond what scientists already know...

Questions have loomed around the finding of an increased risk of parents having a child with ASD if they are under 20 or over 35. Of course not every parent who is really young or older will have a child on the spectrum and plenty of those between those ages also have children on the … Continue reading "Age of parents and ASD. It’s complicated."

Twins with autism, where either one or both is diagnosed, is crucial to understand the role of genetics and the environment to both autism diagnoses and now, autism traits.  In a study this week, researchers using data from the California Twins Study examined the genetic and environmental influences of brain development in multiple regions and … Continue reading "Genes and Environment, Genes...