Recently, several clients have asked me what they can do before conception and during pregnancy to prevent autism in their children. This is such an important question that warrants further discussion. This post summarizes what I’ve learned and seen along the way through scientific articles, clinical experience and observation of the world around me. This post isn’t intended to be exhaustive. So if you read it and you think something appears to be missing, get in touch via the link. I’d love to hear your perspective.
Also, please note that this post doesn’t make or imply any negative judgment regarding children and adults with a diagnosis of autism. Quite the contrary, our society needs to be more supportive of all forms of diversity, including neurodivergence. I’m also in favor of supporting the best quality of life and supporting optimal health in all people throughout their lifespans.
If you’re the parent or relative of a person with autism, or you have autism yourself, please don’t think that the reflections and tips below are a criticism of anything you’ve done or others have done. In fact, this post is completely future-focused.
Epigenetics and unconditional love
When I first decided to write this post, I thought it would be all about facts and factors. But when I started writing, I realized it’s impossible to talk about autism and epigenetics without talking about unconditional love.
Of course, I get immensely excited about epigenetics and the possibility of improving health and quality of life before conception even occurs. I love the idea of leveraging the empowering aspects of epigenetics by starting wherever we are along the timeline and doing what we can to optimize our quality of life while being aware and appreciative of differences and uniqueness. However, I’m very much opposed to eugenics, which persecutes people who don’t meet some culturally defined standard of physical and/or mental “fitness.” Clearly, these are very different perspectives.
If you’re getting ready to start or grow a family, I encourage you to step into a space where epigenetics and unconditional love are inextricably connected. To any prospective parent reading this, if you’re afraid of having a child with autism, I get it. I understand the impulse to look for a foolproof way of preventing autism (or dyslexia, depression, or anything else). However, there aren’t guarantees. While you can lower the risk, you can’t completely eliminate it.
Thus, unconditional love for your future child means openness to the idea that while you can give your child the best possible conditions and terrain, you can’t control everything. In other words, becoming a parent means embracing the unknowns and loving your child even if your child is different from your ideal. It means not blaming yourself if your child doesn’t meet your ideals or your family’s, or your culture’s ideals. If you’d like to read a beautiful and touching first-hand account of a mother with a child whose health condition was a surprise, I highly recommend this article.
Beyond a doubt, one of the most challenging and rewarding lessons in parenting is striving for the unconditional love of ourselves and our children. I think that epigenetics and unconditional love are two very important companions that we need to keep close by on our journey throughout life, especially during preconception, pregnancy and the early years of our children’s lives.
Basic considerations on possible autism risk factors
Let me start by saying that I’m not sure that we can fully prevent autism or any other widespread multi-factorial condition. This is why I’ve titled this post “Lowering Autism Risk” Autism is an incredibly complex and still poorly understood multi-factorial condition. There are likely combinations of factors from among the following that affects susceptibility to autism:
- Genetics (probably a small component, given the astronomical rise in recent times)
- Epigenetics (environmental factors that alter the expression of DNA and can activate or de-activate latent susceptibilities
- Toxic exposures – please be aware that nobody can fully avoid them and that everyone’s threshold is different. My preconception clients receive plenty of guidance through the process of identifying and reducing exposures in a manageable and practical way.
- Immune dysregulation – autoimmune, possibly some kinds of infections in utero
- Folate need and/or methylation issues – see read this article and this podcast for a review of the issues to consider, along with a bibliography
- Individual nutritional deficiencies and needs in mom and baby. One tool I use extensively is hair tissue mineral analysis. We can do HTMA on both parents during preconception, on the mom during pregnancy and on mom and baby after birth to keep nutrition on track from a bio-individual perspective.
- Balanced gut flora and healthy vaginal flora in the mother, and the most diverse and inclusive diet for the whole family
- I also recommend testing breast milk to screen for potential issues: https://www.lactationlab.com/
The Hypermobility-Autism connection
Over the years, I’ve definitely noticed in my nutritional therapy practice that there was an overlap both in individuals and in families between signs and symptoms associated with autism and those associated with hypermobility. For example, a lot of my female clients with hypermobility spectrum disorder and/or hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome have a child who is somewhere on the autism spectrum (and often also themselves have traits that are spectrum-y), and many of my clients with ASD are also hypermobile or have a parent with hypermobility or a closely related condition (such as fibromyalgia).
I can’t tell you if this is mostly causative or a downstream effect, or a bit of both, but I’ve also noticed that my clients/families with hypermobility/ASD presentations tend to have issues with a combination of very dysregulated minerals, mercury toxicity and copper dysregulation.
Mercury, copper and connective tissue health
I think that the poor digestive and immune function of people with hypermobility/ASD can be a set-up for the poor regulation of metals and minerals in the body, but it’s also important to remember that mercury affects collagen cross-linking, the digestive barrier, cell membrane and the gut barrier, and the nervous and immune system.
Additionally, heavy metals affect levels of vitamin C and copper metabolism. These two nutrients are of central importance in connective tissue health. Furthermore, the depletion of vitamin C and other antioxidants (selenium, vitamin E, zinc, and vitamin A, for example) can be caused by mercury excess and copper dysregulation. This is quite a complex issue.
Despite the nuances involved, I am very pleased with the results I’m getting with both hypermobile clients and clients on the autism spectrum in my nutritional therapy practice. My individualized and dynamic approach to nutritional balancing and foundational nutritional support brings striking results.
Recent research on the Hypermobility-Autism connection
This is a really good article that recently came out that discusses this overlap and postulates some possible reasons. Here’s one cogent quote from the article, which I hope you’ll read in its entirety:
“With the current specialization and fragmentation of care, patients with ASD and hypermobility-related disorders (HRDs) are seen by different medical fields, such as psychiatry in the case of ASD, and musculoskeletal disciplines and genetics in the case of HRDs. Therefore, a link between these conditions is rarely established in clinical settings despite a scarce but growing body of research suggesting that both conditions co-occur more often than expected by chance.”
Even more recently, a compelling article postulates that hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and hypermobility spectrum disorder “may represent a subtype of autism.”
I’d love to support you!
If you’re ready to start or grow your family, I’d love to support you on an empowering and deeply nourishing preconception journey. Together we can identify the modifiable nutrition, lifestyle and environmental factors that you can leverage to optimize not only your fertility but also the epigenetics of your future child!
Additionally, if you and/or a loved one are affected by autism, heavy metal toxicities, mineral dysregulation or a connective tissue disorder, I’d love to talk about working together.
If you’re a holistic healthcare practitioner wanting to deliver optimal care to the clients in your private practice, I’d love to have you in my clinical case study group.