Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Autism by obesity?



I was reading an article in Newsweek today (An Autism Breakthrough? Kent Sepkowitz).  A quick summary of this article is that back around the 40's it was thought that Autism was caused by harsh parenting. "Refrigerator Moms" was the term used in the article. That theory lost it's momentum in the 70's when Autism was thought to be the result of poison. 

Well, now researchers think it may be linked to obese mothers, aged fathers, or mothers who are diabetic or have high blood pressure. I can understand genetics playing a part in Autism, there is still so much we don't understand about genetics and Autism both.  I can even see how aged sperm (or eggs) could possibly be a contributing factor. It does surprise me, however, that obesity is being considered a culprit. 

I'd love to hear some others' views on this... do you think obesity can cause something like Autism? Do you think too many things are being blamed on obesity? 

1 fantastic comments:

Whitney J. said...

I'm not sure exactly what my thoughts are on this. I do know that obesity causes a lot of things. However, I also know that there is no clear reasoning behind autism. It's been said that genetics can play a part in autism, but to what extent is unknown at this time. It's interesting that they are now possibly linking it to obesity, but without me researching it more I can't say either way.

 
Real Time Web Analytics