Vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy linked to autism

Vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy is linked to an increased risk of autism in children by the age of six, Australian researchers have found, who argue low cost supplementation for at-risk mothers is merited.

If you’ve been following my blog posts you’ll have seen plenty emphasising the importance of Vitamin D before conception and during pregnancy as a way of reducing the incidence of toxemia (high blood pressure of pregnancy) and premature birth. Optimal Vitamin D status confers a large number of other, more general health benefits (adequate immune status and protection from cancer among them) and now this study from Australian researchers at the University of Queensland Brain Institute and The Erasmus Medical Centre in The Netherlands adds another potential benefit to the growing list!

The researchers however suggest that supplementation, not sun exposure, is the answer because of the high risk of skin cancer in countries like Australia. I agree that supplementation has a role in ensuring Vitamin D status in high latitudes where sun exposure during the winter months cannot ensure Vitamin D adequacy, but in Australia, the recommended, unprotected exposure to the sun is hardly sufficient to lead to skin cancer. Ironically, if Vitamin D levels were adequate, skin cancer may not be an issue at all.

While we’re on the subject of supplementation, I'm always frustrated with the studies that take one nutrient and show how important it is during pregnancy. The reality is ... all the trace elements, vitamins, essential fatty acids, amino acids and various co-factors are important! AND making sure you and your partner enjoy optimal nutritional status across the board before you conceive and maintaining that status during pregnancy and beyond, will do more for your baby’s intelligence, birthweight, learning and behaviour issues and everything else, than supplementing with single nutrients in isolation!

More on all of the above in my new 5-Point Better Babies Webinar Program. Watch the free introductory webinar.

Summer's coming - get out in the sun

I’ve posted regularly about the needs for Vitamin D in pregnancy and during breastfeeding - lest you think Vitamin D requirements are confined to those periods, this post is for you.  Summer’s just around the corner in this part of the world and time to reflect on what sun exposure is appropriate. Unfortunately complete avoidance has become akin to a religion thanks to dire warnings from Cancer Councils and other eminent bodies of sun-induced skin cancers and melanoma. This religious zeal is particularly apparent where children are concerned, with shade sails over playgrounds, hats with excessive brims and tails, swim wear that covers all flesh and 50+ sun screens. Add to that a generation of young men and women who prefer to spend their spare time indoors in front of computer screens instead of riding surfboards and a recent taste for fashionably pale flesh. 

Yet latest research says that sun avoidance is almost as unhealthy as smoking!

I’m not advocating the sort of sun exposure that I've had throughout my life. We lived by the beach and in my mum’s blissful ignorance and with lack of sophisticated commercial products I got a dab of zinc cream on my nose and across my shoulders at the start of a long day in the water. Every summer I had obligatory sunburn until I acquired the colour that for so many of my years was a must-have fashion accessory (how times have changed). Even with the advent of sunscreens claiming 4+ and 6+ and good grief the maximum protection at 8+ I sun-baked, swam, surfed, water-skiied and sailed with not much more than a healthy layer of melanin to protect me. Snow-skiing added insult to injury.

But there is a middle ground and it’s important that we take that middle ground! What we all need is a regular dose of unprotected, non-burning sun exposure. It’s the sun-burning that is primarily associated with skin cancer risk (I would add to that - lack of anti-oxidants) but far fewer die from skin cancer than suffer from a very long list of health problems that are linked to Vitamin D deficiency. That list starts with infertility and continues through pre-eclampsia of pregnancy, premature birth, diabetes types 1 and 2, MS, cancers, influenza, impaired wound healing, poor immune response, muscle weakness in the elderly and more.

If you’d like to test your Vitamin D status, to confirm that you’re in the recommended zone of 40-60ng/ml (100-150nMols/L), you can order your at-home-test-kit through grassrootshealth.net In doing this you’ll contribute to their already massive body of research surrounding this important public health issue.

For updated guidelines concerning appropriate sun exposure and Vitamin D3 supplements check my earlier post.

Breastfeeding your baby? Take Vitamin D3 every day or get daily sun exposure.

Until recently scientists haven’t appreciated the fact that breastfeeding mothers need daily Vitamin D3. Nursing mums could have 50-60 ng/ml of measurable 25(OH)D (a metabolite of Vitamin D3) in their blood but no measurable Vitamin D3 in their breast milk. Why? After Vitamin D3 has been turned to 25(OH)D it cannot enter the breast milk. Vitamin D3 has a half life in the autocrine system of roughly 24 hours, so in order for it to have a meaningful impact on cellular functions, you need a new supply of it every day. The only way to get Vitamin D3 in breast milk is by dosing daily - either by sun, diet or supplementation. The latest research of Grassrootshealth and Dr. Bruce Hollis, Professor of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina indicates that 6,400 IU/day is necessary for breast feeding mothers to attain sufficient vitamin D (to the value of 400 IU/day for the infant) in their breast milk. More on appropriate daily sun exposure in Healthy Parents, Healthy Baby and Healthy Parents, Healthy Toddler.