{"id":33281,"date":"2017-03-18T11:29:52","date_gmt":"2017-03-18T11:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/link-between-vitamin-d-treatment-and-autism\/"},"modified":"2017-03-18T11:31:29","modified_gmt":"2017-03-18T11:31:29","slug":"link-between-vitamin-d-treatment-and-autism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/link-between-vitamin-d-treatment-and-autism\/","title":{"rendered":"Link between Vitamin D treatment and autism prevention"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{Giving vitamin D supplements to mice during pregnancy prevents autism traits in their offspring, University of Queensland researchers have discovered.}<\/p>\n<p>The discovery provides further evidence of the crucial role vitamin D plays in brain development, said lead researcher Professor Darryl Eyles, from UQ&#8217;s Queensland Brain Institute.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our study used the most widely accepted developmental model of autism in which affected mice behave abnormally and show deficits in social interaction, basic learning and stereotyped behaviours,&#8221; Professor Eyles said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We found that pregnant females treated with active vitamin D in the equivalent of the first trimester of pregnancy produced offspring that did not develop these deficits.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In human studies, QBI researchers recently found a link between pregnant women with low Vitamin D levels and the increased likelihood of having a child with autistic traits.<\/p>\n<p>Autism &#8212; or autism spectrum disorder &#8212; describes lifelong developmental disabilities including difficulty or inability to communicate with others and interact socially.<\/p>\n<p>Sun exposure is the major source of vitamin D &#8212; which skin cells manufacture in response to UV rays &#8212; but it is also found in some foods.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Wei Luan, a postdoctoral researcher involved in the study, said vitamin D was crucial for maintaining healthy bones, but the active hormonal form of vitamin D cannot be given to pregnant women because it may affect the skeleton of the developing fetus.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Recent funding will now allow us to determine how much cholecalciferol &#8212; the supplement form that is safe for pregnant women &#8212; is needed to achieve the same levels of active hormonal vitamin D in the bloodstream,&#8221; said Dr Luan.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This new information will allow us to further investigate the ideal dose and timing of vitamin D supplementation for pregnant women.<\/p>\n<p>It was previously thought vitamin D had a protective anti-inflammatory effect during brain development, but the study didn&#8217;t find this to be the case.<\/p>\n<p>New funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council will allow researchers to continue to study how vitamin D protects against autism.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-18814 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/cd47abac5287bfce12201df2d49165c5.jpg\" alt=\"In human studies, researchers recently found a link between pregnant women with low Vitamin D levels and the increased likelihood of having a child with autistic traits.\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>Source:Science Daily <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{Giving vitamin D supplements to mice during pregnancy prevents autism traits in their offspring, University of Queensland researchers have discovered.} The discovery provides further evidence of the crucial role vitamin D plays in brain development, said lead researcher Professor Darryl Eyles, from UQ&#8217;s Queensland Brain Institute. &#8220;Our study used the most widely accepted developmental model [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[75],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-33281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","tag-homenews","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33281"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=33281"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=33281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}