Too Much Folate during Pregnancy May Produce Autistic Infants

A recently published study has linked extremely high levels of folate during pregnancy to heightened risk of having autistic infants.

Women who mull on getting pregnant may need to watch over their intake of folic acid as a Johns Hopkins-based research suggest that too much of folate more than four times the recommended amount may put the baby on the path of autism.

While Vitamin B12 is essentially important for infant's neurodevelopment, too much of it is potentially harmful which triples the risk of a baby developing an autism spectrum disorder. The risk even jumps to 17.6 times if both levels are dangerously high.

According to Time Magazine, the research involved taking blood tests of nearly 1, 400 women one to three days after giving birth. Upon close examination, 10% of these mothers recorded extremely high levels of folic acid above the recommended amounts which raises the likelihood of their babies to be diagnosed with autism.

Of course, taking supplemental folate is still highly recommended for women in their pregnancy. As per CTV News, several studies have also repeatedly associated folate deficiencies in early pregnancy to a number of birth defects and increased risk for developing autism. That is why public health officials in North America and elsewhere around the world started recommending daily intake of folate to expectant mothers since the 1990's. In addition, the government also began requiring the addition of folate in many grain products.

What the new study seeks to emphasize, however, is that too much of it also leads to a number of neurodevelopment deficiencies.

"Adequate supplementation is protective: That's still the story with folic acid. We have long known that a folate deficiency in pregnant mothers is detrimental to her child's development," said M. Daniele Fallin, one of the study's senior authors and director of Wendy Klag Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities as quoted by The Hub.

"But what this tells us is that excessive amounts may also cause harm. We must aim for optimal levels of this important nutrient."