5 ms·

That certainly doesn't explain an awful lot of cases. Two of the most fit women I knew had autistic kids in their early 20s. And "blame the mother" has a really

That certainly doesn't explain an awful lot of cases. Two of the most fit women I knew had autistic kids in their early 20s. And "blame the mother" has a really bad history for autism.

notahacker 6y ago
Surely increased emphasis on actually diagnosing it has to be one of the bigger drivers.
astrange 6y ago
I once read a theory that it was caused by different prenatal nutrition and lack of Vitamin D, which of course involves the mother but I wouldn't call blaming her since, as they say, it takes a village. Not sure if people currently believe this or not.
- madamelic 6y ago
  > lack of vitamin D Wouldn't that mean we would see more autistic kids further away from the equator and born from April to June?
  - ruined 6y ago
    autism does correlate with birth month https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3296777/?report=classic https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3296777/?report... and does seem to be more prevalent in particular latitudes, though that may be an effect of social/industrial/economic conditions.
    - madamelic 6y ago
      Thanks! That was the perfect paper.
    - ArkanExplorer 6y ago
      Somali children in Sweden are 3-4x more likely to be Autistic than Swedish children: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23221308_Prevalence_of_autism_in_children_born_to_Somali_parents_living_in_Sweden_A_brief_report https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23221308_Prevalence... 73% of pregnant Somali women in Sweden are Vitamin D deficient vs 5% of pregnant Swedish women: https://www.alliedacademies.org/articles/vitamin-dbinding-protein-in-somali-women-living-in-sweden-was-low-and-unaffectedby-treatment-8802.html https://www.alliedacademies.org/articles/vitamin-dbinding-pr...
      - thaumasiotes 6y ago
        > 73% of pregnant Somali women in Sweden are Vitamin D deficient vs 5% of pregnant Swedish women You have to be careful with those claims; I believe "Vitamin D deficiency" is one of the medical metrics that isn't race-normed. But there's no reason to expect Somalis to have the same natural level of Vitamin D that Swedes do.
        rarefied_tomato 6y ago
        Given the terrible health consequences of deficiency, I think assuming racial difference in healthy vitamin D levels is a more dangerous claim that requires a burden of proof. Melanin absorbs the UV light our bodies use to produce vitamin D. It is an important public health issue for people with darker skin living in temperate or polar areas to get enough vitamin D. Lack of vitamin D for people with darker skin is the inverse of paler people being at risk of burns in sunny areas.
      - selimthegrim 6y ago
        I thought a complaint that Somalis in Minnesota had was that autism in their kids was disproportionately (not sure about exact meaning of this term) "low-functioning"
        astrange 6y ago
        Low/high functioning isn't really a specific medical term, but basically it just means if you can live on your own or not. If you're not only high functioning but gifted* then you're "twice exceptional". * school term that supposedly means exceptionally intelligent, sometimes gets you to a different school/class for smart kids, but actually it's like special education for kids too fast/nerdy to be in regular classes without going nuts
  - astrange 6y ago
    Only if you assume everyone has the same diet, biology, and tendency to stay inside as each other and as previous generations, which isn't true. There would definitely be an effect but you'd have to do things like blood tests, I don't think you can easily predict which people are deficient.
- skissane 6y ago
  > I once read a theory that it was caused by One thing that is almost certainly true: ASD doesn't have a single cause. Any theory to explain ASD is, at the very best, only going to explain a minority of cases, and even in those cases quite possibly only partially. ASD is caused by a complex interaction of dozens of poorly understood factors, and the mix of causes differs widely from individual to individual It is a very complex phenomenon, and all simplistic explanations in terms of a single cause are doomed to fail
- ta988 6y ago
  People have linked Vitamin D deficiency to so many diseases that I think it shows more of the statistocal-slopyness disease than anything else.
icelancer 6y ago
> That certainly doesn't explain an awful lot of cases. Doesn't need to explain all of the cases, or even a large minority of them. If it's a significant factor - but a minor one - it will add to the total. (Sources in another comment I posted)

That certainly doesn't explain an awful lot of cases. Two of the most fit women I knew had autistic kids in their early 20s. And "blame the mother" has a really bad history for autism.

notahacker 6y ago

Surely increased emphasis on actually diagnosing it has to be one of the bigger drivers.

astrange 6y ago

I once read a theory that it was caused by different prenatal nutrition and lack of Vitamin D, which of course involves the mother but I wouldn't call blaming her since, as they say, it takes a village. Not sure if people currently believe this or not.

madamelic 6y ago
> lack of vitamin D Wouldn't that mean we would see more autistic kids further away from the equator and born from April to June?
- ruined 6y ago
  autism does correlate with birth month https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3296777/?report=classic https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3296777/?report... and does seem to be more prevalent in particular latitudes, though that may be an effect of social/industrial/economic conditions.
  - madamelic 6y ago
    Thanks! That was the perfect paper.
  - ArkanExplorer 6y ago
    Somali children in Sweden are 3-4x more likely to be Autistic than Swedish children: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23221308_Prevalence_of_autism_in_children_born_to_Somali_parents_living_in_Sweden_A_brief_report https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23221308_Prevalence... 73% of pregnant Somali women in Sweden are Vitamin D deficient vs 5% of pregnant Swedish women: https://www.alliedacademies.org/articles/vitamin-dbinding-protein-in-somali-women-living-in-sweden-was-low-and-unaffectedby-treatment-8802.html https://www.alliedacademies.org/articles/vitamin-dbinding-pr...
    - thaumasiotes 6y ago
      > 73% of pregnant Somali women in Sweden are Vitamin D deficient vs 5% of pregnant Swedish women You have to be careful with those claims; I believe "Vitamin D deficiency" is one of the medical metrics that isn't race-normed. But there's no reason to expect Somalis to have the same natural level of Vitamin D that Swedes do.
      - rarefied_tomato 6y ago
        Given the terrible health consequences of deficiency, I think assuming racial difference in healthy vitamin D levels is a more dangerous claim that requires a burden of proof. Melanin absorbs the UV light our bodies use to produce vitamin D. It is an important public health issue for people with darker skin living in temperate or polar areas to get enough vitamin D. Lack of vitamin D for people with darker skin is the inverse of paler people being at risk of burns in sunny areas.
    - selimthegrim 6y ago
      I thought a complaint that Somalis in Minnesota had was that autism in their kids was disproportionately (not sure about exact meaning of this term) "low-functioning"
      - astrange 6y ago
        Low/high functioning isn't really a specific medical term, but basically it just means if you can live on your own or not. If you're not only high functioning but gifted* then you're "twice exceptional". * school term that supposedly means exceptionally intelligent, sometimes gets you to a different school/class for smart kids, but actually it's like special education for kids too fast/nerdy to be in regular classes without going nuts
- astrange 6y ago
  Only if you assume everyone has the same diet, biology, and tendency to stay inside as each other and as previous generations, which isn't true. There would definitely be an effect but you'd have to do things like blood tests, I don't think you can easily predict which people are deficient.
skissane 6y ago
> I once read a theory that it was caused by One thing that is almost certainly true: ASD doesn't have a single cause. Any theory to explain ASD is, at the very best, only going to explain a minority of cases, and even in those cases quite possibly only partially. ASD is caused by a complex interaction of dozens of poorly understood factors, and the mix of causes differs widely from individual to individual It is a very complex phenomenon, and all simplistic explanations in terms of a single cause are doomed to fail
ta988 6y ago
People have linked Vitamin D deficiency to so many diseases that I think it shows more of the statistocal-slopyness disease than anything else.

icelancer 6y ago

> That certainly doesn't explain an awful lot of cases. Doesn't need to explain all of the cases, or even a large minority of them. If it's a significant factor - but a minor one - it will add to the total. (Sources in another comment I posted)