Hope for Autism.

We all love nothing more than our children, and the thought of having an autistic child is frightening. Autism's behavioral, social, verbal and non-verbaldisturbances affect children in major ways. Autism is a mysterious disorder; there is little understanding of its cause. What causes Autism? A short time ago, the only sentence that we can say “we have no idea.” Fortunately, the researchers are recently starting to deliver the answers. We now understand that there isn't a single cause for autism, we also know that there are multiple types of autism. Recently, researchers have reported a scale of gene polymorphisms linked to autism. However, only some of these polymorphisms are capable of causing autism directly. Both of gene polymorphisms and environmental factors affecting brain growth appear to be the cause of major cases of autism.

If the genetic risk factor for autism is present, a number of nongenetic, or “environmental,” factors are also having a role in increasing a child’s chance for becoming autistic. The risk factors for autism include what happened before and through birth, for example old parental age at time of pregnancy - both mother and father, not just the mother; maternal diseases; and some complications during birth, especially fetus’ brain oxygen deprivation. It is very important note that autism risk factors do not cause autism by themselves. But, in addition to genetic factors, they can increase the risk. Recent growing research reports that a mother can decrease her risk of delivering an autistic baby by taking folic acid tablets and/or eating meals rich in folic acid (500 mcg per day) during the months before and after pregnancy.(Read more)