Folic acid may reduce risk of autism
By: Nikki Henderson
Updated: February 13, 2013
If you're planning on having a baby, taking folic acid could lower the chance of your child having autism.
A group of Norwegian researchers followed 85,176 babies born between 2002 and 2008 for three to 10 years to determine whether their mother's use of folic acid supplements influenced the risk of developing an autism spectrum disorder.
The Autism Birth Cohort study focused on women who had taken folic acid for 4 weeks before they became pregnant until 8 weeks after the start of the pregnancy.
At the conclusion of the study women who had taken the supplements in early pregnancy had a 40 percent reduced risk of having a child with autistic disorder than didwomen who had not taken the supplement.
The findings were published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
