After researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital for Children, it is the turn of the team of scientists from the University of Utah, in the United States, to achieve the same result, namely the identification of a link between weight gain during pregnancy and the risks of autism for the unborn child.
According to analyzes by Dr. Deborah Bilder and her team, 51% of women living in Utah had “overweight grain” during pregnancy, and one in three women was overweight before pregnancy, reports the site of the local channel KSL TV. At this time, Deborah Bilder does not recommend any nutritional changes during pregnancy, but notes that excessive weight gain may be closely linked to an increased risk of autism in children.
Researchers at the University of Utah worked with two groups of volunteers. The first included 128 eight-year-old children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (YSA) and 10,920 children of the same age and sex. The second group consisted of 288 autistic children and their siblings. After comparing the two groups, the researchers identified the common variable between pregnancy weight gain and the number of children with autism.
“These results suggest that this weight gain is not the cause of autism, but that it may be a reflection of an underlying process common to this disease, such as abnormal hormone levels or an inflammation, ”says researcher Deborah Bilder. In France, National Institute of Health and Medical Research estimates that around 100,000 young people under the age of 20 have a pervasive developmental disorder. Childhood autism affects around 30,000 of them.
