"Shocking" new study... Should you beware your prenatal?

 If you're pregnant, still nursing, and have access to media you probably heard this CRAZY new study that was released on Wednesday  (May 2016, as I type). 

Now, before I dive in, I want to just express my extreme disappointment with many of our current media outlets. The amount of sensationalism that clouded this study was done extremely irresponsibly.... more on that later :) 

I searched and searched for the abstract for this study online and I couldn't find anything official. The best article I could find that shared more specific study details can be found here: 

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/863216

Allow me to summarize:

A long-term study was performed at John Hopkins University in Baltimore that focused on low-income, minority women who gave birth between 1998 and 2013. They analyzed the data of nearly 1400 women and found that 107 of them gave birth to children who were later diagnosed as having an autism spectrum disorder. 

They found a relationship (*not causation*) between the women that consumed excessive amounts of Vitamin B-12 and Folic Acid during their pregnancy. (I'm not sure what stages the blood samples were collected). They study infers that the women who had high levels of both vitamins were 17.6 times more likely to have a baby with ASDs (Autism Spectrum Disorder). 

NOW- 

Here are my list of red flags: 

1) This study is not yet "sufficiently peer reviewed" or even published. It will need to be further investigated whether this information is deemed valid. 

2) Several studies in the US and abroad have found that taking regular folic acid during and after pregnancy can Reduce the risk of autism. So although a higher level of either Folic Acid or B-12 may appear dangerous, a regular dosage may actually be helpful for prevention of ASD. 

(For more information please visit this link) 

3) Folic acid plays a very real part in preventing severe spinal cord and brain disorders in unborn babies. This is why the US government started adding it to breads and cereals many years ago.

(For more on Folic acid, please visit my previous blog post here.)

The Takeaway: 

If you're truly concerned that you may have been overdoing it on your prenatals ... go see your doctor and have some blood work done. Nearly every legitimate article I have read have stressed the importance of continuing prenatal vitamins until further research has been completed. 

So there you go, one less thing to stress about during pregnancy! If you have more information on this study, please share it in the comments section below!! 

Happy Healthy Babybaking :) 

xo Sarah Ann