Is Vitamin D Deficiency to Blame for Autism?

From: Life Extension Magazine March 2008
Author: Dale Kiefer

A new theory may explain the dramatic rise in autism cases seen in recent decades, while offering a simple "cure" for the alarming epidemic. Dr. John Cannell, a physician who has previously proposed a link between seasonally dwindling vitamin D levels and susceptibility to influenza, has published a novel hypothesis regarding vitamin D's implications for the developmental brain disorder, autism. Published in Medical Hypotheses, he proposes that physician- encouraged sunlight avoidance has contributed to widespread vitamin D deficiency.

"Animal data has repeatedly shown that severe vitamin D deficiency during gestation [adversely affects] dozens of proteins involved in brain development," writes Dr. Cannell. Vitamin D-deficient rats are born with "increased brain size and enlarged ventricles, abnormalities similar to those found in autistic children." What's more, he notes, "Children with vitamin D-deficient rickets have several autistic markers that apparently disappear with high-dose vitamin D treatment." Autism is also more common at higher latitudes, where vitamin D production is known to be problematic, especially during winter.