Monday, October 6, 2025
  • Who’sWho Africa AWARDS
  • About TimeAfrica Magazine
  • Contact Us
Time Africa Magazine
  • Home
  • Magazine
  • WHO’SWHO AWARDS
  • News
  • World News
    • US
    • UAE
    • Europe
    • UK
    • Israel-Hamas
    • Russia-Ukraine
  • Politics
  • Crime
  • Lifestyle
  • Sports
  • Column
  • Interviews
  • Special Report
No Result
View All Result
Time Africa Magazine
  • Home
  • Magazine
  • WHO’SWHO AWARDS
  • News
  • World News
    • US
    • UAE
    • Europe
    • UK
    • Israel-Hamas
    • Russia-Ukraine
  • Politics
  • Crime
  • Lifestyle
  • Sports
  • Column
  • Interviews
  • Special Report
No Result
View All Result
Time Africa Magazine
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • WHO’SWHO AWARDS
  • News
  • Magazine
  • World News

Home » Health » Scientists may have discovered shocking cause of autism

Scientists may have discovered shocking cause of autism

August 9, 2024
in Health
0
547
SHARES
4.6k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

A common plastic additive found in everything from pacifiers to metal food cans to even paper receipts has been linked to an increased risk of autism in boys.

The new research, which tracked the development of over 600 infants, found that higher levels of chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in a pregnant mother’s urine more than tripled the chances that a young boy would develop autism symptoms by age two.

Worse, those same boys were six times more likely to be diagnosed with autism by age 11 — compared to those whose mothers had lower BPA levels during pregnancy.

BPA, a chemical intended to harden plastics and prevent metals from rusting, among other uses, has also been linked to higher risks of obesity, asthma, diabetes, and heart diseases across over two decades of increasing scrutiny on the compound.

ReadAlso

Breakthrough as US researchers ‘crack the autism code’

Autism Can Be Reversed, Scientists Discover

It has also been has been dubbed a ‘gender-bending’ chemical due to its apparent role spurring hormonal and sexual disruptions in humans, fish and other species.

But the new study not only identified the apparent link, it also uncovered evidence toward unravelling the specific chemical reactions that contribute to autism cases.

ADVERTISEMENT

‘Our work is important because it demonstrates one of the biological mechanisms potentially involved,’ epidemiologist and public health physician Dr Anne-Louise Ponsonby, said in a statement on her team’s study.

BPA can disrupt hormone-controlled, male fetal brain development in several ways,’ Dr Ponsonby explained, ‘including silencing a key enzyme, aromatase, that controls neurohormones and is especially important in fetal male brain development.’

Aromatase, the new study noted, helps to convert some male sex hormones in the brain, known as neural androgens, into neural estrogens.

These estrogens help all people, regardless of gender, to regulate inflammation in the brain, maintain the flexibility of the synapses that help neurons communication within the whole nervous system and also aid in managing of cholesterols.

The brain is the human body’s most cholesterol-rich organ — employing roughly 20 percent of the whole body’s stores of these fatty molecules to do its vital functions.

We found that BPA suppresses the aromatase enzyme and is associated with anatomical, neurological and behavioral changes,’ reported study coauthor and biochemist Dr Wah Chin Boon.

‘This appears to be part of the autism puzzle,’ Dr Ponsonby said.

The team’s research, published this Wednesday in the journal Nature Communications, took two separate research approaches to arrive at these findings.

First, it drilled-down into data collected since 2010 by two Australian universities who have been tracking a battery of health metrics for over 1,000 participating children and their parents, known as the Barwon Infant Study (BIS) birth cohort.

Within the BIS data, 676 infants had sufficient testing on early age autism symptoms for the team to draw statistical conclusions.

These assessments, drawn from the Autism Spectrum Problems scale of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL ASP), were weighted to cancel out for any genetic predispositions or other variables to isolate the role that BPA plays during pregnancy.

The result of this weighted analysis was that young boys with ‘low aromatase activity’ were discovered to be 3.56 times more likely to show signs of autism by age two.

This continued as the boys aged, they noted: ‘CBCL ASP at age two years predicted diagnosed autism strongly at age for and moderately at age nine.’

The connection to an autism diagnosis was true for 92 percent of the four-year-olds and 70 percent of the nine-year-olds, their study found.

But the team also conducted tests on lab mice in an effort to understand how BPA undermines this critical aromatase activity and what treatments may help combat it.

During those tests, the team experimented with the addition of a type of fatty acid called 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic (10HDA) which they found could help mitigate the negative impact that BPA plays on the developing brain’s aromatase system.

‘When administered to animals that have been prenatally exposed to BPA,’ Dr Boon explained, ’10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid shows early indications of potential in activating opposing biological pathways.’

10HDA, a major fatty lipid ingredient found naturally in the royal jelly of honeybees, competes inside the brain with BPA, preventing the disruptive compound from binding to estrogen receptors.

In their mouse studies, the addition of 10HDA to the BPA-exposed male mice improved their ability to socialize with other mice.

‘It warrants further studies to see whether this potential treatment could be realized in humans,’ Dr Boon said.

Source: MailOnline

Tags: AutismScientist
ADVERTISEMENT
Previous Post

Issa Hayatou, Former CAF President, Is Dead

Next Post

Enugu Former Commissioner, Dr. John Egbo, takes ‘Aku Ruo Uno’ campaign to America

You MayAlso Like

Health

Poor sleep could make your brain age faster, study finds

October 3, 2025
Health

‘Miracle’ HIV drug to be sold at knock-down price in over 100 countries

September 25, 2025
A vial of lenacapavir, the twice-yearly injectable H.I.V. prevention drug marketed as Yeztugo.Credit...Nardus Engelbrecht/Associated Press
Health

Philanthropies Strike a Promising Deal to Turn Back H.I.V.

September 25, 2025
A patient suffering from Mpox AFP/Getty
Health

How Mpox revealed an epidemic of untreated HIV in Sierra Leone

September 20, 2025
Health

$10 million contraceptive bound for Africa destroyed

September 13, 2025
Health

Mpox no longer international health emergency but remains concern in Africa

September 8, 2025
Next Post
Dr. John Egbo address the audience

Enugu Former Commissioner, Dr. John Egbo, takes ‘Aku Ruo Uno’ campaign to America

All 61 on board dead after passenger plane crashed in fiery wreck

Discussion about this post

Kingdom in Crisis: Ogwashi-Uku Rejects Obi’s Land Grab, Villages Ready to Declare Autonomy

Faked or Factual: UNN Contradictory Claims on Minister Uche Nnaji Certificate Raise Questions of Credibility

Woman appointed Archbishop of Canterbury 

Certificate Scandal: University of Nigeria Declares Minister Uche Nnaji Never Graduated

A Minister of Lies?: Uche Nnaji’s Certificate Scandal and the Collapse of Credibility in Nigerian Governance

FIFA Strips South Africa of World Cup Qualifying Points After Administrative Blunder

  • British government apologizes to Peter Obi, as hired impostors, master manipulators on rampage abroad

    1242 shares
    Share 497 Tweet 311
  • Maids trafficked and sold to wealthy Saudis on black market

    1067 shares
    Share 427 Tweet 267
  • Flight Attendant Sees Late Husband On Plane

    973 shares
    Share 389 Tweet 243
  • ‘Céline Dion Dead 2023’: Singer killed By Internet Death Hoax

    904 shares
    Share 361 Tweet 226
  • Crisis echoes, fears grow in Amechi Awkunanaw in Enugu State

    735 shares
    Share 294 Tweet 184
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest

British government apologizes to Peter Obi, as hired impostors, master manipulators on rampage abroad

April 13, 2023

Maids trafficked and sold to wealthy Saudis on black market

December 27, 2022
Flight Attendant Sees Late Husband On Plane

Flight Attendant Sees Late Husband On Plane

September 22, 2023
‘Céline Dion Dead 2023’: Singer killed By Internet Death Hoax

‘Céline Dion Dead 2023’: Singer killed By Internet Death Hoax

March 21, 2023
Chief Mrs Ebelechukwu, wife of Willie Obiano, former governor of Anambra state

NIGERIA: No, wife of Biafran warlord, Bianca Ojukwu lied – Ebele Obiano:

0

SOUTH AFRICA: TO LEAVE OR NOT TO LEAVE?

0
kelechi iheanacho

TOP SCORER: IHEANACHA

0
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan

WHAT CAN’TBE TAKEN AWAY FROM JONATHAN

0

Why the Renewed Certificate Forgery Allegation Against Uche Nnaji Is Nothing But Desperate Cheap Propaganda

October 6, 2025

A Minister of Lies?: Uche Nnaji’s Certificate Scandal and the Collapse of Credibility in Nigerian Governance

October 6, 2025
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden pose for photo line photos with delegation heads of the U.S.-Africa Leader Summit, Wednesday, December 14, 2022, in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

Paul Biya, Coup Risks Lurking in Cameroon

October 6, 2025

Kingdom in Crisis: Ogwashi-Uku Rejects Obi’s Land Grab, Villages Ready to Declare Autonomy

October 5, 2025

ABOUT US

Time Africa Magazine

TIMEAFRICA MAGAZINE is an African Magazine with a culture of excellence; a magazine without peer. Nearly a third of its readers hold advanced degrees and include novelists, … READ MORE >>

SECTIONS

  • Aviation
  • Column
  • Crime
  • Europe
  • Featured
  • Gallery
  • Health
  • Interviews
  • Israel-Hamas
  • Lifestyle
  • Magazine
  • Middle-East
  • News
  • Politics
  • Press Release
  • Russia-Ukraine
  • Science
  • Special Report
  • Sports
  • TV/Radio
  • UAE
  • UK
  • US
  • World News

Useful Links

  • AllAfrica
  • Channel Africa
  • El Khabar
  • The Guardian
  • Cairo Live
  • Le Republicain
  • Magazine: 9771144975608
  • Subscribe to TIMEAFRICA MAGAZINE biweekly news magazine

    Enjoy handpicked stories from around African continent,
    delivered anywhere in the world

    Subscribe

    • About TimeAfrica Magazine
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
    • WHO’SWHO AWARDS

    © 2025 TimeAfrica Magazine - All Right Reserved. TimeAfrica Magazine Ltd is published by Times Associates, registered Nigeria. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service.

    No Result
    View All Result
    • WHO’SWHO AWARDS
    • Politics
    • Column
    • Interviews
    • Gallery
    • Lifestyle
    • Special Report
    • Sports
    • TV/Radio
    • Aviation
    • Health
    • Science
    • World News

    © 2025 TimeAfrica Magazine - All Right Reserved. TimeAfrica Magazine Ltd is published by Times Associates, registered Nigeria. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service.

    This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.