Autism-Antidepressant Link Affirmed by Johns Hopkins Review
Mothers who take antidepressants while pregnant are more likely to have children later diagnosed with autism, according to a review from Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health and several past studies. These drugs, known as SSRIs (or serotonin reuptake inhibitors), are some of the most popular prescriptions in the U.S. and they come with a host of horrific side effects. Potentially causing autism in children is only one reason why you should think twice before taking them.
About one-third of autistic children have elevated levels of serotonin. This neurotransmitter is, among other things, partially responsible for mood regulation and the ability to focus. It is the main target of the largest class of antidepressants known as SSRIs. Researchers with Johns Hopkins surmise that SSRIs taken during pregnancy and prior to pregnancy inhibit the baby’s brain from using and processing serotonin correctly, ultimately leading to what we know today as autism.
Read: 5 Natural Solutions for Avoiding and Treating Depression
One-in-ten Americans are on antidepressants, many of them women. This research suggests any woman hoping to one day have children should seek alternatives if she is suffering from depression and taking antidepressants. In 2011, a study from Kaiser Permanente in Northern California found that mothers who had taken SSRIs during their first trimester of pregnancy were four times more likely to have a child with autism than mothers who didn’t take SSRIs at all.
Overall, those who took antidepressants at any time during pregnancy were twice as likely to give birth to an autistic child. But it isn’t only antidepressants that mothers should be aware of, but the astronomical number of hormone-disrupting chemicals we encounter on a daily basis. In other words, this research linking SSRIs and high circulating serotonin levels with autistic children might be considered the canary in the coal mine.
Read: Study Links Gluten Sensitivity with Autism
The one consistent parallel with the dramatic increase in autism over the past few decades has been the dramatically increased use of these chemical toxins amongst our foods, water, air, vaccines, and living spaces. For mothers who are on antidepressants or who are looking for natural solutions to depression, an honest analysis of your diet and lifestyle may be in order. Research has shown exercise, for example, to be as effective as drugs in the treatment of depression. And exercise delivers relief without the side effects.
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Thanks for this useful, but scary, information. Just one more example of how Big Pharma creates new business for themselves. And now, with Obamacare, we all will have the opportunity to get “preventive” care that causes whole new problems later on. Anyone who accepts this kind of “health care” because it is *FREE* is a fool.
The ACA is not free. It is available to those who need it. FREE healthcare already exists for those who can’t afford it. The ACA is for those who aren’t eligible for the free stuff, but needs affordable healthcare. The key word is affordable…Which means it will be paid for. I would speak more on the matter, but I assume from this comment that any conversation would be riddled with inconsistencies and ‘stuff you heard’ rather than research based facts.
Yes, Eddie, I realize that. I was speaking ironically and not trying to be perfectly accurate. I already pay quite a bit monthly for nutrients that science has shown to give us much lower risks for all the common diseases, both degenerative and communicable. I don’t want to be forced to pay for the pharmaceutical industry’s ideas of “prevention”, which are in fact a very expensive method to find some pretext for pushing the patient into some unnecessary and intrusive procedure that I, after much study of the typical results, don’t choose to have.
If you like this kind of medicine, you are welcomed to pay for it. I don’t want it, nor do I want to be coerced into paying for it. I don’t want to be forced to pay for the ill-advised habits of those who create their own chronic diseases, either.
Are you a Republican?
I’m a Ron Paul Republican. I resent being forced to pay for a type of health care I don’t want.
Well, the good news about SSRI’s is that, for the moment at least, one has a choice whether to take them or not. According to Josh del Sol, producer of the documentary, Take Back Your Power, researchers examined the “natal environments” where mothers had lived during pregnancy, and they found the locations housing future autistic children had 21 times the wifi band range microwave energy density than that housing future healthy children.
total nonsense