Dr Ros Jones
Dr Tim Kelly and Dr Clare Craig have recently published a fascinating review article on the Researchgate platform, entitled Disruption of Cerebral Folate Metabolism as a Unifying Framework for Autism Spectrum Disorder Risk and Causation. They were both interviewed the following day by John Campbell, and Clare has also done a full video going through details of their paper.
This article and the interview are particularly timely, as there is a plan for folic acid to be mandated as an additive in all flour, including even organic flour, from 2026 in the UK (and manufacturers are already doing so). That all sounds very innocuous, why not fortify our bread with a vitamin, deficiency of which in pregnancy has been linked to neural tube defects, namely anencephaly and spina bifida? Indeed the US have had fortified flour since 1999 and similar supplements are in place in Europe. The government statement linked here, suggests that the current advice of preconception and early pregnancy folic acid supplementation is inadequate as around 50% of pregnancies in the UK are unplanned. As a result, the entire population of men, women and children are all expected to ingest synthetic folic acid with an aim of preventing maybe 200 neural tube defects which would all be picked up on antenatal ultrasound scanning with an offer of termination for the most severely affected. These claims are questionable – but assuming that it was achievable does not make the decision safe. Moreover, Dr Craig has also raised some question marks over the trials of preconception folic acid supplementation.
But what the official reports do not spell out, is not just that folic acid is synthetic but that according to the British National Formulary (BNF) it is contraindicated in a number of medical conditions in particular those with vitamin B12 deficiency –
“Cautions For folic acid
Should never be given alone for pernicious anaemia or other megaloblastic anaemias caused by vitamin B12 deficiency (may precipitate subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord)”
So there’s a thought, just eating your daily lunch sandwich to which Folic acid has been added without your knowledge or consent, could precipitate a paralysing condition which might be irreversible!
Craig and Kelly’s paper goes through in detail the complexity of folate metabolism including genetic differences in the important enzymes involved. The real irony is that Folic Acid supplementation, especially for those with quite common genetic variations, leads to excess folic acid levels which bind to the relevant enzymes thus blocking metabolism of natural folate. Indeed a HART subscriber wrote to me recently to share a letter she has sent to her MP – her grandmother landed up wheelchair bound from Vitamin B12 deficiency and she and several of her family share the same gene mutation. She is not the only person who is questioning why on earth we need the entire population to take a synthetic product with potential for harm rather than the focused advice of natural folate supplements to those planning a pregnancy. Her MP initially sent the standard reply about it reducing the risk of neural tube defects in babies and did not address any of her questions about how she could avoid getting this unnecessary and for her potentially harmful medication. A second letter yielded a more personal reply, but the only reassurance he could give her was that there was an exemption from folic acid supplementation for organic wholegrain (but not white) flour. It seems the government has calculated that 98% of the population use standard flour and I guess they thought that anyone eccentric enough to use organic wholemeal flour could take pot luck with their pregnancy.
It seems this is yet another example of Public Health incompetence and government overreach.
The main target of their discussions, however, is that of autism. In their abstract they describe:
“Using a Capacity–Load–Trigger (CLT) framework: we integrate evidence across genetics, pharmacology, immunology and epidemiology.
- Capacity reflects intrinsic susceptibility (e.g. folate-pathway polymorphisms);
- Load arises from exogenous pressures such as sFA exposure, drugs that deplete one-carbon intermediates, or FRAA-mediated blockade; and
- Triggers include infection, fever, or metabolic stress that break immune tolerance in predisposed hosts.”
They discuss in detail a model in which children with a genetic predisposition might be triggered by any febrile event such as infection or immunisations and this likelihood may be significantly raised by use of synthetic folic acid rather than naturally occurring folate. More to follow soon…
