It is now recognized that zinc can help the autistic brain, and that folic acid, given in high doses to prevent spina bifida and other neural tube defects in fetuses, can it cause autism.
They haven't quite put together yet that folic acid is a cofactor of zinc is some bodily functions, and the extra folic acid reduces the zinc for some people until it is too low to be prioritized to the brain of the fetus.
While folic acid is a cofactor with zinc but there are other things that can reduce zinc, called zinc antagonists.
Among them are copper, aluminum, lithium, cadmium found in cigarettes, lead, Mercury, and possibly fluoride.
Mercury as a zinc antagonist would explain therefore why some people thought their children became autistic as result of vaccines which used Mercury as a preservative.
The chances are that they were on the borderline. But if they had not been given the vaccine, they would never have gone further into Aspergers or Autism. This could easily have been avoided if they took zinc with the vaccine, and some vaccines do still have mercury. This poses a threat to the brains of people who are naturally low in zinc, specifically people with Pyrrole syndrome or copper overload. Women with Pyrrole syndrome are at particular risk for having autistic children if they are not supplemented with extra zinc.
On the other hand, the preservative in vaccines turns into ethylmercury, which becomes an inorganic Mercury that gets lodged in the brain and body for over a year. But it's inorganic, it might not be doing anything at all. Because the timing when people made these accusations and lawsuits is the same time when folic acid was being increased in the diet of pregnant women, not just through vitamins but by having food enriched by it.
It may have played a part, but even if so, it looks like it is not the biggest part.
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These two articles show that another aspect of the problem is that zinc absorption and excretion are both seeming affected by taking folic acid. Certainly it seems that taking folic acid causes more zinc to be excreted via the intestinal route. That certainly implies its not being absorbed, although it is also possible that it is being absorbed and then excreted in combination with something else via the liver.
Note the dates on these. 1984 and 1987. Why has it taken us so long to put this together? My personal awareness started in 2009, but I found five references to this in a book called Epigenetics : How Environment Shapes Our Genes (Hardback, Epigenetics : the ultimate mystery of inheritance) by Richard C Francis, copyrighted 2011.
The problem with science and medicine is that it's a huge ocean, and no one is a big enough fish to catch enough attention to create change in a rapid fashion. So harm might be done that could be avoided, not just because further study is required and testing to make sure the decision is sound and not dangerous, nor the fact that doctors are required to not only treat with things that are safe but are also effective, but simply because there is so much information out there and so many people trying to share it, and not being able to reach the correct decision-makers with the right information, proof, and correct urgency. In this ocean, there are very few big fish.
Milne DB, Canfield WK, Mahalko JR, Sandstead HH. Effect of oral folic acid supplements on zinc, copper, and iron absorption and excretion. Am J Clin Nutr. 1984 Apr;39(4):535-9. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/39.4.535. PMID: 6711464.
Simmer K, Iles CA, James C, Thompson RP. Are iron-folate supplements harmful? Am J Clin Nutr. 1987 Jan;45(1):122-5. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/45.1.122. PMID: 3799496.
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©Deborah Barges Oct 2020 open access