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Autism is on the rise. A study from the US Health and Human Resources found that in the year 2000, it was 1 in 150 kids who had autism. But in the year 2022, it was 1 in 31 kids. Other studies have found that the rates of autism are increasing in the UK, Japan, South Korea, and Denmark. So, what is happening? You may have heard about an environmental toxin. There are claims of plastics leeching into the placenta causing autism in the brain. There's even new research about Tylenol consumption during pregnancy causing autism in the kid. But today we are going to explain to you exactly what is causing an increase in autism diagnosis so you can understand what to do about it. First of all, what is autism? It can
show up for different people in different ways, but generally it encompasses a harder time communicating, having specific focused interests, problems with routine when it's disrupted, intense reactions to bright lights, loud noises, and annoying stimuli, and autism spectrum disorder or ASD is a spectrum, so it will vary from person to person. Why is there an increase in autism diagnosis recently? One hot area of research is air pollution exposure during pregnancy. The tiny particles we breathe in can get passed down to the placenta and potentially into the developing brain. A study on 8,000 children and mothers found that higher exposure to ozone in
the atmosphere was associated with autism. The thing is that these air pollutants that are being studied have actually been decreasing in society recently. So, it does not explain why there's been an increase in autism diagnosis. Another popular idea in the media right now is that Tylenol consumption during pregnancy can cause autism. Typically, pregnant people are told that Tylenol or acetaminophen is safer to take than Advil or ibuprofen, as Advil can impact blood flow to the fetus and has been linked to congenital birth defects. But more recent concern is that Tylenol may be affecting sex hormones and acting as an endocrine disruptor. Not all studies found issues with Tylenol in pregnancy in this way,
but enough did in order for there to be a concern about its impact on children. A 2021 consensus statement in Nature Journal suggested people should stop taking Tylenol during pregnancy. But a more recent study in 2024 found something else. This recent study followed almost 2.5 million children in Scandinavia over a 24-year period. It looked at data on the parents, how much Tylenol they consumed, a lot of other information about their medical records. And this was all due to huge public records that are taken in Scandinavia. These studies did at first find that parents or mothers who were taking Tylenol, their kids had a 20 to 30% increased chance of having autism. But then they started to factor in other things that could be at play. For
example, the age of the mom, which is also known to have an impact on causing autism. Accounting for age alone took the cause of autism from Tylenol down from 30% to 5%. This is because it has been found that the age of the parent does have an impact on the kid's chance of having autism. Right now in the US, 3.2% of kids have autism. But if your mother happens to be over the age of 40, that increases from 3.2% to 5.6%. A similar increase is also seen if the sperm is coming from a father who is over 40 years old. When age is factored in, the impact of Tylenol starts to decrease and then the impact from Tylenol completely flatlines when you take into consideration genetics.
Depending on the study, it has been found that autism has an inheritability of 70 to 90% which is similar to the inheritability of height. Family history of autism is one of the strongest risk factors. For example, if one sibling has autism, it's more likely that the other will as well. When it comes to identical twin studies, when one has autism, it's extremely likely the other will as well. So, if you are a mother on the spectrum, you're more likely to have a kid who will also be on the spectrum. And something so interesting that came out of this study was that mothers on the spectrum are more likely to take Tylenol because they have increased pain during pregnancy and increased chance of
migraines. Essentially, when genetics is considered, Tylenol stops becoming a huge risk factor when it comes to autism. This doesn't mean that as a pregnant mother, you don't have the autonomy to talk to your doctor about taking Advil or Tylenol. Maybe you don't want to do those things just to decrease risk, and that's completely fine. But right now we need to understand what is being talked about in regards to Tylenol causing autism. So this is the real reason why there's an increase in autism recently. This is important information. Please share this widely because the idea of autism being caused by something specific is being co-opted in the media right now. The real reason from a
research and scientific perspective for an increase in autism is diagnostic testing. In the 1960s to be considered diagnosed with autism, you mostly had to be non-verbal. In the 1980s, the diagnostic shifted and started to include children who were hyperfixated on specific things. In the early 1990s, it was only diagnosed in young children and required to meet less criteria than the decade before. And a huge reason why there is an increase in diagnosis recently is that adults can now be diagnosed with autism. In the past, you had to be a child. In 2013, Asperger syndrome was no longer separated from ASD and was looped into autism spectrum disorder, increasing the amount of
people with autism again, with a study finding that the 60% increase in autism from 1980 to 2011 was due to how the diagnosis was changed. More recent studies are finding that the increase now in autism diagnosis is due to a change in the public perception of autism. The decreased stigma in teachers and parents is calling for people and children to get diagnosed more often. An increase in diagnostic testing as well as an increase in support services has decrease the stigma of ASD and therefore cause more people to self-identify or get diagnosed with it. A survey of parents in 2024 found that they are more likely to seek a diagnosis for their kid than ever before. For example, in this survey, they asked parents if their kid,
say for example, was told that they were having bad behavior in classrooms, what would they do? more likely than ever they will seek a diagnosis of ASD. Not to mention that in the past, girls and women were often misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed with autism. In more recent years, girls and women are seeking out diagnosis for autism. Sven, a professor of child and adolescent psychiatric science, says we don't see an epidemic in autism, but we see an epidemic of diagnosis. Another important thing to remember here is that the complexity of the brain, the complexity of genetics, it's going to be very hard, almost impossible to figure out a specific one thing that causes autism.
We should always be skeptical if someone tries to say this is the exact reason why autism is being caused in people because it's an extremely complex disorder. Not to mention that many people in the ASD community are more interested in research going into how to help people with ASD, not trying to figure out exactly what causes it. Thank you so much for watching. We'll put a link to our podcast where we talk even more about the specific disorder as well as how certain governments and media are trying to co-opt the narrative of autism to maybe push another agenda. Thank you so much for watching this video. Share with anyone who might be interested and we'll see you soon for some new science.
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