the evolving mind

For some time now, the anti-vaxers have been claiming that vaccines cause autism. And by not vaccinating their children they are causing, in the least, an increased risk of disease outbreak. Now research suggests not a single cause of autism (there are likely to be many contributing factors), but a potential causal link between a single factor and autism. And moms may be partly to blame.

Holy smokes! What are moms doing–feeding their kids too much mercury-rich fish? Nope. They are simply waiting longer to have children. And that is the factor, maternal age, that new research has linked to autism rates.

Advanced maternal age is linked to a significantly elevated risk of having a child with autism, regardless of the father’s age, according to an exhaustive study of all births in California during the 1990s by UC Davis Health System researchers. Advanced paternal age is associated with elevated autism risk only when the father is older and the mother is under 30, the study found. [source]

Hmm. How can you get mad at moms? They aren’t evil. They aren’t corporations or under government control. Shoot. Autism is bad (at least increased rates of), therefore we have to find something bad to blame.

Next thing we’ll learn is that too much apple pie is linked to drug use. (Maybe just marijuana late at night, and perhaps the link is causal in the other direction.)

Technorati Links: autism, psychology

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