Vitamen D in Autism

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, repetitive and stereotyped behaviors, and restricted interests ( Lord et al,2018).

Autism is becoming increasingly common. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the prevalence of autism among 8-year-old children in the United States in 2016 was 1/54, with a 4.3:1 ratio of males to females ( Maenner et al ,2020).

Autistic individuals manifest problematic behaviors, such as attacking, self-injury, resistance to orders, and failure of normal conversation, and are usually comorbid with social-anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity, sleep-wake disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. As such, it is difficult for them to obtain the same education levels as their neurotypical peers, find full-time jobs, or live independently ( Lord et al,2018),( Lai et al , 2019) .

Fortunately, evidence indicates that appropriate and early intervention could help autistic individuals improve their symptoms and life quality (Landa ., 2018).

Notably, research shows that nutritional and dietary intervention is an effective way to improve nutritional status, non-verbal IQ, and autism symptoms (Adams et al ,2018). Therefore, it is essential to identify physiological dysfunction and abnormal nutritional status in autistic individuals and then take corresponding interventions.