Acetaminophen, antibiotics, ear infection, breastfeeding, vitamin D drops, and autism: an epidemiological study
Published 31 May 2018 Volume 2018:14 Pages 1399—1414. DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S158811
Seth Scott Bittker,1 Kathleen Roberta Bell 2
1 Interdisciplinary Center for Innovative Theory and Empirics (INCITE), Columbia University, New York, NY, USA;
2 Independent Contractor, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Acetaminophen
- Acetaminophen (Tylenol) increases asthma
- Hypothesis: Acetaminophen reduces vitamin D, which increases asthma
- Tylenol associated with both low vitamin D and Autism
- ADHD 2 X more likely if Tylenol used a lot during pregnancy (Autism increased too) – Dec 2016
Antibiotics
- Autism associated with low gut flora (due to antibiotics) – Mercola Oct 2014
- 5 Antibiotic courses raised risk of diabetes by 37 percent (200,000 diabetics, more than 1 year after antibiotic) - 2015, 2016
- Antibiotics, even short-term, cause long-term microbiome and metabolic changes in mice – June 2015
- Antibiotic usage US map is very similar to obesity US map - June 2015
Antibiotics and Vitamin D are associated with many of the same diseases contains the following
Strong indications in Missing Microbes that early antibiotics increases the risk of obesity
- Farmers have been giving low-level anitbiotics to animals since they learned long ago that it would increase by 10% the animal weight without increased cost of feed
- Mice given low-level antibiotics for first 4 weeks of life become heavier later in life
- Children who are given antibiotics in first 6 months of life are 5X more likely to become obese (study in England of 14,000 births)
- US States which get the most antibiotics are those states with the most obesity (CDC)
- Obese US adults have 1/2 of the gut biotic diversity of non-obese adults (400,000 vs 800,000)
- Germ-Free mice became obese when given fecal transplants from mice who had antibiotics and became obese
This is a strong indication that the cause of the obesity was the gut microbiome
 Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki
Background: While many studies have examined environmental risk factors for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), much of the research focus has been on prenatal or perinatal factors. Yet, the postnatal environment may affect the risk of ASD as well.
Objective: To determine whether a set of five postnatal variables are associated with ASD. These variables are: acetaminophen exposure, antibiotic exposure, incidence of ear infection, decreased duration of breastfeeding, and decreased consumption of oral vitamin D drops.
Materials and methods: An Internet-based survey was conducted. Participants were parents living in the USA with at least one biological child between 3 and 12 years of age. Potential participants were informed about the survey via postings on social media, websites, and listservs and were offered an opportunity to participate in a raffle as well. Participants were also recruited through the Interactive Autism Network.
Results: There were 1,741 completed survey responses. After exclusions, there remained 1,001 responses associated with children with ASD (cases) and 514 responses associated with children who do not have ASD (controls). In this data set, doses of postnatal acetaminophen (adjusted odds ratio aOR 1.016, CI: 1.003–1.032, p=0.026), courses of postnatal antibiotics (aOR 1.103, CI: 1.046–1.168, p<0.001), incidence of postnatal ear infection (aOR 1.137, CI: 1.046–1.236, p=0.003), and decreased duration of breastfeeding (aOR 0.948, CI: 0.932–0.965, p<0.001) are all associated with ASD when adjusted for eight demographic variables. A weak association between oral vitamin D drop exposure and ASD was also found when adjusted for breastfeeding and demographics (aOR 1.025, CI: 0.995–1.056, p=0.102).
Conclusion: This study adds to evidence that postnatal acetaminophen use, postnatal antibiotic use, incidence of ear infection, and early weaning are associated with an increased risk of ASD. It also finds that postnatal oral vitamin D drops are weakly associated with ASD when adjusted for breastfeeding and demographics.