With a new case of autism diagnosed nearly every 20 minutes in the United States, one in every 150 children born in the country have autism, which goes with the estimation of approximately 1 million suffering from the brain development disorder.
Astoundingly, every year, 24,000 new cases of autism are diagnosed in the U.S. alone and the researchers all set to decode the cause at the roots, have come up with a surprising, but interesting finding.
The reason for children’s developing the symptoms of the impairing disorder in social interaction and communication can actually be traced back to their life in their mothers’ womb! - yes, a new study has found that it is a child’s exposure to high levels of testosterone in the womb that lead to his developing more autism-related traits later in life.
Simon Baron-Cohen, director of the Autism Research Centre at Britain’s Cambridge University said,
It is a significant correlation and remains significant after you control for other factors.
But, the mystery behind the spike in testosterone is not yet clear as ‘environment’ can be a possible cause. Although the new finding is thus still to go a long way for establishing a direct link between autism and testosterone, it surely brings hope for future autism treatments or rather prevention at the roots.
