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President Trump made a major health announcement on Monday, claiming the use of Tylenol during pregnancy may be linked to autism. Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider, a board-certified internal medicine physician, joins CBS News with her reaction.
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By ALI SWENSON and AMANDA SEITZ
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump suggested Monday that the use of Tylenol during pregnancy may contribute to rising autism rates in the U.S., a potential link experts have studied and say is unproven.
Speaking Monday from the White House, the president said women should not take acetaminophen, also known by the brand name Tylenol, “during the entire pregnancy.” He also raised unfounded concerns about vaccines.
The Trump administration has been under immense pressure from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s diverse Make America Healthy Again movement to provide answers on the causes of the marked increase in autism cases in the U.S. in recent years.
Experts say the rise in cases is mainly due to a new definition for the disorder that now includes mild cases on a “spectrum” and better diagnoses. They say there is no single cause to the disorder and say the rhetoric appears to ignore and undermine decades of science into the genetic and environmental factors that can play a role.
The announcement is the latest step the administration, driven by Kennedy and his supporters, has taken to reshape America’s public health landscape.
Beyond cutbacks at federal health agencies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been roiled by disagreements over Kennedy’s vaccine policies. An influential immunization panel stocked by Kennedy with figures who have been critical of vaccines last week changed shot guidance for COVID-19 and other diseases.
Trump on Sunday evening teased Monday’s announcement as a big one, telling reporters, “I think we found an answer to autism.” Experts say that oversells what would be possible from a presidential administration in its first year. They insist more research is needed to conclusively identify whether and how environmental factors may play a role in the disorder.
Kennedy for years has promoted debunked theories that vaccines could be responsible for rising rates of autism, which affects 1 in 31 U.S. children today, according to the CDC. Scientists, doctors and researchers have attributed that increase instead to greater awareness of the disorder and the newer, wide-ranging “spectrum” used to issue diagnoses for people with milder expressions of autism. It’s hard to tell if there may be additional factors behind the increase.
Originally Published:
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For years, Tylenol has generally been considered safe for treating pain and fever — even during pregnancy, when doctors discourage patients from using many medications.
Doctors might even recommend taking Tylenol for pain or fever during pregnancy, because left untreated, they can pose their own health risks.
But recent news reports about the federal government connecting Tylenol to autism have drawn fresh questions about the drug, and concerns.
A few things are clear.
After years of research, no study has shown that acetaminophen, the main ingredient in Tylenol, causes autism. There’s no known single cause of autism, a neurological condition that influences how someone acts and communicates.
But some scientific terms, like “association,” can confuse the issue. There’s some research that says there’s an association between taking acetaminophen during pregnancy and autism. There’s also some research that says there’s not an association.
But either way, there’s an important caveat: “Association” is not the same as causation. That means that research showing an association between the medication and autism doesn’t mean the medication caused autism.
Here’s what else you should know.
After the Wall Street Journal reported on Health Secretary Robert F. Kenndy Jr.’s plans to link Tylenol to autism, leading maternal and prenatal care organizations reiterated their longstanding support for using acetaminophen during pregnancy.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine said acetaminophen is a safe way to treat pain and fever when used in moderation.
“Pregnant patients should not be frightened away from the many benefits of acetaminophen, which is safe and one of the few options pregnant people have for pain relief,” said Dr. Christopher Zahn, ACOG’s chief of clinical practice.
In fact, Dr. Salena Zanotti, an obstetrician and gynecologist, told Cleveland Clinic earlier this year that acetaminophen is considered the safest drug to take during pregnancy for fever and pain.
“When you’re pregnant, it’s riskier to have an untreated fever than it is to take acetaminophen,” Zanotti said.
Other common pain relievers such as ibuprofen or naproxen — often sold as Advil or Aleve, respectively — aren’t recommended during pregnancy because they could harm fetal development, Zanotti said. The Food and Drug Administration said as much in 2023, advising that such nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, shouldn’t be used during pregnancy after 20 weeks of gestation.
Ignoring medical conditions such as fever that could be treated with acetaminophen during pregnancy is “far more dangerous than theoretical concerns based on inconclusive reviews of conflicting science,” Zahn said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that fever during pregnancy has been linked to adverse outcomes including birth defects.
Untreated fever and pain during pregnancy has maternal and infant health risks, including preterm birth, according to the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
Generic acetaminophen capsules in Santa Ana, California. (AP)
No study has shown using acetaminophen during pregnancy causes developmental disabilities — including autism.
But the language used in scientific research can be confusing. Words like “correlation,” “association,” and “increased risk,” in studies about acetaminophen use during pregnancy do not mean that the medication caused a disability like autism.
“Both ‘association’ and ‘increased risk’ are very different from ‘proven causal link,’” said Christopher J. Smith, chief science officer at Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center.
The FDA, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine and ACOG have all reviewed the available research on acetaminophen use during pregnancy and subsequent neurodevelopmental issues in children and found no evidence proving the medication caused those disabilities, Zahn said.
“The vast majority of the studies done on acetaminophen use in pregnancy are inconclusive and unable to confirm a causal relationship between the prudent use of acetaminophen during pregnancy and fetal developmental issues,” he said.
For more than a decade, scientists have investigated potential associations between using acetaminophen during pregnancy and developmental disabilities.
Some studies have found positive associations between acetaminophen and autism, meaning children whose mothers took the drug during pregnancy were more likely to later have autism symptoms or be diagnosed with autism.
A 2025 Mount Sinai study that reviewed some existing research concluded the available evidence supported an association between prenatal acetaminophen exposure and increased incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders.
But the largest study on this topic, from 2024, found no evidence supporting an increased risk of autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or intellectual disability associated with acetaminophen use during pregnancy.
The 2024 study is one of the two highest quality studies on the topic, Zahn said, and neither found an association between acetaminophen use and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes.
What does this mean for confused parents? Associations between acetaminophen and autism are “based on limited, conflicting, and inconsistent science and is premature given the current science,” according to the Autism Science Foundation.
There’s yet another wrinkle: the potential for “publication bias,” a phrase that describes when scientific publications avoid publishing findings that don’t show significant associations. That means studies that don’t find an association between autism and acetaminophen are less likely to be accepted for publication, said Dr. Judette Louis, dean of Old Dominion University’s medical school and chair of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine publications committee.
Research has shown that genetics plays a role in autism. Hundreds of genes have been linked to autism, as have some environmental factors such as how old parents are when a child is conceived, low birth weights, and fever or illness during pregnancy, the Autism Science Foundation said.
Brian Lee, a Drexel University epidemiology professor, coauthored the 2024 study, which evaluated data on nearly 2.5 million births in Sweden from 1995 to 2019 to assess acetaminophen use during pregnancy and the risk of autism. The study initially replicated a small statistical association between acetaminophen use and the risk of autism and ADHD, Lee said.
“However, when we did a sibling analysis that compared siblings (born to the same mother), the association completely went away,” he said. “We do the sibling analysis because it allows us to control for genetic and environmental factors that we do not otherwise have data on.”
The sibling analysis showed that other factors caused the initial statistical association, Lee said. The paper highlighted the possibility that genetics acted as a variable that could predict both a mother’s use of pain relief medication and a child’s risk of autism.
A mother’s genetic predisposition for autism and ADHD, which is also genetic, is associated with “greater pregnancy pain, more headache and migraine, and more use of pain-relieving medications,” Lee said. In other words, mothers who are genetically predisposed toward autism or ADHD are more likely to have conditions that cause them to use acetaminophen — and that same genetic predisposition could be what increases the likelihood of a child having those conditions.
Another consideration: Many studies rely on parents self-reporting acetaminophen use, so the data could be unreliable.
Someone might be more likely to remember taking acetaminophen during pregnancy if their child has autism or ADHD, for example — especially if they think there could be a connection between the drug and the diagnosis, according to Dr. Erin Clark, a University of Utah obstetrics and gynecology professor. A person might also be less likely to remember taking acetaminophen during pregnancy if their child hasn’t received such a diagnosis.
Zoe Gross, director of advocacy at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, said other considerations might explain any association between acetaminophen and autism. Conditions that cause someone to take acetaminophen during pregnancy — such as fever or migraine — might increase the likelihood that a child will be autistic.
RELATED: RFK Jr.’s statements about autism and environmental toxins conflict with ample research
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(CNN) — The interim CEO and director of drugmaker Kenvue, which makes the common pain reliever Tylenol, met with US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. privately this week in an attempt to dissuade him from including the drug as a potential cause of autism in an upcoming report, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
HHS officials have announced that the department is conducting a study of the causes of autism, and recent reports suggest that HHS will issue an analysis that links the development of autism to the mother’s use of Tylenol during pregnancy, among other potential causes. The report is expected to be released this month.
Tylenol is a brand name for the pain reliever acetaminophen.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has said that there is no proof of a causal link between Tylenol use in pregnancy and a child’s diagnosis of autism.
In a statement Friday, a spokesperson for HHS said that officials routinely meet with stakeholders for their perspectives.
“We are using gold-standard science to get to the bottom of America’s unprecedented rise in autism rates. HHS officials regularly meet with stakeholders to get their perspective about our agenda to Make America Healthy Again. Any claims regarding this or any other specific meeting, however, are nothing more than speculation unless officially discussed by HHS,” HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said.
Kenvue said in its own statement Friday that it engaged in a “scientific exchange” with HHS officials but that it is concerned about the forthcoming HHS report potentially causing confusion.
“As we would with any regulator who reaches out to us, we engaged in a scientific exchange with the Secretary and members of his staff as it relates to the safety of our products. Our position remains the same: in evaluating available science, we continue to believe that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism, and global health regulators, independent public health organizations, and medical professionals agree,” Kenvue said.
“We are concerned about the potential for consumer confusion and misinformation about the safety of taking acetaminophen during pregnancy, particularly as cough, cold and flu season approaches,” the statement said. “We encourage regulators to continue to objectively review the scientific evidence on this issue, as they have done for many years. FDA has been looking at this issue for over a decade and has conducted multiple reviews since 2014 and continues to recommend acetaminophen in pregnancy and maintain the same labeling requirements.”
The company also recommended that expecting mothers speak to their health care provider before taking any over-the-counter medications, including acetaminophen, which is also indicated on the product label.
Tylenol is widely used in the US, including during pregnancy. The US Food and Drug Administration recommends against using other common pain relievers, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, in pregnancy at 20 weeks or later because they can result in low amniotic fluid.
“There is no clear evidence that proves a direct relationship between the prudent use of acetaminophen during pregnancy and fetal developmental issues,” Dr. Christopher Zahn, chief of clinical practice for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said in a statement this month. “Neurodevelopmental disorders, in particular, are multifactorial and very difficult to associate with a singular cause. Pregnant patients should not be frightened away from the many benefits of acetaminophen, which is safe and one of the few options pregnant people have for pain relief.”
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In terms of aesthetics, it’s also certainly one of the prettiest pregnancy pillows we’ve reviewed. Choose from muted stripes and spots, pretty botanical patterns, and unique whimsical prints — and rest assured that every single pillow cover is made from super soft cotton, and is also totally safe to go in the washing machine.
Best U-shaped pregnancy pillow
Kally Sleep U-Shaped Pregnancy Pillow
Why we love it: If you’ve always been a back sleeper, adjusting to snoozing on your side during pregnancy can be quite tricky. But with this trusty U-shaped pillow, it’ll be far less easy for you to toss and turn into the a different position. The result? A secure and supported sleep for you — as well as maximum safety for your baby.
Designed to take the pressure off your bump, reduce back and hip pain, and even provide leg support, it’s the pillow to pick if you’re after full-body orthopaedic assistance. Plus, you can even use it for additional back support when sitting up post-pregnancy, as well as to raise your baby towards you during breast or bottle feeding.
DreamGenii Pregnancy Support and Feeding Pillow
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DreamGenii Pregnancy Support and Feeding Pillow
Why we love it: This uniquely shaped pillow from Dreamgenii is designed to help you sleep on your left side for optimal comfort while providing targeted support for your bump, back, and knees. Intended for use starting at 20 weeks of pregnancy, the pillow is designed to encourage ideal foetal positioning and enhance blood circulation between you and your baby.
If you’re used to sleeping on your back, it may take a few nights to adjust, but you’ll soon find that it gently encourages the left-side sleeping position. The longer section of the pillow can be placed between your legs to support your knees and hips, or it can be wrapped around your bump for additional support while sitting. What’s more? After baby arrives, it doubles as a feeding pillow.
Best large pregnancy pillow
Silentnight Body Support Pillow with Pillowcase
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Silentnight Body Support Pillow with Pillowcase
Why we love it: One of the largest options in our guide, this support pillow offers comprehensive full-body support from head to toe and is designed for those seeking maximum stability and comfort while sleeping.
Reviewers say it provides exceptional support for your bump, back, legs, and hips, ensuring a restful night’s sleep throughout your pregnancy. However, at 1.98kg, this pillow is definitely on the heavier side, which may make it a bit challenging to adjust or move around during the night. That said, we think it’s a solid choice for those who prefer a more substantial and supportive option.
Pregnancy pillows come in an incredibly wide range of different shapes of sizes. Most of them are named after the letters of the alphabet that they most closely resemble — like so:
It’s generally recommended to start using a pregnancy pillow as soon as possible — before you begin to feel uncomfortable or experience pain while sleeping. “For most women, a pregnancy pillow will start to sound like a good idea from around 20 weeks — as the tummy starts to get heavier,” says Baby and Parenting Expert, Rachel FitzD. “However, those with more flexible joints might even start to ache and get pelvic girdle pain before the start of the second trimester.”
It’ll vary depending on the shape and type of pregnancy pillow you’ve picked, but as a general rule, you should be positioning your pillow to support any area where you’re experiencing discomfort. You’ll likely need to experiment with a few different sleeping positions before you find one that’s right for you.
Both U-shaped and C-shaped pregnancy pillows can be effective, depending on your individual needs and preferences. U-shaped pillows offer the maximum amount of support — however, they take up a lot of space, and can be a little too cumbersome or confining for wriggly sleepers.
“A U-shaped pillow will provide support across your whole body,” says midwife and birth trauma expert, Illiyin Morrison. “However, C-shaped pillows are smaller, easier to put away, and can easily be adapted for breastfeeding or bottle feeding later.” Essentially, it’s all about deciding whether you want to prioritise support or practicality.
According to Dr Hilde Tavares — co-founder of bbhugme — adaptability is the most important thing to be on the look out for when picking out a pregnancy pillow. “During pregnancy your body will change quite a bit, but in different places at different times. “One week it may be the lower back that’s achy, whereas the next it could be your pelvis,” she explains. “Therefore, the best pregnancy pillow to have is one that’s adaptable in length, shape, and level of firmness.”
A removable and washable cover is also a massive bonus — especially if it’s made from a comfy hypoallergenic material like organic cotton. Plus, pregnant women usually run rather hot, so definitely weigh up whether you want to prioritise picking a pillow that’s been made with breathability in mind.
Definitely! In fact, for many women, their ‘pregnancy’ pillow simply becomes their ‘always’ pillow. Just take care if you use it postnatally and choose to bring your baby into bed for night feeds or for safe co-sleeping that your pregnancy pillow is either swapped out for a regular one or is used in such a formation as to keep it well away from baby.
After something else? Head this way for the best baby changing bags, the best maternity leggings and the best maternity nightwear. Happy browsing!
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Georgia Lockstone, Bianca London, Mayola Fernandes
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A woman who was placed in a medically induced coma has revealed what it was like to feel “trapped” in her own body—still able to hear, feel and see her surroundings.
Earlier this year, Toyosi Adeneye learned that she was pregnant, expecting a baby this November. However, she was soon diagnosed with a short cervix, which increases the risk of preterm birth or miscarriage.
By the time she reached 23 weeks, Adeneye—who goes by the pseudonym Dorothy Tuash online—was already 4 centimeters dilated, and her waters broke. She told Newsweek that she was in pre-term labor, and surgeons had to perform “an emergency dilation and evacuation” on her in July.
The 30-year-old was subsequently diagnosed with chorioamnionitis, a serious condition that occurs when the membranes that surround the fetus and amniotic fluid are infected by bacteria. According to the Cleveland Clinic, chorioamnionitis can lead to severe infection as well as brain or lung problems.
Things only got worse for Adeneye—who hails from from Alberta, Canada—when she developed sepsis and went into septic shock.
“They had to put me into a coma in order to administer treatment and save my life,” she explained.
Adeneye was in a coma for three and a half days, throughout which she had moments of consciousness when she could hear, see, and even feel pain. Her last memory was being sedated prior to the operation, but when she realized that she had awareness and yet couldn’t move or do anything, she knew she was in a coma.
Adeneye said: “I tried really hard to move my limbs and eyes, but it felt impossible. I heard the machine breathing for me and could feel my chest heaving; that’s how I knew I was in a coma.
“I had moments where I was conscious and could hear clearly—I could even hear my nurses talking about me. My eyes were closed, but whenever they would open them to administer eye drops, I could see,” she continued.
It was a terrifying experience for Adeneye, who felt “a state of panic” every time she came back around and remember she was in a coma. She didn’t know why, how long she had been there for, or whether she was making any progress. She also had no idea of how much longer she would be stuck there for, which made it all the more frightening.
Being in a coma means a deep unconscious state where a person cannot show any signs of awareness or reaction. There are varying depths of coma, however, and some people may still have some reflex responses.
As in Adeneye’s case, it is possible for people to hear or remember things that happened during their coma. The Cleveland Clinic notes that this varies greatly and can be hard to predict.
Adeneye lived in a temporary cycle of coming to, feeling anxious and then blacking out.
“I kept looking for my husband and I was upset I couldn’t communicate with him. I was scared because I wasn’t sure if they were going to turn off my life support,” Adeneye said.
What added to her discomfort is that Adeneye could also feel pain while she was in the coma. At one point, a complication with one of her intravenous lines meant a nurse had to squeeze Adeneye’s arm to flush it out—and all she could do was “scream inside” from the pain.
She could also feel the lines going into her arm any time she was turned over and there was mild discomfort when a nurse adjusted her neck.
When she finally came out of the coma, there was instant relief. She’d felt “trapped in [her] own body” for so many days, and she was finally free.
“I had blacked out and suddenly I came to again, but this time I could move my body slightly,” she said. “I was so excited to see my husband. He fed me ice chips, but my gums hurt really bad from being intubated. I was also happy to be able to breathe by myself again.”
When she told her husband, friends, family and hospital staff that she’d been conscious the whole time, they were all incredibly shocked.
Adeneye remained in the hospital for an additional four days after waking up from the coma, during which time she had to learn how to breathe, talk and walk again. It was painful and she also experienced nightmares after, but she says that’s all in the past now, thankfully.
When she looks back at that time now, she can’t help but feel “victorious and grateful to God” that she made it through.
Adeneye told Newsweek: “I’m doing way better than I was, but grief still shows its face from time to time. However, I thought it would take me longer to improve mentally, but I am in such a good place now, focused on continuing to build myself and my career.”
Adeneye, who is part of a content creator duo called The OT Love Train, has started documenting her experiences on TikTok (@dorothytuash), with videos detailing her pregnancy loss and the coma. The video about being aware during a coma has gone viral with over 1.4 million views and 155,100 likes at the time of writing.
The online response has been overwhelmingly positive, as many people even shared their own similar experiences too. Whether it’s connecting with others or educating them, Adeneye is glad that she could spark this conversation.
Is there a health issue that’s worrying you? Let us know via health@newsweek.com. We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured on Newsweek.
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An upcoming report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human services is likely to link the development of autism in children to a common over-the-counter pain reliever, and it will reference a form of the vitamin folic acid as a way to reduce symptoms of autism in some people, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
(CNN) — An upcoming report from the US Department of Health and Human services is likely to link the development of autism in children to a common over-the-counter pain reliever, and it will reference a form of the vitamin folic acid as a way to reduce symptoms of autism in some people, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The report is said to highlight the pain reliever Tylenol, when taken during pregnancy, along with low levels of folate, a vitamin that is important for proper development of a baby’s brain and spine, as potential causes of autism, according to the Wall Street Journal. It will also name folinic acid, a form of folate also known as leucovorin, as a way to decrease symptoms of autism.
Folate supplements are already recommended for women during pregnancy to prevent neural tube defects, such as spina bifida, in infants.
Tylenol, which is the brand name of the generic pain reliever acetaminophen, is widely used in the US, including during pregnancy. Drugmaker Kenvue said in a statement Friday, “Nothing is more important to us than the health and safety of the people who use our products. We have continuously evaluated the science and continue to believe there is no causal link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism.”
Experts generally agree.
“There is no clear evidence that proves a direct relationship between the prudent use of acetaminophen during pregnancy and fetal developmental issues,” Dr. Christopher Zahn, chief of clinical practice for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said in a statement Friday. “Neurodevelopmental disorders, in particular, are multifactorial and very difficult to associate with a singular cause. Pregnant patients should not be frightened away from the many benefits of acetaminophen, which is safe and one of the few options pregnant people have for pain relief.”
The incidence of autism in the US is on the rise. About 1 in every 31 children was diagnosed with autism by age 8 in 2022, up from 1 in 36 in 2020, according to a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report published in April.
There are two primary reasons for the increase, according to Dr. Christine Ladd-Acosta, vice director of the Wendy Klagg Center for Autism at John Hopkins.
The first is that the definition of autism was broadened by the psychiatric community in 2013, so more people now qualify for an autism diagnosis.
Secondly, there has been a push for better screening of children, especially babies, for signs of autism. That push for increased awareness of the symptoms has been accompanied by a greater acceptance of the disorder, so people are not as afraid to seek help or to be identified as having autism, Ladd-Acosta said on the Johns Hopkins podcast “Public Health on Call.”
An HHS spokesperson said Friday that the agency is “using gold-standard science to get to the bottom of America’s unprecedented rise in autism rates. Until we release the final report, any claims about its contents are nothing more than speculation.”
Several studies have looked at the association between acetaminophen use in pregnancy and the development of autism in children, but experts say the science behind this theory is not settled.
A 2024 study published in JAMA looked at more than 2 million children born in Sweden between 1995 and 2019, about 185,000 of the whom were born to mothers who used acetaminophen during pregnancy. The study compared autism rates between these children with their siblings and with children who were not exposed, and it found that acetaminophen use during pregnancy was not associated with an increased risk of autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or other neurodevelopmental disorders.
A meta-analysis published in August in the journal BMC Environmental Health looked at 46 studies on the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders in children. Six of the studies looked specifically at acetaminophen and autism. Overall, the analysis concluded that there was “strong evidence of an association” between taking acetaminophen during pregnancy and the development of autism in children, but the authors caution that their paper can show only associations, not that acetaminophen causes autism.
“We recommend judicious acetaminophen use — lowest effective dose, shortest duration — under medical guidance, tailored to individual risk–benefit assessments, rather than a broad limitation,” the researchers wrote.
The US Food and Drug Administration reviewed the risks of certain types of pain relievers during pregnancy in 2015 and said that all the studies it reviewed had methodological flaws. As a result, the agency said it would not change its recommendations for pain medications during pregnancy at that time.
The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine also reviewed the issue in 2017. It concluded that “the weight of evidence is inconclusive regarding a possible causal relationship between acetaminophen use and neurobehavioral disorders in the offspring.”
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has previously promoted debunked theories linking vaccines to autism, and he pledged in April that his agency would have answers this month on the causes of autism. Thousands of researchers from top universities and institutions have applied for federal funding for autism research that Kennedy announced in April, and the US National Institutes of Health is expected this month to announce up to 25 awardees for the $50 million effort.
“We’re finding … certain interventions now that are clearly, almost certainly causing autism, and we’re going to be able to address those in September,” Kennedy said in a Cabinet meeting last month, to which President Donald Trump responded, “There has to be something artificial causing this, meaning, a drug or something.”
Dr. Peter Hotez, a pediatrician who co-directs the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital, said it would be irresponsible for Kennedy to cast any one or two things as a “smoking gun” cause of autism.
“That’s not how it works,” said Hotez, who has a daughter with autism and has written a book about the condition.
“We have autism genes, and it’s really important to look at some of the environmental toxins out there that are interacting with autism genes. And it may be possible to compile a list. … But I think it would be reckless to hone in just on those two, at least in terms of the publicly available data,” he said.
Shares of Kenvue fell about 10% midday after the Wall Street Journal report came out.
CNN’s Ramishah Maruf, Sarah Owermohle and Nadia Kounang contributed to this report.
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Bi understood how far-fetched her allegations sounded. “If it were not for all the hard evidence, it’s too shocking to believe [Rebecca Smith] did what she did to kill my son,” Bi wrote on Facebook, using Smith’s real name. Perhaps a kind friend could have suggested to Bi that there were other explanations. Instead, Bi had a set of legal adversaries and a supportive echo chamber. On Facebook, GCs and IPs alike expressed sympathy for Bi’s tragic posts: Everyone knew bad surrogates existed, and based on Bi’s claims, it sounded like Smith was one. Aimee Eyvazzadeh, a Bay Area fertility doctor and influencer, called Smith “a criminal” and “a psycho.” Bi’s $1,275-an-hour lawyer, Elizabeth Sperling, wondered whether digging through social media posts might show Smith engaging in “strenuous activity” that could explain the death.
Bi’s husband focused on stabilizing the family, a move he credits with saving their marriage. He blamed the hospital, not Smith, but told me that the litigation is “her grieving process.” He tried to stay out of the legal stuff so that Bi couldn’t blame him too.
Smith had planned to go back to work shortly after giving birth. Instead, she couldn’t stop bleeding. Even though SAI had determined she hadn’t breached the contract, the escrow stopped paying, leaving Smith reliant on disability benefits as she faced an increasing pile of terrifying bills.
When Smith was finally cleared to return to work, a month after Leon died, Bi emailed Smith’s HR department to ask about her health plan. Bi also reported Smith to a federal agency, claiming that Smith was committing fraud. The stress on Smith was already high: Her supervisor at work had found her crying on and off for a day.
Smith hadn’t heard from Bi since her terse reply to the condolence email. Then, Bi texted her a screenshot of a Facebook post about another GC who’d had an abruption at almost 32 weeks—but that GC had called 911 and the baby had lived.
Next, Bi iMessaged a photo of Leon’s corpse to Smith’s 7-year-old son’s iPad.
In the months after Leon died, Bi:
Called the FBI 12 times. Reported Smith, SAI, the hospital, and Clarity escrow to more than a dozen state and federal regulators and numerous professional organizations. Launched a new round of her $30 million venture fund, backed by Marc Andreessen and David Sacks, President Trump’s “AI and crypto czar,” on Leon’s due date. Posted Leon’s ChatGPT-written endorsement from heaven, offering his “eternal blessings” for her work. Created TikToks, Instagram Reels, Facebook posts, X threads, LinkedIn Updates, and a website for her advocacy. Posted links disclosing Smith’s full name, photo, address, employer, mortgage license number, and son’s first name to her website. Asked her husband, again and again, how it was possible that Smith had carried her son but felt “nothing” about his death.
Bi has abandonment issues that she traces back to her twenties, when her father divorced her mom for the mistress who’d conceived his long-awaited son. She got on lithium for her bipolar disorder in early 2021 and began looking for surrogates as soon as she stopped feeling “sedated.” I spoke to the therapist Bi hired to consult with her and Valdeiglesias. She told me that, of the 792 intended parents she has evaluated for surrogacy or gamete donation in the last decade, she has declined to recommend only about a dozen. “I’m not gatekeeping,” she said. When it comes to serious mental illness, she added, it’s up to them to disclose. One of Bi’s fertility doctors, meanwhile, told me it’s not his place to scrutinize intended parents. He defers to the recommendation of the psychological interviewer.
If an intended parent gets turned down, they can usually find another therapist, another clinic, another agency. But without anyone questioning her plans, Bi seemed betrayed by the challenges of third-party reproduction. “Surrogacy is supposed to be the safest route,” she wrote on Instagram. It wasn’t just Leon’s death that pushed Bi into her spiral of legal action and social media posts. It was the apparent lack of control of having her child inside another woman’s body—the most basic fact of surrogacy.
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Emi Nietfeld
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A jury gave Cardi B a quick and absolute victory Tuesday at a trial in the lawsuit of a security guard who alleged the rap star assaulted her at a doctor’s office during her first pregnancy.
The jury at a small courthouse in Alhambra, California, deliberated for only about an hour before finding Cardi not liable in the lawsuit brought by Emani Ellis, who alleged Cardi cut her face with a fingernail and spat on her in the hallway of a Beverly Hills obstetrician in February 2018.
Cardi said her pregnancy was a secret to most of the world at the time, and she feared that Ellis was going to make it public. She acknowledged that the two argued, but said it never got physical.
Her testimony over two days last week was streamed live and widely viewed. After several days off, the trial resumed with closing arguments on Tuesday, and the jury got the case in mid-afternoon.
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Cardi said she had been visiting Los Angeles doing promotional work in February 2018 around that year’s NBA All-Star Game. She was four months into her pregnancy with the first of her three children with rapper Offset. She said, at the time, she had told her inner circle she was having a baby, but not the public or her parents.
The obstetrician’s office had been closed to other patients on a Saturday for her privacy.
She said Ellis, a security guard for the building, followed her to her fifth-floor appointment. Cardi told jurors last week that she heard Ellis say her name into a phone and appeared to be filming her.
“I told her, ‘Why are you recording?’” Cardi testified, “and she said, ‘Oh my bad.’ She practically apologized.”
But the argument grew increasingly heated, she said.
“As we were arguing she’s backing me, she’s walking into me,” Cardi said.
Ellis testified that the incident left her humiliated and traumatized, and the scar on her face required cosmetic surgery. Ellis, who lost her job over the incident, sought damages that include medical expenses, compensation for emotional and physical suffering, and lost wages, along with punitive damages. She does not specify a total amount in the lawsuit, but Cardi said from the stand that she is “suing me for $24 million.”
A receptionist who broke up the argument between Cardi and Ellis largely backed the rapper’s account in testimony.
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After decades of debauchery and an untold number of conceptions, revelers at Burning Man celebrated a rare birth at Black Rock City on Wednesday morning, after a festivalgoer unexpectedly went into labor on the Playa.
Some longtime Burners have dubbed the infant “Citizen Zero.”
“Baby girl arrived weighing 3 lbs 9.6 oz and measuring 16.5 inches long,” the infant’s aunt Lacey Paxman wrote in a GoFundMe appeal for the family. “She is currently in the NICU, gaining strength every day. Mom and baby are both doing OK, but she will need to stay in the hospital until she is ready to come home.”
Family members said the woman did not know she was pregnant until she felt the baby coming early Wednesday morning. According to one Redditor, an obstetrician and a pediatric trauma nurse were both camped nearby and rushed to aid the delivery when she went into labor.
The parents then drove themselves to the campground’s medical facility before being airlifted to a major hospital where the baby could receive specialized intensive care, the Redditor said.
“Since this is their first child and the pregnancy was completely unexpected, my brother and his wife don’t have anything prepared — no baby supplies, no nursery, nothing at all,” Paxman wrote.
“On top of that, the unexpected circumstances have created a heavy financial burden: NICU care (with no release date yet), medical bills, and travel and lodging expenses while they are far from home,” she said.
Surprise deliveries are uncommon but far from unheard of, experts say. About 1 in every 500 pregnant women discovers she’s expecting more than 20 weeks along — a phenomenon known as “cryptic pregnancy.”
Cryptic pregnancies are more common among very young mothers, as well as those who may have other health conditions that mask pregnancy symptoms such as nausea, exhaustion and even missed periods. Like the Burner mother, a subset of such parents only discovers they’re pregnant when they go into labor.
Pregnant women, young children and even babies are a regular feature of the nine-day Burning Man festival, which draws tens of thousands of people each year to a desolate strip of the Nevada desert about 120 miles north of Reno.
Still, births are all but unheard at the celebration of “community, art, self-expression and self-reliance.”
The surprise delivery occurred just hours after a white-out dust storm ground incoming traffic to a halt as festivalgoers streamed in and attempted to set camp on Monday.
The dramatic weather recalled torrential rains that flooded the camp in 2023, leaving thousands stranded in deep, sticky mud.
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Sonja Sharp
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People who want to get an updated COVID-19 vaccine at CVS or Walgreens pharmacies in Colorado this fall will need to present a prescription.
State law allows pharmacists to administer vaccines recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group that counsels the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about who will benefit from which shots.
In previous years, the committee recommended updated COVID-19 vaccines within days of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approving them. This year, the committee doesn’t have any meetings scheduled until late September, and may not recommend the shot when it does meet, since Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appointed multiple members with anti-vaccine views after removing all prior appointees in June.
The lack of a recommendation also means that insurance companies aren’t legally required to pay for the COVID-19 vaccine without out-of-pocket costs. Most private insurers will cover the updated shots this year, though that could change in 2026, according to Reuters.
Initially, CVS said it couldn’t give the COVID-19 vaccine to anyone in Colorado or 15 other states, because of their ACIP-approval requirement. As of Friday morning, its pharmacies can offer the shots to eligible people who have a prescription, spokeswoman Amy Thibault said.
As of about 10 a.m. Friday, CVS’s website wouldn’t allow visitors to schedule COVID-19 shots in Colorado.
Walgreens didn’t respond to questions about its COVID-19 vaccine policy, but its website said patients need a prescription in Colorado. A New York Times reporter found the same in 15 other states.
The FDA this week recommended the updated shots only for people who are over 65 or have a health condition that puts them at risk for severe disease.
The listed conditions include:
Healthy people technically still can get the vaccine, but would have to ask a health care provider to prescribe it off-label. An off-label prescription refers to one given for a condition the drug isn’t approved to treat, such as a blood-pressure drug prescribed to prevent migraines.
Not everyone has a regular health care provider or the inclination to take time out of their day for an office visit, though. Insurers also vary in their willingness to cover off-label prescriptions.
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Meg Wingerter
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Former Bachelorette Emily Maynard’s 20-year-old daughter, Ricki, is expecting her first baby.
While sharing a sonogram photo via her Instagram Story on Tuesday, August 26, Ricki quoted Love Island USA’s Huda Mustafa, writing, “Netflix told me I’m not allowed to talk about it.”
In another upload, Ricki shared a video of the baby moving. “My heart is so full, yet my stomach is so empty because she hates all food. I’m convinced.”
Maynard, 39, has yet to address Ricki’s pregnancy.
The former Bachelorette was engaged to Ricky Hendrick when he died in an airplane accident in 2004 at 24 years old. After his death, Maynard discovered she was pregnant with her first child. At age 19, Maynard welcomed daughter Josephine Riddick Hendrick — whom she calls Ricki in honor of her late fiancé.
Years later, Maynard appeared on season 15 of The Bachelor and accepted a proposal from Brad Womack. After the pair’s short-lived engagement, she starred as the lead of The Bachelorette season 8 in 2012 and ended the show engaged to Jef Holm. Three months after the show wrapped, the twosome called it quits.
“I wish that I would’ve kept [my time on The Bachelor and Bachelorette] totally separate [from Ricki],” Maynard shared in a 2017 podcast interview. “At the time, I thought, ‘This is it,’ and I never would’ve brought her into it had I not thought that. So I wish that I maybe would’ve taken a step back. Maybe sheltered her from that a little bit more.”
Maynard moved on with Tyler Johnson, whom she wed in 2014. The couple have since welcomed sons Jennings Tyler, Gibson Kyle, Gatlin Avery and Jones in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2022, respectively, and daughter Magnolia Bella in 2020.
Courtesy of Ricki Hendrick/Instagram Former Bachelorette star Emily Maynard’s daughter is embarking on a new adventure. Ricki, 18, shared via Instagram on Sunday, June 2, that she graduated from high school, posting a series of photos of herself with her little brothers. “Def not crying in the second picture🥹🙈,” she captioned sweet snapshots from the event. […]
“You could have 18 kids and it really doesn’t make that big of a difference,” she told People in 2017. “Your stroller gets bigger, but that’s it. I want to have maybe two more. Ricki is so much older, she’s just more of a help than anything else. So, we’ll see!”
Maynard has been candid about her bond with her kids through the years. In July 2023, Maynard celebrated Ricki’s 18th birthday by taking her eldest daughter to get a tattoo.
“My girl is turning 18 today, [does] anyone have a horse tranquilizer for me?” Maynard quipped via her Instagram Story at the time, while sharing a throwback photo of Ricki. Maynard shared another image of Ricki lying on a table while getting ink, writing, “Doing grown-up stuff.”
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Ryan Hudgins
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Varun Tej Konidela and his wife, Lavanya Tripathi, earlier took over the internet as they announced their pregnancy. Now, the happy couple has dropped a Ganesh Chaturthi post, presenting her first picture with a baby bump.
Varun Tej Konidela and Lavanya Tripathi drop the first baby bump picture
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An Illinois man was arrested after he allegedly drugged his pregnant girlfriend with abortion-inducing pills, causing her to have a miscarriage, according to police.
Emerson Evans, 31, was charged with two counts of intentional homicide of an unborn child, Bloomington police said in a news release.
Officers were called to a home in Bloomington on Friday at around 7 p.m., when they found a pregnant woman suffering a medical emergency.
During the probe, investigators determined that Evans administered abortion pills without the woman’s consent to cause her to miscarry, according to police. While abortion is legal in Illinois, intentional homicide of an unborn child carries a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison for each count.
MORE THAN 20 GOP ATTORNEYS GENERAL CALL ON RFK JR, FDA TO REINSTATE SAFEGUARDS FOR ABORTION DRUGS
Emerson Evans, 31, was charged with two counts of intentional homicide of an unborn child. (Bloomington Police Department)
After unknowingly taking the drugs, the woman began experiencing medical complications and lost her unborn child.
Evans’ girlfriend was seven weeks pregnant when she miscarried, according to IPM Newsroom.
He allegedly put four Mifepristone pills into his girlfriend’s vagina, according to the report. The pill is meant to be taken orally and the recommended dose is one pill.
“We are again saddened by the alleged criminal actions which resulted in harm to others,” Police Chief Jamal Simington said in a statement. “It is my hope the mother involved in the matter fully recovers and has the resources and support of this strong community in the future. The officers and detectives worked diligently and honorably through this very tough investigation.”
Evans allegedly administered abortion pills without his girlfriend’s consent to cause her to miscarry. (Shuran Huang for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The incident remains under investigation.
During a court hearing, Judge Amy McFarland said Evans allegedly told police he “made the decision” for his girlfriend, according to IPM Newsroom.
“Frankly, the number of pills demonstrates a lack of knowledge or consent,” Judge Amy McFarland said at the hearing.
Evans wanted to “effectuate his beliefs of what should occur in the absence of consent. That involved taking a life,” McFarland told the court.
Evans’ girlfriend was seven weeks pregnant when she miscarried. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
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Evans is scheduled to be arraigned on Sept. 12.
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Mississippi has declared a health emergency over the rising infant mortality rate, which last year reached the highest level since 2013 and nearly double the national average. Dr. Celine Gounder has more.
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A woman’s supposed pregnancy turned out to be something much stranger. In a recent report from her doctors, they detail how the woman had developed an incredibly rare form of ovarian cancer that mimicked the symptoms of pregnancy, even causing a positive pregnancy test.
Doctors in India described the case of mistaken identity earlier this July in the journal Oncoscience. After first suspecting the woman had an ectopic pregnancy, the doctors instead discovered a large and rare type of tumor in her right ovary. Thankfully, the cancer was removed before it spread elsewhere, and the woman seems to have responded well to treatment.
According to the report, the 36-year-old woman visited doctors three months into having intermittent bouts of heavy menstrual bleeding. She tested positive for a pregnancy on a urine test, and when doctors performed a physical examination, they felt a solid mass along her abdomen consistent with having a 20-week-old fetus. An initial ultrasound appeared to show that the woman was experiencing an ectopic pregnancy, a condition where the embryo forms outside of the uterus, usually in the fallopian tube (ectopic pregnancies are inherently non-viable). After conducting more extensive imaging, they found that she actually had cancer in her right ovary, most likely a choriocarcinoma.
Choriocarcinomas are tumors mainly formed from the cells that become the placenta during a pregnancy. It’s an especially dangerous cancer since the tumors tend to grow quickly and spread to other parts of the body. The woman’s doctors soon performed surgery to assess the progression of her cancer and to treat it if possible.
They successfully removed the tumor, along with the woman’s uterus, ovaries, and surrounding lymph nodes. Though relatively large, the tumor was still in an early stage of development and hadn’t metastasized. When the doctors looked closer, though, they found her cancer was even weirder than first thought.
Choriocarcinomas are usually gestational, meaning they’re linked to pregnancy; oftentimes, the tumor will even arise from an abnormal and non-viable pregnancy. But the woman’s cancer was a non-gestational ovarian choriocarcinoma (NGOC), which only accounts for 0.6% of all reported ovarian germ cell tumors (a germ cell being the actual egg). What’s more, the cancer was a pure NGOC, an “exceedingly rare” subtype made completely out of germ cells and not any other kinds of tissues.
An image of the woman’s tumor, as well as her uterus and a benign ovarian cyst, can be seen here, but be warned, it’s not for the faint of heart.
While these cancers aren’t tied to pregnancy, they do cause the body to produce high levels of the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). Women also produce high levels of hCG during pregnancy, and some tests detect pregnancy through measuring hCG, explaining the woman’s positive result.
“NGOC is a rare, distinct, and highly aggressive tumor that predominantly affects young, reproductive-aged women,” the authors wrote.
Fortunately, in this case, the cancer appears to have been caught early enough in time. Following surgery, the woman was placed on chemotherapy. And her most recent tests showed that her hCG level had returned to normal, indicating a complete treatment response, according to the doctors. She will need to have regular follow-up tests, including CT imaging, to make sure the cancer isn’t staging an unwelcome comeback.
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Ed Cara
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“Clearly, in spite of the widely held ‘belief’ in the health benefits of M. oleifera [moringa], the interest of the international biomedical community in the medicinal potential of this plant has been rather tepid.” In fact, it has been “spectacularly hesitant in exploring its nutritional and medicinal potential. This lukewarm attitude is curious, as other ‘superfoods’ such as garlic and green tea have enjoyed better reception,” but those have more scientific support. There are thousands of human studies on garlic and more than ten thousand on green tea, but only a few hundred on moringa.
The most promising appears to be moringa’s effects on blood sugar control. Below and at 0:55 in my video The Efficacy and Side Effects of Moringa Leaf Powder, you can see the blood sugar spikes after study participants ate about five control cookies each (top line labeled “a”), compared with cookies containing about two teaspoons of moringa leaf powder into the batter (bottom line labeled “b”). Even with the same amount of sugar and carbohydrates as the control cookies, the moringa-containing cookies resulted in a dampening of the surge in blood sugar.
Researchers found that drinking just one or two cups of moringa leaf tea before a sugar challenge “suppressed the elevation in blood glucose [sugar] in all cases compared to controls that did not receive the tea initially” and instead drank plain water. As you can see here and at 1:16 in my video, drinking moringa tea with sugar dampened blood sugar spikes after 30 minutes of consumption of the same amount of sugar without moringa tea. It’s no wonder that moringa is used in traditional medicine practice for diabetes, but we don’t really know if it can help until we put it to the test. 
People with diabetes were given about three-quarters of a teaspoon of moringa leaf powder every day for 12 weeks and had significant improvements in measures of inflammation and long-term blood sugar control. The researchers called it a “quasi-experimental study” because there was no control group. They just took measurements before and after the study participants took moringa powder, and we know that simply being in a dietary study can lead some to eat more healthfully, whether consciously or unconsciously, so we don’t know what effect the moringa itself had. However, even in a moringa study with a control group, it’s not clear if the participants were randomly allocated. The researchers didn’t even specify how much moringa people were given—just that they took “two tablets daily with one tablet each after breakfast and dinner,” but what does “one tablet” mean? There was no significant improvement in this study, but perhaps the participants weren’t given enough moringa. Another study used a tablespoon a day and not only saw a significant drop in fasting blood sugars, but a significant drop in LDL cholesterol as well, as seen below and at 2:27 in my video.
Two teaspoons of moringa a day didn’t seem to help, but what about a third, making it a whole tablespoon? Apparently not, since, finally, a randomized, placebo-controlled study using one tablespoon of moringa a day failed to show any benefit on blood sugar control in people with type 2 diabetes.
So, we’re left with a couple of studies showing potential, but most failing to show benefit. Why not just give moringa a try to see for yourself? That’s a legitimate course of action in the face of conflicting data when we’re talking about safe, simple, side–effect–free solutions, but is moringa safe? Probably not during pregnancy, as “about 80% of women folk” in some areas of the world use it to abort pregnancies, and its effectiveness for that purpose has been confirmed (at least in rats), though breastfeeding women may get a boost of about half a cup in milk production based on six randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled clinical trials.
Just because moringa has “long been used in traditional medicine” does not in any way prove that the plant is safe to consume. A lot of horribly toxic substances, like mercury and lead, have been used in traditional medical systems the world over, but at least “no major harmful effects of M. oleifera [moringa]…have been reported by the scientific community.” More accurately, “no adverse effects were reported in any of the human studies that have been conducted to date.” In other words, no harmful effects had been reported until now.
Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) is probably the most dreaded drug side effect, “a rare but potentially fatal condition characterized by…epidermal detachment and mucous membrane erosions.” In other words, your skin may fall off. Fourteen hours after consuming moringa, a man broke out in a rash. The same thing had happened three months earlier, the last time he had eaten moringa, causing him to suffer “extensive mucocutaneous lesions with blister formation over face, mouth, chest, abdomen, and genitalia.” “This case report suggests that consumption of Moringa leaf is better avoided by individuals who are at risk of developing SJS.” Although it can happen to anyone, HIV is a risk factor.
My take on moringa is that the evidence of benefit isn’t compelling enough to justify shopping online for something special when you can get healthy vegetables in your local market, like broccoli, which has yet to be implicated in any genital blistering.
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Michael Greger M.D. FACLM
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Most plant-based milks are not fortified with iodine.
“Adequate dietary iodine is required for normal thyroid function.” In fact, the two thyroid hormones are named after how many iodine atoms they contain: T3 and T4. “Given that iodine is extensively stored in the thyroid gland itself, it can safely be consumed intermittently,” so we don’t need to consume it every day. However, our overall diet does need a good source of it. Unfortunately, the common sources aren’t particularly health-promoting: iodized salt and dairy foods. (Iodine-based cleansers like betadine are used on cows “to sanitize the udders, resulting in leaching of iodine in the milk.”) Iodine may also be added to cattle feed, and some commercially produced breads contain food additives with iodine.
If you put people on a paleo-type diet and cut out their dairy and table salt, they can develop an iodine deficiency, even though they double their intake of seafood, which can also be a source of iodine. What about those switching to diets centered around whole plant foods? They also cut down on ice cream and Wonder Bread, and if they aren’t eating anything from the sea, like seaweed or other sea vegetables, they can run into the same problem.
A three-year-old’s parents reported striving to feed her only the healthiest foods, and her diet included only plant-based, unsalted, and unseasoned foods. She got no unprocessed foods, but she also got no vitamin supplementation, which could be deadly. Without vitamin B12, those on strictly plant-based diets can develop irreversible nerve damage, but in this case, a goiter arose first, due to inadequate iodine intake.
In another case of “veganism as a cause of iodine-deficient hypothyroidism,” a toddler became ill after weaning. Before weaning, he was fine because his mother kept taking her prenatal vitamins, which fortunately contained iodine.
Most vegetarians and vegans are apparently unaware of the importance of iodine intake during pregnancy, “for the neurodevelopment of the unborn child, similar to their omnivorous counterparts.” The American Thyroid Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have recommended that women, even just planning on getting pregnant, should take a daily supplement containing 150 micrograms (mcg) of iodine, yet only 60 percent of prenatal vitamins marketed in the United States contain this essential mineral. So, despite the recommendations, about 40 percent of prenatal vitamins don’t contain it. “Therefore, it is extremely important that women, especially when pregnant, breastfeeding, or planning a pregnancy, read the labels of their multivitamin supplements to ensure that they are receiving an adequate amount of iodine.”
Women of reproductive age have an average iodine level of 110 mcg/liter, which is fine for nonpregnant individuals, but we’d really like women to get at least 150 mcg/liter during pregnancy. (It’s basically a 24-hour urine test, in which iodine sufficiency is defined as 100 mcg/liter of urine in nonpregnant adults; the average vegan failed to reach this in the largest study done to date, one out of Boston.)
The recommended average daily intake is 150 mcg per day for most people, which we can get in about a cup and a half of cow’s milk. Regrettably, plant-based milks aren’t typically fortified with iodine and average only about 3 mcg per cup. Although many plant-based milks are fortified with calcium, researchers found in the largest systematic study to date that only 3 out of 47 were fortified with iodine. Those that were fortified had as much as cow’s milk, but those that weren’t fell short, as you can see at 3:30 in my video Are Vegans at Risk for Iodine Deficiency?.
Plant-based milk companies brag about enriching their milks with calcium and often vitamins B12, D, and A, but only rarely are attempts made to match iodine content. The only reason cow’s milk has so much is that producers enrich the animals’ feed or it comes dripping off their udders. So, why don’t plant-milk companies add iodine, too? I was told by a food scientist at Silk that my carrageenan video played a role in the company switching to another thickener. Hopefully, Silk will see this video, too, and consider adding iodine, or maybe another company will snatch the opportunity for a market advantage.
The researchers conclude that individuals who consume plant-based milks not fortified with iodine may be at risk for iodine deficiency, unless they consume alternative dietary iodine sources, the healthiest of which are sea vegetables, which we’ll cover next.
Doctor’s Note:
This is the first in a four-video series on thyroid function. The next three are:
For more on iodine, see the related posts below.
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Michael Greger M.D. FACLM
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The Specialty Baby Products Retailer Will Focus Its Efforts on Its Digital Offerings While Strategizing What Its Physical Footprint Will Look Like in the Future
PISCATAWAY, N.J., November 1, 2024 (Newswire.com)
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buybuy BABY, America’s leading specialty baby brand and registry, today announced that the company is presently shifting away from the brick-and-mortar model for the near term and is redefining the business as a digital-first brand.
In response to consumer feedback and evolving shopping trends, buybuy BABY will place a stronger emphasis on enhancing its e-commerce and wholesale capabilities in the short term. This strategic shift aims to create a seamless and user-friendly shopping experience for customers and will allow for continued improvement to its digital platform and experience on its website, registry and mobile app. The retail landscape is ever-changing and buybuy BABY will continue to adapt to consumer habits, whether that be online or in-store.
buybuy BABY is excited about the future and ultimately reimaging stores as the cornerstone of the baby registry and omnichannel shopping experience. “Stores are essential to our vision of a dynamic store footprint consisting of strategically placed smaller stores in key markets. Our passion for the parents and communities we serve is unmatched, and we desire to deliver a curated in-store assortment to guide parents’ decision-making in their journey to parenthood,” said Glen Cary, buybuy BABY Chief Stores Officer.
Customers can continue to shop for all their favorite brands and products at buybuy BABY.com and set up new and manage existing registries. The website offers the convenience of online shopping with a user-friendly interface and secure payment options.
buybuy BABY will be expanding its distribution network to support faster and more efficient delivery. These enhancements will enable the company to meet increasing consumer demand and ensure that its products are available to customers whenever and wherever they need them.
Cary shared, “We’re proud to support parents from newborns onward. Though stores are closing, our online shop remains, offering exceptional service and quality products with dedication.”
With this reset, buybuy BABY will be positioned for long-term growth and success. This new chapter and renewed focus will create more value for customers, partners, and team members. All buybuy BABY stores will be closing by the end of this year and will be providing significant discounts to customers. You can find a full list of stores here: https://buybuybaby.com/pages/find-a-store.
Customers can continue to manage and create their registry online here: buybuy BABY registry.
For more information, visit https://buybuybaby.com/pages/faq.
About buybuy BABY
buybuy BABY is America’s leading specialty baby brand, with a long history of providing families with trusted information and products they need to confidently navigate the journey of parenthood — across every milestone, big and small, since 1996. The brand provides a wide assortment of baby and toddler essentials, strollers, car seats, nursing & feeding products, clothing & accessories, maternity wellness products, and nursery furniture.
Source: buybuy BABY
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Identical twins don’t just share DNA; they also share a uterus. Might that help account for some of their metabolic similarities? “Fetal overnutrition, evidenced by large infant birth weight for gestational age, is a strong predictor of obesity in childhood and later life.” Could it be that you are what your mom ate?
A dramatic illustration from the animal world is the crossbreeding of Shetland ponies with massive draft horses. Either way, the offspring are half pony/half horse, but when carried in the pony uterus, they come out much smaller, as you can see below and at 0:47 in my video The Role of Epigenetics in the Obesity Epidemic. (Thank heavens for the pony mother!) This is presumably the same reason why the mule (horse mom and donkey dad) is larger than the hinny (donkey mom and horse dad). The way you test this in people is to study the size of babies from surrogates after in vitro fertilization.
Who do you think most determines the birth weight of a test-tube baby? Is it the donor mom who provided all the DNA or the surrogate who provided the intrauterine environment? When it was put to the test, the womb won. Incredibly, a baby who had a thin biological mother but was born to a surrogate with obesity may harbor a greater risk of becoming obese than a baby with a heavier biological mother but born to a slim surrogate. The researchers “concluded that the environment provided by the human mother is more important than her genetic contribution to birth weight.”
The most compelling data come from comparing obesity rates in siblings born to the same mother, before and after her bariatric surgery. Compared to their brothers and sisters born before the surgery, those born when mom weighed about 100 pounds less had lower rates of inflammation, metabolic derangements, and, most critically, three times less risk of developing severe obesity—35 percent of those born before the weight loss were affected, compared to 11 percent born after. The researchers concluded that “these data emphasize how critical it is to prevent obesity and treat it effectively to prevent further transmission to future generations.”
Hold on. Mom had the same DNA before and after surgery. She passed down the same genes. How could her weight during pregnancy affect the weight destiny of her children any differently? Darwin himself admitted, “In my opinion, the greatest error which I have committed, has been not allowing sufficient weight to the direct action of the environment, i.e. food…independently of natural selection.” We finally figured out the mechanism by which this can happen—epigenetics.
Epigenetics, which means “above genetics,” layers an extra level of information on top of the DNA sequence that can be affected by our surroundings, as well as potentially passed on to our children. This is thought to explain the “developmental programming” that can occur in the womb, depending on the weight of the mother—or even the grandmother. Since all the eggs in your infant daughter’s ovaries are already preformed before birth, a mother’s weight status during pregnancy could potentially affect the obesity risk of her grandchildren, too. Either way, you can imagine how this could result in an intergenerational vicious cycle where obesity begets obesity.
Is there anything we can do about it? Well, breastfed infants may be at lower risk for later obesity, though the benefits may be confined to those who are exclusively breastfed, as the effect may be due to growth factors triggered by exposure to the excess protein in baby formula, as you can see below and at 3:51 in my video. The breastfeeding data are controversial, though, with charges leveled of a “white hat bias.” That’s the concern that public health researchers might disproportionally shelve research results that don’t fit some goal for the greater good. (In this case, preferably publishing breastfeeding studies showing more positive results.) But, of course, that criticism came from someone who works for an infant formula company. Breast is best, regardless. However, its role in the childhood obesity epidemic remains arguably uncertain.
Prevention may be the key. Given the epigenetic influence of maternal weight during pregnancy, a symposium of experts on pediatric nutrition concluded that “planning of pregnancy, including prior optimization of maternal weight and metabolic condition, offers a safe means to initiate the prevention rather than treatment of pediatric obesity.” Easier said than done, but overweight moms-to-be may take comfort in the fact that after the weight loss in the surgery study, even the moms who gave birth to kids with three times lower risk were still, on average, obese themselves, suggesting weight loss before pregnancy is not an all-or-nothing proposition.
What triggered the whole obesity epidemic to begin with? There are a multitude of factors, and I covered many of them in my 11-video series on the epidemic in the related posts below.
We are what our moms ate in other ways, too. Check out:
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Michael Greger M.D. FACLM
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