Review Impact of environmental pollution, dietary factors and diabetes mellitus on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is complex neurodevelopmental condition described by impairments in three main behavioral areas: social deficits, impaired communication, and repetitive behaviors. Despite many years of vast study, the causes of ASD are still unknown. Various risk factors including genetic, infectious, metabolic and immunological have been investigated however, environmental, nutritional and diabetes related risk factors have not received sufficient attention. This study has provided an insight into the comprehensive interaction between environmental pollution, dietary factors and diabetes mellitus that could lead to the advancement of this debilitating neurodevelopment disorder. The literature search was done using PubMed and Google Scholar databases up to October 2018. Key words “Environmental Pollution”, “Nutritional Factors”, “Diabetes Mellitus”, “Autism Spectrum Disorder” were selected. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.4.269 How to cite this:Alhowikan AM, AL-Ayadhi LY, Halepoto DM. Impact of environmental pollution, dietary factors and diabetes mellitus on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Pak J Med Sci. 2019;35(4):1179-1184. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.4.269 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.