A University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher published the results of a study Thursday correlating soy-based formulas and seizures among children with autism Thursday, according to a release.
The study shows excess seizures in the 1,949 children sampled. Cara Westmark, the study’s author and a Department of Neurology senior scientist, said the high level of estrogen in soy might be the cause.
Westmark said she was studying a drug to block the seizure-causing signals in mice when she made the discovery.
“It was pure serendipity that we happened to look at soy,” Westmark said in the release.
Westmark said that by replacing the mice’s standard soy-based diet with dairy-based and purified ingredients, the rate of seizures decreased by 50 percent—as effective as many medicines.
Because some infants consume solely soy-based formula, Westmark said she decided to focus her research on them.
Using the Simons Foundation Autism Research database, the study found that autistic children consuming soy formula had 2.6 times as many feverish seizures as children on a non-soy formula. Westmark said this is not indicative of all children.
“This is not saying that all autistic children who eat a soy-based formula are going to develop seizures,” she said.
However, Westmark said the increase in seizures is worrying because the prevalence of autism is increasing, currently affecting one in 88 American children.
About 25 percent of infant formula sold in the United States contains soy, according Westmark.
“Soy is a widespread ingredient in many food products,” Westmark said. “If soy formula is lowering the threshold for seizures or increasing the incidence of seizures, we need to know that.”
