Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Jan 19, 2024; 14(1): 159-178
Published online Jan 19, 2024. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v14.i1.159
Nutritional epigenetics education improves diet and attitude of parents of children with autism or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder
Renee J Dufault, Katherine M Adler, David O Carpenter, Steven G Gilbert, Raquel A Crider
Renee J Dufault, College of Graduate Health Studies, A.T. Still University, Kirksville, MO 63501, United States
Renee J Dufault, Steven G Gilbert, Department of Research, Food Ingredient and Health Research Institute, Naalehu, HI 96772, United States
Katherine M Adler, Department of Health Sciences, University of New Haven, West Haven, CT 06516, United States
David O Carpenter, Institute for Health and the Environment, School of Public Health, State University of New York, Albany, NY 12222, United States
Steven G Gilbert, Department of Research, Institute of Neurotoxicology and Neurological Disorders, Seattle, WA 98105, United States
Raquel A Crider, Department of Statistics, Food Ingredient and Health Research Institute, Naalehu, HI 96772, United States
Author contributions: Dufault RJ developed the nutritional epigenetics model for autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, developed the curriculum for the intervention, designed and conducted the intervention study, acquired, analyzed, and interpreted the pre- and post-intervention data, wrote the draft manuscript; Crider RA provided guidance on statistical analysis, presented the summary of results in table 7, and reviewed and approved the analytical results; Adler KM served as primary advisor for experimental design; Carpenter DO and Gilbert SG provided feedback on data interpretation; and all authors approved the final version of the article.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed, approved, and found to be exempt from further review by the Institutional Review Board at A.T. Still University.
Informed consent statement: Participants were alternately assigned to the test or control group when eligibility was confirmed and after receipt of the signed informed consent form.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data is available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Renee J Dufault, PhD, Research Scientist, College of Graduate Health Studies, A.T. Still University, 800 W Jefferson Street, Kirksville, MO 63501, United States. rdufault@atsu.edu
Received: September 27, 2023
Peer-review started: September 27, 2023
First decision: October 24, 2023
Revised: November 14, 2023
Accepted: December 11, 2023
Article in press: December 11, 2023
Published online: January 19, 2024
Processing time: 112 Days and 7.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Ultra-processed foods remain a source of heavy metal exposure in American families. The bioaccumulation of inorganic mercury and lead in the blood increases the severity of symptoms in children with autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder via paraoxonase-1 gene modulation. Providing parents with nutritional epigenetics instruction may reduce their intake of ultra-processed foods and empower them to influence their child’s behavior through dietary changes.