What You Need To Know News

Obesity may increase with each generation because overweight mothers give birth to offspring who have a tendency to become heavier, researchers have claimed.

A team of scientists believe that the genetic mechanisms that control the weight of a baby may be changed if the mother is obese before and during pregnancy.

This change could lead in turn to the baby becoming heavier than normal.

Scientists in Houston, America, made the claim after studying the eating habits of several generations of mice.

Dr Robert Waterland from Baylor College of Medicine, led the study.

He explained: “There is an obesity epidemic in the United States and it’s increasingly recognised as a worldwide phenomenon.

“Why is everyone getting heavier and heavier?

“One hypothesis is that maternal obesity before and during pregnancy affects the establishment of body weight regulatory mechanisms in her baby.

“Maternal obesity could promote obesity in the next generation.”

The team split the mice, all of which had a genetic tendency to overeat, into two groups.

One group was provided with a normal diet while the other was provided with nutrient-supplemented diet.

The nutrients in the supplemented diet encouraged the process of DNA methylation - a chemical reaction that silences genes with the hope that it would render the over-eating gene inactive.

The mice on the normal diet gained weight with each generation while the mice on the altered diet stayed roughly the same size.

Dr Waterland explained: “We wanted to know if, even among genetically identical mice, maternal obesity would promote obesity in her offspring, and if the methyl-supplemented diet would affect this process.

“Indeed those on the regular diet got fatter and fatter with each generation. Those in the supplemented group however, did not.”

Dr Waterland said the research had led the team to believe that the process of DNA methylation plays an important role in the development of the region of the brain that regulates appetite - the hypothalamus.
Source: http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1567852/obesity_may_rise_with_generations/

Obesity significantly increases the risk of recurrent miscarriages, UK researchers have claimed.

When the body mass index (BMI) of almost 700 women who had experienced at least three unexplained miscarriages was investigated, 45% of the women were found to be overweight or obese.

All women had previously undergone comprehensive investigations, but no cause as to why they kept miscarrying was established.

In total, 1% of the women were underweight, 54% were of normal weight, 30% were overweight and 15% were obese.

In those who went on to have a subsequent pregnancy, 19% of those who miscarried again were obese, compared to 11% who had a successful pregnancy.

Mothers being over the age of 35 and high numbers of previous miscarriages were associated with poor pregnancy outcome.

When maternal age and number of previous miscarriages were adjusted, obese women were shown to have a significantly increased risk of a further miscarriage compared to those with a normal weight.

“Ours is the first study to look directly at the link between BMI and recurrent miscarriage. It shows that obese women who experience recurrent miscarriage are at greater risk of subsequent pregnancy loss,” said Winnie Lo of St Mary’s Hospital, London.

Ms Lo advised that all women with recurrent miscarriage should be weighed at their first consultation. Those who are found to be obese should be counselled regarding the benefits of weight loss in increasing their chances of a successful pregnancy, she said.

“Programmes should be in place to help with the weight loss progress,” Ms Lo concluded.

The research was released at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 7th International Scientific Meeting in Montreal.
Source: http://www.irishhealth.com/?level=4&id=14281

What is the connection?

When you are subjected to stresses, whether they are mental stresses such as a phobia or environmental such as extreme heat, your brain sends signals throughout your body to prepare it to face whatever survival challenges that the stress may pose. In a way, it is as if your body is preparing for war. It knows that there is a threat, because you are feeling stressed. Therefore, the mind sets up its defences in order to protect its host — the body.

In cases of extreme stress, this defensive posture may include the suppression of menses. Pregnancy can be difficult enough in peaceful times, but in periods of extreme stress, it can be hazardous to both the mother and baby. By suppressing menses, the body is protecting itself from the possibly debilitating condition of pregnancy. Once the stress is removed, the menses will return.

How does stress cause infertility?

Stress affects the hypothalamus, a specific area in the brain. The hypothalamus secretes a variety of hormones that travel through the blood to the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland is also called the hypophysis. Stress can interfere with the hormone levels, which can result in a variety of symptoms ranging from a lack of desire for sex to the failure of the ovary to release its egg in the normal manner.

The hormones that control ovulation are:

Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH)
Estrogen (E)
Luteinizing Hormone (LH)
Progesterone (P)

The hypothalamus creates hormones that are sent to the pituitary gland, which causes it to release the FSH and LH hormones. Thereafter, for example, the LH hormone would stimulate the ovaries to produce the estrogen hormone. If even one of these hormones is out of step with the others, ovulation can be impeded.

How do I reduce the stress in my life?

Stress can build upon itself. For example, you feel stressed because you want to become pregnant. Every month when you learn you’re not pregnant, you become more stressed. The increased stress further decreases your chance of conception. You have to break this self-fueling cycle.

Stress management: Many hospitals and community centres offer stress management classes. These classes will teach you techniques to help you deal with a stressful situation and to minimize stress in your daily life.

Counselling: It may seem strange to visit a psychologist to help you with an infertility problem, but you may find that it is just the thing to help you conceive. A psychologist or counsellor will help you to understand why you feel stressed. They can also be very helpful if the stress has advanced to the stage that it is causing you to feel depressed.

Relaxation techniques: Yoga, meditation and massage are all useful techniques to help you relax.

Healthy diet: The healthier you are, the better able your brain will be to cope with stress.

Education: Knowledge is power. The more you know about your condition, its causes and treatments, the less anxiety you will have about it.

Is stress sex biased?

Stress effects both men and women equally. Just as extreme stress may impede ovulation, some studies have shown that extreme stress may reduce sperm production. Infertility is stressful to both parties involved. Combined with the everyday stress of life and you may find that you are both so much on the edge that you are arguing over the silliest things.
Source: http://www.canada.com/topics/lifestyle/parenting/story.html?id=3de94294-7465-4cfe-90fa-b0dec5d7a34a

Ladies, no matter how much you don’t like it, your eggs age as you do and that makes it harder to get pregnant.

The older a woman becomes, the more brittle and easily damaged her eggs get. At the same time, the egg’s exterior becomes less pliable and harder to penetrate by sperm swimming up her reproductive tract, Beltsos said.

Also, the machinery inside the egg isn’t as “well oiled” and doesn’t function as well, meaning the egg has less chance of developing properly, Beltsos noted.

From age 32 on, those effects begin to show up and the quality of women’s eggs begins to deteriorate. By the early 40s, most women have run out of “good” or really viable eggs.

What about those 40-something Hollywood beauties cuddling their newborns in the magazines at the checkout counter in your supermarket?

It’s all but certain they used eggs from donors—young donors—to become pregnant, fertility experts suggest.

Consider these numbers, reported by Dr. Kevin Lederer, president of Fertility Centers of Illinois.

Until age 34, women have a 20 percent chance of conceiving in a given month and 20 percent of those pregnancies will end in a miscarriage.

After 35, a woman’s likelihood of conceiving in a given month drops to 10 percent and her miscarriage risk goes up to 30 percent.

After 40, she has a 5 percent chance of getting pregnant and a 40 percent chance of having a miscarriage. After 42, “99 percent of fertility is over,” Lederer said.

The message is clear: Wait till your late 30s to have a baby and you could have problems. Wait till your 40s and most of the time you’ll be out of luck unless you turn to an egg donor.

But demographic trends reported by the National Center for Vital Statistics go in the opposite direction. They show a declining birth rate for women in their 20s, a 20 percent increase for women 30 to 34, a 40 percent increase for 35 to 39-year-olds, a 60 percent jump for the 40-to-44 set and, are you ready, a 150 percent rise for women 45 to 49.

(That last increase undoubtedly looks large because the number of moms in this age group is extremely low.)

The trend is good news for fertility centers – lots of women are going to need help! — but bad news for women of a certain age who were counting on having their own children. And yes, as you age, the chance that in vitro fertilization will be successful diminishes too.

You can fight it, but the fact remains – biology rules.
Source: http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/triage/2008/04/your-biological.html

Being stressed out during the first half of pregnancy may be unhealthy, but it won’t increase a woman’s risk of developing a serious complication known as preeclampsia, Dutch researchers have found.

Stress also didn’t influence a woman’s likelihood of developing a related condition known as gestational hypertension, in which blood pressure climbs to dangerous levels during pregnancy.

“Of course too much psychosocial stress is not good for a woman’s health. But women who have a lot of work stress or other kind of stress should not be afraid of getting preeclampsia or gestational hypertension,” Dr. Karlijn C. Vollebregt of the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health.

Preeclampsia and gestational hypertension, known collectively as hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, can harm the mother and fetus, Vollebregt and her colleagues note in their report, published in BJOG, an International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Established risk factors include obesity, high blood pressure, and older age.

While the cause of these disorders remains unclear, the researchers note, some have suggested stress as a factor. To investigate, they followed 3,679 women who were pregnant for the first time, 3.5 percent of whom developed preeclampsia and 4.4 percent of whom had gestational hypertension. All filled out a questionnaire measuring their stress levels before 24 weeks of pregnancy.

The researchers found no relationship between a woman’s level of job stress, anxiety, anxiety related to pregnancy or depression and her risk of developing preeclampsia or gestational hypertension.

“Women who have or have had preeclampsia, and especially those women with a baby that was born too early because of preeclampsia or a baby that died, often feel guilty,” Vollebregt noted in an email interview. “They think that if they had less stress at work or at home that this could have saved the baby or this would have prevented preeclampsia.”

“This is not true,” she added. “Preeclampsia can be a severe disease but for a woman there is nothing she can do to prevent it during her pregnancy.”
Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKLAU48349220080404

Pregnant women who were overweight were more likely to use all levels of healthcare services — from prenatal testing, to Caesarean section, to phone calls.
Among pregnant women in a large U.S. group-practice HMO, those who were overweight or obese before pregnancy had higher rates of gestational diabetes, pre-existing diabetes, and hypertensive disorders, Susan Y. Chu, Ph.D., of the CDC here, and colleagues, reported in the April 3 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

As a result, the researchers said, these women made greater use of healthcare services, had significantly longer hospital stays, and had higher rates of prenatal testing, outpatient medications, telephone calls, and prenatal visits than did normal-weight women.

Obesity during pregnancy is now a common high-risk obstetrical condition affecting about one woman in five who give birth in the U.S., the researchers said.

To estimate the increased use of healthcare services associated with obesity during pregnancy, the researchers used electronic data systems to identify 13,442 pregnancies that resulted in live births or stillbirths among women 18 or older at the time of conception.

The women were enrolled in Kaiser Permanente Northwest, a large HMO, and were studied from January through December 2004.

The researchers assessed associations between health services and body-mass index (BMI) before pregnancy or in early pregnancy. The primary outcome was the mean length of hospital stay for delivery.

The women were categorized as underweight (BMI <18.5), normal (BMI 18.5 to 24.9), overweight (BMI 25.0 to 29.9), obese (BMI 30.0 to 34.9), very obese (BMI 35.0 to 39.9), or extremely obese (BMI ≥40.0).

After adjustment for age, race or ethnic group, level of education, and parity, the mean (±SE) length of hospital stay for delivery was significantly (P<0.05) greater among women who were overweight (3.7±0.1 days), obese (4.0±0.1 days), very obese (4.1±0.1 days), and extremely obese (4.4±0.1 days) than among women with a normal BMI (3.6±0.1 days).

A higher-than-normal BMI was associated with significantly more prenatal fetal tests, obstetrical ultrasonograms, medications dispensed from the outpatient pharmacy, telephone calls to the ob-gyn department, and prenatal visits with physicians.

For example, among women with a high-risk condition, the number of obstetrical sonograms was significantly higher for women in the two highest BMI categories. The number of sonograms for high-risk normal women was 6.6 versus 7.1 for obese women, 9.2 for very obese, and 11.0 for extremely obese women.

An above-normal BMI was also associated with significantly fewer prenatal visits with nurse practitioners and physician assistants rather than with physicians. For example, 4.9 visits for a normal BMI versus 4.6 (obese), 4.5 (very obese), and 3.9 (extremely obese).

The difference in prenatal visits to a physician even by women without a high-risk condition, suggests that regardless of risk status, physicians, rather than mid-level providers, are more likely to provide prenatal care for women with a higher BMI, with attendant cost implications, the researchers said.

In addition, the researchers noted, the use of medications and telephone calls rose with increasing BMI even among women without a high-risk condition. It was not possible, they said, to determine whether these increases represented health-seeking behavior or greater needs related to other, unknown complications related to high BMI.

The study’s limitations included the fact that the women were members of an HMO in the Northwest in which a relatively high percentage were white and highly educated, so that the results may not be generalizable, the researchers wrote.

Also, electronic records and birth certificates used in the study may have had coding errors, and because it was not possible to validate reported diagnoses, misclassification of clinical conditions was possible.

According to a recent estimate, the researchers said, about 22% of pregnant women in nine states are obese. This can be extrapolated to indicate that of the four million U.S. births each year, approximately one million involve obese women.

“Thus even a small increase in the cost of heath care associated with obesity will have substantial economic implications,” they concluded.
Source: http://www.medpagetoday.com/OBGYN/Pregnancy/tb/9003