Pregnancy as window to future health

How pregnancy provides a window to future health and eliminating some chronic disease

2013-07-02

(Press-News.org) Physicians with the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine released a paper today that provides significant insight into future health conditions that women are likely to experience, and that can be detected early based on information relating to the course of pregnancy. The paper, Pregnancy as a Window to Future Health: The development of complications in pregnancy provides a new window of opportunity for early heart disease risk screening and intervention for women, acknowledges that, for most women, the demands of pregnancy on the cardiovascular and metabolic systems are some of the highest the body will endure.

The response of the body to pregnancy can provide clues to the future health of the woman. The paper also points out that the prevention of chronic diseases in adults and children has become a national priority due to the rising rates of these conditions along with rising mortality rates. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2005 almost one in every two adults had at least one chronic illness and seven out of 10 deaths annually are attributed to chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. Recognizing the relation of pregnancy complications to long term health and disease can be leveraged to prevent chronic diseases. Health care providers can then take advantage of the provisions in the Affordable Care Act which includes a full title dedicated to prevention of chronic disease.

George Saade, MD, FACOG, past president of SMFM and co-author of the report explained, "The rates of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity in women are rising, and the current practice is to wait until late in the life cycle to screen for these conditions. SMFM believes that the tools and information to assess risk should be expanded to include information obtained during pregnancy." Saade continued, "Clues during this period can raise red flags for a woman's health later in life."

"Pregnancy is essentially a cardiovascular stress test," explained Graeme N. Smith, MD, PhD, FRCSC, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Biomedical and Molecular Sciences at Kingston General Hospital, Queen's University and co-author of the report. "Common pregnancy complications such as pre-eclampsia, gestational hypertension, gestational diabetes, gestational impaired glucose intolerance, clinically significant placental abruption, preterm birth and/or delivery of a growth restricted baby are perhaps the earliest clinically identifiable markers for a woman's increased risk of premature cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular death."

The report outlines other conditions that are also indicators and should be documented and the patients should be actively followed, screened and/or tested. It also mentions that most women typically lose pregnancy medical coverage six weeks after delivery, at a time when continuing this coverage would provide an opportunity for them to seek preventive care.

The report's authors also recommend that obstetricians work more closely with the patient's primary care physician to ensure that information regarding the outcome of pregnancy , particularly that which is associated with chronic diseases later, transfers to the patient's permanent records so that it can be used by future providers in screening and prevention. Patients can then be followed and monitored as necessary. The report also recognizes the need to disseminate this information to women, health care providers, policy makers, and payers.

"Collaboration between physicians, government and third party payers would shed more light on this issue and would ensure better care for women," stated Saade.

### For a copy of the report, email Vicki Bendure at vicki@bendurepr.com.

The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (est. 1977) is a non-profit membership group for obstetricians/gynecologists who have additional formal education and training in maternal-fetal medicine. The society is devoted to reducing high-risk pregnancy complications by providing continuing education to its 2,000 members on the latest pregnancy assessment and treatment methods. It also serves as an advocate for improving public policy, and expanding research funding and opportunities for maternal-fetal medicine. The group hosts an annual scientific meeting in which new ideas and research in the area of maternal-fetal medicine are unveiled and discussed. For more information, visit http://www.smfm.org or http://www.facebook.com/SocietyforMaternalFetalMedicine.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

NASA sees heavy rainfall as Typhoon Rumbia heads for landfall in China

2013-07-02

Typhoon Rumbia developed from a low pressure area east of the Philippines and crossed the country from east to west before moving into the South China Sea. NASA's TRMM satellite flew over Rumbia as it nears southeastern China and identified areas of heavy rainfall in the southern quadrant of the storm. On Sunday, June 30, NASA infrared satellite imagery revealed tightly curved bands of thunderstorms over the southern quadrant of the storm were wrapping into the northern quadrant of the low-level center. However, in the northwestern quadrant, the quadrant that will make ...

Researchers pinpoint sources of fibrosis-promoting cells that ravage organs

2013-07-02

HOUSTON – Scientists have tracked down and quantified the diverse origins of cells that drive fibrosis, the incurable, runaway wound-healing that scars and ultimately destroys organs such as the lungs, liver and kidneys. Findings from research conducted at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston and continued at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center are reported in an advance online publication at Nature Medicine on June 30. "Answering a fundamental question about the origin of these ...

Surprise superconductor

2013-07-02

Washington, D.C.—Superconductivity is a rare physical state in which matter is able to conduct electricity—maintain a flow of electrons—without any resistance. This phenomenon can only be found in certain materials under specific low-temperature and high-pressure conditions. Research to create superconductors at higher temperatures has been ongoing for two decades with the promise of significant impact on electrical transmission. New research from a team led by Choong-Shik Yoo at Washington State University—and including Carnegie's Viktor Struzhkin, Takaki Muramatsu, ...

Altitude sickness may hinder ethnic integration in the world's highest places

2013-07-02

Ethnic segregation in nations straddling the world's steepest terrains may be reinforced by the biological tolerance different peoples have to altitude, according to one of the first studies to examine the effect of elevation on ethnic demographics. Research from Princeton University published in the journal Applied Geography suggests that people native to low-lying areas can be naturally barred from regions such as the Tibetan Plateau, the Andes or the Himalayas by altitude sickness, which is caused by low oxygen concentration in the air and can be life-threatening. ...

Doctor-patient communication about dietary supplements could use a vitamin boost

2013-07-02

Vitamins, minerals, herbs and other dietary supplements are widely available in supermarkets and drug stores across the nation without a prescription, so it's no surprise that nearly half of all Americans take them. But they do carry risks, including potentially adverse interactions with prescription drugs, and some people may even use them in place of conventional medications. So it's important that primary care physicians communicate the pros and cons of supplements with their patients. In fact, both the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of ...

New American Chemical Society video focuses on ancient secrets of alchemy

2013-07-02

The pursuit that obsessed some of the world's greatest geniuses for centuries — alchemy and its quest for the "Philosopher's Stone" that would transform lead and other base metals into gold — is the topic of a new episode in the American Chemical Society Bytesize Science video series. The video, from the world's largest scientific society, is at http://www.BytesizeScience.com. It features Laurence Principe, Ph.D., a noted historian of science and expert on alchemy, which, far from being solely a misguided pseudoscience, helped set the stage for the emergence of modern ...

Biomedical research revealing secrets of cell behavior

2013-07-02

TEMPE, Ariz -- Knowing virtually everything about how the body's cells make transitions from one state to another – for instance, precisely how particular cells develop into multi-cellular organisms – would be a major jump forward in understanding the basics of what drives biological processes. Such a leap could open doors to far-reaching advances in medical science, bioengineering and related areas. An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Arizona State University, with a partner at Imperial College London, report on taking at least a step toward better comprehension ...

Vitamin C helps control gene activity in stem cells

2013-07-02

Vitamin C affects whether genes are switched on or off inside mouse stem cells, and may thereby play a previously unknown and fundamental role in helping to guide normal development in mice, humans and other animals, a scientific team led by UC San Francisco researchers has discovered. The researchers found that vitamin C assists enzymes that play a crucial role in releasing the brakes that keep certain genes from becoming activated in the embryo soon after fertilization, when egg and sperm fuse. The discovery might eventually lead to the use of vitamin C to improve ...

Cattle flatulence doesn't stink with biotechnology

2013-07-02

The agriculture industry is researching new technologies to help feed the growing population. But feeding the world without harming air quality is a challenge. According to a new article in Animal Frontiers, biotechnologies increase food production and reduce harmful gas output from cattle. "We are increasing the amount of product with same input," said Clayton Neumeier, PhD student at University of California, Davis, in an interview. In the Animal Frontiers paper, Neumeier describes a recent experiment using biotechnologies. In the experiment, a test group of cattle ...

UCSB astronomer uncovers the hidden identity of an exoplanet

2013-07-02

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– Hovering about 70 light-years from Earth –– that's "next door" by astronomical standards –– is a star astronomers call HD 97658, which is almost bright enough to see with the naked eye. But the real "star" is the planet HD 97658b, not much more than twice the Earth's diameter and a little less than eight times its mass. HD 97658b is a super-Earth, a class of planet for which there is no example in our home solar system. While the discovery of this particular exoplanet is not new, determining its true size and mass is, thanks to Diana Dragomir, ...

NFCR congratulates Dr. Robert C. Bast, Jr. on receiving the AACR-Daniel D. Von Hoff Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and Training in Cancer Research

Pregnancy as window to future health

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: