Excess weight in pregnant women can have negative implications for offspring

Say Hebrew University, US researchers

2012-05-15

(Press-News.org) Jerusalem, May 13, 2012 – That overweight during pregnancy can lead to overweight children and adolescents has been known for some time, but new research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and in the US indicates that excess weight before and during pregnancy can have long-lasting health consequences for the offspring of such mothers even later in life.

Investigators at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine and the Departments of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Washington, Seattle, have found a direct correlation between this maternal overweight and higher tendencies in their adult children towards overweight and other life-risking factors, such as high blood pressure and excess sugar and fat levels in the blood.

The research – the results of which were published recently in the journal Circulation -- was based on analysis of clinical information on 1400 people who were born in Jerusalem between the years of 1974-76. The data provided information, among other things on their birth records, including the weights of their mothers before and during pregnancy and the weight of the child at birth. The researchers further gathered current clinical data on the examined group, all at the age of 32, including their weight, blood pressure and sugar and fat levels in the blood, plus measurements of body mass index (BMI) -- a measure of body fat based on height and weight -- as well as hip width.

The results of the research showed a clear influence of the overweight of the mothers on the overweight of their children, affecting in turn other risk factors in adulthood. Therefore, it may be concluded that avoiding overweight in adulthood could potentially reduce those other risk factors associated with pre-pregnancy and pregnancy overweight.

Thus, for example, the children of mothers who gained more than 14 kilograms (31 pounds) during pregnancy were measured to have a higher BMI than those who were born to mothers who did not gain more than nine kilos (20 pounds) during pregnancy. In terms of hip measurements, the adult children of overweight pregnant mothers had hip widths nearly ten centimeters more, on average, than those who were born to mothers who were not overweight.

Similar comparisons were made regarding sugar and fat levels in the blood, all indicating that those born to overweight mothers had detrimental characteristics regarding their health and life expectancies as compared to those born to mothers who had not gained excessive weight.

Additional factors could also have an influence on the phenomenon, including analogous genetic traits of the mother and child or environmental influences during pregnancy, and these would be worthy of further investigation, say the researchers.

"We know now that events occurring early in life to fetuses have long-lasting consequences for the health of the adult person," said Dr. Hagit Hochner, the leading researcher on the project.

Added Prof. Orly Manor, who also was involved in the project: "In an age of an 'overweight epidemic' in the world, it is important to know the factors that are involved in leading to overweight and other health risks. This understanding makes it essential that we identify those early windows of opportunity in which we can intervene in order to reduce the risks of chronic illness later in life."

INFORMATION:

[Attachments] See images for this press release:

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

You can't play nano-billiards on a bumpy table

2012-05-15

There's nothing worse than a shonky pool table with an unseen groove or bump that sends your shot off course: a new study has found that the same goes at the nano-scale, where the "billiard balls" are tiny electrons moving across a "table" made of the semiconductor gallium arsenide. These tiny billiard tables are of interest towards the development of future computing technologies. In a research paper titled "The Impact of Small-Angle Scattering on Ballistic Transport in Quantum Dots", an international team of physicists has shown that in this game of "semiconductor billiards", ...

Groundbreaking new model for predicting vaccine efficacy and safety

2012-05-15

New Rochelle, NY, May 7, 2012—Vaccine testing and development is an extremely lengthy and complex process that costs billions of dollars every year. In an effort to dramatically improve the speed and success of vaccine research and development, researchers have created an innovative biomimetic model of the human immune system known as the MIMIC® system. An article in the inaugural issue of Disruptive Science and Technology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., describes this artificial human immune system which can facilitate faster, more effective ...

Cutting-edge device controls acute inflammation

2012-05-15

New Rochelle, NY, May 7, 2012—The body's natural inflammatory response is an essential reaction to injury and infection. When acute inflammation escalates out of control, such as in sepsis, it causes nearly 10% of deaths in the U.S. and more than $17 billion in healthcare costs each year. A group of researchers have developed a groundbreaking biohybrid device that can control acute inflammation to prevent sepsis and other related life-threatening complications, as described in an article in the inaugural issue of Disruptive Science and Technology, a new peer-reviewed journal ...

May/June 2012 Annals of Family Medicine tip sheet

2012-05-15

Reinvigorating the 1967 Folsom Report's 'Communities of Solution' to Address Today's Fragmented U.S. Health Care System In the wake of federal efforts to reform the U.S. health care system, a group of rising family medicine leaders call for a reinvigoration of community-centered health systems, as originally outlined in the landmark 1967 Folsom Report. They contend the vision of the original Folsom commission could not be more pertinent to America's current pressing needs. The group revitalizes and modernizes the Folsom Report's blueprint, offering an updated series of ...

Embargoed news for Annals of Internal Medicine

2012-05-15

1. Self-management May Not be Safe or Suitable for COPD Trial of Comprehensive Care Management Program for COPD Cut Short Due to Excess Mortality Self-monitoring and management of some chronic diseases can improve patient outcomes. Hospitalizations for exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are associated with decreases in quality of life, lung function, and life expectancy, so researchers hypothesized that a self-management program could benefit patients. The authors enrolled 960 COPD patients in 20 Veterans Affairs hospital-based outpatient ...

Laxative-free CT colonography may be as accurate as colonoscopy in detecting high-risk polyps

2012-05-15

A CT-scan-based form of virtual colonoscopy that does not require laxative preparation appears to be as effective as standard colonoscopy in identifying the intestinal polyps most likely to become cancerous. In the May 15 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)-based research team reports finding that the new technique, which uses computer-aided systems both to virtually cleanse and to analyze the images acquired, was able to identify more than 90 percent of the common polyps called adenomas that were 10 mm or larger. "While we know ...

Smoked cannabis can help relieve muscle tightness and pain in people with multiple sclerosis

2012-05-15

People with multiple sclerosis may find that smoked cannabis provides relief from muscle tightness — spasticity — and pain, although the benefits come with adverse cognitive effects, according to a new study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Many patients with multiple sclerosis suffer from spasticity, an uncomfortable and disabling condition in which the muscles become tight and difficult to control. While there are drugs to relieve spasticity, they can have adverse effects and do not always sufficiently improve the condition in some patients. Researchers ...

Back pain improves in first 6 weeks but lingering effects at 1 year

2012-05-15

For people receiving health care for acute and persistent low-back pain, symptoms will improve significantly in the first six weeks, but pain and disability may linger even after one year, states a large study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Low-back pain is a common condition that results in significant health care costs, disability and absenteeism in workplaces. However, there are differing views on how quickly and completely people recover from this condition. Researchers from Australia and Brazil examined data from 33 studies (11 166 participants) ...

Managing obesity in adults: Tips for primary care physicians

2012-05-15

Managing adult obesity is challenging for primary care physicians, but a new review published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) aims to provide an evidence-based approach to counselling patients to help them lose weight and maintain weight loss. "Even though evidence suggests that patients are considerably more likely to lose weight when they are advised to do so by their primary care physicians, most patients who are clinically obese do not receive weight-loss counselling in primary care," writes Dr. Gilles Plourde, Cliniques Médicales de Nutrition et d'Amaigrissement ...

Smoked cannabis reduces some symptoms of multiple sclerosis

2012-05-15

A clinical study of 30 adult patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has shown that smoked cannabis may be an effective treatment for spasticity – a common and disabling symptom of this neurological disease. The placebo-controlled trial also resulted in reduced perception of pain, although participants also reported short-term, adverse cognitive effects and increased fatigue. The study will be published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on May 14. Principal investigator Jody Corey-Bloom, MD, PhD, ...

AI risks overwriting history and the skills of historians have never been more important, leading academic outlines in new paper

The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology: Higher doses of semaglutide can safely enhance weight loss and improve health for adults living with obesity, two new clinical trials confirm

Excess weight in pregnant women can have negative implications for offspring

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: