Pregnancy influenced by lifestyle factors

A study indicates that certain lifestyle factors may improve women's chances of having a healthy pregnancy.

Particular lifestyle factors may enhance women's probability of having a normal pregnancy, in accordance with a fresh study.

The research workers analysed files from over 5 800 women with England, Ireland in europe, Australia and New Zealand to be able to pinpoint life style factors in 15 to be able to 20 several weeks of gestation that had been associated with complication-free pregnancies.

Helpful life style factors involved eating fresh fruit, having a normal weight, possessing lower our blood pressure, using a job, and stopping medicine and alcohol consumption abuse, good study, which has been published about the bmj. com internet site.

The findings suggest that encouraging women to generate healthy choices before and during having a baby "may increase the possibilities of normal having a baby outcomes, " said Lucy Chappell, on the Women's Wellness Academic Hub of King's School London, and colleagues.

With the women within the study, 61% got an easy pregnancy. Fewer women with England and Ireland (58%) got an easy pregnancy when compared with those with Australia and New Zealand (63%).

Modifiable factors

The commonest pregnancy-related problems were babies who had been too small with regards to gestational get older (11%), high blood force (8%), preterm beginning (4%) as well as a dangerous increase in our blood pressure named pre-eclampsia (5%).

One of the potentially harmful lifestyle factors that women can alter (modifiable factors) were weight problems, having high blood pressure along with the misuse associated with drugs, such as binge ingesting, the research workers said.

Conversely, modifiable life style factors which reduced danger of problems were high amounts of fruit consumption within the month before pregnancy and working in 15 several weeks into having a baby.

Lifestyle factors beyond women's control which increased danger of problems during having a baby were poverty, having high blood force before having a baby while taking contraceptive pills, children history associated with high our blood pressure in the course of pregnancy and bleeding in the course of pregnancy.

However the study identified risk factors connected with pregnancy complications, it didn't prove cause-and-effect relationships.

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Macular Degeneration Risk Influenced By Diet and Lifestyle

According to research, eating a diet high in vitamin D, as well as the nutrients betaine and methionine, might help reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration. A study of identical twins from the US World War II Twin Registry also found that the more a person smoked, the higher their risk of developing age-related macular degeneration. The study is the first to look at identical twin pairs in which one twin had early age-related macular degeneration, and the other had late stage age-related macular degeneration.

Age-related macular degeneration is highly heritable, with genetic factors determining up to 71 percent of the disease’s severity as determined by a previous study of this twin registry by this same research team. By examining identical twins with the same genes but whose disease was at different stages, researchers were able to identify environmental and behavioral factors that may contribute to severity of the disease. “We wanted to know why, if they have the same genes, do they have different stages of the disease?” said lead researcher Johanna M. Seddon.

“Eat a healthy diet with lots of fruits and vegetables, and that can make a difference – even if you have a genetic susceptibility to macular degeneration,” said Seddon, a specialist in macular degeneration, and, of course, don’t smoke.”

Macular degeneration is one of the leading causes of vision loss in older Americans. It occurs when cells in the macula, the part of the eye responsible for clear central vision, gradually die. Macular degeneration can progress so slowly it takes years for serious vision loss to occur but it can also develop rapidly, causing vision loss severe enough that that can make it difficult to drive, read or conduct daily tasks.

Each twin completed a questionnaire about nutritional and health behaviors. The study found that twins whose macular degeneration was at the early stages tended to consume more vitamin D from dietary sources such as fish or milk than their brothers. Vitamin D may reduce the risk of macular degeneration because it has anti-inflammatory properties. It may also block the formation of new blood vessels that can grow under the macula, leaking blood and causing vision loss in the more severe stages of the disease. Similarly, Dr. Seddon’s research team also found that higher intakes of betaine and methionine were linked to a slower progression of the disease. These nutrients have also been linked to epigenetic mechanisms, which is a change in DNA, not attributable to a change in the actual DNA sequence. Betaine is found in fish, grains and spinach, while methionine is found in poultry, fish and dairy foods.

The study also found that among the pairs of twins, the twin who was the heavier smoker tended to have the more severe case of macular degeneration. These results indicate that both genetic susceptibility and environmental factors are important, that epigenetic factors may also be involved, and further underscores the importance of modifiable behaviors, especially avoiding smoking and eating a healthy diet, to help prevent or delay the progression of macular degeneration and vision loss.

The study evaluated pairs of elderly male twins and used a survey of personal dietary and health habits to determine variations.