One consideration for thinking about the relation between stress and pregnancy is the matter of stress in pregnancy and autism. As we've emphasized elsewhere, stressing about stress is a counter-productive cycle that needs to be avoided. However, knowledge is valuable.
Expecting mothers - and their partners - should be aware of the research giving rise to widespread conclusions that pregnancy stress presents dangers to unborn children, including risks of autism. Again, though, don't stress about stress; keep the big picture in mind.
Currently the evidence comes from mice studies. Research with mice has undoubtedly offered great medical advances and provided value insights into human diseases. It does not though thereby logically follow that any finding based on mice studies can be automatically and immediately applied to humans. Whether such application is valid remains to be seen.
Another qualification to keep in mind is the always delicate issue of relevant proportionality. For instance, pumping mice full of some toxin in volumes utterly disproportionate to usual human practices surely does still provide valuable scientific insights. Not among those insights though would be any predictive value for assessing the relevance to the characteristically different human behavior.
This is important to remember when we observe that the researchers characterize the stress imposed on the mice as mild. This term though reveals nothing precise about the stress level of the mice. Nor does it reveal whether such findings do (or don't) translate to human experience. The resulting knowledge gap should not be filled with baseless assumptions fueled by our worst fears.
Keeping those qualifications close at hand, it is true that experimental research has demonstrated in mice the placenta can transmit biochemical effects of stress to the fetus. The key factor here is an enzyme called OGT. Research suggests the OGT is inhibited in the placenta of mice who are subjected to what researchers describe as mild stress.
The stress for the mice was created by exposure to unfamiliar noises and the scent of foxes. It's not made clear why such stress - such as being exposed to threat of a natural predator - would qualify as mild.
Still, while human applicability is complicated by this methodological wrinkle, there is value in observing that at least some level of stress among mice does correlate to significantly reduced OGT levels. These reductions triggered brain alternations for over 370 of the mice's genes.
The neurons which were altered are critically important to a number of vital brain activities in fetus development. These include regulation of energy use, protein development and nerve cell connections. This research does seem to strongly indicate that OGT helps protect development of the fetal brain.
An important difference between male and female fetuses comes into play, here. There is a naturally lower OGT level in male fetuses. Consequently, whatever the level of stress sufficient to trigger reduced OGT, the affect will be felt sooner and more drastically in the development of boys. Such conjecture would be supported by the documented fact of higher autism and schizophrenia occurrence among males.
To repeat, this is valuable knowledge that expecting mothers and their partners should understand. As with all information, though, the correct response is not increased stress! Rather it is yet further reason to be proactive in reducing pregnancy stress. See our suggestions for solutions that work .
Expecting mothers - and their partners - should be aware of the research giving rise to widespread conclusions that pregnancy stress presents dangers to unborn children, including risks of autism. Again, though, don't stress about stress; keep the big picture in mind.
Currently the evidence comes from mice studies. Research with mice has undoubtedly offered great medical advances and provided value insights into human diseases. It does not though thereby logically follow that any finding based on mice studies can be automatically and immediately applied to humans. Whether such application is valid remains to be seen.
Another qualification to keep in mind is the always delicate issue of relevant proportionality. For instance, pumping mice full of some toxin in volumes utterly disproportionate to usual human practices surely does still provide valuable scientific insights. Not among those insights though would be any predictive value for assessing the relevance to the characteristically different human behavior.
This is important to remember when we observe that the researchers characterize the stress imposed on the mice as mild. This term though reveals nothing precise about the stress level of the mice. Nor does it reveal whether such findings do (or don't) translate to human experience. The resulting knowledge gap should not be filled with baseless assumptions fueled by our worst fears.
Keeping those qualifications close at hand, it is true that experimental research has demonstrated in mice the placenta can transmit biochemical effects of stress to the fetus. The key factor here is an enzyme called OGT. Research suggests the OGT is inhibited in the placenta of mice who are subjected to what researchers describe as mild stress.
The stress for the mice was created by exposure to unfamiliar noises and the scent of foxes. It's not made clear why such stress - such as being exposed to threat of a natural predator - would qualify as mild.
Still, while human applicability is complicated by this methodological wrinkle, there is value in observing that at least some level of stress among mice does correlate to significantly reduced OGT levels. These reductions triggered brain alternations for over 370 of the mice's genes.
The neurons which were altered are critically important to a number of vital brain activities in fetus development. These include regulation of energy use, protein development and nerve cell connections. This research does seem to strongly indicate that OGT helps protect development of the fetal brain.
An important difference between male and female fetuses comes into play, here. There is a naturally lower OGT level in male fetuses. Consequently, whatever the level of stress sufficient to trigger reduced OGT, the affect will be felt sooner and more drastically in the development of boys. Such conjecture would be supported by the documented fact of higher autism and schizophrenia occurrence among males.
To repeat, this is valuable knowledge that expecting mothers and their partners should understand. As with all information, though, the correct response is not increased stress! Rather it is yet further reason to be proactive in reducing pregnancy stress. See our suggestions for solutions that work .
About the Author:
Expecting moms and their birth supporters who want to keep up on all the relevant news need to follow the Stress and Pregnancy site. Also, for more great information about healthy life-choice, check out the info at our sister project, the Getting Rid of a Headache Without Medicine blog.
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