“If there ever was a maternal hex, obesity might be it,” said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal, “and as it turns out, even after the weight comes off, the biggest loser isn’t a mother, but her child.”

The Duke University study, involving rats, revealed that maternal obesity causes cellular programming in the womb that predisposes kids to inflammation-related disorders, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, and more. Researchers believe that the predisposition for the disorders remains, even when children aren’t obese themselves.

Staci D. Bilbo, Ph.D., co-author of the study, said that the hope is that the findings will lead to treatments for obesity-associated problems via identification of targets within the immune system. She added that the research teams hopes that their findings will help mothers consider the consequences of their food choices, “not only for their own health, but also for their children’s health, and potentially even their grandchildren’s health.”

For the study, researchers placed rats on one of three diets: low-fat, high-saturated fat, and high-trans fat. The rats followed the diets for four weeks before mating and throughout pregnancy and lactation. Rats born to obese mothers on the high-fat diets had increased immune cell activation and release of cytokines (proteins that regulate inflammation), even on the day after birth. Even after the rats were put on low-fat diets, the undesirable immune response remained.

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More Concern Over Maternal Obesity

The research from the University of California – Davis was published online today in the February issue of the journal Autism Research. The study is important since it’s one of the largest to quantify how each parent’s age (separately and together) impacts the risk of autism in children.

The risk of having a child with autism increased by 18% for each five-year increase in maternal age. This means that a mom aged 40 is 50% more likely to give birth to a child later diagnosed with autism than a mom aged 25 to 29 years.

Janie Shelton, lead author of the study and a doctoral student at UC Davis, said:

“This study challenges a current theory in autism epidemiology that identifies the father’s age as a key factor in increasing the risk of having a child with autism. It shows that while maternal age consistently increases the risk of autism, the father’s age only contributes an increased risk when the father is older and the mother is under 30 years old. Among mothers over 30, increases in the father’s age do not appear to further increase the risk of autism.”

Among the births to moms younger than 25, children fathered by a male more than 40 years old were twice as likely to develop autism compared to children whose father was between 25 and 29. However, for moms more than 30 years old, the increased risk of older dads went away.

For the study, researchers used e-records detailing all live births in California between January 1990 and December 1999. The records included both the maternal and paternal ages of parents. To find out which kids developed autism, researchers used records from the state Department of Developmental Services.

All said, the research included approximately 4.9 million births and 12,159 cases of autism.

Researchers aren’t yet sure why advanced age affects autism risk. Some theories include maternal antibodies to fetal brain protein or an accumulation of environmental chemicals in the body.

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Maternal Age Linked with Autism Risk

The finding came from a new, large-scale study published in the journal Thorax. Participants included 57,664 women taking part in a French study. Every two years between 1990 and 2002, the women, born between 1925 and 1950, were asked about their use of HRT and development of asthma symptoms.

None of the women in the study had asthma when their menopausal symptoms started. Almost 9.4% of women in the study with natural menopause and 28% of women with surgical menopause took HRT containing estrogen alone.

Study findings on Estrogen-only HRT and Asthma Connection:

• Women who used HRT were 21% more likely to develop asthma than women who had never used any form of HRT.
• Asthma risk was significant only among women using oestrogen alone. Their overall risk of asthma was 54% higher than among women who had never used any form of HRT.
• Women taking estrogen-only who were at the greatest risk of developing asthma included those who had some form of allergy before their asthma diagnosis, as well as women who had never smoked.

The researchers concluded that while their findings show an increased risk of asthma, that should be judged in “the light of all the other health effects of HRT use, including its beneficial effect on the quality of life of menopausal women.”

If you’re taking estrogen-only HRT, talk to your doctor about your potential risks before making any decisions about your medication.

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Estrogen-only HRT Linked with Asthma

There are several different ways that cold weather may contribute to gaining weight, and once these methods are exposed and swimming around in your thoughts, you may avoid them.

For the skinny on weight gain in the winter, read Tom Venuto’s article below. He’s the author of The Body Fat Solution, a book which takes a look at weight gain from many different angles (including emotional or psychological), not just the purely physical take.

After reading, leave a comment if you’re surprised by any of the insights on weight gain in the winter.

Does Cold Weather Make You Store Body Fat?

By Tom Venuto,
Author of The Body Fat Solution: Five Principles for Burning Fat, Building Lean Muscle, Ending Emotional Eating, and Maintaining Your Perfect Weight

Do you get fatter in the cold weather? It’s a good question right now, and the answer is yes!

First there’s the psychological explanation: in warm climates, people are wearing less clothes and enjoying the outdoors and people want to look good when they’re exposing more flesh! In the cold, you’re covered up, so there’s less self-consciousness and no public accountability. Therefore, most people tend to stay on a diet more diligently and train harder when summer rolls around.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) has been studied at length by psychologists. Often more than just the “winter blues” but an actual type of depression, SAD occurs during the short days and long nights of winter and fall, when there’s less sunlight and colder temperatures. Symptoms include depression, cravings for specific foods, loss of energy, hopelessness and oversleeping. Obviously, these types of symptoms can contribute to weight gain.

Because of their tendency for fall and winter weight gain, many people have suspected that cold temperatures influence weight gain on a metabolic level, not just eating more. Exposure to cold temperatures can cause a shivering thermogenesis which means there’s an increase in metabolism to produce more heat (heat production = calories burned).

However, if you just got the bright idea of turning off the heat in your house, or going for a swim in the cold surf every day to “burn more fat”, I wouldn’t recommend it. Deliberate exposure to the cold, either cold air or cold water doesn’t pan out into real world fat loss results, even though there are actually “fat loss gurus” who recommend it.

Here’s why:

If your body uses some energy for shivering or heat production, it can compensate later for that energy loss by increasing your appetite. Not only that, research at the hyperbaric environmental adaptation program at the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland reported that, “The combination of exercise and cold exposure does NOT act to enhance metabolism of fats . . . Cold-induced vasoconstriction of peripheral adipose tissue may account, in part, for the decrease in lipid mobilization.”

It’s just not practical to freeze your butt off in an attempt to speed up your metabolism a tiny little bit, so your fat loss scheme wouldn’t last long if you tried.

A great example of how cold temperatures affect energy balance is in the case of swimming. For years, people thought swimming actually made you fat. There were all kinds of theories, like, “it makes you retain a layer of fat for insulation, like seals.” Actually, the most recent research shows that swimming is a perfectly good fat burning exercise, except for one thing: Swimming, especially in cold water, increases appetite dramatically.

The seasons affect your activity levels too. Pedometer research published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise uncovered a huge difference in the number of steps taken between the summer and winter:

• 7616 steps per day in summer
• 6293 steps per day in fall
• 5304 steps per day in winter
• 5850 steps in spring

Most people blame winter weight gain on the food, but it’s not just the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s celebration feasts, it’s less winter activity that also contributes to the holiday pounds.

You have to keep up your training and nutrition program in the winter, or else.

Although studies have found that seasonal weight gain is usually very small, it’s the type of slow weight creep that goes unnoticed. Over a period of 10, 15 or 20 years, it’s enough to accumulate into overweight or obesity.

Thus many men and women wake up one morning at age 40 or 45, look in the mirror and ask themselves, “How did I get so heavy?” Answer: just a pound or two a year, after each winter season, left unchecked.

To stay lean all year round, you have to remain alert about increases in your appetite and decreases in your activity. This is a YEAR-ROUND LIFESTYLE! Stay active, stay diligent about nutrition, stay accountable, and if you start to experience weight gain, nip it in the bud — fast!

© 2010 Tom Venuto, author of The Body Fat Solution: Five Principles for Burning Fat, Building Lean Muscle, Ending Emotional Eating, and Maintaining Your Perfect Weight

Author Bio
Tom Venuto is a fat-loss expert, nutrition researcher, and natural, steroid-free bodybuilder. Since 1989, Venuto has been involved in virtually every aspect of the fitness and weight-loss industry — as a personal trainer, nutrition consultant, motivation coach, fitness model, health club manager, and bestselling author of the popular e-book Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, as well as other digital programs such as MP3 teleseminars and weight-loss membership websites. He lives in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Visit the author’s website at: BodyFatSolution.com.

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How Cold Weather Affects Your Weight

“It seemed to me that I was seeing more patients return with complications after a cesarean birth when staples were used instead of sutures, but I couldn’t find any studies that supported a recommendation for the use of either method,” said Suzanne Basha, M.D.

Dr. Basha and colleagues at Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, Pa. studied more than 400 patients (219 suture and 197 staples) undergoing cesarean delivery. After collecting wound complication data, researchers found that the use of staples resulted in a higher wound separation rate, higher composite wound complication rate and increased post-op doctor visits.

Use of staples to close wounds was linked with a more than four-fold increased risk of wound separation. Plus, use of staples added an average of eight minutes to operating time.

The study was presented at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine’s (SMFM) annual meeting earlier this week.

Data from the CDC indicates that more than 30% of all births in the US are by cesarean. In general, women without complications after a cesarean usually stay in the hospital around three days, and recovery takes four to six weeks.

Cesareans are undertaken for many reasons, including large fetal size, decreased blood supply to the placenta, multiple pregnancies, and avoiding risk of passing HIV or herpes to baby during delivery. In addition to potential complications from anesthesia, cesarean risks include infection, blood loss, blood clots, adhesions (scar tissue) and  potential complications with future births.

If you’re pregnant, are you going to discuss staples versus sutures with your doc in case of a cesarean delivery?

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Sutures Beat Staples for Cesareans

Scientists have found genes in both the mother and fetus responsible for premature birth, a leading cause of infant death in the US. The research was presented earlier this week at the 30th Annual Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) meeting.

Roberto Romero, MD, Chief of the Perinatology Research Branch at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development led a team of physicians and scientists who studied a large number of genes involved in the control of labor. These genes could help explain the process that triggers preterm birth.

One out of three premature births occurs with a symptomless maternal uterine infection. The scientists found DNA variants in genes involved in fighting infection in the pregnant woman and the fetus. Dr. Romero noted that these genes have been preserved in women because they’re needed for fighting infection.

Scientists found that the fetuses who carried a SNP gene variation in IL6R had twice the risk of preterm birth. The SNP gene variation influences inflammation. They also found that DNA variants in maternal genes also increased the risk of preterm birth.

The gene variants are new evidence that genetic predisposition to preterm birth may depend on the DNA of both mother and fetus and how the two interact.

“This research gives us even more evidence as to the relationship between genetics and preterm birth and is a step toward personalized medicine,” said Alan R. Fleischman, MD, medical director of the March of Dimes.

Dr. Fleischman believes that the new findings have the potential to allow doctors to identify who is at risk for preterm birth and provide specialized, individualized care, helping to ensure that more babies have a healthy start in life.

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Premature Birth Gene Discovered

My guess is that so many Americans think H1N1 is over since it hasn’t been in the news much lately. Yet, the flu is still claiming lives. CDC estimates that between 39 million and 80 million cases of H1N1 occurred last year between April and December.

Researchers believe that if perceptions that H1N1 is over spread, people who currently say they intend to get the vaccine may decide not to get it after all.

While 44% of Americans polled believe the outbreak is over, only 18% think it’s very likely that there will be another widespread outbreak of H1N1 in the next year. Most of the adults polled (70%) say that there’s now enough H1N1 vaccine available in their communities.

More than half of parents (53%) polled had either gotten the vaccine for their kids (40%) or they intend to get it before the end of this month (13%). Of the parents who refused the vaccine for their children, 56% named vaccine safety concerns as the reason.

A large percentage of adults haven’t gotten the vaccine (61%), and they don’t intend to get it. Many of the adults who didn’t get the vaccine (37%) indicated they don’t think the flu outbreak is as serious now as public officials once thought.

“Our results show there was broad awareness of public health messages on H1N1; approximately three-fourths of the public reported seeing ads regarding the importance of getting the H1N1 vaccine since December, but many people did not respond to the message,” said Gillian K. SteelFisher, research scientist and assistant director of the Harvard Opinion Research Program.

Do you agree with the half of Americans polled who said they think the H1N1 outbreak is over?

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Is H1N1 Over?

“Depression during pregnancy is an issue of concern because it has negative effects on both the mother and the baby as well as the rest of the family,” said Dr. Schnyer, one of the study authors.

Is depression during pregnancy a common problem?

Around 10% of pregnant women suffer from major depression, and almost 20% have increased symptoms of depression during pregnancy. Even though rates of depression in pregnant women are similar to rates among non-pregnant women the same age and women who’ve just given birth, there are far fewer treatment studies of depression during pregnancy.

Some women are also reluctant to take anti-depressants during pregnancy, so alternatives like acupuncture may be welcome. Study participants included 150 pregnant women who met the DSM-IV criteria for Major Depressive Disorder. The women in the study didn’t know if they were receiving acupuncture designed for depression or if they received control acupuncture (not specific for depression). One group received massage instead.

The women in the study who received the acupuncture specific for depression experienced a significantly greater decrease in severity of depression compared to the control groups. Fewer women in the massage group reported side effects, yet those side effects reported by some of the participants in the acupuncture groups were mild and passed quickly.

Study results were presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine’s (SMFM) annual meeting in Chicago.

If you’re concerned about depression during pregnancy, please speak with your doctor. Pregnant women should exercise caution with acupuncture during pregnancy, using only certified and experienced acupuncturists.

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Acupuncture During Pregnancy for Depression

Some women may go years before being diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a metabolic disorder that may lead to infertility. Around 5 million US women are affected by PCOS.

Andrea Dunaif, MD, of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said that some women will go to as many as four doctors before being diagnosed. She notes that women may be told that there’s nothing wrong with them or that they’re fat. Symptoms of PCOS, caused by excess levels of male hormones, may include irregular periods and excess hair on the face, chest or back.

Dunaif was recently awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue her research into the genetic causes of PCOS. She’s currently recruiting women with PCOS and their daughters, brothers and fathers for participation in her studies. For more info, call 800-847-6060 or visit the PCOS page at Northwestern University.

PCOS is a complex genetic disease with risks that last throughout a woman’s life. Risks associated with PCOS include obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, endometrial cancer and heart disease. According to Dunaif,
brothers and fathers of women with PCOS have a greater prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome.

While PCOS gets its name from small ovarian cysts, not all women with PCOS have these cysts. Dunaif said she’d like to rename PCOS “Syndrome XX” to get it into the spotlight.

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Unlocking Mysteries of PCOS

“What is clear, is that for a small subset of people, excessive use of the Internet could be a warning signal for depressive tendencies,” said Dr. Catriona Morrison from the University of Leeds.

Morrison is the lead author of a new study examining the link between Internet usage, depression and addiction. It’s the first large-scale study of Western young people to take up the subject. Researchers found that people who spend excessive amounts of time surfing the net are more likely to exhibit depressive symptoms.

Most people using the Internet aren’t addicted, so don’t worry too much! Only 1.2% or 18 people in the study were found to be addicted to the Internet. However, that percentage is enough to raise brows regarding mental health issues relating to overuse of the Internet. When Internet usage regularly takes the place of real, in-person interaction, that’s a cause for concern.

Morrison noted that the research findings reinforce previous public speculation that overusing social networking sites and chat rooms in a manner that replaces normal social function could be associated with disorders like depression and addiction.

In the study, younger people were more likely to be addicted than middle-aged Internet users. The average age of the addicted group was 21. Study participants included 1,319 people aged 16-51. Study findings will be published next week in the journal Psychopathology.

Do you think you know an Internet addict?

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Too Much Internet Linked with Depression