Infant blood pressure high if mother smokes
Very young infants, especially boys, who were exposed to tobacco smoke in the womb tend to have higher systolic blood pressure - the number on top of the reading—than their unexposed counterparts, results of a study in the Netherlands suggest.
Multiple investigations have revealed evidence of an association between mothers who smoke during pregnancy and higher blood pressure in their offspring, note Dr. Cuno S.P.M. Uiterwaal and colleagues in the medical journal Hypertension. However, they add, the question remains as to whether the association occurs in the women or during the postnatal period.
Overweight women at risk of pregnancy complications
The heavier a woman is before pregnancy, the greater her risk of a range of pregnancy complications, a large study suggests.
Using data from more than 24,000 UK women who gave birth between 1976 and 2005, researchers found that the risk of problems, such as high blood pressure, pre-eclampsia and premature delivery climbed in tandem with a woman’s pre-pregnancy weight.
Dietary carbs linked to vision loss
The carbohydrates present in a diet can influence the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of vision loss in older adults, according to a report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
“AMD appears to share several carbohydrate-related mechanisms and risk factors with diabetes-related diseases, including (eye) and cardiovascular disease,” write Dr. Allen Taylor, of Tufts University, Boston, and colleagues. “However, to date, only one small study has addressed this issue.”
