Study finds genetic link between misery and death

Specifically, Cole analyzed transcription factor binding sequences in a gene called IL6, a molecule that is known to cause inflammation in the body and that contributes to cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration and some types of cancer.

"The IL6 gene controls immune responses but can also serve as 'fertilizer' for cardiovascular disease and certain kinds of cancer," said Cole, who is also a member of UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and UCLA's Molecular Biology Institute. "Our studies were able to trace a biochemical pathway through which adverse life circumstances — fight-or-flight stress responses — can activate the IL6 gene.

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the IL6 gene.

IL-6 acts as both a pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokine - an immune system messenger molecule. IL-6 is relevant to many disease processes such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, prostate cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. Advanced metastatic cancer patients have higher levels of IL6 in their blood.
Cytokines are regulatory signaling proteins, taking messages from cell to cell and influencing the behaviour and activity of the cells. Their pro-inflammatory behaviour is implicated in many of the processes that plague pregnant women, causing havoc for them and their babies.

This study is very exciting. Such clear linking of stress response and cytokine activation as described by these researchers is essentially providing more evidence that pregnant women need environments which are calm, relaxed, nurturing and supportive. Midwives are the obvious people to support, nurture and ensure calm and relaxed surroundings as they work with women to normalise their experiences of change on the journey to becoming a mother.

1. Kristiansen OP, Mandrup-Poulsen T (December 2005). "Interleukin-6 and diabetes: the good, the bad, or the indifferent?". Diabetes 54 Suppl 2: S114–24. PMID 16306329.
2. Dubiński A, Zdrojewicz Z (April 2007). "[The role of interleukin-6 in development and progression of atherosclerosis]" (in Polish). Pol. Merkur. Lekarski 22 (130): 291–4. PMID 17684929.
3. Tackey E, Lipsky PE, Illei GG (2004). "Rationale for interleukin-6 blockade in systemic lupus erythematosus". Lupus 13 (5): 339–43. PMID 15230289.
4. Smith PC, Hobisch A, Lin DL, Culig Z, Keller ET (March 2001). "Interleukin-6 and prostate cancer progression". Cytokine Growth Factor Rev. 12 (1): 33–40. PMID 11312117.
5. Nishimoto N (May 2006). "Interleukin-6 in rheumatoid arthritis". Curr Opin Rheumatol 18 (3): 277–81. doi:10.1097/01.bor.0000218949.19860.d1. PMID 16582692.
6. "Cancer Patients Typically Have Increased Interleukin-6 Levels". American Society of Clinical Oncology 2006 Annual Meeting, Abstracts 8632 and 8633. Medscape.com. 2006-06-26. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/537309.

Study finds genetic link between misery and death

The pheromone myth: Sniffing out the truth - 24 February 2010 - New Scientist

Fascinating read

Richard L. Doty is director of the University of Pennsylvania's Smell and Taste Center. His awards include the US National Institutes of Health's James A. Shannon award (1996), and the Association for Chemoreception Sciences' Max Mozell award for outstanding achievement in the chemical senses (2005). This essay is based on his book, The Great Pheromone Myth (Johns Hopkins University Press)

Richard Doty states:

"All in all, it looks as if "pheromonology" has become a modern-day phrenology, providing simple but false explanations for most chemically mediated social behaviours and endocrine responses, satisfying only those who seek simple answers to complex phenomena. Perhaps once the idea that mammals have pheromones is dispelled, we can work towards an appreciation of the real role chemicals play in their lives".

The pheromone myth: Sniffing out the truth - 24 February 2010 - New Scientist

Dirty tricks of the egg and sperm race - 24 February 2010 - New Scientist

The title of this article about gene expression from New Scientist is misleading. Not so much 'dirty tricks' but fascinating negotiations! New insights into how genes express and are modified by environmental factors, known as the field of 'epigenetics' provide provide a better understanding of how we become who we are.

"The imprinted genes include several with a role in embryo growth and development, most of which are also expressed in the brain, meaning that key traits like body size, cognitive ability and personality might be moulded by epigenetic inheritance".

Dirty tricks of the egg and sperm race - 24 February 2010 - New Scientist

The Reinvention of the Self § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM

"Elizabeth Gould overturned one of the central tenets of neuroscience. Now she’s building on her discovery to show that poverty and stress may not just be symptoms of society, but bound to our anatomy".

Brilliant article about the role of the environment in making us who we are:

"Subsequent experiments have teased out a host of other ways stress can damage the developing brain. For example, if a pregnant rhesus monkey is forced to endure stressful conditions—like being startled by a blaring horn for 10 minutes a day—her children are born with reduced neurogenesis, even if they never actually experience stress once born. This pre-natal trauma, just like trauma endured in infancy, has life-long implications. The offspring of monkeys stressed during pregnancy have smaller hippocampi, suffer from elevated levels of glucocorticoids and display all the classical symptoms of anxiety. Being low in a dominance hierarchy also suppresses neurogenesis. So does living in a bare environment. As a general rule of thumb, a rough life—especially a rough start to life—strongly correlates with lower levels of fresh cells.
Gould’s research inevitably conjures up comparisons to societal problems. And while Gould, like all rigorous bench scientists, prefers to focus on the strictly scientific aspects of her data—she is wary of having it twisted for political purposes—she is also acutely aware of the potential implications of her research".

The environment shapes us, from the very beginning to the very end.

"...As Nottebohm has said, “Take nature away and all your insight is in a biological vacuum.” Nottebohm discovered neurogenesis in birds learning to sing in their natural habitat". If he'd studied birds in cages, they would have been too stressed to sing and therefore wouldn't have grown new neurons.

The Reinvention of the Self § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM

The implications for midwifery work with childbearing women is that midwives create the right environment within which women can explore becoming mothers in an optimal way.

Hansard 23rd February 2010

This is from Sen Julian McGauran, Liberal Sen for Victoria (page 4), said:

"Rest assured that I know all about the incompetence of Minister Roxon, who has flown under the radar. It is not just this issue; a whole array of issues in her portfolio ought to be brought out.......

I was in Ballarat recently for the community cabinet; it was Mr Rudd's sideshow. That was all it was. You should have seen the glum faces on all of the ministers who turned up. What a joke. In this portfolio is the midwives issue, denying women the choice to have home births. That was what dominated the community
cabinet. I got a guernsey; I was there in the front row. I could not believe it. It was a sight to see the one ego on display. He really does have a big ego. You have to see it to believe it, and you are all compliant to it. It is a joke. When are you going to stand up and speak on an issue?

This Prime Minister is so frightened of the midwives issue he is not willing to meet the public outside of a controlled situation. When he had to unveil the Kevin Rudd bust in Ballarat ‹as many of you know, in
the gardens there there are busts of every Prime Minister‹ he did not turn up. He left the council, the Mayor and everyone else standing there waiting for him to appear at 11 am. He just did not turn up. He did not even ring ahead to say he was not going to turn up. Can you imagine the embarrassment and the frustration? Do you know why? Because there were midwives protesting there waiting for him and wanting to speak to him. Of course, they have dubbed it as 'cowardly'. That is the portfolio I want to speak on".

Writing Speeches For The Government

Writing Speeches For The Government

MYLES PETERSON

February 21, 2010

Midway through last year I was head-hunted by the federal Department of Health and Ageing to write speeches for their ministers - a surprise as I had no experience or qualifications. As far as the department was aware, my limited skills were derived from reviewing video games for The Canberra Times.
Perplexed and amused, I dusted off the suit and attended my one and only interview. ''I'll be writing speeches for who?''
''Minister Roxon,'' answered my interviewer.
''And you're going to pay me how much?''
''Eighty thousand a year. Will that be enough?''
So began my journey down the public service rabbit-hole. I would soon learn that swine flu and a raid on staff by another department were to thank for my recruitment.

Sigh! An article well worth reading. So this is what we are dealing with folks!

YouTube - Our bodies rally.wmv

On the 18th February, 2010 in 14 locations across Australia, 1000's of people rallied to register their protest at the Rudd Government policies that threaten to restrict options for women.

Jane Palmer's wonderful video montage of the rallies for women's right to choose what happens to their bodies in childbirth

And some media on the 'issue'


The Sunrise piece that seems to have stirred up the Government

http://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunrise/video/play/-/6819641/

a TV piece from Chan 7 yesterday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvZFZ0gd-Zw

http://www.facebook.com/l/64996;www.mybirth.com.au/19-02-2010/women-rally-at

Nicola Roxon's response to collaboration agreements.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/19/2824133.htm

Roxon says: "I'm unapologetically on the record as saying let's encourage people across the health services spectrum to work together and make sure that women can safely choose options that are good for them and suit them.." 

That's great in theory and obviously something that sounds very reasonable. 

The question then has to be asked: So why not restrict doctors work unless they collaborate - they are the ones who make things difficult! 

In reality, Roxon's 'encouragement' is only fueling the power imbalances and women are caught in the 'rip'.

 

 

 

Probing Question: Do emotions influence heart health?

Probing Question: Do emotions influence heart health?

"Can positive emotions like love, friendship and social connectedness improve health? It seems that way, suggests McDanel. Many studies have shown that patients who have caring support networks during health crises have better outcomes than those who do not, she said. A decade-long study on elderly Australians found that those with larger networks of friends were found to be 22 percent less likely to die during the study period than those with fewer friends.
"Friendships and supportive social networks can definitely help people through times of sickness or emotional hardship," McDanel said. "We have to treat people with a holistic approach, treating their physical maladies, improving their diet and exercise, but also working on their emotions and giving them the tools to manage them better."
Reducing stress, anger and loneliness, she said, is a recipe for good health"

Just goes to show, we need to be there for each other and be good to each other. Support and kindness are life saving.

Resilience therapy empowers family violence survivors

Resilience therapy empowers family violence survivors

"Thousands of men, women and children experience family violence each year, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Traditionally, therapy for violence survivors has predominantly focused on evaluating their trauma and pain. In contrast, a University of Missouri researcher broadens the therapeutic focus to empower survivors through highlighting their resilience, resourcefulness, and ability to overcome adversity".

Compared to current approaches that emphasize diagnosing symptoms and mental health issues, the strengths-based approach helps identify survivors' abilities, such as perseverance and overcoming, and how those skills can be used in their present-day lives.

"What are normally regarded as negative traits in survivors of family violence might actually be their survival strengths," Anderson said. "Traits that practitioners often try to change may be extremely important to maintain and can help survivors thrive in environments where there isn't violence."

Focusing on a strengths based approach to working with people is totally congruent with contemporary understanding about how the brain and nervous system works. Such an approach is capacity building and particularly useful for midwives working with childbearing women negotiating the changes that come with being pregnant, labour and learning how to be a mother with a new baby.

There are lessons to be heeded here:

"The strengths-based approach trains social workers, mental health practitioners, educators and students to uncover the positive in survivors' life stories—the skills gained by enduring and coping with immense adversity. This facilitates a more collaborative process, where the professional and the survivor each utilize their individual expertise to develop solutions.

"Victims of family violence find it difficult to see their own strengths and self-worth because it's often colored by shame and blame," Anderson said. "Similarly, practitioners find it difficult because they tend to focus only on victims' problems. Instead, they need to cast a light on survivors' abilities to cope and overcome the adversity brought on by family violence. This reveals hope that they won't always be victims of violence and they can achieve what they want in their lives, whatever their dreams are.

Most people find it difficult to see their own strengths and self worth, both necessary attributes for living a life of happiness and wellbeing. Midwives would do well to read this book and integrate the information into their practice so that the women they work with feel better about themselves when they leave their presence than when they came. That way women will also come to believe they can achieve what they want for themselves and their children.

Right to breastfeed - Local News - News - General - Bunbury Mail

Western Australia doesn't have a law that protects women's right to breastfeed and babies right to be fed breastmilk!  That's about  to be changed by a young woman who knows what is right.

Jess and her son Oscar

A LOCAL mother is taking on the State Government after she was humiliated for breastfeeding in public recently.
Jess Beven was out to lunch with friends and family when she discreetly began breastfeeding her nine-month-old son Oscar.
Using a blanket to cover herself she was dismayed when a man approached her and told her to move elsewhere "to do that".
"He made me feel humiliated," Mrs Beven said.
"I couldn’t believe he said that."

Read the rest of the story here:    Right to Breastfeed

Medical News: Developmental Delay Linked to 'Flat Head' Syndrome - in Pediatrics, General Pediatrics from MedPage Today

from MedPage

"Babies with misshapen heads from lying on their backs too long may be at heightened risk for developmental delays, researchers said, although they stressed that infants should still sleep in the supine position"

The worry about SIDS (Sudden Infant Death) is understandable. Parents have been terrified about the possiblity of SIDs and it is heartbreaking when SIDS occurs. The Back to Sleep campaign has reduced the number of SIDs cases, but parents have become terrified to put their children in any other position than on their backs.

SIDS has been linked to low levels of a hormone called Serotonin and the enzyme that makes it in the baby's brainstem.  Brainstem circuits control breathing, blood pressure, and heart rate during sleep, Hannah C. Kinney, MD, of Children's Hospital Boston, and colleagues reported in the Feb. 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. A baby with an abnormality in control of these systems might not be able to respond to a life-threatening challenge like asphyxia by rousing from sleep or turning its head the researchers explained.

 These researchers suggest that the back to sleep campaign has saved those babies who would not have been able to move their heads or bodies in response to changing physiology. 

Now researchers are saying that flat heads from back lying are associated with neurodevelopmental delay. A fascinating and troubling finding. The authors are at pains to say that these babies may have developed plagiocephaly because they already had a problem and caution that parents should still ensure babies lie on their backs to sleep.

I wonder if we are not having a problem that is self perpetuating here.  Neurophysiologists like James Prescott (a hero of mine) tell us that the brainstem gets 'set' at birth by the environment the baby meets. If the baby gets skin to skin with his/her mother, the brain stem gets set for love, happiness and contentment - states associated with serotonin.  If babies are whizzed off to the resuscitaire, their brain stems are set for fear and distress. That state is associated with a lack of serotonin.

These days, with the back to sleep campaign, many children are not having any tummy time, they are not being carried and they are certainly not sleeping with their mother, all of which adds up to mean they are not having the stimulation from movement and touch that they get from being held, carried and laid in different positions. I suspect the brainstem issue could relate to how they are treated at birth and the neurodevelopmental delay that is associated with plagiocephaly could be due to lack of stimulation.

Babies need to be carried, they need to sleep with their mothers to get the stimulation necessary for optimal brain growth . One of my many heroes, Dr James McKenna at Notra Dame University has done many mother-infant sleep studies.

Go to  Dr McKenna's home page to find the latest research and information about the sleep studies.

Dr McKenna's sensible and baby/mother friendly suggestions for babies sleeping safely can be found at this link:    Babies Sleeping Safe



CO-SLEEPING RESEARCH

The psychophysiological effects of sleep-sharing are studied in sleep laboratories that mimic, as much as possible, the home bedroom. Over the past few years, over a million dollars of research money has been devoted to sleep-sharing research. These studies have all been done on mothers and infants ranging from two to five months in age. Here are findings based on mother-infant pairs studied in the sleep-sharing arrangement versus the solitary-sleeping arrangement (Elias 1986, McKenna 1993, Fleming 1994; Mosko 1994):

1. Mothers and babies who sleep together are more 'in sync' than those who do not: when either the mother or the baby moved, stirred, coughed or changed stages of sleep, the other would change in synchrony, without waking.

2. Both mother and baby generally spent more time in the same stage of sleep and for longer periods when they slept together.

3. Mothers sleep better even though their babies sleep deeply for shorter periods when they sleep together: thought to be a protective mechanism. Mothers tend to stir and babies follow if baby sleep is deep for any length of time.

4. Sleep-sharing infants arouse more and breastfeed more than babies who sleep separately; mothers to not report waking more frequently than those who slept separately.

5. Sleep-sharing infants tended to sleep more often on their backs or sides and less often on their tummies, a factor that could itself lower the SIDS risk.

6. Mothers and babies who sleep together, touch and interact a lot, even when sleeping: each affects the night time behaviour of the other.

Insightful mothers have always felt better sleeping with their babies. Babies suffer separation distress when they are apart from their mothers.

In my view, plagiocephally (flat back of head) is an iatrogenic problem. The neurodevelopmental delay associated with plagiocephaly results from the lack of stimulation caused by the 'lie your baby on its back dictum' is, also, in my view, iatrogenic.

Our culture is really weird. Anything that is good and wholesome, like birth at home with those you love, sleeping with your baby and attachment parenting is branded medically suspect. I guess the beneficiaries of the regular doctor visits, helmet makers and surgeons who correct misshapen heads have to make a living.

Promoting healthy behaviour in expectant mums / Current news / The University of Newcastle, Australia

Tuesday 16 February 2010
From the University of Newcastle website:

"Researchers at the University of Newcastle say many pregnant Australian women have difficulty exercising enough and consuming the recommended levels of nutrients.
A report on women's reproductive health — released by the Minister for Health and Ageing, the Hon Nicola Roxon MP — is the latest from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH). Now in its 16th year, the ALSWH has surveyed more than 40,000 women across three age groups.
"While women generally improve their diets when pregnant, many consume less than the recommended levels of folate and iron," report contributor, Jennifer Powers, said. “Many women quit smoking and stop drinking alcohol during pregnancy, but a small percentage of women continue to smoke and drink alcohol at levels considered unwise for pregnant women.
"Our research suggests there is an ongoing need for targeted public health messages that promote healthy behaviours during and after pregnancy."
The survey also showed that around 10 per cent of women who had given birth within a three-year period reported a diagnosis of post-natal depression.
"This diagnosis was less likely in mothers who had good social support networks," report contributor, Catherine Chojenta, said.
Ms Powers said the health and wellbeing of mothers could also be influenced by their attachment to the paid workforce.
"Women who took 12 or more weeks maternity leave reported higher energy levels than women who took less time off work.
"These findings support the Australian Government's initiative for a minimum amount of maternity leave for all women."
The ALSWH is funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Health and Ageing.
The report Reproductive Health: Findings from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health is available at the Women's Health Australia website and the Department of Health and Ageing website.
Jennifer Powers and Catherine Chojenta are members of the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) Public Health Research Program".
HMRI is a partnership between the University of Newcastle, Hunter New England Health and the community.



Promoting healthy behaviour in expectant mums / Current news / The University of Newcastle, Australia"

Birth: a woman's right to decide?

A sobering article on Essential Baby site

What Women Want's Founder Justine Caines shares her views on the proposed maternity reforms.
Soon after the 2007 election, Nicola Roxon announced maternity reform that would enable women to choose a midwife to care for them for their pregnancy, labour, birth and for up to six weeks postnatally. This was to be funded under Medicare. The fantastic part was that it would be one midwife, enabling a woman to form a relationship, knowing who would share her birth experience with her and also provide home based post-natal care. Maternity reform advocates were excited and heralded this as a landmark.

Over the last year, however, we've seen intense lobbying from the Australian Medical Association (AMA). Late last year, the proposed reform was altered. Medicare funded midwifery would not go ahead unless a doctor 'signed off' the practices of the midwife, giving an individual doctor veto power over a midwife's practice and woman's decision making.

Read the rest of the article by clicking this link
Birth: a woman's right to decide?

Founders of British obstetrics 'were callous murderers' | UK news | The Observer

Founders of British obstetrics 'were callous murderers' | UK news | The Observer

"They are giants of medicine, pioneers of the care that women receive during childbirth and were the founding fathers of obstetrics. The names of William Hunter and William Smellie still inspire respect among today's doctors, more than 250 years since they made their contributions to healthcare. Such were the duo's reputations as outstanding physicians that the clienteles of their private practices included the rich and famous of mid-18th-century London.
But were they also serial killers? New research published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (JRSM) claims that they were. A detailed historical study accuses the doctors of soliciting the killing of dozens of women, many in the latter stages of pregnancy, to dissect their corpses.
"Smellie and Hunter were responsible for a series of 18th-century 'burking' murders of pregnant women, with a death total greater than the combined murders committed by Burke and Hare and Jack the Ripper," writes Don Shelton, a historian. "Burking" involved murdering people to order, usually for medical research."
"Motivated by ego, personal rivalry and a shared desire to benefit from being acclaimed as the foremost childbirth doctors of their time, Hunter and Smellie sacrificed life after life in their quests to study pregnancy's physical effects and to develop new techniques, the author says. "Although it sounds absolutely incredible, the circumstantial literary evidence suggests they were most likely competing with each other in experimenting with secret caesarean sections on unconscious, or freshly murdered, victims, with a view to extracting and reviving the babies," Shelton told the Observer".
Another founder of obstetrics, Dr Marion Sims, who has the Sim's speculum named after him, was also callous about women and their bodies and performed hundreds of operations on black women slaves without anaesthetic.

          Sims contended that ‘Black women don’t feel pain'

Modern obstetrics evolved from this era.

When you consider the foundations of anything, the foundations do influence the structure of what comes after. Modern obstetrics imposes an impersonal, efficiency model onto women's organic, dynamic birthing processes. There are, of course, doctors who treat women individually and take into account what women want - they are however, not in the majority.

I'm not talking about those women-centred doctors here.

I'm talking about the 'cookie cutter' approach to labour and birth adopted by obstetrics generally. The process that women are subjected to has been linked to the industrial age Taylorist ideas of factory processing - speed, efficiency and cost containing - supposedly.

Many women emerge bruised and shattered from their birth experience having been 'done to' by the 'machine'.

Meanwhile, midwifery emerged from millions of years of women helping women during their life cycle events such as the birth of children. Midwifery remains woman focused and has sought and is seeking to keep birth normal, keep maternity care woman focused, accommodating women's individual needs, desires and dreams for her baby and her experience.

That is where the 'rip' is - the two tides of beliefs, attitudes, values, historical underpinnings, philosophy (etc) come together and create a field of dissension and distress for both women and midwives.

Many theorists are saying how invasion, genocide, penal colony origins, drunkenness, murder and mayhem were the foundations of contemporary Australia and underpin the rules, regulations and behaviours of 'mateship' - football culture, 'tall poppy' syndrome and other rather distasteful aspects of our culture.

In terms of modern maternity care and the 'turf wars' together with rising rates of surgical birth and maternal depression, as we look through the lenses of the foundations of medicine and midwifery - makes us think doesn't it.

          What do you make of all this?

          Update 25 August 2017 

          In the USA  Black Women are protesting Sims' statue

Medical News: Depression During Pregnancy Linked to Kids' Behavior Problems - in Psychiatry, Depression from MedPage Today

A study of the children of 120 disadvantaged mothers from South London, reported in the January/February issues of Child Development, provided more evidence of the compelling need to take care of childbearing women and in particular, to provide support for disadvantaged and marginalised women, who were more likely to be depressed and have experienced conduct problems themselves as children. Researchers found that children whose mothers were depressed were twice as likely to display antisocial behaviour than those whose mothers weren't depressed.

Medical News: Depression During Pregnancy Linked to Kids' Behavior Problems - in Psychiatry, Depression from MedPage Today

The researchers "explored several potential mechanisms for the link between maternal depression and a child's behavior problems:

• Direct effects on the fetus from biological correlates of the mothers' depressive symptoms
• Depression in pregnancy as a sign of environmental adversity
• Re-exposure to maternal depression after birth
• Indirect effects of depression on the developing fetus driven by mothers' smoking, drinking, and drug taking during pregnancy
• A genetic explanation whereby women who experience depression in pregnancy may also have a greater genetic risk for antisocial behavior, which they pass on to their offspring

Hay and her colleagues noted that these explanations are not necessarily mutually exclusive".

As the effect of the social environment upon the individual becomes more widely recognised and the way the building of a healthy sense of self in a baby/child is inextricably linked to the presence of a moment by moment, congruent, consistent, warm, responsive interactive relationship with the mother, it is no longer possible to ignore the responsibility of society to help childbearing women in every way possible. Apart from addressing basic economic necessities, a fundamental and important capacity building initiative is to provide one to one midwifery care. The provision of a trusting relationship with a known midwife in a continuity of care model, supports pregnant women's growth and development, providing the opportunity for early identification of potential problems and instituting remedial action and targetted solutions before the problems begin.  Authentic midwifery care, education, good nutrition, exercise and as already  noted, acupuncture all work together to alleviate and minimise depression and the associated problems with depression for childbearing women and their children.  Providing adequate resources for intervention in the beginning of life is an excellent public health strategy as it avoids the huge financial and societal cost of antisocial behaviour later on.

Ancient remains put teeth into Barker hypothesis from PhysOrg

"The Barker hypothesis is named after epidemiologist David Barker, who during the 1980s began studying links between early infant health and later adult health. The theory, also known as the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease Hypothesis (DOHaD), has expanded into wide acceptance.

As one of the founders of the field of bioarcheology, Armelagos studies skeletal remains to understand how diet and disease affected populations. Tooth enamel can give a particularly telling portrait of physiological events, since the enamel is secreted in a regular, ring-like fashion, starting from the second trimester of fetal development."

Da Vinci

Disruptions in the formation of the enamel, which can be caused by disease, poor diet or psychological stress, show up as grooves on the tooth surface.


Ancient remains put teeth into Barker hypothesis

Cognition in pregnancy and motherhood: prospective cohort study -- Christensen et al. 196 (2): 126 -- The British Journal of Psychiatry

Cognition in pregnancy and motherhood: prospective cohort study -- Christensen et al. 196 (2): 126 -- The British Journal of Psychiatry

Background
Research has reported that pregnant women and mothers become forgetful. However, in these studies, women are not recruited prior to pregnancy, samples are not representative and studies are underpowered.
Aims
The current study sought to determine whether pregnancy and motherhood are associated with brief or long-term cognitive deterioration using a representative sample and measuring cognition during and before the onset of pregnancy and motherhood.
Method
Women aged 20–24 years were recruited prospectively and assessed in 1999, 2003 and 2007. Seventy-six women were pregnant at follow-up assessments, 188 became mothers between study waves and 542 remained nulliparous.
Results
No significant differences in cognitive change were found as a function of pregnancy or motherhood, although late pregnancy was associated with deterioration on one of four tests of memory and cognition.
Conclusions
The hypothesis that pregnancy and motherhood are associated with persistent cognitive deterioration was not supported. Previous negative findings may be a result of biased sampling.


This study is interesting on many points. One interesting point is the way the researchers concluded their paper by stating:

"Obstetricians, general family doctors and midwives may need to use the findings from this study to promote the view that ‘placenta brain’ is not inevitable, and that perceptions of impairment may reflect emotional or other unknown factors. Not so long ago pregnancy was ‘confinement’ and motherhood meant the end of career aspirations. Our results challenge the view that mothers are anything other than the intellectual peers of their contemporaries".

 An important point to make!

 The researchers state that:

"one of the weaknesses of our study was our inability to link cognitive change with biological changes associated with pregnancy"

What would have been really interesting is to see the neurological changes that were taking place in women's brains as they were questioned by the researchers.  Emerging insights from neuroscience indicate that different attentional networks are operating, depending upon the task at hand.  Different attentional networks trigger different autonomic nervous system 'states' with correspondingly different biochemical responses and levels.

Pregnant women do not suffer cognitive 'impairment' that much the research has demonstrated, however, the researchers dismisses the fact that many women do forget things in pregnancy, relegating the 'forgetting phenomenon' to the basket of emotionally related factors.  Dismissing women's experience as merely emotionally driven is, in my view, dangerous thinking.

Emotions are powerful chemicals for one thing and have a great deal to do with day to day health and long term wellbeing for both mother and baby.

A far better conclusion is that the pregnant woman's body and subconscious processes are very busy building a baby.  Our innate intelligence has a way of rerouting attention from less important to more important activities. Nothing, in terms of nature's agenda (healthy reproduction) is more important than building a healthy baby.

With an understanding of neuroscience and attentional networks, the fact that a pregnant woman becomes forgetful about 'boring' tasks and 'work' related activities is perfectly understandable and has nothing to do with her intellectual ability and cognition. When a woman's attentional networks are triggered to pay attention, she will, demonstrating, as this study shows that her intellectual ability is 'normal'.

Pregnant women can be assured that forgetting mundane, wordly things is actually very normal and very understandable. Their body intelligence is very consumed in growing a baby and is not bothered or very interested in outside worldly pursuits.

Sweet! -- sugar plays key role in cell division

Scientists seeking to understand the complex interactions involving hundreds of proteins that enables a human cell to split into two, have found a layer of regulation, that up until now has been invisible, although they were aware in 2005 that sugar helped to control cell division.

http://www.physorg.com/news6643.html

A sugar-based signaling pathway has been found that works independently and seems to be the trigger for the phosphorylation signaling system, which has always been thought to be 'the' pathway that underpinned human cell division processes

Sweet! -- sugar plays key role in cell division

Ant feeding on sugar crystal Wikipedia

The discovery of the sweet switch is considered to be "paradigm-shifting in terms of signaling. Signaling is how a cell perceives its environment, and how it regulates its machinery in response to stimuli. The new sugar switches reveal that the cellular circuitry is much more complex than previously thought".

Ah yes, our biology, physiology and entire being is fascinating! Layers upon layers of interaction are being discovered - we are not a 'done deal' by any means.

To the scientists:

"Because these previously unrecognized sugar switches are so abundant and potential targets of manipulation by drugs, the discovery of their role has implications for new treatments for a number of diseases, including cancer".

However, what about the role of something incredibly simple, like good low GI (glucose index) nutrition to prevent the signaling switch being corrupted in the first place?

Low GI foods

 

Recipes

http://www.lowcarbiseasy.com/aboutlowcarb.htm#why

 This information is vitally important for couples wanting to have a baby. Nutrition in one of the key environmental contributors to a healthy pregnancy that couples can take control of before they get pregnant. We know how vitally important optimal sugar control is to a healthy baby's anatomy and development.

Medical News: SMFM: Gene Variants Linked to Preterm Labor - in Meeting Coverage, SMFM from MedPage Today

Fascinating article

Medical News: SMFM: Gene Variants Linked to Preterm Labor - in Meeting Coverage, SMFM from MedPage Today

"Some women and fetuses carry gene variants that predispose them to the early onset of labor," Romero said.

The question we need to be asking is "what turns these gene variants 'on'?" and how can we keep them turned 'off'.

My hunch is that CRH is key to the inflammatory processes that do things to genetic switches.

What gets CRH fired up?

Embodied reactions (both conscious and other than conscious) to environmental stressors!

Hmm. Ina May Gaskin's Farm statistics are interesting and I had to put this article here to illustrate my thinking explained below.

Ina May Gaskin, Bonny Reid and her son

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/26/natural-birth-expert

My theory and I know there is a lot of work to be done to 'prove' this 'scientifically', is that this is where one to one midwifery work is so beneficial. Authentic midwifery care, such as provided by midwives like Ina May Gaskin is an 'anxiolytic'. The kindly, loving relationship with a midwife the woman knows and trusts, helps a woman to stay calm, relaxed and feeling loved and through conversations and information sharing encourages the woman to eat well, exercise appropriately and minimise environmental toxins of all kinds - all of which serves to keep CRH stable and therefore physiology stable for optimal growth and functioning. My take on why the incidence of all that plagues pregnant women and their childbearing experience, such as preterm labour, pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, desultory labour etc ad infinitum, is lessened with good, one to one midwifery care.

YouTube - matronas

Midwives and Matronas


YouTube - matronas

Delightful!