There are a number of valid no-nos for pregnant women
Over the years, pregnant women have been warned about all sorts of odd things that might affect their unborn babies. My personal favorite: “Don’t visit the monkey house at the zoo while you are pregnant, or you’ll have a hairy baby.” Old-wives’ tales and superstitions aside, modern-day medicine has a few things to add to the hopper of no-nos for expectant mothers.
Consider the following:
– Heavy coffee consumption might be harmful during pregnancy. In a recent study, Danish researchers found that drinking four to seven cups of coffee a day resulted in an 80 percent increase risk of stillbirth (compared to the risk for non-coffee drinkers). Women who drank more than eight cups a day experienced a 300 percent increase in risk.
Ironically, the risk decreased slightly for study participants who drank one to three cups of coffee a day.
Researchers of this study, which appeared in the February issue of the British Medical Journal, say women with a high intake of coffee are also more likely to have a high intake of alcohol and be smokers.
But after adjusting for smoking and alcohol consumption during pregnancy, the risk of stillbirth was still higher – 40 percent for those who drink four to seven cups a day, 220 percent among those who drink eight cups or more.
– Pregnant women (and nursing mothers) should drastically reduce their consumption of French fries, potato chips and other foods that contain acrylamide. Acrylamide, listed by the federal government as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen” (i.e., probably causes cancer), is normally associated with the production of water-soluble polymers used as additives in water treatment, enhanced oil recovery, papermaking aids, ore processing, sewage and waste treatment and permanent-press fabrics.
Exposure was thought to be primarily occupational, but Swedish scientists in April 2002 reported finding acrylamide in fried and oven-baked goods, especially potato chips and French fries. Researchers in other nations have found similar results, with the most recent study reported in January of this year.
Last September, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a plan to reduce or eliminate concentrations of acrylamide in potato and cereal products. In the meantime, German researchers recommend pregnant women limit consumption of acrylamide to less than 20 micrograms per day.
Likewise, nursing mothers should avoid eating any potato products fried in oil at temperatures over 180 degrees centigrade until their infants are at least two months old.
– If you’re pregnant, you may want to avoid the swimming pool this summer. A certain chemical by-product of chlorine – often found in high levels in swimming pools – may be dangerous to the health of unborn babies, according to researchers in London.
The by-products, trihalomethanes (or THMs), may be associated with miscarriage, low-birth weight, neural tube defects and urinary tracts defects.
Environmental experts in this country are cautious about these results, since the studies have all been done in Europe where pools may be maintained differently.
However, pregnant lifeguards at indoor swimming pools have been known to “suffer from different illnesses,” according to one source, because of continuous exposure to chlorinated water.
The British study warns that THMs are absorbed through the skin, during swimming and inhaled from the air around chlorinated pools.
– Licorice anyone? Researchers in Finland recently discovered that licorice consumption may have a more significant effect on preterm birth than smoking.
A study of more than 200 women which measured, among other things, the amount of licorice eaten, showed more than a two-fold increase in the risk of pre-term delivery among those who were considered heavy licorice consumers.
The active component in the licorice root, glycyrrhsin, is thought to have an effect on cortisol and prostaglandin metabolism. Its overuse has previously been linked to high blood pressure, sodium and water retention, low potassium levels and other imbalances of electrolytes in the body.
According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, symptoms of excess glycyrrhizin consumption include headache, sluggishness, puffiness and swollen ankles, and even heart failure or cardiac arrest.
(Jan Hawkins is a freelance health care journalist residing in northern Kentucky. If there are special topics you would like to see covered in this column, write to Hawkins in care of the Herald-Standard at 8-18 E. Church St., Uniontown, Pa. 15401).