A recent study found out that newborns of smoking mothers encounter problems regarding their blood pressure. This problem persists throughout the whole first year of the baby. A senior researcher, Gary Cohen declares that the real concern is that the baby is born with this trouble and that it only degenerates with time.
Cohen’s research comprised of a comparison between 19 newborns of nonsmoking couples and 17 babies who had smoking mothers. The smoking mothers smoked on average 15 cigarettes daily when they were pregnant. The results of the study were as such; aged one week, the newborns of the non-smokers underwent a 2 percent increase their blood pressure when they were tilted vertically. Furthermore, their blood pressure rate of increase was 10 percent per year. However, the pattern witnessed for the babies of smoking mothers was completely reversed. Their blood pressure was 10 percent at one week of age and they experience a 4 percent rise per year.
In addition, when put in such a position the heart rate of the infants of smoking mothers responded in an irregular and exaggerated way. While it is not safe to say that these abnormalities witnessed with smoking mothers’ babies will become problematic for the babies when they grow up, there is yet the certainty that this irregularity in their blood pressure will not disappear overnight.
Cohen admitted that the reasons as to why tobacco affected the blood pressure of new born babies cannot be established. However, there is a high likelihood that the makeup and the function of the blood vessels are impaired due to the tobacco. The impairment is mainly of the endothelium; the thin layer of cells that outline the interior of the blood vessels.
The possibility that the damage will continue is currently unknown as the study that Cohen conducted gives results for up to one year only. However, he claims that he will take his research forward.
According to Barry Lester, the impairement observed in the Karolinska study is similar to the damage witnessed with newborn babies of mothers who made used of drugs during their pregnancy. The professor of psychiatry and pediatrics of Brown Medical School, Mr. Lester, explains that when appropriate precautions are not taken during pregnancy, such as indulging in drug abuses, it can trigger the reprogramming of the brain circuitry.
Lester has conducted researches on the lasting outcomes of cocaine and amphetamine intake at the time when one is expecting a baby. He observed that most women who use such drugs were also smokers.
He declared that when his team isolated the effects of tobacco, they were able to show that there are innate neural influences of tobacco exposure comparable to what is seen in the abuse of cocaine and methamphetamine.
Some researches have made a connection between these problems and the overproduction of cortisol. Cortisol can be described as a stress hormone that has a crucial part to play in regulating the blood pressure and immune system, affirmed Lester. He further advanced that the overexposure of cortisol is a possibility as there are proofs demonstrating that cortisol is damaging.
Cohen states that this hypothesis is very plausible a infants that are born before they are due do encounter blood pressure problems that have been associated with the overproduction of cortisol through the adrenal glands. He further noted that there are similarities between the exposure to tobacco smoke and preterm newborns of the same age group. In addition, whatever be the mechanism causing the damage, any treatment to eradicate the troubles after birth seems impossible.
From what Mr. Lester has gathered from the observation of older children, he states that, relocating them to an environment free from the exposure of tobacco smoke will not ensure restoration of the usual function. The best approach to be adopted in such situations is a preventive one. Pregnant women should avoid exposure to tobacco smoke in the atmosphere, for being exposed to passive smoking is equally as serious.
Source: Health News
Sat, Jan 30, 2010
Gerontology, Health And Aging, Lifestyle