pregnant women Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Postpartum Female Preference for Cooler Temperatures Linked to Brain Changes

The AHA! Team — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 05:35:50 +0000

Baylor College of Medicine via EurekAlert! – Mothers experience major metabolic adaptations during pregnancy and lactation to support the development and growth of the new life. Although many metabolic changes have been studied, body temperature regulation and environmental temperature preference during and after pregnancy remain poorly understood. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and collaborating institutions show in the journal Molecular Metabolism that postpartum female mice develop new environmental temperature preferences and reveal brain changes mediating these changes. Humans and mice body temperature “In both humans and mice, body temperature increases during early pregnancy, drops to normal temperature during late pregnancy and then goes up again during lactation,” said co-corresponding author Dr. Chunmei Wang, assistant professor of pediatrics at USDA/ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor. In this study, Wang and her colleagues investigated what changes occurred in the brain that mediated the new temperature preference. “We worked with mice and found that female mice prefer a cooler environment starting from late pregnancy and persisting in long-term postpartum,” Wang said. “For more than four weeks post-weaning female mice had a lower body temperature and preferred cooler environments; they lost their typical preference for warm environments (30 °C/86 °F) but still avoided cold environments (15 °C/59 °F).” To identify the biological underpinnings of these changes, the researchers studied the preoptic area (POA), a brain region important for sensing and regulating body temperature. “We discovered that the change in temperature preference in postpartum female mice was associated with a significant decrease in a particular group of neurons, estrogen receptor alpha (ERα)-expressing neurons in the preoptic area of the brain (ERαPOA neurons),” Wang said. Supporting this finding, the researchers found that virgin females in which the estrogen receptor alpha had been deleted in ERαPOA neurons also preferred lower temperatures and avoided warmer locations, mimicking postpartum females. Looking closely into the ERαPOA neurons, the researchers found that these neurons vary in their ability to sense warm or cold temperatures – one group of ERαPOA neurons can directly respond to warmth, while another group responds to cooler temperatures. “Interestingly, compared to female mice that had not been pregnant, ERαPOA neurons of postpartum females had reduced response to warmth and an enhanced response to cold,” Wang said. Together, the results support that the ability of ERαPOA neurons to sense warmth and cold is regulated by reproductive experience and leads to changes in temperature preferences that alter the animal’s warmth-seeking behavior. Currently, the researchers are exploring the function of each group of ERαPOA neurons on the regulation body temperature and thermal preference. Other contributors to this work include Nan Zhang, Meng Yu, Qianru Zhao, Bing Feng, Yue Deng, Jonathan C. Bean, Qingzhuo Liu, Benjamin P. Eappen, Yang He, Kristine M. Conde, Hailan Liu, Yongjie Yang, Longlong Tu, Mengjie Wang, Yongxiang Li, Na Yin, Hesong Liu, Junying Han, Darah Ave Threat, Nathan Xu, Taylor Smiley, Pingwen Xu, Lulu Chen and co-corresponding authors Tianshu Zeng and Yanlin He. The authors are affiliated with one or more of the following institutions: Baylor College of Medicine, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei Branch of National Center for Clinical Medical Research of Metabolic Diseases, Louisiana State University, South-central Minzu University and the University of Illinois. This work was supported by grants from the USDA/CRIS (3092-51000-062-04(B)S), Pennington Biomedical Research Center institutional funding and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. ### Journal Molecular Metabolism DOI 10.1016/j.molmet.2025.102108 To read the original article click here.

The post Postpartum Female Preference for Cooler Temperatures Linked to Brain Changes appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Preterm Birth Is More Likely with Exposure to Phthalates

AHA Publisher — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 07:00:52 +0000

Rutgers University-New Brunswick via Newswise – A Rutgers researcher was part of a National Institutes of Health study that found pregnant women who were exposed to chemical compounds known as phthalates during pregnancy had an increased risk of preterm birth. Phthalates are industrial chemicals used in personal-care products, such as cosmetics, as well as solvents, detergents and in food packaging. After examining data from 6,045 pregnant women in the U.S., researchers found that women with higher concentrations of several phthalate metabolites in their urine were more likely to deliver their babies preterm—or delivering three or more weeks before a mother’s due date. The study was published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. “Preterm birth is one of the most poorly understood, intractable challenges in maternal-child health,” said author Emily Barrett, an associate professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health and a member of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute. “This study provides compelling evidence that everyday chemicals in our environment are part of the problem,” Barrett said. Conducting the largest study in the United States to date on this topic, researchers pooled data from 16 studies conducted throughout the U.S. that had individual participant data on prenatal urinary phthalate metabolites (which represent exposure to phthalates) as well as the timing of delivery of the study participants. Pregnant women participating in in the study delivered babies between 1983 and 2018. Nine percent, or 539, of the women delivered preterm births. Phthalate metabolites were detected in more than 96 percent of urine samples. The researchers developed statistical models to examine whether exposure to phthalates were associated with preterm birth. Higher concentrations of most phthalate metabolites examined were associated with slightly higher odds of preterm birth. Exposure to four of the 11 phthalates in pregnancy was associated with a significantly greater probability of having a preterm birth. The most consistent findings were for exposure to a phthalate that is used commonly in personal-care products such as nail polish and cosmetics. The researchers also used computational models to simulate hypothetical interventions that could reduce phthalate exposure. They estimated that reducing the phthalate exposure by even 50 percent could reduce preterm birth by 1.1 percent. The potential interventions could be behavioral, such as selecting personal-care products that don’t contain phthalates (if listed on label); voluntary actions from companies to eliminate phthalates from their products; or regulatory in nature. “Our data demonstrate that if we could reduce our exposures to phthalates, we could make considerable progress towards reducing our unacceptably high rates of preterm birth,” said Barrett. Eating fresh, home-cooked food as often as possible, avoiding processed food that comes in plastic and selecting fragrance-free products or those labeled as “phthalate free,” are some examples of ways pregnant people can reduce their exposure to the chemicals. The researchers are conducting additional studies to better understand the mechanisms by which exposure to phthalates can impact pregnancy and determine if there are effective ways for mothers to reduce their exposure. To read the original article click here.

The post Preterm Birth Is More Likely with Exposure to Phthalates appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Probiotics Significantly Improve the Symptoms of Pregnancy-Related Problems

AHA Publisher — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 08:00:23 +0000

University of California – Davis Health via News-Medical – In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers at the UC Davis School of Medicine found that probiotics significantly improve the symptoms of pregnancy-related nausea, vomiting and constipation. The findings were published in the journal Nutrients. Nausea and vomiting affect about 85% of pregnancies and can significantly impact quality of life, particularly during early pregnancy. “The cause of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy is unknown to this date. Various theories have been proposed, but none of them is conclusive. Nausea, vomiting and constipation during pregnancy can significantly diminish the quality of patients’ lives. Once nausea and vomiting during pregnancy progress, they can become difficult to control, and sometimes the patient even needs to be hospitalized.” Albert T Liu, Study Lead Author and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of California – Davis Health Beneficial Microbes Probiotics are referred to as “beneficial bacteria.” They can be found in foods like yogurt, kimchi, kefir, sauerkraut and tempeh. Probiotics are also available as food supplements. According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, other than vitamins, probiotics or prebiotics were the third most commonly used dietary supplement for adults. Probiotics are thought to support the community of different microbes, often referred to as the “gut microbiome,” found in the gastrointestinal tract. During pregnancy, hormones like estrogen and progesterone increase, bringing about many physical changes. These increases can also change the gut microbiome, which likely affects the digestive system functions and causes unwanted symptoms like nausea, vomiting and constipation. The researchers set out to determine whether supplementing with a probiotic could be beneficial for gastrointestinal function during pregnancy. The study lasted for 16 days. A total of 32 participants took a probiotic capsule twice a day for six days and then took two days off. They then repeated the cycle. The probiotics were available over-the-counter and mainly contained Lactobacillus., a type of good bacteria. Each capsule contained approximately 10 billion live cultures at the time of manufacture. Participants kept 17 daily observations of their symptoms during the duration of the study, for a total of 535 observations for the researchers to statistically assess. What the researchers found was that taking the probiotic significantly reduced nausea and vomiting. Nausea hours (the number of hours participants felt nauseous) were reduced by 16%, and the number of times they vomited was reduced by 33%. Probiotic intake also significantly improved symptoms related to quality of life, such as fatigue, poor appetite and difficulty maintaining normal social activities, as scored by questionnaires. Probiotics were also found to reduce constipation significantly. “Over the years, I’ve observed that probiotics can reduce nausea and vomiting and ease constipation. It’s very encouraging that the study proved this to be true,” said Liu. “Probiotics have also benefited many of my other patients who weren’t in the study,” said Liu. New Clues From Gut Microbes and Byproducts Participants also contributed fecal specimens before and during the study. The samples were analyzed to identify the type and number of microbes and the different byproducts of digestion. This allowed the researchers to examine whether biomarkers in the fecal specimens corresponded with more severe nausea and assess how the probiotics affected participants who began the study with different baseline biomarkers. One finding was that a low amount of bacteria that carry an enzyme named bile salt hydrolase, which generates bile acid to absorb nutrients, was associated with more pregnancy-related vomiting. Probiotics increase bile salt hydrolase-producing bacteria, which may explain why the supplements decreased levels of nausea and vomiting. Another finding was that high levels of the gut microbes Akkermansia and A. muciniphila at the beginning of the study were associated with more vomiting. The probiotic significantly reduced the amount of those particular microbes and also reduced vomiting. This suggests Akkermansia and A. muciniphila may be reliable biomarkers that can predict vomiting in pregnancy. Another finding was that vitamin E levels increased after taking probiotics. Higher levels of vitamin E were associated with low vomiting scores. “This research provides key insights about the impact of gut microbes on gastrointestinal function during pregnancy. Our gut microbiota explains why we are what we eat, and why bacteria-generated metabolites and products have a huge impact on our health,” said Wan. “They affect the gastrointestinal tract as well as skin health and neurological function.” Although the findings are intriguing, the researchers caution that due to the small sample size, further studies will be needed to confirm the effects of the probiotics. “Our previous work showed the benefits of probiotics in preventing liver inflammation. The current study might be one of the first to show the benefits of probiotics in pregnancy,” said Wan. “It would be interesting and important to further test whether probiotics can reduce nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy in cancer patients.” To read the original article click here.

The post Probiotics Significantly Improve the Symptoms of Pregnancy-Related Problems appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Decades of Research Confirms: Popular OTC Drug Linked to Harm in Developing Babies

AHA Publisher — Fri, 15 Oct 2021 07:00:45 +0000

Karen Sanders via NaturalHealth365 – Is taking acetaminophen (brand name Tylenol®) during pregnancy harmful to developing babies? A growing scientific consensus says yes. Unfortunately, this growing consensus is not based on “new” data. In fact, the call for “precautionary action” is based on at least 25 years of scientific data involving thousands of mothers and children. Household Painkiller Taken During Pregnancy Harms Developing Fetus in MULTIPLE Ways, Growing Research Shows Acetaminophen (also called APAP, or paracetamol outside the United States) is in the spotlight thanks to a consensus statement published in Nature Reviews Endocrinology. The September 23, 2021, statement, endorsed by an international team of 91 scientists, public health experts, and medical doctors, states that pregnant women should “forego [acetaminophen] unless its use is medically indicated.” One possible medical indication would be fever reduction, as maternal fever is a known cause of neural tube defects. However, research indicates the majority of pregnant women who take acetaminophen are doing because of things like headaches and back pain – not fever. The question is: Do pregnant women (and their healthcare providers) truly understand the possible risks associated with this common over-the-counter drug? Just looking at the drug insert for acetaminophen should be a reason to pause, where it admits that it “is not known whether acetaminophen can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman.” It’s known now, however. In a statement to CNN, Dr. Shanna Swan, co-author of the consensus paper and professor of environmental medicine and public health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, says there’s a “significant body of evidence that suggests that [acetaminophen] disrupts the reproductive development of animals and humans.” This includes evidence showing that acetaminophen use in pregnancy increases the risk of undescended testicles in male offspring, which is associated with decreased fertility and sperm count later in life. In their consensus statement, the global team of researchers points to years of concerning data, including 29 observational studies including more than 220,000 mother-child pairs showing adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. It’s not clear yet how acetaminophen can damage developing babies, but the drug is known as an endocrine disruptor. (Two other popular pain relievers, aspirin, and ibuprofen are already linked to birth defects.) Of course, acetaminophen is no stranger to adverse health effects. It remains the leading cause of drug-induced acute liver failure in the United States and is a leading cause of emergency department visits and hospitalizations. The negative impact of acetaminophen isn’t limited to fetuses only. Ten years ago, Reuters reported on a study from The Journal of Urology which found that men who regularly used over-the-counter painkillers like Tylenol were almost 40% more likely to suffer from impotence. Why Would Officials Rush to Expose Pregnant Women and Young Children to New Injections? You might wonder: why now? Why, after years of support from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and other organizations, is acetaminophen during pregnancy coming under fire? Dr. Swan puts it simply: the growing accumulation of data over time. “As time progresses,” she states, “stronger and stronger evidence suggests that we’ve only been underestimating risk [of maternal acetaminophen use.]” This is an important statement, especially in the context of brand-new mRNA injections currently being pushed on pregnant women and children – despite the complete lack of long-term safety data. Is the potential benefit of these drugs truly work the known and unknown risks? Should pregnant, nursing, and trying to conceive women truly have to choose between taking these drugs or else lose their jobs and lose access to public spaces? Is this ethical? Sources for this article include: CNN.com Nature.com NIH.gov Medlineplus.gov Statnews.com Reuters.com AAFP.org FDA.gov NIH.gov To read the original article click here.

The post Decades of Research Confirms: Popular OTC Drug Linked to Harm in Developing Babies appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Exposure to ‘Good Bacteria’ During Pregnancy Buffers Risk of Autism-Like Syndrome

AHA Publisher — Wed, 27 May 2020 07:00:34 +0000

University of Colorado at Boulder via EurekAlert – Giving beneficial bacteria to stressed mothers during the equivalent of the third trimester of pregnancy prevents an autism-like disorder in their offspring, according to a new animal study by University of Colorado Boulder researchers. The study, published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, marks the latest in a series of studies in animals and humans suggesting that exposure to certain immune-modulating microbes can dampen inflammation, positively impacting the brain and central nervous system. It’s among the first studies to suggest that such exposures during pregnancy influence neurodevelopment of a fetus and, while far more research is necessary, could open the door to new prenatal interventions. “It suggests that you could develop microbial interventions that lower the risk of neurodevelopmental syndromes like autism,” said co-author Christopher Lowry, an associate professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology. In humans, research has long shown that maternal stress during pregnancy prompts systemic inflammation in both the mother and fetus and is a risk factor for autism, said senior author Daniel Barth, a professor of psychology and neuroscience. In a previous study, Barth found that when rats were stressed and given a drug called terbutaline, which is often administered to women to delay preterm labor, their offspring demonstrated an autism-like syndrome – including the two hallmark features of social deficits and repetitive behavior. They also developed an epilepsy-like seizure disorder. “Our fundamental question with this new study was whether we could use an immunoregulatory microbe to prevent the long-term consequences of environmental stressors during pregnancy,” said first author Zachariah Smith, a post-doctoral researcher in Barth’s lab. For the study, the researchers exposed rats to mild stressors and gave them terbutaline during what would be the equivalent of the third trimester of pregnancy in humans. Half were also given a series of injections of a heat-killed preparation of a friendly bacterium known as Mycobacterium vaccae (M. vaccae), shown in previous studies to have lasting anti-inflammatory effects on the brain. A third control group of rats got no treatments. At two and four months, the pups were given a series of tests assessing, among other things, their degree of social interaction and whether they exhibited repetitive behaviors. As in the previous study, those whose mothers had been stressed and given terbutaline showed autism-like behaviors. But those who had been immunized with M. vaccae did not. “Immunization with M. vaccae appears to provide some protection against the negative effects of environmental stressors during development, specifically against Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)-like behavior,” said Smith. The inoculation did not appear to protect against development of seizure disorders. But because epilepsy tends to develop later in life, the researchers intend to repeat the experiment with a larger sample size and longer treatment period. Autism and epilepsy often manifest together in humans, with about 30% of autistic individuals exhibiting epileptic symptoms, such as seizures. Stress-induced inflammation likely plays a role in both, the researchers suspect. “It could be that if we continue the treatment for longer we could also prevent the development of some cases of epilepsy, but much more research is necessary,” said Lowry. The researchers caution that they are not developing an “autism vaccine” and they are not suggesting that microbial interventions could reverse the disorder in children who already have it. But their study does reinforce the idea that exposure to beneficial microorganisms, sometimes referred to as “old friends,” can play a critical role in brain development in utero. Ultimately, Lowry envisions a day when stressed moms deemed particularly high risk of having a child with a neurodevelopmental disorder could be given a specially formulated probiotic or inoculation to support healthy brain development of their child. “This is the first maternal intervention that I know of that has been able to prevent an autism-like syndrome, including the behavioral and social aspects,” Lowry said. “If this could be replicated in humans, that would be pretty profound.” Meantime, they say, mothers should be cognizant of the potential risks of emotional and environmental stressors, including the drug terbutaline, during pregnancy. And they should try to expose themselves to beneficial bacteria, through fermented foods like yogurt and sauerkraut and even time spent in nature. To read the original article click here.

The post Exposure to ‘Good Bacteria’ During Pregnancy Buffers Risk of Autism-Like Syndrome appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Developing Therapeutic Strategies for Pregnant Women with Lupus

AHA Publisher — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 05:00:46 +0000

Virginia Tech via EurekAlert – “For patients with autoimmune lupus, diet and probiotics are the two relatively easy and acceptable approaches that can potentially improve disease management through modulating the gut microbiota…” Systemic lupus erythematosus, a chronic autoimmune disease commonly referred to as lupus or SLE, has been compared to volatile, unprovoked brawls within the body. The disease, which has no cure, operates much like an allergic reaction gone awry: When activated, the immune system also attacks the body’s healthy cells, tissues, and organs, causing inflammation and producing a host of symptoms that, though unique to each person, are universally called flares. A highly gender-biased disease, lupus afflicts females some nine times more than males. Because of the disease’s unpredictable turns and debilitating flares – the risks of which are elevated in postpartum women – females with the disease are often advised to avoid pregnancy altogether. To understand this higher risk of severe flares and ultimately help women with lupus experience healthy pregnancies and successful outcomes, a team of researchers in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology (DBSP) at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine explored the possible role of gut microbiota in the link between pregnancy and the exacerbation of lupus. The team’s findings, “Pregnancy and lactation interfere with the response of autoimmunity to modulation of gut microbiota,” were recently published in the online journal Microbiome. “There are 38 trillion bacteria living in the gut of an average person, collectively called the gut microbiota,” said Xin M. Luo, associate professor of immunology in DBSP and lead author of the paper with Qinghui Mu, formerly a DBSP postdoctoral fellow and now a postdoctoral research fellow in immunology and rheumatology at Stanford University School of Medicine. “Disturbance of the gut microbiota exists in the pathogenesis of many autoimmune diseases, including lupus.” Identifying gut microbiota’s role in heightened flares among pregnant women with lupus, however, was uncharted territory. Working with the lead authors as members of the DBSP research team were Ph.D. student Xavier Cabana-Puig; visiting scholar Jiangdi Mao; Ph.D. student Leila Abdelhamid; clinical associate professor of anatomic pathology Thomas E. Cecere; Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health Graduate Program Ph.D. student Brianna Swartwout; Professor Haifeng Wang of the College of Animal Science at Zhejiang University, China; and Professor Christopher M. Reilly, discipline chair for cellular biology and physiology at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine. The research team examined the changes of gut microbiota structure with or without the experience of pregnancy, as well as the differential responses of the immune system to the same microbiota-modulating strategies in unaffected versus postpartum lupus-prone mice. The results indicate that the strategies benefitting the unaffected mice actually worsened lupus disease in postpartum mice. “Our findings suggest that the gut microbiota may regulate lupus flares in pregnant women,” Luo said of the team’s research. “Our work helps to uncover the mechanisms underlying pregnancy-induced disease flares and offers the possibility of developing new therapeutic strategies for pregnant women with lupus.” The ultimate goal of her team’s research, Luo explains, is to identify beneficial and pathogenic gut bacterial species and to develop therapeutic strategies that modulate the gut microbiota community toward a beneficial effect. “For patients with autoimmune lupus, diet and probiotics are the two relatively easy and acceptable approaches that can potentially improve disease management through modulating the gut microbiota,” Luo said. “But it is challenging to achieve this goal due to the complexity of the disease pathologies, the complexity of gut microbiota, and the differences of gut microbiota communities among individuals.” For its next steps, the research team plans to investigate the interaction between sex hormones and gut microbiota in regulating lupus pathogenesis. “Women experience hormonal changes, which include sex hormones, during pregnancy and postpartum,” said Luo. “In addition, lupus has a strong female bias, suggesting a role for sex hormones in the disease.” According to Luo, future investigations will focus on lupus nephritis, the leading cause of mortality in lupus patients, to further delineate the role of gut microbiota in the link between pregnancy and exacerbated lupus. To read the original article click here.

The post Developing Therapeutic Strategies for Pregnant Women with Lupus appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.