Latest News

Business Standard : According to a recent study, a mother's weight during early pregnancy may affect how well her baby is able to self-regulate during its first months and years of life. The research suggested that there is a one in five chance that overweight or obese women will have babies who suffer from multiple regulatory problems, and these babies may also show a delay in some developmental milestones when they reach childhood. Previous research has found that one in every five infants struggles to self-regulate in the first year of life. This means that these babies may cry excessively, have problems feeding or difficulties falling asleep unless soothed by a caregiver. As they grow older, such children often show behavioural and neurodevelopmental problems such as hyperactivity or difficulties concentrating, as well as having poorer muscle function. Some have lower IQs or are placed on the autism spectrum. As part of the study, researchers drew on data from 3,1...

Multiple pregnancies might make women's cells age more quickly, a new study suggests. A Northwestern University study, led by Calen Ryan and Christopher Kuzawa of Northwestern and Dan Eisenberg at the University of Washington, helps explain why women with many children tend to show signs of accelerated aging. The findings were reached by looking at two separate markers of cellular aging telomere length and epigenetic age in hundreds of young women with different reproductive histories in the Philippines. Lead author of the study, Ryan said, "Telomere length and epigenetic age are cellular markers that independently predict mortality, and both appeared 'older' in women who had more pregnancies in their reproductive histories." Cellular aging was accelerated by between 0.5 and 2 years for each additional pregnancy, a surprisingly large effect according to the researchers. Senior author of the study, Kuzawa said, "Paradoxically, even...