Unhappy mothers talk more to their baby boys

September 3, 2019

Science Daily/University of Cambridge

Mothers who are dissatisfied with their male partners spend more time talking to their infants -- but only if the child is a boy, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Cambridge.

It is well known that having a child can put a strain on the parents' relationship, but whether this then has an impact on the child's own development in its first few years is not known. The quality of a couple's relationship is known to be related to developmental outcomes such as their behaviour and educational attainment in school-aged children, but has been little studied in relation to parent-infant talk, despite parent-infant talk being important for the child's development.

To examine the relationship between the quality of a couple's relationship and parent-infant talk, researchers from the Centre for Family Research at the University of Cambridge studied 93 first-time, heterosexual parents and their interactions with their infants. The team asked parents about the quality of their couple relationship and how satisfied they were and then gave the infants at age seven months a wearable 'talk pedometer' that recorded naturalistic parent-infant talk for a full day in which both parents were at home.

The researchers used software to provide an automated analysis of the frequency of adult spoken words to their infant and of parent-infant 'conversations'.

The findings of the research, which was supported by Wellcome and the Economic and Social Research Council, are published in the Journal of Family Psychology.

After taking depression into account (because of its links with both couple relationship quality and parent-infant talk), the researchers found that the more dissatisfied a couple reported their relationship to be, the more the mother spoke to her infant. Mothers who reported the quality of their relationship to be 'low' used around 35% more words than a mother whose relationship was 'average' and started around 20% more conversations. However, these effects were only found with infant sons, not daughters.

The researchers did not analyse the content of the mother-infant talk, so it is not possible to say whether the mother was complaining to her infant or talking positively.

"It's possible that the mum is trying to compensate for the poor relationship she has with her partner by putting more time and effort into her relationship with her other close male social partner, her son," says Dr Elian Fink from the Centre for Family Research and the Faculty of Education.

"What is particularly interesting is that mums only seem to compensate when they have infant sons, not daughters. It could be that mothers view their daughters as mini versions of themselves rather than of their partners."

Regardless of infant gender, fathers showed significantly less overall talk and initiated fewer conversations than did mothers, even though the fathers are increasingly becoming involved in parenting and the recordings were taken specifically on a day when both parents were at home. However, the amount that they spoke to their infants was unrelated to the quality of the couple's relationship.

"Even when dads spend more time around their infants, this doesn't necessarily mean they are interacting with them more," adds Dr Fink. "One possible reason may be that there's still an imbalance in who responds to the basic care needs of their infant. So, for example, if it's the mother who still shoulders the burden of changing the nappy, this at least offers an opportune time to engage in direct communication with her infant."

Dr Fink hopes the findings will encourage parents to make a conscious effort to talk more to their infants, whether they are boys or girls.

"Parent-child interaction is important for a child's development, with conversation playing a particular role for the child's language development," she says. "Finding time to talk to children is very important. Using opportunities within the daily routine, such as mealtimes and bedtime, to have conversations with your child may help foster later child talk."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190903101503.htm

High-fat diet in utero protects against Alzheimer's later

August 27, 2019

Science Daily/Temple University Health System

A high-fat diet can carry health risks, but for mothers-to-be, it may make all the difference when it comes to Alzheimer's disease prevention for their children. In a report published online August 26 in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University show for the first time in animals that high maternal fat consumption during gestation protects offspring against changes in the brain that are characteristic of late-onset Alzheimer's disease.

"In humans, it has been known that individuals whose mothers develop Alzheimer's disease after age 65 are at increased risk of also developing the disease around the same age," said senior investigator Domenico Praticò, MD, Scott Richards North Star Foundation Chair for Alzheimer's Research, Professor in the Departments of Pharmacology and Microbiology, and Director of the Alzheimer's Center at Temple at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine.

Genetic factors transmitted by mothers to their offspring seem like an obvious explanation behind this phenomenon, but so far no genes have been identified that could explain the maternal transmission of Alzheimer's disease. This fact would suggest that environmental factors, such as lifestyle and diet, adopted during the gestation period, a time in which mother and baby are in tight interaction, could significantly influence the offspring's risk of developing the disease later in life.

Diet is of particular interest as a risk factor, especially a diet rich in animal fat and cholesterol. High-fat intake previously has been shown in young/adult mice to directly exacerbate the types of changes in brain function that ultimately may contribute to Alzheimer's disease.

To better understand the unique relationship between maternal Alzheimer's disease and risk in her offspring, Dr. Praticò and colleagues looked at maternal fat intake specifically during the gestation period in mice engineered to develop Alzheimer's disease. Pregnant mice were fed a high-fat diet from the beginning until the end of gestation. The moment offspring were born, mothers were switched to a regular diet, which was maintained during the lactation period. Offspring of these mothers were always kept at the same regular, or standard, diet throughout their life.

At 11 months of age, offspring underwent behavioral tests to assess learning ability and memory. "Surprisingly, we found that animals from mothers fed a high-fat diet during gestation had better learning and memory skills than their counterparts born to mothers fed a regular diet during gestation," Dr. Praticò said.

The observed improvements in memory and learning were associated with the maintenance of good synaptic integrity. In fact, offspring from mothers exposed to a high-fat diet had significant improvement of synapse function when compared with offspring from mothers on a regular diet. Synapses, the places where neurons come together to relay information, play a vital role in learning and memory formation.

In addition, compared to animals born to mothers fed a regular diet, offspring from mothers on a high-fat diet had lower levels of amyloid-beta, an abnormal protein that builds up in neurons, contributing to nerve cell dysfunction and eventually significant impairments in memory and learning

When the team searched for possible mechanisms responsible for the beneficial effect, they discovered that offspring from mothers fed a high-fat diet exhibited reduced levels of three important genes involved in Alzheimer's disease: beta-secretase, tau, and the pathological tau-regulating gene CDK5. Dr. Praticò's team found that already in the early developmental stages, the three genes were effectively switched off in offspring because the high-fat diet had increased activity of a protein called FOXP2. They demonstrated that the repressive activity of FOXP2 on these genes ultimately protected offspring from later declines in brain function and Alzheimer's disease development.

"Our findings suggest that, to be effective, Alzheimer's disease prevention probably needs to start very early in life, during gestation," Dr. Praticò said. "Diet at this specific life stage can have critical, but underestimated, long-term impacts on brain health."

Dr. Praticò and colleagues plan next to compare the effects of a high-fat diet to those of other diets, including diets high in sugar and protein and diets resembling the Mediterranean diet in humans. "We also want to see whether our findings can be replicated in wild-type animals" Dr. Praticò added.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190827084717.htm

Binge drinking may be more damaging to women

August 19, 2019

Science Daily/University of Missouri-Columbia

Female rats more susceptible to liver injury after three binge drinking episodes

In a recently published study examining the effects of binge drinking on rats, researchers discovered that female rats who were of equal age and weight to male rats were more sensitive to alcohol and experienced alcoholic liver injury at a higher rate than male rats.

Alcohol consumption is a major cause of chronic liver disease in the United States, and binge drinking is emerging as a significant contributor to liver injury. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in six U.S. adults binge drink four times per month. In a recently published study examining the effects of binge drinking on rats, researchers from the University of Missouri School of Medicine discovered that female rats who were of equal age and weight to male rats were more sensitive to alcohol and experienced alcoholic liver injury at a higher rate than male rats.

"Some chronic drinkers can drink for several years and still live relatively healthy lives," said Shivendra Shukla, PhD, Margaret Proctor Mulligan Professor of medical pharmacology and physiology at the University of Missouri School of Medicine. "But many chronic drinkers are susceptible to liver damage when they binge drink. The liver is the metabolic powerhouse of the body and liver injury can compound damage to other organs. We studied the similarities and differences of gender-specific responses to repeat binge drinking. Our research showed just three binge drinking episodes triggered a response for more injury in the female rats."

Shukla found a statistically significant difference using just four male and four female rats, giving them the same amount of alcohol three times at 12-hour intervals. He collected and analyzed blood and liver tissues four hours after the last binge episode. Shukla discovered the blood alcohol concentration was twice that in the female rats, but not all damage in males and females reflected that ratio. He discovered the female rats had nearly 4 times as much fatty build-up in the liver, a trigger for additional inflammation and damage.

"There's a protein called diacylglycerol kinase-alpha (DGKa) that has been shown in other studies to promote tumor growth and cancer," Shukla said. "In our findings, this protein goes up 20% in male rats, but increases 95% in females. However, any role this protein plays in alcohol-induced breast cancer is unknown and remains to be investigated in the future."

Shukla says additional studies in humans will be needed to further understand the potential differences in how binge drinking affects males and females, and the metabolic causes for these differences.

"Unfortunately, alcohol has been glamorized," Shukla said. "It is dangerous. Don't binge drink. The research is very clear."

In addition to Shukla, the study authors include Ricardo Restrepo, PhD, Annayya Aroor, PhD, Robert Lim, PhD, Ronald Korthuis, PhD, and Xuanyou Liu, graduate student from the Department of Medical Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of Missouri School of Medicine; and David Ford, PhD, and Jacob Frank, graduate student, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Center for Cardiovascular Research at Saint Louis University.

The study, "Binge alcohol is more injurious to liver in female than male rats: histopathological, pharmacological, and epigenetic profiles," was recently published in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. The authors of the study declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190819112725.htm

Sequential, concurrent multitasking is equally hard for men, women

Women perform no better than men in study investigating types of multitasking

August 14, 2019

Science Daily/PLOS

Women and men perform equally when required to switch attention between tasks or perform two tasks simultaneously, according to a new study in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Patricia Hirsch of Aachen University in Germany and colleagues. The finding adds to a growing literature that contradicts the widely held belief that women multitask better than men.

Multitasking -- performing several independent tasks within a short time -- requires rapidly and frequently switching attention from one task to another, increasing the cognitive demand, compared to completing single tasks in sequence. Despite scant evidence for gender differences, the popular perception is overwhelmingly that women are better at multitasking than men.

In the current study, the authors compared the abilities of 48 men and 48 women in performance of letter or number identification tasks. Some experiments required participants to pay attention to two tasks at once (concurrent multitasking), while others required them to switch attention between tasks (sequential multitasking). The researchers measured reaction time and accuracy for the multitasking experiments and for single task controls. They found that multitasking imposed a substantial cost on both speed and accuracy for both men and women, and there was no difference between the two groups in the magnitude of the cost.

The set of potential tasks and the cognitive operations underlying them is vast, and no single experiment can encompass all of them, the authors note. Discrepancies in the literature on gender differences in multi-tasking may reflect differences in the specific types of tasks assessed. However, the large sample size and lack of gender difference seen in this study indicate that at least for the underlying cognitive processes tested here -- working memory updating, the engagement and disengagement of task sets, and inhibition -- men and women do just as well, or just as poorly, when trying to multitask.

Hirsch adds: "The present findings strongly suggest that there are no substantial gender differences in multitasking performance across task-switching and dual-task paradigms, which predominantly measure cognitive control mechanisms such as working memory updating, the engagement and disengagement of task sets, and inhibition.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190814144505.htm

Type 2 diabetes and sleep problems in midlife women

August 14, 2019

Science Daily/The North American Menopause Society (NAMS)

Hormone changes are known to alter insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism, as well as interfere with women's sleep patterns. But little was known about the association between diabetes and sleep disturbances during the menopause transition until now, as a new study concludes that women with diabetes are at greater risk for sleep disturbances. Study results are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS).

Estrogen and progesterone are known to influence cell response to insulin. As a result, it has been suspected that the hormone changes of the menopause transition could cause fluctuations in a woman's blood sugar levels, putting her at greater risk of diabetes. Statistically, midlife women have a higher prevalence rate of type 2 diabetes during the menopause transition.

Similarly, hormone changes have been shown to affect a woman's quality of sleep. Mainly because of night sweats and hot flashes caused by hormone changes, about 42% of premenopausal and 60% of postmenopausal women reportedly have sleep disturbances. For those with diabetes, sleep difficulties could be worsened by various diabetes symptoms and related medications that cause, among other problems, more frequent urination that could wake women up multiple times during the night. At the same time, sleep is identified as a key factor in trying to prevent and manage diabetes.

Despite all these acknowledged associations, few studies to date have evaluated the possible association between diabetes and sleep disturbances during the menopause transition. However, a new study based on data from two larger Internet survey studies showed that the mean total number of sleep-related symptoms was significantly higher in those with type 2 diabetes than those without the disease. The severity of the sleep problems was also greater for women with diabetes. Although this association was demonstrated in four major racial/ethnic groups in the United States it was particularly pronounced in Asian women.

Study results appear in the article "Sleep-related symptoms of midlife women with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus."

"This study suggests worse sleep-related symptoms in postmenopausal Asian women with type 2 diabetes compared with those without diabetes," says Dr. Stephanie Faubion, NAMS medical director. "Further study is needed, given the limitations of the analysis, but this report highlights the fact that sleep problems are common in midlife women. Sleep is an important determinant of health, and women with poor sleep should be seen and evaluated for common and treatable sleep disorders such as insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea, and restless legs syndrome.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190814081209.htm

Teens feel pressured to get pregnant

August 8, 2019

Science Daily/Michigan State University

Female adolescents are experiencing relationship abuse at alarming rates, according to a new Michigan State University study that specifically researched reproductive coercion -- a form of abuse in which a woman is pressured to become pregnant against her wishes.

Heather McCauley, assistant professor in the School of Social Work, and co-researchers found nearly one in eight females between ages 14 and 19 experienced reproductive coercion within the last three months. Forms of such abuse included tampering with condoms and a partner threatening to leave.

The study, published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology this month, is the largest adolescent study on the issue. It uses data from a previously conducted randomized trial at eight school-based health centers in California during the 2012-13 school year and assessed 550 sexually active female teens.

To date, most research has focused on young adult women. But because adolescent relationships differ so much from adult relationships, clinicians need to know how to spot reproductive coercion in their younger patients and tailor clinical assessment and intervention for this population, McCauley said.

"We looked at whether adolescents who experience reproductive coercion displayed the 'red flags' we typically teach clinicians to look for -- like coming into the clinic multiple times for emergency contraception or pregnancy testing," McCauley said. "We found no difference in care-seeking behaviors between girls who experienced reproductive coercion and girls who didn't, so those red flags may not be present. Therefore, clinicians should have conversations with all their adolescent patients about how relationships can impact their health."

Previous research has also identified disparities in reproductive coercion by race/ethnicity, with black women more likely than white women to experience such abuse, she said. But, again, that wasn't the case in this study, highlighting the need for researchers and clinicians to understand how to talk about relationship abuse with female teens.

Other takeaways from the study:

·      17% of teens reported physical or sexual abuse.

·      Females who experienced reproductive coercion had four times the odds of also experiencing other forms of relationship abuse.

·      Females exposed to both relationship abuse and reproductive coercion were more likely to have a sexual partner who is five or more years older.

"These findings highlight how common reproductive coercion and other forms of abuse are in adolescent relationships, yet the signs of a teen's unhealthy relationship may be tricky for clinicians, parents and other adults to spot," McCauley said. "So, parents could open the door for their teen to disclose abuse by having a conversation with them about healthy and unhealthy relationship behaviors, including those that interfere with their decision making about their own reproductive health."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190808115115.htm

Music helps to build the brains of very premature babies

May 28, 2019

Science Daily/Université de Genève

To help the brains of very premature newborns develop as well as possible despite the stressful environment of intensive care, researchers propose an original solution: music written especially for them. And the first results are surprising: medical imaging reveals that the neural networks of premature infants who have listened to this music are developing much better.

In Switzerland, as in most industrialized countries, nearly 1% of children are born "very prematurely," i.e. before the 32nd week of pregnancy, which represents about 800 children yearly. While advances in neonatal medicine now give them a good chance of survival, these children are however at high risk of developing neuropsychological disorders. To help the brains of these fragile newborns develop as well as possible despite the stressful environment of intensive care, researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG), Switzerland, propose an original solution: music written especially for them. And the first results, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in the United States, are surprising: medical imaging reveals that the neural networks of premature infants who have listened to this music, and in particular a network involved in many sensory and cognitive functions, are developing much better.

The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the HUG welcomes each year 80 children born far too early -- between 24 and 32 weeks of pregnancy, i.e. almost four months ahead of schedule for some of them. The vast majority will survive, but half will later develop neurodevelopmental disorders, including learning difficulties, attentional or emotional disorders. "At birth, these babies' brains are still immature. Brain development must therefore continue in the intensive care unit, in an incubator, under very different conditions than if they were still in their mother's womb," explains Petra Hüppi, professor at the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine and Head of the HUG Development and Growth Division, who directed this work. "Brain immaturity, combined with a disturbing sensory environment, explains why neural networks do not develop normally."

A tailor-made music

The Geneva researchers started from a practical idea: since the neural deficits of premature babies are due, at least in part, to unexpected and stressful stimuli as well as to a lack of stimuli adapted to their condition, their environment should be enriched by introducing pleasant and structuring stimuli. As the hearing system is functional early on, music appeared to be a good candidate. But which music? "Luckily, we met the composer Andreas Vollenweider, who had already conducted musical projects with fragile populations and who showed great interest in creating music suitable for premature children," says Petra Hüppi.

Lara Lordier, PhD in neurosciences and researcher at the HUG and UNIGE, unfolds the musical creation process. "It was important that these musical stimuli were related to the baby's condition. We wanted to structure the day with pleasant stimuli at appropriate times: a music to accompany their awakening, a music to accompany their falling asleep, and a music to interact during the awakening phases." To choose instruments suitable for these very young patients, Andreas Vollenweider played many kinds of instruments to the babies, in the presence of a nurse specialized in developmental support care. "The instrument that generated the most reactions was the Indian snake charmers' flute (the punji)," recalls Lara Lordier. "Very agitated children calmed down almost instantly, their attention was drawn to the music!" The composer thus wrote three sound environments of eight minutes each, with punji, harp and bells pieces.

More efficient brain functional connections through music

The study was conducted in a double-blind study, with a group of premature infants who listened to the music, a control group of premature infants, and a control group of full-term newborns to assess whether the brain development of premature infants who had listened to the music would be more similar to that of full-term babies. Scientists used functional MRI at rest on all three groups of children. Without music, premature babies generally had poorer functional connectivity between brain areas than full-term babies, confirming the negative effect of prematurity. "The most affected network is the salience network which detects information and evaluates its relevance at a specific time, and then makes the link with the other brain networks that must act. This network is essential, both for learning and performing cognitive tasks as well as in social relationships or emotional management," says Lara Lordier.

In intensive care, children are overwhelmed by stimuli unrelated to their condition: doors open and close, alarms are triggered, etc. Unlike a full-term baby who, in utero, adjusts its rhythm to that of its mother, the premature baby in intensive care can hardly develop the link between the meaning of a stimulus in a specific context. On the other hand, the neural networks of children who heard Andreas Vollenweider's music were significantly improved: the functional connectivity between the salience network and auditory, sensorimotor, frontal, thalamus and precuneus networks, was indeed increased, resulting in brain networks organisation more similar to that of full-term infants.

When children grow up

The first children enrolled in the project are now 6 years old, at which age cognitive problems begin to be detectable. Scientists will now meet again their young patients to conduct a full cognitive and socio-emotional assessment and observe whether the positive outcomes measured in their first weeks of life have been sustained.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190528095220.htm

Kids living near major roads at higher risk of developmental delays

April 9, 2019

Science Daily/NIH/Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Young children who live close to a major roadway are twice as likely to score lower on tests of communications skills, compared to those who live farther away from a major roadway, according to an analysis by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and the University of California, Merced. Moreover, children born to women exposed during pregnancy to higher-than-normal levels of traffic-related pollutants -- ultra-fine airborne particles and ozone -- had a small but significantly higher likelihood of developmental delays during infancy and early childhood. The study appears in Environmental Research.

"Our results suggest that it may be prudent to minimize exposure to air pollution during pregnancy, infancy, and early childhood -- all key periods for brain development," said Pauline Mendola, Ph.D., an investigator in the Division of Intramural Population Health Research at NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the study's senior author.

Previous studies have linked exposure to common air pollutants in pregnancy to low birthweight, preterm birth and stillbirth. A few studies have found a higher risk of autism and of lower cognitive functioning in children living near freeways, but results of studies about how prenatal and early childhood exposure to air pollution might affect development have been inconsistent.

Given that a large proportion of the U.S. population lives close to major roadways, which are major sources of air pollution, the researchers sought to determine if living near heavily traveled roads was linked to lower scores on developmental screens -- questionnaires or checklists that indicate whether a child is developing normally or needs to be referred to a specialist for further testing.

The researchers analyzed data from the Upstate KIDS Study. They matched the addresses of 5,825 study participants to a roadway data set, calculating the distance of each address to the nearest major roadway. For each participant, they matched home address, mother's work address during pregnancy, and address of the child's day care location to an Environmental Protection Agency data set for estimating air pollution levels. From 8 months to 36 months of age, the children were screened every 4 to 6 months with the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, a validated screening measure evaluating five domains of child development: fine motor skills, large motor skills, communication, personal social functioning and problem-solving ability.

Compared to children living more than half a mile from a major roadway, children living from roughly 164 feet to .3 miles from a major roadway were twice as likely to have failed at least one screen of the communications domain.

The researchers also estimated exposures to ozone and fine inhalable particles (PM2.5), two pollutants produced by car traffic. Fine inhalable particles are 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair, can pass through the lungs' defenses, and are absorbed directly into the bloodstream.

Prenatal exposure to elevated PM2.5 led to a 1.6 to 2.7 percent higher risk of failing any developmental domain, while higher ozone exposure led to a .7 to 1.7 percent higher risk of failing a developmental domain. In contrast, higher postnatal exposure to ozone was linked to a 3.3 percent higher risk of failing most domains of the developmental screen at 8 months, a 17.7 percent higher risk of overall screening failure at 24 months, and a 7.6 percent higher risk of overall screening failure at 30 months.

These results led the researchers to conclude that early childhood exposure to air pollutants may convey a higher risk for developmental delays, compared to similar exposures in the womb. The study is associational and so cannot prove cause and effect. The authors noted that larger studies are necessary to confirm these links.

"It is not clear why exposure to pollutants after birth is linked to a higher risk of developmental delay," said Sandie Ha, Ph.D., of the Department of Public Health at the University of California, Merced, and lead author of the study. "However, unlike exposure during pregnancy, exposure during childhood is more direct and does not go through a pregnant woman's defenses."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190409164002.htm

'Stressors' in middle age linked to cognitive decline in older women

August 5, 2019

Science Daily/Johns Hopkins Medicine

A new analysis of data on more than 900 Baltimore adults by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers has linked stressful life experiences among middle-aged women -- but not men -- to greater memory decline in later life.

The researchers say their findings add to evidence that stress hormones play an uneven gender role in brain health, and align with well-documented higher rates of Alzheimer's disease in women than men.

Although the researchers caution their study was designed to show associations among phenomena, and not determine cause and effect, they say that if future studies demonstrate that stress response does factor into the cause of dementia, then strategies designed to combat or moderate the body's chemical reactions to stress may prevent or delay onset of cognitive decline.

The findings are published in the July issue of the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

According to the Alzheimer's Association, 1 in 6 women over age 60 will get Alzheimer's disease, compared with 1 in 11 men. There currently are no proven treatments that prevent or halt progression of the disease.

"We can't get rid of stressors, but we might adjust the way we respond to stress, and have a real effect on brain function as we age," says Cynthia Munro, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "And although our study did not show the same association for men, it sheds further light on the effects of stress response on the brain with potential application to both men and women," she adds.

Munro says prior research by other investigators shows that the effect of age on the stress response is three times greater in women than in men. Separately, other research has shown that stressful life experiences can result in temporary memory and cognitive problems.

To further explore whether stressful life experiences can be linked to developing long-term memory problems in women especially, Munro and her team used data collected on 909 Baltimore residents for the National Institute of Mental Health Epidemiologic Catchment Area study. That study recruited participants from 1981 to 1983 from five cities in the U.S. to determine the prevalence of psychiatric disorders.

Some 63% of the participants were women and 60% were white. Participants were an average age of 47 during their mid-life check-in in the 90s.

After enrollment, participants returned to trial sites for interviews and checkups three additional times: once in 1982, once between 1993 and 1996, and once between 2003 and 2004.

During the third visit, participants were asked if they experienced a traumatic event in the past year such as combat, rape, a mugging, some other physical attack, watching someone else attacked or killed, receiving a threat, or living through a natural disaster. Some 22% of men and 23% of women reported at least one traumatic event within the past year before their visit.

They also were asked about stressful life experiences such as a marriage, divorce, death of a loved one, job loss, severe injury or sickness, a child moving out, retirement, or birth of a child. About 47% of men and 50% of women reported having at least one stressful life experience in the year before their visit.

At the third and fourth visits, the researchers tested the participants using a standardized learning and memory test developed by Iowa researchers. The test included having participants recall 20 words spoken aloud by the testers immediately after they heard them, and again 20 minutes later.

At the third visit, participants could recall on average eight words immediately and six words later. Participants also had to identify the words spoken to them among a written list of 40 words. During the third visit, participants correctly identified on average 15 words. By the fourth visit, participants recalled an average of seven words immediately, six words after a delay, and correctly recognized almost 14 words.

The researchers measured any decreases in performance on the tests between the third and fourth visits, and then compared those decreases with participants' reports of stressful life experiences or traumatic events to see if there was an association.

Munro's team found that having a greater number of stressful life experiences over the last year in midlife in women was linked to a greater decline in recalling words later and recognizing those words. Women who experienced no stressful life experiences within the past year at the third visit were able to remember on average 0.5 fewer words when given the same memory test at the fourth visit. Women with one or more stressful life experiences, however, recalled on average one fewer word at the fourth visit than they had at the third visit. The ability to recognize words declined by an average of 1.7 words for women with at least one stressor at the third visit compared with a 1.2-word decline for women without stressors at midlife.

They didn't see the same trend in women who had traumatic events. Munro says that this finding suggests that ongoing stress, such as that experienced during a divorce, may have more of a negative impact on brain functioning than distinct traumatic events. This makes sense, Munro believes, because what we call "chronic stress" can impair the body's ability to respond to stress in a healthy manner.

The researchers did not see an association in men between a drop in word recall or recognition and experiencing either stressful life experiences or traumatic events in midlife.

Stress much earlier in life also wasn't predictive of cognitive decline later in either men or women.

"A normal stress response causes a temporary increase in stress hormones like cortisol, and when it's over, levels return to baseline and you recover. But with repeated stress, or with enhanced sensitivity to stress, your body mounts an increased and sustained hormone response that takes longer to recover," says Munro. "We know if stress hormone levels increase and remain high, this isn't good for the brain's hippocampus -- the seat of memory."

The researchers say that stress reduction hasn't gotten a whole lot of attention compared with other factors that may contribute to dementia or Alzheimer's, and that it might be worth exploring stress management techniques as a way to delay or prevent disease.

Munro adds that there are medications being developed to combat how our brains handle stress, and that these may be used in conjunction with other behavioral stress coping techniques to reduce the impact of stress on aging minds.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190805101144.htm

Prenatal parental stress linked to behaviour problems in toddlers

August 5, 2019

Science Daily/University of Cambridge

Expectant parents' emotional struggles predict emotional and behavioural problems in 2-year-olds, new research shows. The same study reveals, for the first time, that couple conflict helps explain emotional problems in very young children.

The team of researchers -- from the Universities of Cambridge, Birmingham, New York and Leiden -- say their findings highlight a pressing need for greater support for couples before, during and after pregnancy to improve outcomes for children. The study is the first to examine the influence of both mothers' and fathers' wellbeing before and after birth on children's adjustment at 14 and 24 months of age.

Lead author, Professor Claire Hughes from Cambridge's Centre for Family Research, said: "For too long, the experiences of first-time dads has either been side-lined or treated in isolation from that of mums. This needs to change because difficulties in children's early relationships with both mothers and fathers can have long-term effects.

"We have already shared our findings with the NCT (National Childbirth Trust) and we encourage the NHS and other organisations to reconsider the support they offer."

The study, published today in Development & Psychopathology, drew on the experiences of 438 first-time expectant mothers and fathers who were followed up at 4, 14 and 24 months after birth. These parents were recruited in the East of England, New York State and the Netherlands.

The researchers found that the prenatal wellbeing of first-time mothers had a direct impact on the behaviour of their children by the time they were two years old. Mothers who suffered from stress and anxiety in the prenatal period were more likely to see their child display behavioural problems such as temper tantrums, restlessness and spitefulness.

The researchers also found that two-year-olds were more likely to exhibit emotional problems -- including being worried, unhappy and tearful; scaring easily; or being clingy in new situations -- if their parents had been having early postnatal relationship problems. These ranged from a general lack of happiness in the relationship to rows and other kinds of conflict.

Hughes says: "Our findings highlight the need for earlier and more effective support for couples to prepare them better for the transition to parenthood."

Links between child outcomes and parental wellbeing have been shown in other studies, but this is the first to involve couples, track parental wellbeing in both parents over an extended period of time, and focus on child behaviour in the first two years of life. While there is growing evidence for the importance of mental health support for expectant and new mothers, this study highlights the need to extend this support to expectant fathers and to go beyond individual well-being to consider the quality of new mothers' and fathers' couple relationships.

The researchers acknowledge that genetic factors are likely to play a role but they accounted for parents' mental health difficulties prior to their first pregnancy and after their child's birth. Co-author Dr Rory Devine, a developmental psychologist at the University of Birmingham, says "Our data demonstrate that mental health problems during pregnancy have a unique impact on children's behaviour problems."

Using standardized questionnaires and in-person interviews, participating mothers and fathers reported on their symptoms of anxiety and depression in the third trimester of pregnancy and when their child was 4, 14 and 24 months old. At each of these visits, parents also completed standardized questionnaire measures of couple relationship quality and children's emotions and behaviour.

Hughes says: "There has been an assumption that it's really difficult to get dads involved in research like this. But our study draws on a relatively large sample and is unique because both parents answered the same questions at every stage, which enabled us to make direct comparisons."

The research is part of an ongoing project examining the wellbeing and influence of new mothers and fathers. In a closely linked study, published in Archives of Women's Mental Health in July 2019, the team found that fathers share in traumatic memories of birth with their partners far more than has previously been recognised. This study compared the wellbeing of parents in the third trimester of pregnancy with that when their child was four months old.

Co-author, Dr Sarah Foley, also from Cambridge's Centre for Family Research said: "If mum has a difficult birth, that can be a potentially traumatic experience for dads."

"What both studies show is that we need to make antenatal support much more inclusive and give first-time mums and dads the tools they need to communicate with each other and better prepare them for this major transition. With resources stretched, parents are missing out on the support they need."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190805195324.htm

Study shows relationship between type of delivery and twins' psychological development

The authors assert that cesarean section carries an independent risk in multiple births

July 19, 2019

Science Daily/University of Malaga

A research team of the University of Malaga (UMA) in the area of Medicine and Psychology has analyzed for the first time the effect of the type of delivery on twins' psychological development and intelligence, demonstrating that cesarean section carries an independent risk in these multiple births.

"Twins are very vulnerable, since their birth frequently ends prematurely and they often present pregnancy and labor complications," says Professor of Gynecology of the UMA Ernesto González Mesa, who, based on this study, adds the possible difficulties that may derive from cesarean section, very common in multiple births.

"We have verified that cesarean section becomes a risk factor to development. This is why gynecologists firmly believe in vaginal delivery benefits, and we defend the use of this surgical intervention only as an option when problems arise," says González Mesa.

This study, published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Psychology, composed of a total of 160 twins who were born in Hospital Materno-Infantil in Málaga in the year 2005; there were 7000 births in this period, and almost 300 were multiple births. From the sample of all twins, 55 percent were born by vaginal delivery and 45 percent by cesarean delivery.

In a first stage of the study, the participating children's intelligence and neuropsychological and psychopedagogical development were tested, which results were compared, in a second stage, with information on obstetric and perinatal variables, such as type of delivery, its problems, maternal age or newborn weight, among others.

"When comparing all data, we found out that those children that had a lower intellectual level and cognitive development were born by cesarean delivery," explains María José González Valenzuela, Professor from the Evolutive Psychology and Education Department and main researcher of the study.

The expert asserts that, apart from early diagnosis, this study seeks intervention through activities at school and primary health care centers. In this regard, Counselor Olga Cazorla Granados, co-author of this study, adds that there is an increased tendency in educational environments to search for neurological factors to explain difficulties in psychological development.

Addressing the major reading, writing and calculating difficulties that twins often have, and identifying benefits of vaginal delivery as against cesarean section, for example, the neurological effects that children's intestinal flora, different in each type of delivery, may give rise to, are other future lines to progress in this study, in which Professor Dolores López Montiel, from the Department of Psychobiology and Behavioral Science Methodology, has also participated.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190719102140.htm

Nations with strong women's rights likely to have better population health and faster growth

Trend evident even in resource-poor countries, say researchers

July 19, 2019

Science Daily/BMJ

Nations with strong women's rights are more likely to have better health and faster growth than those who don't promote and protect these values, finds research published in the online journal BMJ Open.

This trend is evident in even in resource-poor countries, say the researchers.

While many parts of the world have made good economic progress, women's rights have often been overlooked, say the researchers. This is despite many countries having signed the international bill of rights for women, formally known as The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

The researchers wanted to find out if there might be a link between protection of women's rights, and health improvement and sustainable development, and if ultimately, women's rights might have more of an impact than economic and social, or civil and political rights alone.

They analysed databases which held information on health, human rights, and economic and social rights for 162 countries for the period 2004 to 2010.

Countries were grouped according to the respect they afforded to women's economic and social rights: high (44); moderate (51); and poor (63).

Analysis of the data showed that strong economic and social rights were associated with better/improving health outcomes, possibly because of the spend on health per head of the population, say the researchers.

But this wasn't the case when looking at countries based on women's economic and social rights.

Overall, countries with strong women's rights had better/improving health than those where women's rights were only moderately or poorly respected.

These health indicators include disease prevention, such as vaccination, reproductive health, death rates and life expectancy.

In countries where human rights, to include women's rights, were highly respected, but where access to hospital beds and doctors was nevertheless below average, health outcomes were still consistently better than average, the analysis showed.

"The results confirm that even with a lack of resources, if a country has a strong human rights structure, the health outcomes are better," the researchers write.

But countries where civil and political rights alone were highly valued had varying levels of health.

And despite some countries respecting economic, social and cultural rights, they still didn't protect women's economic and social rights.

This is an observational study, which used average health values, and as such, can't establish cause. Further research over longer time periods in countries with similar human rights trends is needed to pinpoint overarching trends, say the researchers.

But gender equality is not just a women's issue, but a development issue, they suggest.

"Since the promotion and protection of women's rights play a fundamental role for progress for states as they unite health, human rights and development, nations that have the ability to promote [women's social and economic rights]...are missing a crucial component in positive health outcomes," they write.

"Today, the value of human rights has often been questioned from an economic standpoint; however, our data find that rather than limit progress, human rights, and [women's economic and social rights] in particular, can only benefit them," they conclude.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190719173557.htm

Women now seen as equally as or more competent than men

Polling data suggest stereotypes have significantly changed since 1940s

July 18, 2019

Science Daily/American Psychological Association

Women have come a long way in the United States over the last 70 years, to the point where they are now seen as being as competent as men, if not more so, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

"Challenging traditional claims that stereotypes of women and men are fixed or rigid, our study joins others in finding stereotypes to be flexible to changes in social roles," said Alice Eagly, PhD, of Northwestern University and lead author on the study. "As the roles of women and men have changed since the mid-20th century, so have beliefs about their attributes."

The research was published in American Psychologist, APA's flagship journal.

Eagly and her coauthors conducted a meta-analysis of 16 nationally representative public opinion polls involving more than 30,000 U.S. adults from 1946 to 2018. They looked at three types of traits -- communion (i.e., compassion, sensitivity), agency (i.e., ambition, aggression), and competence (i.e., intelligence, creativity) -- and whether participants thought each trait was truer of women or men or equally true of both.

Competence stereotypes changed dramatically over time. For example, in one 1946 poll, only 35% of those surveyed thought men and women were equally intelligent, and of those who believed there was a difference, more thought men were the more competent sex. In contrast, in one 2018 poll, 86% believed men and women were equally intelligent, 9% believed women were more intelligent and only 5% believed men were more intelligent.

Communal stereotypes viewing women as more compassionate and sensitive than men strengthened over time. In contrast, agency stereotypes viewing men as more ambitious and aggressive than women did not significantly change over time.

"These current stereotypes should favor women's employment because competence is, of course, a job requirement for virtually all positions. Also, jobs increasingly reward social skills, making women's greater communion an additional advantage," said Eagly. "On a less positive note, most leadership roles require more agency than communion. Therefore, the lesser agency ascribed to women than men is a disadvantage in relation to leadership positions."

Eagly theorized that the considerable change in competence beliefs derives, in part, from the changing roles of men and women. Women's labor force participation has increased from 32% in 1950 to 57% in 2018, while men's participation has fallen from 82% to 69%. Women also now earn more bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees than do men, unlike decades ago.

"Our interpretation of these findings is that women's increasing labor force participation and education underlie the increase in their perceived competence, but that occupational segregation and the division of domestic roles underlie the findings for communion and agency," she said.

As women entered paid employment in large numbers, their jobs remained concentrated in occupations that reward social skills or offer contribution to society. Women also spend approximately twice as much time on domestic work and child care as men on average, according to Eagly. In contrast, men are concentrated in leadership roles and in occupations that require physical strength, competition, interaction with things, and analytical, mathematical and technical skills.

"Observation of these stark differences in the typical roles of women and men causes people to ascribe different traits to them, as shown in other research studies. Gender stereotypes thus reflect the social position of women and men in society but change when this social position shifts," she said.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190718112532.htm

Poor sleep quality and fatigue plague women with premature ovarian insufficiency

July 16, 2019

Science Daily/The North American Menopause Society (NAMS)

Sleep disturbances are a frequent complaint of women in the menopause transition and postmenopause. A new study demonstrates that women with premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) who are receiving hormone therapy have poorer sleep quality and greater fatigue than women of the same age with preserved ovarian function. Study results are published online in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS).

It is estimated that 40% to 50% of menopausal and postmenopausal women complain about sleep problems. Sleep problems include difficulty falling asleep and/or staying asleep, as well as waking up too early. Complicating matters is the fact that women with insomnia generally complain more about body pain, headaches, daytime dysfunction, mood disorders, fatigue, and decreased work productivity. Although some of the problems are related to other common symptoms of menopause such as hot flashes, not all sleep issues can be traced back to these root causes.

Although numerous studies have been conducted about the sleep patterns of menopausal and postmenopausal women in general, this newest study from Brazil is thought to be the first to specifically evaluate the sleep quality in women with POI. This condition differs from premature menopause because women with POI can still have irregular or occasional periods for years and might even become pregnant. The Brazilian study found that women with POI who are receiving hormone therapy have poorer sleep quality, largely as a result of taking longer to fall asleep. These women were also found to have a higher fatigue index and were more likely to use sleep-inducing medications compared with comparably aged women who still had full ovarian function.

Study results appear in the article "Sleep quality and fatigue in women with premature ovarian insufficiency receiving hormone therapy: a comparative study."

"This study shows that women with POI have poor sleep quality despite the use of hormone therapy. Another interesting finding from the study is that total sleep quality in women with POI was directly related to the number of children they had and overall was similar to sleep quality in women without POI. This speaks to the scope of the problem when it comes to sleep disturbances and the important and often under-recognized factors that contribute to sleep complaints being more common in women than in men," says Dr. Stephanie Faubion, NAMS medical director.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190716103405.htm

Why sex becomes less satisfying with age

July 10, 2019

Science Daily/The North American Menopause Society (NAMS)

The number of women regularly having sex declines with age, and the number of women enjoying sex postmenopause is even lower. Although these facts are not surprising, the causes for these declines may be because previous research focused largely on biological causes only. However, a new UK study identifies psychosocial contributors. Study results are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS).

It's hard to pick up a woman's magazine or ob/gyn journal anymore without reading an article about how and why a woman's libido and level of sexual satisfaction decline during and after menopause. Substantial research has been conducted into biological reasons such as hot flashes, sleep disruption, vaginal dryness, and painful intercourse. Much less is known about the effect of various psychosocial changes that are common postmenopause. These include body image concerns, self-confidence and perceived desirability, stress, mood changes, and relationship issues.

Of the research that has been conducted regarding psychological influences, most of it has focused on quantitative results. A study of nearly 4,500 postmenopausal women involved in the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS), however, looked at free-text data to better understand why women felt a certain way and the depth of those feelings.

Among other things, the UKCTOCS sexual activity data showed that, at baseline, before the start of annual screening, approximately half of the women were sexually active. A decrease in all aspects of sexual activity was observed over time: sexual activity was less frequent, not as pleasurable, and more uncomfortable. The primary reason for absence of sexual activity was the lack of a partner, mainly because of widowhood.

Other commonly cited reasons for decreased activity included (in rank order) a partner's medical condition, a partner's sexual dysfunction, the woman's own physical health problems, menopause-related symptoms, and prescribed medication. Contributing most often to low libido were relationship problems, logistics, and perceptions of aging. Only 3% of participants described positive sexual experiences, whereas only 6% sought medical help for sexual problems.

Study results appear in the article, "Sexual functioning in 4,418 postmenopausal women participating in UKCTOCS: a qualitative free-text analysis."

"Sexual health challenges are common in women as they age, and partner factors play a prominent role in women's sexual activity and satisfaction, including the lack of a partner, sexual dysfunction of a partner, poor physical health of a partner, and relationship issues," says Dr. Stephanie Faubion, NAMS medical director. "In addition, menopause-related problems such as vaginal dryness and pain with sex have been identified as problems affecting sexual function, yet few women seek treatment for these issues, despite the availability of effective therapies."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190710103140.htm

Foodie calls: Dating for a free meal (rather than a relationship)

June 21, 2019

Science Daily/Society for Personality and Social Psychology

New psychology research reveals 23-33% of women in an online study say they've engaged in a 'foodie call,' where they set up a date for a free meal. These women score high on the 'dark triad' of personality traits as well.

When it comes to getting a date, there's any number of ways people can present themselves and their interests. One of the newer phenomena is a "foodie call" where a person sets up a date with someone they are not romantically interested in, for the purpose of getting a free meal. New research finds that 23 -- 33% of women in an online study say they've engaged in a "foodie call."

Upon further analysis, the social and personality psychology researchers found that women who scored high on the "dark triad" of personality traits (i.e., psychopathy, Machiavellianism, narcissism), as well as expressed traditional gender role beliefs, were most likely to engage in a foodie call and find it acceptable.

The research, by Brian Collisson, Jennifer Howell, and Trista Harig of Azusa Pacific University and UC Merced, appears in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

In the first study, 820 women were recruited, with 40% reporting they were single, 33% married, and 27% saying they were in a committed relationship but not married. Out of them, 85% said they were heterosexual, and they were the focus for this study.

The women answered a series of questions that measured their personality traits, beliefs about gender roles, and their foodie call history. They were also asked if they thought a foodie call was socially acceptable.

23% of women in this first group revealed they'd engaged in a foodie call. Most did so occasionally or rarely. Although women who had engaged in a foodie call believed it was more acceptable, most women believed foodie calls were extremely to moderately unacceptable.

The second study analyzed a similar set of questions of 357 heterosexual women and found 33% had engaged in a foodie call. It is important to note, however, that neither of these studies recruited representative samples of women, so we cannot know if these percentages are accurate for women in general.

For both groups, those that engaged in foodie calls scored higher in the "dark triad" personality traits.

"Several dark traits have been linked to deceptive and exploitative behavior in romantic relationships, such as one-night stands, faking an orgasm, or sending unsolicited sexual pictures," says Collisson.

Collisson and Harig said they became interested in the subject of foodie calls after reading about the phenomenon in the news.

As for how many foodies calls might be occurring in the United States, Collisson says that can't be inferred from the current research.

"They could be more prevalent, for instance, if women lied or misremembered their foodie calls to maintain a positive view of their dating history," says Collisson.

The researchers also note that foodie calls could occur in many types of relationships, and could be perpetrated by all genders.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190621140343.htm

Sleeping with artificial light at night associated with weight gain in women

June 10, 2019

Science Daily/NIH/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Sleeping with a television or light on in the room may be a risk factor for gaining weight or developing obesity, according to scientists at the National Institutes of Health. The research, which was published online June 10 in JAMA Internal Medicine, is the first to find an association between any exposure to artificial light at night while sleeping and weight gain in women. The results suggest that cutting off lights at bedtime could reduce women's chances of becoming obese.

The research team used questionnaire data from 43,722 women in the Sister Study, a cohort study that examines risk factors for breast cancer and other diseases. The participants, aged 35-74 years, had no history of cancer or cardiovascular disease and were not shift workers, daytime sleepers, or pregnant when the study began. The study questionnaire asked whether the women slept with no light, a small nightlight, light outside of the room, or a light or television on in the room.

The scientists used weight, height, waist and hip circumference, and body mass index measurements taken at baseline, as well as self-reported information on weight at baseline and follow-up five years later. Using this information, the scientists were able to study obesity and weight gain in women exposed to artificial light at night with women who reported sleeping in dark rooms.

The results varied with the level of artificial light at night exposure. For example, using a small nightlight was not associated with weight gain, whereas women who slept with a light or television on were 17% more likely to have gained 5 kilograms, approximately 11 pounds, or more over the follow-up period. The association with having light coming from outside the room was more modest.

Also, the scientists wondered if not getting enough rest factored into the findings.

"Although poor sleep by itself was associated with obesity and weight gain, it did not explain the associations between exposure to artificial light while sleeping and weight," said corresponding author Dale Sandler, Ph.D., chief of the Epidemiology Branch at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of NIH.

Co-author Chandra Jackson, Ph.D., head of the NIEHS Social and Environmental Determinants of Health Equity Group, is interested in racial disparities in sleep health. She notes that for many who live in urban environments, light at night is more common and should be considered. Streetlights, store front neon signs, and other light sources can suppress the sleep hormone melatonin and the natural 24-hour light-dark cycle of circadian rhythms.

"Humans are genetically adapted to a natural environment consisting of sunlight during the day and darkness at night," Jackson said. "Exposure to artificial light at night may alter hormones and other biological processes in ways that raise the risk of health conditions like obesity."

The authors acknowledge that other confounding factors could explain the associations between artificial light at night and weight gain. However, their findings did not change when analyses controlled for characteristics that may be associated with exposure to light at night. These factors included age, having an older spouse or children in the home, race, socioeconomic status, calories consumed, and physical activity. Also, the study did not include men.

Lead author Yong-Moon (Mark) Park, M.D., Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow in Sandler's group. He said the research suggests a viable public health strategy to reduce obesity incidence in women.

"Unhealthy high-calorie diet and sedentary behaviors have been the most commonly cited factors to explain the continuing rise in obesity," Park said. "This study highlights the importance of artificial light at night and gives women who sleep with lights or the television on a way to improve their health."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190610130121.htm

The bacteria building your baby

Exposure to influential bacteria begins before we are born, new evidence confirms

June 5, 2019

Science Daily/Frontiers

Australian researchers have laid to rest a longstanding controversy: is the womb sterile?

They carefully collected amniotic fluid samples from 50 healthy women undergoing planned caesarean deliveries, and found that nearly all (36/43 viable samples) contained bacterial DNA. What's more, all 50 newborns had bacteria in their first poop.

Published in Frontiers in Microbiology, the study used uniquely rigorous contamination controls to confirm that exposure to bacteria begins in the womb -- and could help to shape the developing fetal immune system, gut and brain.

The not-so-sterile womb

 "Over the last decade, numerous studies have detected bacterial DNA in amniotic fluid and first-pass meconium [baby's first poop], challenging the long-held assumption that the womb is sterile," explains lead author Lisa Stinson, of the University of Western Australia. "However, some argue that the results are false positives -- contaminants in the reagents used in DNA analysis."

It is important to conclusively determine whether the healthy womb harbors bacteria, say the researchers, because this 'fetal microbiome' would likely have a significant impact on the developing immune system, gut, and brain.

The fetal microbiome

 To settle the issue, Stinson and colleagues took strict measures to eliminate bacterial contamination when analyzing amniotic fluid and meconium samples. For example, they purified the reagents used to amplify traces of bacterial DNA in the samples, by adding an enzyme which digests DNA remnants from biomanufacturing.

"Despite these measures, we still found bacterial DNA in almost all samples," reports Stinson.

"Interestingly, the meconium microbiome varied hugely between individual newborns. The amniotic fluid microbiome for the most part contained typical skin bacteria, such as Propionibacterium acnes and Staphylococcus species."

A developmental role

 But what might these bacteria be doing in the womb?

None of these women or their babies had any sign of infection. In fact, the fetal microbiome may prove to be a beneficial regulator of early development.

"We found that levels of important immune modulators in meconium and inflammatory mediators in amniotic fluid varied according to the amount and species of bacterial DNA present. This suggests that the fetal microbiome has the potential to influence the developing fetal immune system."

There is one small caveat -- technically, the DNA in these samples could have come from bacteria that were already dead in the womb.

"Here we've proven that bacterial DNA is present in the womb, but the next step will be to show whether these are alive and constitute a true microbiome," concludes Stinson.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190605100320.htm

Irregular sleep patterns linked to metabolic disorders

Obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol more prevalent among irregular sleepers

June 5, 2019

Science Daily/NIH/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

A new study has found that not sticking to a regular bedtime and wakeup schedule -- and getting different amounts of sleep each night -- can put a person at higher risk for obesity, high cholesterol, hypertension, high blood sugar and other metabolic disorders. In fact, for every hour of variability in time to bed and time asleep, a person may have up to a 27% greater chance of experiencing a metabolic abnormality.

The results of the study, which was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, appear today in the journal Diabetes Care.

"Many previous studies have shown the link between insufficient sleep and higher risk of obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic disorders," said study author Tianyi Huang, Sc.D., epidemiologist of the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston. "But we didn't know much about the impact of irregular sleep, high day-to-day variability in sleep duration and timing. Our research shows that, even after considering the amount of sleep a person gets and other lifestyle factors, every one-hour night-to-night difference in the time to bed or the duration of a night's sleep multiplies the adverse metabolic effect."

For the current study, researchers followed 2,003 men and women, ages 45 to 84, participating in the NHLBI-funded Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). The participants were studied for a median of six years to find out the associations between sleep regularity and metabolic abnormalities. To ensure objective measurement of sleep duration and quality, participants wore actigraph wrist watches to closely track sleep schedules for seven consecutive days. They also kept a sleep diary and responded to standard questionnaires about sleep habits and other lifestyle and health factors. Participants completed the actigraphy tracking between 2010 and 2013 and were followed until 2016 and 2017.

"Objective metrics and a big and diverse sample size are strengths of this study," said Michael Twery, Ph.D., director of the NHLBI's National Center on Sleep Disorders Research. "As is the study's ability to look not only at current factors, but to conduct a prospective analysis that allowed us to assess whether patterns of irregular sleep could be linked to future metabolic abnormalities."

The researchers' hypothesis that there were, in fact, such associations, proved correct. Individuals with greater variations in their bedtimes and in the hours they slept had a higher prevalence of metabolic problems, and these associations persisted after adjusting for average sleep duration. This was also the case when they looked at the participants who developed metabolic disorders during the 6.3 years of follow up.

The prospective results showed that the variations in sleep duration and bedtimes preceded the development of metabolic dysfunction. According to the authors, this provides some evidence supporting a causal link between irregular sleep and metabolic dysfunction.

Participants whose sleep duration varied more than one hour were more likely to be African-Americans, work non-day shift schedules, smoke, and have shorter sleep duration. They also had higher depressive symptoms, total caloric intake, and index of sleep apnea.

Increasing sleep duration or bedtime variability was strongly associated with multiple metabolic and simultaneous problems such as lower HDL cholesterol and higher waist circumference, blood pressure, total triglycerides, and fasting glucose.

"Our results suggest that maintaining a regular sleep schedule has beneficial metabolic effects," said study coauthor Susan Redline, M.D., senior physician in the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "This message may enrich current prevention strategies for metabolic disease that primarily focus on promoting sufficient sleep and other healthy lifestyles."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190605133514.htm

Weak upper and lower body physical performance associated with depression and anxiety

New study confirms elevated depressive and/or anxiety symptoms in midlife women with limited physical strength and activity

June 5, 2019

Science Daily/The North American Menopause Society (NAMS)

Physical fitness is associated with a number of key health outcomes, including heart disease, cognition, mortality, and an overall feeling of well-being. A new study from Singapore now links physical performance with mental health and emotions, suggesting that weak upper and lower body fitness can cause more serious depression and anxiety in midlife women. Results are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS).

Although several studies have previously linked depression in midlife women with self-reported low physical activity, this new study is the first known (even in Western populations) to evaluate objective measures of physical performance in relation to depression and anxiety in premenopausal, perimenopausal, and postmenopausal women.

Depression and anxiety are prevalent symptoms experienced by midlife women. This latest study of more than 1,100 women aged 45 to 69 years found, in fact, that 15% of participants, especially those of younger age, reported depression and/or anxiety. Because depression can cause disability, reduced quality of life, mortality, and heart disease, the researchers felt it was important to identify potentially modifiable risk factors that could reduce morbidity and mortality.

The researchers observed significant associations of objective physical performance measures with depression and anxiety. Specifically, they found that weak upper body strength (handgrip strength) and poor lower body strength (longer duration to complete the repeated chair stand test) were associated with elevated depression and/or anxiety symptoms. Future trials will be needed to determine whether strengthening exercises that improve physical performance might similarly help reduce depression and anxiety in midlife women.

Findings were published in the article "Objective measures of physical performance associated with depression and/or anxiety in midlife Singaporean women."

"Strength training has been shown to lead to a significant reduction in depressive symptoms," says Dr. JoAnn Pinkerton, NAMS executive director. "Both strength training and aerobic exercise appear to improve depression, possibly as a result of increased blood flow to the brain or improved coping with stress from the release of endorphins such as norepinephrine and dopamine."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190605105947.htm