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Cerebral Palsy Linked To Stressed Moms
> 7/11/2007 11:24:00 AM

The July 11th issue of The Journal of Neuroscience has published a study which found that chronic mild stress can be a risk factor for an unborn child in developing cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy, also referred to as CP, is a term used to describe a group of chronic conditions affecting body movement and muscle coordination. According to the current statistics, nearly 800,000 adults and children are living with the disorder.

Performed by researchers from Inserm, the French public biomedical research agency, they tested their theory by subjecting laboratory rats to mild levels of stress. In addition, they exposed the fetuses of the stressed mothers to injury. The result--mice born from the mildly stressed mothers showed brain lesions almost two the size of the rats born from unstressed mothers. The researchers believe that these conditions can be applied to humans as well.

Lead researcher Pierre Gressens, MD, PhD was quoted by Yahoo News as saying: �

"Determining the impact of gestational stress on the incidence of cerebral palsy would be of paramount interest. Limiting stress during human pregnancy might prove to be a cost-efficient way to reduce the human, emotional, social and economic burden of cerebral palsy".

The study aimed to demonstrate the importantance of stress to both mother and unborn child. The effects of stress can be hazardous to anyone's health, but expectant mothers carry twice the burden and therefore should be twice as careful to avoid mild aggravations when possible.

Comments
I wish that I had known about this 5 years ago when I was pregnant!!! I was extremely stressed during that time.
URL: http://ocdonastick.blogspot.com/
Posted by: OCD On A Stick 7/11/2007 11:36:32 AM