Can Your Stress Affect Your Fetus?

Bringing a new person into the world is no easy task. You worry about everything. Are the foods you eat healthy enough? Is it safe to exercise? How will you juggle work and parenthood once baby arrives?

Some stress during pregnancy is normal, just as it is during other times of life. But if stress becomes constant, the effects on you and your baby could be lasting.

When you’re stressed, your body goes into "fight or flight" mode, sending out a burst of cortisol and other stress hormones. These are the same hormones that surge when you are in danger. They prepare you to run by sending a blast of fuel to your muscles and making your heart pump faster.

If you can deal with your stress and move on, your stress response will recede and your body will go back into balance. But "the kind of stress that’s really damaging is the kind that doesn’t let up," says Susan Andrews, PhD, a clinical neuropsychologist and author of the book Stress Solutions for Pregnant Moms: How Breaking Free From Stress Can Boost Your Baby’s Potential. In fact, constant stress could alter your body’s stress management system, causing it to overreact and trigger an inflammatory response.

Inflammation, in turn, has been linked to poorer pregnancy health and developmental problems in babies down the road. "There are some data to show that higher chronic stressors in women and poor coping skills to deal with those stressors may be associated with lower birth weight and with delivering earlier," says Ann Borders, MD, MPH, MSc. She is an OB/GYN in the obstetrics and gynecology department, Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, at Evanston Hospital, NorthShore University HealthSystem.

Chronic stress may also contribute to subtle differences in brain development that might lead to behavioral issues as the baby grows, she adds.

Research in this area is still early, and doctors still need to figure out the exact link between stress and pregnancy outcomes. Even so, it’s an important factor for pregnant women to consider, especially if they’re dealing with chronic stress -- for example, from financial or relationship troubles.

"We know that we want to think about how to reduce unhealthy stress and find ways to help women have better coping mechanisms to deal with the stress in their lives," Borders says. You shouldn’t feel guilty about stress, she adds, but you should try to control it as much as you can.

Andrews offers a few ways to manage stress during pregnancy.

Take stock. Talk to your doctor about what’s causing you to feel stressed. Together you can look for solutions, which might include meditation, prenatal yoga, or talk therapy.

Sing a song. Even if you can’t carry a tune, hum in your head. Music helps control cortisol levels.

Relax. Take a warm bath. Have a cup of tea. Curl up with a book. You’ll have precious few chances to pamper yourself once your baby arrives.

Find more articles, browse back issues, and read the current issue of "WebMD Magazine." 

View the original article here

A year ago i was 400 pounds due to stress and binge eating and two kids...

I got a divorce and i saw my weight coming off did not change my routine but cut diwn on portion sizes considerably..i lost 170 pounds but i am still a huge amount for my height of 5 ft 2 in..i still have considerable muscle from being very active when younger and running behind two young kids...I'm 230 and. Hit a stand still on weight loss..i have a workout routine..can anyone give me tips. or ideas to jump start my weight loss again

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Pregnant Women Under Stress May Be at Higher Risk for Stillbirth

Title: Pregnant Women Under Stress May Be at Higher Risk for Stillbirth
Category: Health News
Created: 3/29/2013 2:35:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 4/1/2013 12:00:00 AM

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Pent-Up Stress Could Harm Health of Middle-Aged Women

Swedish study followed women since late 1960s

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, June 7 (HealthDay News) -- Many middle-aged women develop aches and pains and other physical symptoms as a result of chronic stress, according to a decades-long study.

Researchers in Sweden examined long-term data collected from about 1,500 women and found that about 20 percent of middle-aged women experienced constant or frequent stress during the previous five years. The highest rates of stress occurred among women aged 40 to 60 and those who were single or smokers (or both).

Among those who reported long-term stress, 40 percent said they suffered aches and pains in their muscles and joints, 28 percent experienced headaches or migraines and 28 percent reported gastrointestinal problems, according to the researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy of the University of Gothenburg.

The study appeared recently in the International Journal of Internal Medicine.

Even after adjusting for smoking, body weight and physical activity levels, there was a clear link between stress and an increased risk of physical symptoms, the researchers said.

The women in the study were followed since the late 1960s. Among those who experienced long-term stress but did not report any stress-related physical symptoms at the start of the study, 27 percent had new muscular and joint pain symptoms 12 years later, and about 15 percent reported new complaints in the form of headaches or gastrointestinal problems.

"Since 1968, women's lifestyles have changed in many ways," researcher Dominique Hange said in a university news release. "For example, many more women now work outside the home. Naturally, these changes can affect the experience of stress."

"Although we've used exactly the same question since 1968, we can't take it for granted that the term 'stress' has exactly the same meaning today," Hange added. "It might also be more socially accepted today to acknowledge one's experience of stress."

Hange said the "most important conclusion [from this study] is that single women, women who do not work outside the home and women who smoke are particularly vulnerable to stress. Here, we see a greater need for preventive measures from society."

The next step is to identify methods that doctors can use to help patients deal with stress-related physical complaints and illnesses, and to pinpoint ways to reduce stress at work, the researchers said.

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Stress make me lose my appetite.

I started my own company and while things have been going good for the most part, it is stressing me a lot. I have lost my appetite and I barely eat during the day. For the past month I have lost around 10 pounds which is making me look haggard :(  Some of my loss of appetite is psychological I think, since I get hungry but I just don't want to eat. Sometimes I feel like I am punishing myself. Is this normal?

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Young Parents Don't Stress Over Kids' Media Use: Survey

First generation to have lots of exposure to technology not as worried about its effects, researchers report

By Maureen Salamon

HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, June 4 (HealthDay News) -- Having grown up with gadgets galore, young parents aren't as worried about the potentially corrosive effects of too much screen time on their offspring, a new study suggests.

Surveying more than 2,300 parents of children up to age 8, researchers from Northwestern University found that the vast majority -- 78 percent -- report that their children's media use is not a source of family conflict, and 59 percent said they aren't concerned their kids will become addicted to new media.

"We asked parents what their challenges were as the parents of young children . . . and sometimes media was never mentioned," said study author Ellen Wartella, director of Northwestern's Center on Media and Human Development. "Parents of children this age are concerned about their health, safety, nutrition and exercise, and media concerns are much lower down the list. That was a surprise."

The study is scheduled to be presented Tuesday at the Pew Charitable Trusts Conference Center in Washington, D.C. Research presented at conferences typically has not been peer-reviewed and is considered preliminary.

Wartella and her team identified three different types of media environments parents create: media-centric (39 percent of families), media-moderate (45 percent) and media-light (16 percent). In media-centric homes, children spend three hours more each day with screen media such as TVs, computers and tablets than those in media-light households.

The notion that parents are apt to shush their kids by handing them a smartphone or tablet also appears to be false, according to results. To keep their children quietly occupied, moms and dads said they were more apt to turn to toys or activities (88 percent), books (79 percent) or TV (78 percent). Of parents with smartphones or iPads, only 37 percent reported being somewhat or very likely to turn to those devices.

"Given all I've seen in the popular press, the newfangled technologies of smartphones and tablets would be the go-to tools . . . but we didn't find that," said Wartella, also a professor of psychology and of human development and social policy. In fact, when they were in a restaurant or the car and they needed to calm a child, parents reported they were more likely to turn to the tried-and-true, such as soft, plush toys and coloring books.

"What's compelling is we certainly have a generation of parents now who grew up with technology, and it's very much a part of everyday life for these families," she added. "There are different styles of use, and parenting styles set the agenda and help influence children's styles."

What is concerning to parents, according to the survey, was the negative impact screen time has on kids' physical activity levels. More than 60 percent said video games result in less movement by their children, with similar proportions saying the same about TV, computers and mobile devices.

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Stress During Pregnancy May Raise Heart Defect Risk for Baby

Large Danish study looked at women who had lost a close relative while expecting

By Randy Dotinga

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, March 25 (HealthDay News) -- Stress in mothers before and during pregnancy may boost the risk of congenital heart defects in their children, more new evidence suggests. But the findings aren't conclusive, and the effect -- if it exists -- appears to be small.

Still, "there are several studies now that show an association," said Dr. Edward McCabe, senior vice president and medical director of the March of Dimes, who is familiar with the results of the large new study. "It suggests there needs to be continued investigation of this."

McCabe said he's not aware of any other research linking stress in mothers to a specific kind of birth defect.

Congenital heart defects, among the most common kinds of birth defect, include conditions such as holes in the heart and other kinds of problems. Most cases aren't fatal, McCabe said, and physicians can repair some kinds of problems with surgery. In other cases, the defects don't need to be fixed.

The new study follows up on previous research linking stress to this form of birth defect.

The researchers looked at nearly 1.8 million children born in Denmark from 1978 to 2008 and tried to find out if congenital heart defects were more common in kids born to a specific group of about 45,000 women. These were women who had lost a parent, sibling, child or partner between the approximate time of conception and delivery.

Women in that group were slightly more likely than the other women to give birth to a child with a congenital birth defect, researchers found. Study co-author Dr. Jorn Olsen, professor and chairman of the department of epidemiology at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the findings take into account the possibility that congenital heart defects may run in families and have killed some of the relatives who died.

Why might stress in a mother cause birth defects? Animal studies have shown that stress during the development of a fetus could affect heart development, Olsen said.

It's also possible, he said, that stress could lead women to do things that are risky to their unborn children, such as changing to a less healthy diet. McCabe said another possibility is that stress alters the DNA of the child in the womb.

In the big picture, Olsen said, "this and other studies tell us to take care of pregnant women who experience severe stressful events shortly before or while they're pregnant."

For his part, McCabe said it's important for pregnant women under stress to talk to their physicians about quitting smoking, which they may increase because they're anxious. "We can't modify whether stress is going to happen in our lives," he said, "but we can modify certain effects of that stress."

The study appeared online March 25 and in the April print issue of the journal Pediatrics. Although it showed an association between maternal stress and risk of congenital heart defects, it did not establish a cause-and-effect relationship.

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Meth in Pregnancy May Blunt Child's Reaction to Stress: Study

Title: Meth in Pregnancy May Blunt Child's Reaction to Stress: Study
Category: Health News
Created: 3/20/2013 12:35:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 3/21/2013 12:00:00 AM

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Healthy Lifestyle May Offset Job Stress, Study Finds

Risk for heart disease rises when workers drink, smoke or overeat

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, May 13 (HealthDay News) -- Job stress increases the risk of heart disease, but living a healthy lifestyle can significantly reduce that risk, a new study says.

Researchers examined data from more than 102,000 men and women, aged 17 to 70, in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Sweden and Finland. Their lifestyles were rated in one of three categories -- healthy, moderately unhealthy or unhealthy -- based on smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise/inactivity and obesity.

Those with a healthy lifestyle had no lifestyle risk factors, while people with a moderately unhealthy lifestyle had one risk factor. Two or more risk factors qualified as an unhealthy lifestyle.

Nearly 16 percent of the participants reported job stress, according to the study, which was published May 13 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Over 10 years, the rate of coronary artery disease was 18.4 per 1,000 for people with job stress and 14.7 per 1,000 for those without job stress. The rate of heart disease for people with an unhealthy lifestyle was almost 31 per 1,000 compared to 12 per 1,000 for those with a healthy lifestyle.

When lifestyle and work were factored together, the heart disease rate was 31.2 per 1,000 for people with job stress and an unhealthy lifestyle and about 15 per 1,000 for those with job stress and a healthy lifestyle.

"The risk of coronary artery disease was highest among participants who reported job strain and an unhealthy lifestyle; those with job strain and a healthy lifestyle had about half the rate of this disease," Dr. Mika Kivimaki, of the department of epidemiology and public health at University College London, and colleagues wrote in a journal news release.

"These observational data suggest that a healthy lifestyle could substantially reduce the risk of coronary artery disease risk among people with job strain," they added.

Stress counseling isn't enough, they said. "Clinicians might consider paying closer attention to lifestyle risk factors in patients who report job strain," the researchers concluded.

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Can Your Stress Affect Your Fetus?

As it turns out, constant pressure may put your baby at risk.

Bringing a new person into the world is no easy task. You worry about everything. Are the foods you eat healthy enough? Is it safe to exercise? How will you juggle work and parenthood once baby arrives?

Some stress during pregnancy is normal, just as it is during other times of life. But if stress becomes constant, the effects on you and your baby could be lasting.

When you’re stressed, your body goes into "fight or flight" mode, sending out a burst of cortisol and other stress hormones. These are the same hormones that surge when you are in danger. They prepare you to run by sending a blast of fuel to your muscles and making your heart pump faster.

If you can deal with your stress and move on, your stress response will recede and your body will go back into balance. But "the kind of stress that’s really damaging is the kind that doesn’t let up," says Susan Andrews, PhD, a clinical neuropsychologist and author of the book Stress Solutions for Pregnant Moms: How Breaking Free From Stress Can Boost Your Baby’s Potential. In fact, constant stress could alter your body’s stress management system, causing it to overreact and trigger an inflammatory response.

Inflammation, in turn, has been linked to poorer pregnancy health and developmental problems in babies down the road. "There are some data to show that higher chronic stressors in women and poor coping skills to deal with those stressors may be associated with lower birth weight and with delivering earlier," says Ann Borders, MD, MPH, MSc. She is an OB/GYN in the obstetrics and gynecology department, Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, at Evanston Hospital, NorthShore University HealthSystem.

Chronic stress may also contribute to subtle differences in brain development that might lead to behavioral issues as the baby grows, she adds.

Research in this area is still early, and doctors still need to figure out the exact link between stress and pregnancy outcomes. Even so, it’s an important factor for pregnant women to consider, especially if they’re dealing with chronic stress -- for example, from financial or relationship troubles.

"We know that we want to think about how to reduce unhealthy stress and find ways to help women have better coping mechanisms to deal with the stress in their lives," Borders says. You shouldn’t feel guilty about stress, she adds, but you should try to control it as much as you can.

Andrews offers a few ways to manage stress during pregnancy.

Take stock. Talk to your doctor about what’s causing you to feel stressed. Together you can look for solutions, which might include meditation, prenatal yoga, or talk therapy.

Sing a song. Even if you can’t carry a tune, hum in your head. Music helps control cortisol levels.

Relax. Take a warm bath. Have a cup of tea. Curl up with a book. You’ll have precious few chances to pamper yourself once your baby arrives.

Find more articles, browse back issues, and read the current issue of "WebMD Magazine." 

View the original article here

Health Tip: Do I Need a Cardiac Stress Test?

Title: Health Tip: Do I Need a Cardiac Stress Test?
Category: Health News
Created: 3/8/2013 8:35:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 3/8/2013 12:00:00 AM

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Stress Disorder May Be Common Among ICU Patients on Ventilators

Title: Stress Disorder May Be Common Among ICU Patients on Ventilators
Category: Health News
Created: 3/1/2013 12:35:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 3/4/2013 12:00:00 AM

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Stress management counseling in the primary care setting is rare

Nov. 19, 2012 — While stress may be a factor in 60 to 80 percent of all visits to primary care physicians, only three percent of patients actually receive stress management counseling, say researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

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The study appears online Nov. 19 in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"Almost half of Americans report an increase in psychological stress over the past five years. Stress is the elephant in the room. Everyone knows it's there, but physicians rarely talk to patients about it," says lead author, Aditi Nerurkar, MD, MPH a primary care physician and the Assistant Medical Director of BIDMC's Cheng & Tsui Center for Integrative Care. "In fact, stress management counseling is the least common type of physician counseling, falling behind counseling for nutrition, exercise, weight loss and smoking."

Nerurkar and colleagues examined data from the 2006 to 2009 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey involving more than 34,000 office visits and 1,263 physicians. They were looking for evidence of doctors who provided stress management help, which included counseling at the visit, providing "information intended to help patients reduces stress through exercise, biofeedback, yoga, etc.," or referrals "to other health professionals for the purpose of coping with stress."

What they found is that stress management counseling by physicians rarely happens in the primary care setting. Just three percent of physicians offer stress counseling, mostly for their more complex patients, particularly those coping with depression.

"Our research suggests that physicians are not providing stress management counseling as prevention, but rather, as a downstream intervention for their sickest patients," says Nerurkar. "Considering what we know about stress and disease, this clearly points to missed opportunities."

The researchers also found that stress management counseling was associated with longer office visits.

"We know that primary care physicians are overburdened. With the volume of patients they see, there simply may not be enough time to provide stress management counseling during the office visit," says senior author, Gloria Yeh, MD, MPH, Director of the Integrative Medicine Fellowship Program at Harvard Medical School and BIDMC. "The fact that we found that so few physicians are counseling their patients about stress supports this, and highlights the need to rethink how primary care is being delivered."

A key step towards incorporating stress management counseling into primary care may be restructuring primary care delivery and payment to support team-based care.

"New payment models designed to promote wellness will enable team-based primary care practices to add counseling and coaching staff to address stress, mental illness and behavioral change more effectively," says co-author, Russell S. Phillips, MD, Director of the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care.

These changes could help shift counseling to earlier in the disease process.

"Our findings make us wonder whether stress management counseling, if offered earlier to more patients as prevention, could lead to better health outcomes," says Nerurkar, "But more research is needed to establish the role that stress management might play clinically."

In addition to Nerurkar, Yeh and Phillips, co-authors include Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH and Roger B. Davis, ScD of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Nerurkar is supported by an Institutional National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health. Davis is supported in part by the Harvard Catalyst and the Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center.

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