Health and Fitness News and Notes

Exposure to air pollution in the womb is associated with an increased risk for high blood pressure in childhood, researchers report.

The study, in the journal Hypertension, measured air pollution exposure in 1,293 pregnant women by matching each mother’s address with readings from the nearest air quality monitor. Researchers recorded levels of PM 2.5, particles so small that they can enter the lungs and bloodstream. The investigators found that compared with the one-third of children exposed to the lowest PM 2.5 levels, the one-third exposed to the highest were 61 percent more likely to have high blood pressure between ages 3 and 9. Each 5-microgram per cubic meter increase in PM 2.5 led to a 46 percent increased risk for pediatric hypertension.

The study controlled for factors like the mothers’ age and smoking, as well as for variables in the babies like preterm birth.

The study does not prove cause and effect, but the researchers suggest that air pollution is linked to inflammation in the uterus and placenta, which may help explain the association.

“High blood pressure in children portends high blood pressure in adults, which leads to higher cardiovascular disease risk,” said a co-author, Noel T. Mueller, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Air pollution is a major contributor to premature death.”

Whether to induce labor for babies at or beyond full term is a difficult decision.

Waiting to give birth after 41 weeks’ gestation may slightly increase the risk that the baby will die before or shortly after birth. But there are also risks in inducing labor, including lowering the baby’s heart rate and an increased likelihood of infection for both mother and baby.

Now a review in the Cochrane Library of 30 randomized trials involving more than 12,000 women with normal pregnancies in the United States and 13 other countries has found that induction at or beyond 41 weeks of gestation is safer than waiting. The analysis found that compared with waiting for labor to begin, induction was associated with fewer perinatal deaths, stillbirths and cesarean sections.

The incidence of perineal trauma, postpartum bleeding or the need to admit babies to a neonatal intensive care unit was the same whether a woman was induced or not, and the amount of time mothers had to stay in the hospital did not differ between groups.

Acupuncture is sometimes recommended as a complementary treatment for women undergoing in vitro fertilization. But a randomized clinical trial has found that the procedure does not improve pregnancy rates.

The Australian study, published in JAMA, included 824 women planning to undergo IVF. Half received acupuncture and half sham acupuncture a week before follicle stimulation and then again before and after transfer of the embryo. The acupuncture treatment technique was based on traditional Chinese medicine, and the sham acupuncture used a non-inserted needle placed away from the true acupuncture points.

In the acupuncture group, 105 women got pregnant, compared with 88 of the controls, and the number of miscarriages in the acupuncture group was slightly higher than in the control group. But neither of these differences was statistically significant.

There were 74 live births among the acupuncture group and 72 in the control group, again an insignificant difference.

Still, the lead author, Caroline A. Smith, a professor of clinical research at Western Sydney University, said acupuncture may have other benefits for women undergoing IVF. “We’ve done research that shows that women are more relaxed, feel less stress and feel better about themselves,” after acupuncture treatment, she said.