Most
pregnant women constipated
Nearly 3 out of 4 pregnant women
experience constipation, diarrhea or other bowel
disorders during their pregnancies, a new study has found.
But such bowel disorders only minimally affect a pregnant woman's quality of life, according to the Loyola University Medical Center study.
The study by senior author Scott Graziano, MD, and Payton Johnson was presented during the 61st Annual Clinical Meeting of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in New Orleans.
As part of this project, 104 pregnant women were enrolled and completed the first trimester questionnaire; 66 women also completed a survey in the third trimester.
Seventy-two percent of the first trimester respondents and 61 percent of the third trimester respondents reported one or more bowel disorders, including constipation, diarrhea, bloating and irritable bowel syndrome.
The women also filled out a questionnaire that measures the extent to which bowel problems affect quality of life. (For example, the survey asks whether bowel problems make life less enjoyable, limit what a person can wear or eat or make a person feel embarrassed, vulnerable, angry, isolated or depressed.)
The quality of life survey is scored on a 1 to 100 scale, with 100 representing the least possible impact on quality of life due to bowel problems. The average score was 94.9.
The only bowel problems that had a significant impact on quality of life were constipation, which reduced the score by 4.4 points out of 100, and bloating, which reduced the score by 4.0 points.
Graziano said the reason bowel problems have a minimal impact on quality of life is likely because pregnant women have learned to expect such problems during pregnancy and so are better able to tolerate them.
Bowel problems are due to physiological and hormonal changes that occur during pregnancy.
For example, increased progesterone levels affect the smooth muscles in the intestines.
Consequently, it takes longer for food to move through the intestines, which can cause constipation. Vitamins and calcium and iron supplements that women take during pregnancy also can cause constipation, Graziano said.
Source: www.timesofindia.com
30.05.2013
Children of long-lived parents disease free
Children
of parents who live to a ripe old age are more
likely to live longer, and are less prone to cancer
and other common diseases associated with ageing,
according to a new study.
Experts at the University of Exeter Medical School, led an international collaboration which discovered that people who had a long-lived mother or father were 24 percent less likely to get cancer.
The scientists compared the children of long-lived parents to children whose parents survived to average ages for their generation.
Experts at the University of Exeter Medical School, led an international collaboration which discovered that people who had a long-lived mother or father were 24 percent less likely to get cancer.
The scientists compared the children of long-lived parents to children whose parents survived to average ages for their generation.
The scientists classified long-lived mothers as those who survived past 91 years old, and compared them to those who reached average age spans of 77 to 91. Long-lived fathers lived past 87 years old, compared with the average of 65 to 87 years. The scientists studied 938 new cases of cancer that developed during the 18 year follow-up period.
The researchers found that overall mortality rates dropped by up to 19 per cent for each decade that at least one of the parents lived past the age of 65. For those whose mothers lived beyond 85, mortality rates were 40 per cent lower. The figure was a little lower (14 per cent) for fathers, possibly because of adverse lifestyle factors such as smoking, which may have been more common in the fathers.
The study has been published in the Journals of Gerontology: Series A.
Source: www.timesofindia.com
30.05.2013
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