Study Finds Connection Between Prenatal Exposure To BPA And Aggression During Toddler Years

(NaturalNews by Jonathan Benson, staff writer) Researchers from the Harvard University School of Public Health have made a disturbing new discovery about the plastics chemical bisphenol-A (BPA). It turns out that prenatal BPA exposure can spur aggressive and undesirable behaviors in girls after they are born and reach their toddler years.

Published in the journalPediatrics, the study analyzed a group of 244 mothers and their three-year-old daughters living in the Cincinnati, Oh., area. The study team gathered and studied gestational and childhood BPA exposures using urine samples from the mothers, and compared various exposure levels among the children to their respective behavioral profiles.

The team discovered that for each ten-fold increase in gestational BPA exposure levels, young girls exhibited significantly more indicators of anxiety and depression than their less- or non-exposed counterparts. Young girls exposed to high BPA levels were also more emotionally disturbed than the others and had a more difficult time controlling their inhibitions.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jointly funded the study as part of an investigation into the safety of BPA.

"Parents should be concerned about these findings," says study author Joe Braun. "As the mothers concentration of BPA rose, the girls born to those mothers had higher scores on these behavior problem indices. If pregnant women or parents are concerned about exposure to BPA, they can try to reduce it by limiting their exposure to canned foods and packaged foods."

Although these particular findings were limited strictly to females, previous studies have found a similar connection between prenatal BPA exposure and poor behavior in both sexes. Back in 2009, a study published in the journalEnvironmental Health Perspectivesfound that BPA's endocrine-disrupting effects can harm both girls and boys.

Besides impairing proper neurological development, which is likely the reason for behavior problems later in life, prenatal BPA exposure was found to "masculinize" unborn females, and "feminize" unborn males. It appears, based on that study, that BPA actually blocks the proper growth and development of human sex hormones (http://www.sciencenews.org/view/gen...).

Both the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the American Chemistry Council (ACC), however, continue to insist that BPA is safe, despite the plethora of scientific data showing that the chemical is harmful.

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Folic Acid Supplements During Pregnancy Help Prevent Language Delay In Children

Taking folic acid during pregnancy results in decreased risk of giving birth to a child with a serious language delay, a Norwegian study found.

"Maternal use of supplements containing folic acid within the period from four weeks before, to eight weeks after conception was associated with a substantially reduced risk of severe language delay in children at age 3 years," said researcher Christine Roth, a Ph.D. student in mental health at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo.

The data came from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort study of nearly 39,000 children, conducted from 1999 through 2008, in which mothers assessed their child's language skills using a scale. Of the children, 204 had a severe language delay, and 0.9 percent of those whose mothers took no supplements had severe language delays. But just 0.4 percent of children whose mothers took folic acid supplements alone or in combination with other supplements had severe language delays.

Folic acid is already recommended during pregnancy due to its proven ability to prevent neural tube defects by helping nerve cells restore themselves. Roch said she suspects the nutrient acts in a similar way to prevent language delays, but that more research is needed.

"This is an interesting study showing an association with severe language delays, but I don't know that there's enough here to show causality," Dr. Deborah Campbell, the director of the division of neonatology at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, told HealthDay.

The study appeared in the Oct. 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

BPA Alters Development Of In Vitro Ova And Could Increase Risk Of Down Syndrome

Bisphenol A is omnipresent in the plastic of common products such as beverage bottles, cans or baby bottles

By Montserrat Garcia Caldes
Montserrat.garcia.caldes@uab.cat

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, in collaboration with the Vall d'Hebron Hospital Fetal Tissue Bank, the Department of Gynaecology and the Research Unit of Paediatric Endocrinology, analysed the effects of Bisphenol A (BPA), a polymer widely used to manufacture plastics, in an in vitro culture of ovaries. The research demonstrated that exposure to this substance gravely altered the development of oocytes and future ova, possibly diminishing the fertility of a woman's offspring and at the same time increasing the risk of Down Syndrome in following generations.

The research, published in Human Reproduction, was carried out with a culture of 21,570 in vitro oocytes. Results demonstrated that exposure to Bisphenol A in concentration levels permitted by health authorities is harmful to the fetus. BPA reduces the number of oocytes (cells which develop into ova) and therefore can affect negatively a woman's fertility and double the risk of chromosome exchange during the cell division process. Specific observations of chromosome 21 in the development of 90 oocytes revealed that exposure to BPA could increase the risk of Down Syndrome in the future offspring of the fetus.

The research provides conclusive data for the debate on how BPA affects the health of individuals. Previous studies on mice and worms demonstrated that reproduction is affected and that exposure to BPA during gestation affects the viability and quality of the cells which later become ova developing in the fetus.

For the first time, human cells were used in a research to analyse the process of cell division of the oocytes - meiosis - in which chromosomes join and exchange material, i.e. meiotic recombination. Oocytes were cultured for 7, 14 or 21 days in different environments, with the presence of BPA and in control cultures without the substance. Data obtained in vitro with human cells was practically identical to that obtained with in vivo animal models, while the effects on meiotic recombination, which could lead to the appearance of Down Syndrome, in humans are even greater than those observed in mice.

"According to our results, BPA does not directly affect the fertility of pregnant women, but that of their daughters and granddaughters. It is a multigenerational effect", explains UAB professor Montserrat Garcia Caldés, director of the research. She goes on to say that "the increase in oocyte mortality in the fetus could diminish ovarian reserve numbers and the quality of the future mother's ova. At the same time, alterations in the recombination of chromosomes in the process of cell division increase the possibility of numerical alterations, such as monosomy (only copy of a chromosome in embryo cells) or trisomy (three copies)."

Concentration levels applied in the experiments were within the safety limits marked by European (EFSA) and US (EPA) authorities. The research therefore suggests that staying within legal limits does not imply that exposure to the substance is innocuous.

"We are exposed to BPA on a daily basis, mainly through oral exposure, since we can find it in lunch boxes,beverage bottles and food storage containers", Miguel Àngel Brieño-Enríquez reminds us. First author of the article, Brieño-Enríquez, from the University of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, is now researcher at the UAB Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology. According to him, "although we generally metabolise the substance, pregnant women retain more fluids and the fetus could be affected by high concentration levels."

http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Non-food/Environment/bpa_alters_development_of_in_vitro_ova_0922110715.html

Typical North American Diet Is Deficient In Omega-3 Fatty Acids

ScienceDaily (Mar. 11, 2008) — New research from the Child & Family Research Institute shows the typical North American diet of eating lots of meat and not much fish is deficient in omega-3 fatty acids and this may pose a risk to infant neurological development. Omega-3 fatty acids are unsaturated fats found in some fish such as salmon and herring and in smaller amounts in eggs and chicken. This discovery is an important step towards developing dietary fat guidelines for pregnant and breastfeeding women. Current dietary recommendations evolved from the 1950's emphasis on reducing saturated fat intake to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease.

"Omega 3 fatty acids are important for the baby's developing eyes and brain," says Dr. Sheila Innis, the study's principal investigator, head of the nutrition and metabolism program at the Child & Family Research Institute at BC Children's Hospital, and professor, department of pediatrics, University of British Columbia.

"During pregnancy and breastfeeding, fat consumed by the mum is transferred to the developing baby and breastfed infant, and this fat is important for the baby's developing organs. Our next task is to find out why the typical North American diet puts mothers at risk. Then we can develop dietary recommendations to help women consume a nutritious diet that promotes optimal health for mums and babies."

The researchers found that the women who ate lots of meat and little fish were deficient in omega-3 fatty acids, and their babies didn't do as well on eye tests as babies from mothers who weren't deficient. The results were noticeable as early as two months of age. The study is ongoing as the researchers intend to follow the children's development until four years of age.

For the study, the researchers recruited 135 pregnant women and randomly assigned them to either a group that took an omega-3 fatty acid supplement or one that took a placebo. All the women continued eating their regular diets. The supplement added the equivalent of two fatty fish meals per week, an amount that the researchers estimated would prevent deficiency. The researchers tested the women's blood samples at 16 and 36 weeks of pregnancy and measured the amount of DHA (docasohexaenoic acid), a type of omega-3 fatty acids that's known to be important for brain and eye function.

After the babies were born, the researchers did vision tests to evaluate the infants' ability to distinguish lines of different widths. It's an innovative way of evaluating neurological maturity in babies who are unable to talk. Since the eyes are connected to the brain, they reflect the brains development.

The aim of this study was to contribute to a growing body of knowledge that focuses on the dietary needs of pregnant and breastfeeding women. More research is needed to identify recommended daily amounts of omega-3 fatty acids.

"For better health, it's important for pregnant and nursing mums -- and all of us -- to eat a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, eggs, and fish while minimizing consumption of processed and prepared foods." says Dr. Innis.

The study is published March 7th, 2008 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Martek Biosciences Corp. provided the supplements.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Child & Family Research Institute, Via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS