Chocolate found to reduce risk of miscarriage

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(NaturalNews) If you're pregnant, you may be happy to know that chocolate cravings may be good for you. New research shows morning sickness lowers the risk of miscarriage by almost 70 percent -- and eating chocolate daily also appears to lower the risk of miscarriage.

"Chocolate is a genuine healing food," said Mike Adams, a consumer health advocate and holistic nutritionist. "It helps prevent cancer, boosts liver function and improves moods and energy. The key, though, is getting real cacao, not the candied chocolate that's mostly sugar and milk fat. When shopping for a chocolate bar, look for a cacao content of 75 percent or higher, and always buy organic chocolate," Adams said.

Researchers from a new study said that chocolate also made pregnant women feel well enough to "fly or to have sex." When it came to morning sickness, the researchers said that the worse the nausea, the better.
In addition, the study revealed that there was no evidence that working full time had a worse effect on the risk of miscarriage than part-time work or staying at home -- even if the job involved standing for more than six hours day or heavy lifting. Women who stated that their jobs were stressful or demanding were significantly more likely to miscarry in the first three months of pregnancy, however.

The study also concluded that women were more likely to miscarry if the baby's father was older than 45, and women who were underweight when they conceived were 72 percent more likely to miscarry in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

The lead author of the study -- Noreen Maconochie -- said "It can be a very distressing experience for women, and any advice on how they can improve their chances of achieving a full-term pregnancy is likely to be welcome." Maconochie then added that, the causes for the majority of miscarriages ''are not wholly understood'' -- and many suspected risk factors remain controversial or unproven.

Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/021272.html

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How Stress Causes Miscarriage

Hormonal Effects on Certain Cells May Trigger Chain Reaction to End Pregnancy

WebMD Medical News -- Stress has long been suspected as a possible cause of miscarriage, with several studies indicating an increased risk among women reporting high levels of emotional or physical turmoil in their early months of pregnancy or just before conception. But while a relationship has been noted, researchers didn't know exactly how a woman's stress could cause miscarriage.

In what may prove to be a breakthrough finding, a team of scientists from Tufts University and Greece have identified a suspected chain reaction detailing exactly how stress hormones and other chemicals wreak havoc on the uterus and fetus. Their report, in the June issue of Endocrinology, may help explain why women miscarry for no obvious medical reasons and why some women have repeated miscarriages. And it could lead to measures to prevent miscarriage -- medically known as "spontaneous abortion."

Researchers have long known that during times of stress, the brain releases several hormones -- including one called corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH). In past research, women who deliver prematurely or have low-birth-weight babies were often found to have high levels of CRH in their bloodstream, and other studies show a greater risk of miscarriage in women reporting stress. CRH is a hormone the brain secretes in reaction to physical or emotional stress, and it is also produced in the placenta and the uterus of a pregnant woman to trigger uterine contractions during delivery.

But this new research suggests that CRH and other stress hormones may also be released elsewhere in the body, where it specifically targets localized mast cells -- those best known for causing allergic reactions. Mast cells are abundant in the uterus. During stress, the local release of CRH causes these mast cells to secrete substances that can cause miscarriages.

The Hormone-Allergy Link

In their study of 23 women, the scientists found that those who had previous multiple miscarriages had significantly high levels of CRH and another hormone, urocortin, in the tissues of their fetuses when compared with women who miscarried once or those who had had abortions.

The lead researcher tells WebMD what's especially intriguing is that high amounts of these stress hormones were found only in uterine mast cells -- and not in the women's bloodstream, adding credence to his theory that CRH may be released locally.

"Mast cells are like a soccer ball that is filled with about 500 Ping-Pong balls, and each Ping-Pong ball has about 30 marbles," says Theoharis C. Theohardies, MD, PhD, of the Tufts University School of Medicine. "If you are allergic, these cells explode like a grenade to trigger an allergic reaction by releasing all those balls of histamine and various other chemicals."

Like an allergen, CRH and urocortin in mast cells may also release many chemicals. The chemicals known to cause fetal loss were also found in high amounts in the women studied who had one or more miscarriages.

"Tryptase [the chemical released by the activated mast cell] acts like a meat tenderizer, destroying tissue, and it prevents the production of membranes to develop the embryo and disrupts the whole architecture of the placenta that feeds the baby," Theohardies tells WebMD. "When this happens early in pregnancy, it causes a miscarriage."

"I think this is very exciting," says Calvin J. Hobel, MD, of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, whose study four years ago in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology linked high CRH levels with a greater risk of premature birth. "It brings the continuum together because most of us have been looking at [CRH's effect on] the end of pregnancy or the middle of pregnancy."

Hobel tells WebMD that Theohardies' finding could play a key role in the future of prenatal diagnosis, in which a piece of the placenta is removed and cells are examined for genetic disorders. He is researching how CRH can be studied this way to better ensure a full-term and healthy delivery.

And Theohardies says he is hopeful that with his new research, women at risk of miscarriage may be able to take preventative measures, especially when under stress during pregnancy. "We know how to block the action of CRH on mast cells, so perhaps we could give women at risk a vaginal suppository with drugs that block CRH receptors."

But more immediately, he says his finding offers more proof of the hazards of emotional stress on pregnancy. "We now know the effects of stress (on the fetus) are very real and produce a specific physiologic reaction in the uterus," he tells WebMD. "So you really need to reduce it whatever way you can."

Source: http://www.webmd.com/infertility-and-reproduction/news/20030605/how-stress-causes-miscarriage?page=2

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Why Do Miscarriages and Stillbirths Happen?

The most common cause of pregnancy loss is a random chromosome abnormality that occurs during fertilization. For fertilization to occur, the chromosomes in the nucleus of both the egg and the sperm need to join into 23 pairs (46 total chromosomes). Sometimes this pairing does not happen correctly and that can impede the development of the fetus.

Other factors that could contribute to a miscarriage include:

• fertilization late after ovulation
• low or high levels of the thyroid hormone
• uncontrolled diabetes
• exposure to environmental and workplace hazards, such as radiation or toxic agents
• uterine abnormalities
• incompetent cervix, or when the cervix begins to open (dilate) and thin (efface) before the pregnancy has reached term
• certain medications (mostly prescription), such as the acne drug Accutane

Certain behaviors also increase the risk of a miscarriage. Smoking, for example, puts nicotine and other chemicals into the bloodstream that cause the blood vessels in the placenta to spasm, which decreases the blood flow to the uterus. Smokers also have a lower level of oxygen in their blood, which means the fetus gets less oxygen. Alcohol and illegal drugs have been proved to lead to miscarriages. There is no evidence that stress or sexual activity contributes to miscarriage.

Some of the common causes of a stillbirth include:

• pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, disorders of late pregnancy that involve high blood pressure, fluid retention, and protein in the urine
• uncontrolled diabetes
• abnormalities in the fetus caused by infectious diseases - such as syphilis, toxoplasmosis, German measles, rubella, and • influenza - or by bacterial infections like listeriosis
• severe birth defects (responsible for about 20% of stillbirths), including spina bifida
• postmaturity - a condition in which the pregnancy has lasted 41 weeks or longer
• chronic high blood pressure, lupus, heart or thyroid disease

Full article: http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/medical/sexual/miscarriage.html

Lower your miscarriage risk with new tests, treatments

When Kori Morrison had her first miscarriage, she and her husband, Tom, were upset but still hopeful. After all, she knew that 15 to 50 percent of all pregnancies end in miscarriage, and most of these women who've miscarried go on to have healthy babies. But in the next eight years, Morrison had four more miscarriages. Sadness and self-blame set in. "I wondered if I was eating the wrong things, if I was overstressed, or, worst of all, if my body just wasn't cut out for pregnancy," she says.

Morrison was eventually found to have a hormone imbalance: Low progesterone during pregnancy kept her uterus from nourishing the embryo. With treatment, she went on to have four children.

Although Morrison went through agony for years before discovering what was wrong, her story illustrates that there are ways to identify what causes miscarriages and what can be done to prevent them. Important to know because, while most women will go on to have a successful pregnancy, about 5 percent are likely to lose another baby. And the use of assisted reproductive technology such as in vitro fertilization (common among women 35-plus) seems to boost miscarriage risks even more.

1. Do a little detective work

When you're planning to get pregnant, your first move should be a careful prepregnancy checkup to reveal potential risk factors like diabetes-related problems, high blood pressure, polycstic ovary syndrome, fibroids, or thyroid abnormalities -- all of which are mostly treatable, says Mary Stephenson, M.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology and director of the recurrent-pregnancy-loss program at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
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Go over your medical history with your doctor, and also mention any medications, herbs, and supplements you are taking. You might learn something about potentially risky non-prescription meds such as ibuprofen or herbs such as ginkgo. Even taking a little time to discuss a family history of miscarriages with your doctor might uncover a correctable problem.

2. Stop the stress

We've all heard that being stressed isn't a good thing if you're trying to get pregnant. That's also true of trying to stay pregnant. British researchers recently found that feeling happy, relaxed, or in control is linked to a 60 percent reduction in a woman's miscarriage risk. What helps when you can't kick back with a glass of wine? Gentle workouts, dining with friends, or watching your favorite TV show might work (stick with The Office instead of nerve-janglers like 24 or ER).
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And what about sex? If you've had a miscarriage in the past, says Jonathan Scher, M.D., assistant clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, it's probably best to skip nookie during your first trimester, when a hormone in semen may stimulate contractions. It's OK later, after the embryo is fully implanted.
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3. Do some chromosome testing

After a miscarriage, a chromosome analysis of fetal tissue can provide some useful information, says Scher.

The test can reveal if there was an unavoidable chromosome problem -- the cause of as many as 50 percent of miscarriages. If the test result is abnormal (the tissue has an abnormal number of chromosomes), it's good news. This is a random event, and the chance of it happening again is no higher than normal. Time to try again. A normal test result, however, may require further investigation (there's more information on this in "Take a Few More Tests," below).

Unless you insist, you may not be offered chromosome analysis. "It's the most important thing we can do," Stephenson says, "But, unfortunately, it's very seldom done."

Why? Medical guidelines don't recommend it unless you've had multiple miscarriages. Even then, if you're healthy, doctors might beg off. But Scher and Stephenson advise any woman who has two or more miscarriages to get the test.
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4. Take a few more tests

- MayoClinic.com: Health Library
- Healthology: Health Video Library

If the chromosomes are normal and it's your second or third miscarriage, there's a good chance you have a fixable problem. But you won't find out without additional tests. You might be screened for a genetic tendency for blood clots, a weak cervix, a hormonal imbalance, or even an autoimmune problem such as lupus. If you have a blood-clotting disorder, anticlotting medication may cut your risk of miscarriage by up to 75 percent. If it's a weak cervix, a stitch applied at the end of the first trimester can prevent the cervix from opening early and starting premature labor.

To uncover these kinds of problems, you may need to go to a specialized, recurrent-pregnancy-loss clinic, Stephenson says. Most important, though, keep pushing for answers. That's what Darci Klein did after suffering three miscarriages, including the loss of twins at 20 weeks. Eventually, tests showed she had an inherited blood-clotting disorder and a weak cervix. After treatment -- injections of a blood thinner and a cervical stitch -- she carried a pregnancy to term and gave birth to a healthy baby boy. "You don't ever get over losing a child," says Klein, author of "To Full Term: A Mother's Triumph Over Miscarriage." "But you need to ask for testing."

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/08/17/healthmag.baby.maybe/index.html