Extreme morning sickness could lead to lifelong behavioral and emotional problems in children, according to a new study.

The condition, known as hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), is characterized by excessive nausea and vomiting persisting beyond the first trimester of pregnancy. It affects hundreds of thousands of women each year and can lead to hospitalization and pregnancy termination.

California researchers have found that children whose mothers suffered from HG while carrying them were more than 3 times as likely to suffer from anxiety, bipolar disorder and depression in adulthood than children born to mothers who did not have the condition.

“HG is an understudied and undertreated condition of pregnancy that can result in not only short-term maternal physical and mental health problems but also potentially lifelong consequences to the exposed fetus,” the researchers said.

Prior studies have found that children whose mothers suffered from nausea past the first trimester have more attention and learning studies by age 12.

The researchers blame poor fetal nutrition, a frequent result of HG, as a cause for adverse outcomes and poor health in adulthood. HG can essentially starve the developing fetus of essential nutrients, and cause dehydration, which can impact brain development.

Also, HG often causes stress and anxiety in the mother, which can also negatively affect the fetus.
The condition often runs in families. According to the researchers, women with a family history of the condition were up to 17 times more likely to suffer from it themselves.

The study was published in the Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease and funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Long-term exposure to air pollution can lead to physical changes in the brain, learning and memory problems and even depression, according to scientists.

Studies with mice have revealed that pollution exposure can lead to changes in the hippocampus of the brain, which is responsible for learning and memory.  Mice that were exposed to pollution over a 10 month period took longer to learn information from their surroundings and were less likely to remember what they had learned.

The mice also showed higher levels of anxiety and more depressive-like behaviors than mice who had been kept in clean air.

Researchers speculate that this may be due to the fact that air pollution exposure can decrease the number of signal receptors in the brain and lead to reduced cell complexity.

The researchers expressed concern over what these findings could mean for humans.

“The results suggest prolonged exposure to polluted air can have visible, negative effects on the brain, which can lead to a variety of health problems,” said Laura Fonken, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in neuroscience at Ohio State University.

“This could have important and troubling implications for people who live and work in polluted urban areas around the world.”

Previous research has indicated that air pollution exposure similar in concentration to that found in urban areas causes widespread inflammation in the body and can be linked to high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity.

The inflammation can even be observed in certain areas of the brain, such as the hippocampus, which is particularly susceptible to damage.

The study was published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

A new study has found that Americans are eating more and eating more often – a likely contributor to the obesity epidemic in the country.  Part of the problem, researchers say, is that we’re thinking about eating all day.  Do you suffer from constant food cravings?  Check out these 5 tips to stop them.

Eat a Protein Rich Breakfast

Starting your morning off with protein – eggs and bacon, for example – has been proven to increase satiety and reduce hunger throughout the day.  It also reduced brain signals that control food motivation and reward-driven eating behavior.  Breakfast in general is important for avoiding weight gain, but protein-heavy breakfasts seem to be the most effective for reducing appetite, according to researchers.

Eat at Regular Intervals throughout the Day

If you let yourself go too long without eating during the day, your blood sugar will plummet.  Not only will this make you feel hungrier, it will also negatively affect your self-control, according to researchers.  That means you’ll be less likely to be able to say no to those high-calorie, nutritionally-empty foods you’re usually so good at staying away from.  Try keeping a baggie of almonds or a pack of yogurt on you during the day for a healthy snack to keep you satisfied.

Picture the Sights and Smells of a Garden

According to a new study, cravings are mainly fueled by picturing a specific (usually high-cal) food in your head and imagining how it smells.  But as any multi-tasker knows, the more occupied your brain is, the more likely you are to forget something.  Same concept here – occupy the visual and olfactory parts of your brain with other sights and smells, preferably strong images and scents, like those in a garden, and your brain will have to push out the idea of food to accommodate.

Tell Yourself What You’re Eating is Indulgent

In another study, researchers gave participants the same 300 calorie shake.  However, in one group, they told the participants they were drinking an indulgent 600 cal shake, and in the other group, they told participants what they were drinking was a healthy 300 cal shake.  Guess which group felt more satisfied afterwards?  The fact is, visualizing food as an indulgent treat leaves you feeling much fuller afterwards.  So appreciate what you eat!

Surf the Web for Funny Videos

Sometimes, our strongest food cravings don’t come from hunger.  When we feel depressed or just “down”, we’re more likely to engage in emotional eating as a way of comforting ourselves.  Instead of reaching for that ice cream, pull up Youtube (or your favorite comedy website) and click on the links that’ll make you laugh and lift your mood.  Even a small lift in your mood can restore your self-control.

Prenatal exposure to phthalates, a class of chemicals that are widely used in consumer products ranging from plastic toys to building materials to shampoo, may put children at increased risk of developmental problems, according to a new study.

Recent studies in pre-school children have found that prenatal phthalate exposure may lead to mental, motor and behavioral problems.

One study followed 319 non-smoking, inner-city pregnant women and measured their exposure to phthalates through urine tests. The researchers followed up with developmental tests on the children three years later.

The results indicated that higher prenatal exposure to pthalates significantly increased the odds of motor delay and behavior problems, including anxiety, depression and withdrawal. Among girls, phthalates were associated with decreases in mental development.

The women in the highest exposure group had double, sometimes triple, the odds of having a child with developmental delays compared to the women in the lowest exposure group.

“The results add to a growing public health concern about the widespread use of phthalates in consumer products,” said Robin Whyatt, DrPH, study researcher.

While the researchers are still uncertain as to how pthalates affect the developing brain, they do know that the chemicals are endocrine disrupters, meaning that they affect the hormone system in the body. Prior research suggests pthalates affect thyroid function, as well as lower testosterone, which plays a critical role in brain development.

The study was published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

Could a father’s level of stress affect his unborn children? A new study suggests that there may be a relationship between a dad’s stress and his child’s risk of developing depression.

It has already been established in prior studies that the risk of developing depression is significantly increased by exposure to chronic stress, both from the the environment and from genetics.

While most studies to date have focused on maternal effects, the researchers in this case worked with male mice and found that those exposed to chronic stress pass along the stress behaviors to their offspring.

Both male and female offspring showed increased depression and anxiety-like behaviors, though the effects were stronger in males.

Additionally, these behavioral effects were only seen in offspring produced through natural reproduction, and not in those produced via in vitro fertilization. This suggests that most stress-related vulnerabilities are transmitted to children behaviorally.

These findings in mice raise the possibility that part of an individual’s risk for clinical depression or other stress-related disorders may be determined by his or her father’s life exposure to stress, a provocative suggestion that now requires direct study in humans,” said lead author Dr. Eric Nestler, from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

The study was published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Exercise can be as effective as a second medication for depressed patients who have not been cured by a single antidepressant medication, according to a new study.

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers found that moderate to intense levels of daily exercise can be as effective as prescribing a second antidepressant drugs in as many as half of depressed patients who are not cured by initial medications.

A regular exercise routine, combined with targeted medications, can fully relieve the symptoms of major depressive disorder.

The type of exercise needed, the researchers said, depends on the patient’s personal characteristics, including gender.

For the study, participants who had been diagnosed with depression were divided into two groups. Each group was assigned a different level of exercise intensity for 12 weeks. Sessions were supervised by a trained staff.

Participants exercised on treadmills, bicycles or both and kept an online diary of frequency and length of sessions. They wore a heart-rate monitor while exercising at home.

The participants also met with a psychiatrist regularly during the study.

By the end of the 12 weeks, almost 30 percent of the patients in both groups achieved full remission from their depression, and another 20 percent showed significant improvement based on standard psychiatric measurements.

The results indicated that moderate exercise was more effective for women with a family history of mental illness, whereas intense exercise was more effective with women whose families did not have a history of the disease. For men, the higher rate of exercise was more effective regardless of other characteristics.

“Many people who start on an antidepressant medication feel better after they begin treatment, but they still don’t feel completely well or as good as they did before they became depressed,” said Dr. Madhukar Trivedi, the study’s lead author.

“This study shows that exercise can be as effective as adding another medication,” he continued. “Many people would rather use exercise than add another drug, particularly as exercise has a proven positive effect on a person’s overall health and well-being.”

The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.