IRON supplements are recommended during pregnancy. but a new study published in the Archives of Medical Research shows that current recommended iron levels are too high and could lead to birth complications.
Scientists studied 116 healthy women at 20 weeks of pregnancy who were not anemic and with normal blood iron levels. They randomly assigned them to receive either daily or weekly tablets containing 60 milligrams of iron. 200 milligrams of folic acid and 1 milligram of vitamin B12. By the end of the second trimester of pregnancy. 27 per cent of the daily supplement group had too much haemoglobin 'C the iron-rich. oxygen-carrying protein 'C in their blood. and they were four times more likely to deliver a premature baby or a newborn with low birth weight. Only 7 per cent of the women on weekly supplements developed high haemoglobin. Contradicting the views of the World Health Organisation. the authors claim that women who are not anemic should take iron supplements weekly. not daily.
WOMEN are not the only ones with ticking biological clocks. Men can also suffer an age-related drop in the quality of their sperm. increasing their risk of infertility and passing along genetic diseases to their children. In the new study. appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week. scientists analysed the DNA in sperm samples from 97 healthy. non-smoking men aged 22 to 80. They found that defects in sperm DNA. including a gene mutation that causes dwarfism. increase steadily with age. And the damage is first seen in the early reproductive years. Unlike women however. ageing men were not more likely to father a child with Down's syndrome. Researchers also found that the usual measures of sperm quality 'C sperm count and ability to swim in a straight line 'C were not good measures of genetic quality. Understanding the effects of the father's age has become more important. as there has been a 40 per cent increase in 35- to 49-year-old men fathering children since 1980.
INDIGENOUS cancer patients in Australia have a 30 per cent higher risk of death from their disease than non-indigenous Australians. according to new research in The Lancet this week. Patricia Valery and colleagues from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and University of Queensland identified 815 indigenous Australians diagnosed with cancer between 1997 and 2002. They were matched for age. place of residence. cancer site and year of diagnosis with 810 non-indigenous Australians. Indigenous people had lower survival rates. even after accounting for other factors such as cancer stage at diagnosis. treatment received and other illnesses. Indigenous patients were also less likely to receive cancer treatment than non-indigenous patients. Surgery was performed on 58 per cent of non-indigenous patients and on only 48 per cent of indigenous patients. who also had to wait longer to be treated.
SCREENING women for the human papillomavirus (HPV) is better than a traditional Pap smear at detecting the early signs of cervical cancer. according to research in the current issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Researchers tested 16.658 women aged 35 to 60 for cervical cancer using the regular Pap test. where cells from the cervix are smeared onto a glass slide and examined under a microscope for any abnormalities. Another group of 16.706 women were tested using a new liquid-based Pap test. where the slide is dipped into a special solution before being examined. and these women were also screened for HPV. Women with abnormal cells from either Pap test or a positive HPV result were given another test called a colposcopy. in which a doctor examines the cervix directly. They found that HPV testing alone was better able to detect early cervical cancer than a regular Pap smear. Adding the liquid-based Pap smear simply increased the number of women who were wrongly diagnosed with early-stage cancer.
BREATHING exercises can cut the use of inhalers by more than 80 per cent and halve the required dose of preventer medication in mild asthma. say the authors of a new study in the journal Thorax. Led by Cassandra Slader at the University of Sydney. researchers recruited 57 people with mild asthma aged 15 to 80. who used a preventer inhaler and required a reliever inhaler at least four times a week. Participants were randomly assigned to practise one of two breathing techniques 'C the first focused on shallow. nasal breathing with slow exhalations. and the second used upper-body exercises and relaxation. They practised the techniques twice a day for 25 minutes over a period of 30 weeks. and were encouraged to use the techniques instead of their reliever where possible. Within weeks of starting the breathing exercises. use of reliever inhaler dropped in both groups 'C from an average of three puffs per day to one puff every three days by the end of the study. The decreased reliance on medication was maintained over eight months.
SEX during the final weeks of pregnancy will not bring on the baby's birth. according to research in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology that debunks the widely held belief that it can. The 93 women involved in the study were enrolled after the 37th week of pregnancy. and asked every week how many times they had engaged in sexual intercourse during the preceding week. Around half of the participants (50.5 per cent) reported that they had sex during the last few weeks of their pregnancies. which is more than in any other similar study. Women sexually active in the final three weeks of pregnancy carried their babies an average of 39.9 weeks. compared to 39.3 weeks for women who abstained.
Items are referenced where possible. A reference such as "2005;35:18-25" means the source article was published on pages 18-25 in volume number 35 of the publication. in 2005. A doi number or website address is used for research published on a journal's website.



Pregnancy