Drinking ups premature birth risk
LONDON: Drinking during first three months of pregnancy has been now confirmed to heighten the risk of having premature or unexpectedly small baby.
In the UK, the Department of Health recommends pregnant women and those trying to conceive not to drink alcohol at all and no more than one-two units a week. Middle class women were most likely to drink more than this, a study has found.
A path breaking legal case is underway in England and will be soon heard in the Court of Appeal on drinking while pregnant - and whether doing so to excess should be considered a crime.
A council is set to argue that a child who was born with serious health defects as a result of her mother's drinking habits should be given a compensation payout for being the victim of a crime.
The case was given permission by the upper tribunal of the Administrative Appeals Chamber recently to be heard in the Court of Appeal. The child was diagnosed with foetal alcohol syndrome at birth. She is now six and living with foster parents.
Drinking during the first three months of pregnancy was most strongly linked to negative outcomes for the baby.
Women who drink more than the recommended two weekly units are twice likely to give birth to an unexpectedly small or premature baby than women who abstain completely.
But even women who don't exceed the maximum recommended alcohol intake during this period are still at increased risk of a premature birth, even after taking account of other influential factors.
Drinking during the period leading up to conception is also linked to a higher risk of restricted fetal growth, indicating that this may also be a critical period, suggests the study.
"Our results highlight the need for endorsing the abstinence-only message, and further illuminate how timing of exposure is important in the association of alcohol with birth outcomes, with the first trimester being the most vulnerable period," it said.
Researchers bases their findings on responses to food frequency questionnaires by 1,264 women at low risk of birth complications in Leeds.
The women were part of the Caffeine and Reproductive Health study, looking into links between diet and birth outcomes.
The mums to be were asked how often they drank alcohol, and what type it was, at four time points: in the four weeks before conception; and in each of the subsequent three months (trimesters) throughout the pregnancy.
Alcohol consumption was significantly higher before conception and in the first three months of pregnancy than in the subsequent two trimesters, averaging 11, 4, and just under two units a week.
Over half (53%) of the women drank more than the recommended maximum two weekly units during the first trimester. And almost four out of 10 said they drank more than 10 units a week in the period leading up to conception.
Those who drank more than two units a week were more likely to be older, educated to degree level, of white ethnicity, and more likely to live in affluent areas.
Some 13% of the babies born were underweight, and 4.4% were smaller than would be expected; a similar proportion (4.3%) was born prematurely.
In the UK, the Department of Health recommends pregnant women and those trying to conceive not to drink alcohol at all and no more than one-two units a week. Middle class women were most likely to drink more than this, a study has found.
A path breaking legal case is underway in England and will be soon heard in the Court of Appeal on drinking while pregnant - and whether doing so to excess should be considered a crime.
A council is set to argue that a child who was born with serious health defects as a result of her mother's drinking habits should be given a compensation payout for being the victim of a crime.
The case was given permission by the upper tribunal of the Administrative Appeals Chamber recently to be heard in the Court of Appeal. The child was diagnosed with foetal alcohol syndrome at birth. She is now six and living with foster parents.
Drinking during the first three months of pregnancy was most strongly linked to negative outcomes for the baby.
Women who drink more than the recommended two weekly units are twice likely to give birth to an unexpectedly small or premature baby than women who abstain completely.
But even women who don't exceed the maximum recommended alcohol intake during this period are still at increased risk of a premature birth, even after taking account of other influential factors.
Drinking during the period leading up to conception is also linked to a higher risk of restricted fetal growth, indicating that this may also be a critical period, suggests the study.
"Our results highlight the need for endorsing the abstinence-only message, and further illuminate how timing of exposure is important in the association of alcohol with birth outcomes, with the first trimester being the most vulnerable period," it said.
Researchers bases their findings on responses to food frequency questionnaires by 1,264 women at low risk of birth complications in Leeds.
The women were part of the Caffeine and Reproductive Health study, looking into links between diet and birth outcomes.
The mums to be were asked how often they drank alcohol, and what type it was, at four time points: in the four weeks before conception; and in each of the subsequent three months (trimesters) throughout the pregnancy.
Alcohol consumption was significantly higher before conception and in the first three months of pregnancy than in the subsequent two trimesters, averaging 11, 4, and just under two units a week.
Over half (53%) of the women drank more than the recommended maximum two weekly units during the first trimester. And almost four out of 10 said they drank more than 10 units a week in the period leading up to conception.
Those who drank more than two units a week were more likely to be older, educated to degree level, of white ethnicity, and more likely to live in affluent areas.
Some 13% of the babies born were underweight, and 4.4% were smaller than would be expected; a similar proportion (4.3%) was born prematurely.
Study links vodka drinking to risk of early Russian deaths
LONDON: Russia's love for vodka is well-known. Scientists have now found that the price Russia is paying for it is also colossal.
A first-of-its-kind large scale study has now confirmed that vodka is the major cause of the extraordinarily-high risk of early death in Russian men.
The study, published in medical journal The Lancet, says 25% of Russian men die before they are 55 and that most of these deaths are attributable to alcohol consumption. This figure compares to 7% in the UK and less than 1% in the United States.
Researchers from the Russian Cancer Centre in Moscow, Oxford University in the UK and the World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer, in France, tracked about 151,000 adult men in the Russian cities of Barnaul, Byisk and Tomsk from 1999 to 2010.
The study asked 151,000 people how much vodka they drank, then followed them for up to a decade, during which 8,000 died.
The study shows that Russian men who drink three or more bottles of vodka a week are 35% more likely to go to an early grave than those who consume less than one.
"Russian death rates have fluctuated wildly over the past 30 years as alcohol restrictions and social stability varied under Presidents Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin, and the main thing driving these wild fluctuations in death was vodka. This has been shown in retrospective studies, and now we've confirmed it in a big, reliable prospective study", said co-author professor Sir Richard Peto from the University of Oxford.
Under Mikhail Gorbachev's 1985 alcohol restrictions, alcohol consumption fell rapidly by around 25% and so did the death rates.
When communism collapsed, alcohol consumption went up steeply and so did the death rates. More recently, since the 2006 Russian alcohol policy reforms, the consumption of spirits has fallen by about a third and so has the risk of death before age 55.
The excess mortality among heavy drinkers was mainly from alcohol poisoning, accidents, violence, suicide, and eight particular categories of disease (throat cancer, liver cancer, tuberculosis, pneumonia, pancreatitis, liver disease, a particular type of heart disease, and ill-specified medical conditions).
Study leader Professor David Zaridze from the Russian Cancer Research Centre in Moscow concludes, "The significant decline in Russian mortality rates following the introduction of moderate alcohol controls in 2006 demonstrates the reversibility of the health crisis from hazardous drinking. People who drink spirits in hazardous ways greatly reduce their risk of premature death as soon as they stop."
A first-of-its-kind large scale study has now confirmed that vodka is the major cause of the extraordinarily-high risk of early death in Russian men.
The study, published in medical journal The Lancet, says 25% of Russian men die before they are 55 and that most of these deaths are attributable to alcohol consumption. This figure compares to 7% in the UK and less than 1% in the United States.
Researchers from the Russian Cancer Centre in Moscow, Oxford University in the UK and the World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer, in France, tracked about 151,000 adult men in the Russian cities of Barnaul, Byisk and Tomsk from 1999 to 2010.
The study asked 151,000 people how much vodka they drank, then followed them for up to a decade, during which 8,000 died.
The study shows that Russian men who drink three or more bottles of vodka a week are 35% more likely to go to an early grave than those who consume less than one.
"Russian death rates have fluctuated wildly over the past 30 years as alcohol restrictions and social stability varied under Presidents Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin, and the main thing driving these wild fluctuations in death was vodka. This has been shown in retrospective studies, and now we've confirmed it in a big, reliable prospective study", said co-author professor Sir Richard Peto from the University of Oxford.
Under Mikhail Gorbachev's 1985 alcohol restrictions, alcohol consumption fell rapidly by around 25% and so did the death rates.
When communism collapsed, alcohol consumption went up steeply and so did the death rates. More recently, since the 2006 Russian alcohol policy reforms, the consumption of spirits has fallen by about a third and so has the risk of death before age 55.
The excess mortality among heavy drinkers was mainly from alcohol poisoning, accidents, violence, suicide, and eight particular categories of disease (throat cancer, liver cancer, tuberculosis, pneumonia, pancreatitis, liver disease, a particular type of heart disease, and ill-specified medical conditions).
Study leader Professor David Zaridze from the Russian Cancer Research Centre in Moscow concludes, "The significant decline in Russian mortality rates following the introduction of moderate alcohol controls in 2006 demonstrates the reversibility of the health crisis from hazardous drinking. People who drink spirits in hazardous ways greatly reduce their risk of premature death as soon as they stop."
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