If you’re pregnant, you already know that you shouldn’t smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, or take most drugs, legal or not. The list goes on and trying to keep track of it can be mind boggling. For most of us, the top three items on this list are obvious and people around you in public will glare at you if you break one of these cardinal rules, I’ve seen it happen. Research has found yet another reason that
smoking cigarettes during pregnancy is bad for the baby. It reduces birth weights and when children are around second hand cigarette smoke they tend to develop asthma and more allergies. New research has found that it may also be a major cause of lower HDL or “good cholesterol” in children of smoking moms.
The study, published by the European Heart Journal, showed that children who were 8 years old and whose mothers smoked while they were pregnant had a 0.15 mmol/L lower level of HDL cholesterol. This may not sound like much, but it translates into a 10-15% increased risk for coronary disease. The children were also heavier, had higher triglyceride levels, higher systolic blood pressure levels and higher C-Reactive protein levels. This was independent of whether the mothers continued to smoke after the children were born. If you smoked during pregnancy you should have your child tested for their cholesterol lipid levels and make changes to their diets immediately. The sooner you act to balance out your smoking, the better for your child. And if you’re pregnant now, it is absolutely time to quit. If you can’t quit for yourself, quit for your baby. They don’t deserve a lifetime of coronary disease because you couldn’t stay away from cigarettes!
Written by www.labtestingnow.com
