In-utero exposure to magnetic fields associated with increased risk of obesity in childhood

ScienceDaily (July 27, 2012) — In-utero exposure to relatively high magnetic field levels was associated with a 69 percent increased risk of being obese or overweight during childhood compared to lower in-utero magnetic field levels, according to a Kaiser Permanente study that appears in the current online version of Nature's Scientific Reports.

See Also:Health & MedicineObesityPregnancy and ChildbirthDiet and Weight LossChildren's HealthAsthmaVitamin DReferenceOverweightBody mass indexNutrition and pregnancyBirth weight

Researchers conducted the prospective cohort study, in which participating women in Kaiser Permanente's Northern California region carried a meter measuring magnetic field levels during pregnancy and 733 of their children were followed up to 13 years, to collect clinically recorded information on growth patterns. On average, 33 weight measurements per child were collected.

Researchers noted a dose response relationship with increasing in-utero magnetic field levels being associated with further increased risk of obesity or being overweight. The observed association and supporting evidence provide the first epidemiologic findings that link increasing exposure to environmental magnetic fields, especially in-utero exposure, over the last few decades with the rapid rise in childhood obesity during the corresponding decades, according to the authors.

"Pregnancy is a critical developmental stage that is among the most vulnerable periods to environmental exposures," said De-Kun Li, MD, PhD, a perinatal epidemiologist with the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research in Oakland, Calif., and the lead author of the study. "These findings indicate that electromagnetic fields, from microwave ovens to countless wireless devices, may be contributing to childhood obesity risk. This finding could have implications for possibly reducing childhood obesity and better understanding the obesity epidemic. Like any scientific discoveries, the results need to be replicated by other studies."

After controlling for a child's age at each weight measurement, child gender, maternal age at delivery, pre-pregnancy BMI, race, education level, smoking during pregnancy and breastfeeding, researchers reported a 50 percent increase of participants being obese or overweight for medium in-utero levels (1.5-2.5 mG), and an 84 percent increased risk for high in-utero levels (more than 2.5mG). An mG, or milligauss, represents a unit of magnetic field level or strength as measured using a gaussmeter.

This study follows previous work from Dr. Li (and others) that showed electromagnetic fields may impact pregnancy outcomes and childhood diseases including asthma. Higher EMF levels have also been associated with diabetes in humans, being overweight and high glucose levels in animals, and ADHD in mice offspring, explained Dr. Li.

In the current study, among those children with longer follow-up time (to the end of the study), the observed association was stronger (2.35 times the risk of childhood obesity/overweight for in-utero MF level > 1.5 mG vs. ≤ 1.5 mG). Similarly, if the study only considered those who were persistently obese/overweight through childhood during the follow-up, the association was also much stronger (almost five-fold increased risk of obesity/overweight for in-utero MF level > 1.5 mG vs. < 1.5 mG).

"EMF exposure during pregnancy could impact the fetal development, including endocrine and metabolic systems, predisposing offspring to higher risk of obesity," Dr. Li said. He added that environmental impacts tend to be amplified during fetal development, both in terms of affecting multiple organ systems and having long-lasting changes to physiology, such as to the endocrine systems and hormone receptors.

Researchers examined maternal factors, prenatal factors, childhood factors, outcome measures and other factors that could be confounders. Among 18 factors examined, only family income and childhood habits of eating fruits and vegetables varied among the three maternal MF exposure groups. However, there was not a consistent pattern of MF exposure with family income: women with either low or high family income had lower MF exposure level than women with medium family income. Children eating more fruits and vegetables tended to have a mother who had higher MF exposure during pregnancy. There was no difference among the three MF exposure groups in the average number of weight measurements per child. The proportion of children who remained in the Kaiser Permanente Northern California integrated care delivery system at the end of the study (11 years and older) was almost identical in all three groups. None of the 18 factors examined could explain the observed association.

"Expectant mothers should take this new research into account, but they should not panic," said Ruth Shaber, MD, medical director of the Center for Healthcare Delivery at the Kaiser Permanente Care Management Institute. "We still have a lot more to learn about the impact of the environment on pregnancy and young children."

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Anti-Smoking Ads Have Increased Quit Attempts: CDC

HealthDay – 4 hrs ago THURSDAY, June 21 (HealthDay News) -- National ads featuring people living with the effects of smoking-related diseases may have worked better at prompting smokers to kick the habit than expected, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The "Tips From Former Smokers" ad campaign, which ran from March 19 through June 10, doubled the volume of calls to 1-800-QUIT-NOW, a hotline that links callers to the quit line in their state.

After just 12 weeks, the ads also drove 417,000 more people to smokefree.gov, the federal website designed to help people quit smoking, the CDC reported. The agency pointed out that this was triple the normal traffic to the site.

According to the CDC, the numbers indicate the ad campaign is on track to surpass the goal of getting at least 500,000 people to try to stop smoking.

"These initial results suggest that the campaign will help even more people quit than we had hoped, exceeding our already high expectations," CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden said in an agency news release. "More than two-thirds of all smokers want to quit. People who smoke die sooner and live sicker. This campaign is saving lives and saving money."

Although smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States, the CDC projected the ad campaign will result in about 50,000 smokers quitting successfully, leading to savings of roughly $70 million in medical and productivity costs.

Smoking-related diseases cost Americans $96 billion annually in direct health care costs, according to the news release. The CDC concluded that the $54 million ad campaign is important to counter the $10 billion the tobacco industry spends each year in marketing costs for their products.

More information

The American Cancer Society provides tips on how to quit smoking.

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Calcium supplements linked to significantly increased heart attack risk, study suggests

ScienceDaily (May 23, 2012) — Calcium supplements might increase the risk of having a heart attack, and should be "taken with caution," concludes research published in the online issue of the journal Heart.

See Also:Health & MedicineOsteoporosisWomen's HealthNutritionMind & BrainNutrition ResearchDieting and Weight ControlStrokeReferenceDietary mineralNutrition and pregnancyOily fishHormone replacement therapy

Furthermore, boosting overall calcium intake from dietary sources confers no significant advantage in terms of staving off heart disease and stroke, the findings indicate.

Previous research has linked higher calcium intake with a lowered risk of high blood pressure, obesity, and type 2 diabetes, all of which are risk factors for heart disease and stroke.

And calcium supplements are commonly recommended to elderly people and women who have gone through the menopause to prevent bone thinning.

The authors base their findings on almost 24,000 participants of one of the German arms of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study in Heidelberg.

All the participants were aged between 35 and 64 when they joined the study in 1994-8.

Normal diet for the preceding 12 months was assessed using food frequency questionnaires and they were quizzed about whether they regularly took vitamin or mineral supplements.

Their health was tracked for an average of 11 years, during which time 354 heart attacks, 260 strokes, and 267 associated deaths occurred.

After taking account of factors likely to influence the results, those whose diets included a moderate amount (820 mg daily) of calcium from all sources, including supplements, had a 31% lower risk of having a heart attack than those in the bottom 25% of calcium intake.

But those with an intake of more than 1100 mg daily did not have a significantly lower risk. There was no evidence that any level of calcium intake either protected against or increased the risk of stroke, which backs up the findings of other research, say the authors.

But when the analysis looked at vitamin/mineral supplements, it found that those who took calcium supplements regularly were 86% more likely to have a heart attack than those who didn't use any supplements.

And this risk increased further among those who used only calcium supplements. They were more than twice as likely to have a heart attack as those who didn't take any supplements.

The authors conclude: "This study suggests that increasing calcium intake from diet might not confer significant cardiovascular benefits, while calcium supplements, which might raise

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Increased bodyweight after stopping smoking may be due to changes in insulin secretion

ScienceDaily (May 7, 2012) — Fear of putting on weight is one of the major reasons why smokers do not give up their habit. The reasons for this weight gain are believed to be in part due to metabolic changes in the body, but until now precise details of these changes were not known. On May 8, 2012, however, a researcher from Austria told delegates at the International Congress of Endocrinology/European Congress of Endocrinology that her work had shown that changes in insulin secretion could be related to weight gain after smoking cessation.

See Also:Health & MedicineSmokingDiet and Weight LossDiabetesObesityFitnessHormone DisordersReferenceBlood sugarDiabetes mellitus type 2HyperglycemiaGlycemic index

Dr. Marietta Stadler, from the Hietzing Hospital in Vienna, Austria, enrolled healthy smokers on a smoking cessation programme into a study in which they underwent three-hour oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT) while still smoking and after a minimum of three and six months after giving up. Their body composition was also measured at the same time. The researchers measured beta cell

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