Our first nine months are shaping the rest of our life

Scientists can now predict health of a person even before his birth. By calculating all factors that are shaping the baby in the stomach, they can determine who will later be obese, diabetic, prone to heart attacks, cancer and other diseases.

What makes us the way we are? Why are some people predisposed to be tense, obese, or asthma sufferers? How is it that some of us are prone to heart attack, diabetes or high blood pressure?

Type and amount of food you received in the womb, pollutants, drugs and infections to whom you have been exposed during your mother's pregnancy, your mother's health, stress level and state of mind while she was pregnant - all these factors shape you as a baby and continue to influence you for the rest of your life. 

This is a provocative statement of the theory known as fetal origin, whose pioneers say that nine months of pregnancy determine our later life and permanently affect brain development and functioning of organs like heart and liver. They claim that conditions encountered in the womb shape our susceptibility to disease, our appetite and metabolism, our intelligence and temperament. 

In the literature on the subject, which exploded over the past 10 years, you can find references on the fetal origins of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, allergies, asthma, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, mental illness…They are even explaining the causes of diseases associated with older age, arthritis, osteoporosis and dementia.

Most of what pregnant woman encounters in her daily life - the air she breathes, food and drink she consumes, chemicals to which she is exposed, even the emotions she feels – are, in some way, shared with the fetus. The fetus receives all of these influences and makes them a part of its flesh and blood.

Two decades ago, a British physician named David Barker, noticed odd correlations on a map: the poorest regions in England and Wales are the ones with the highest rates of heart disease. After comparing the health of some 15,000 individuals with their birth weight, he revealed an unexpected link between low weight at birth - a common indicator of poor prenatal nutrition - and heart disease in middle age. Faced with inadequate nutrition, concluded Barker, the fetus diverts nutrients to its most important organ, the brain, and skimps on other parts of the body - the debt that is paid later in the form of a weakened heart.

One study that was conducted at Harvard showed that mothers, who gain too much weight during pregnancy, increase the risk that their child will be obese already in its third year. Another study has shown that this relation is present even in adolescence.

During pregnancy, women with high blood sugar levels hinder the development of fetus’s metabolism, and thus create a predisposition to diabetes and obesity. This was determined with a research conducted over Pima Indians in the reservation in Arizona, which have the highest percentage of type 2 diabetes (metabolic disease) in the world. Studies have shown that the cause of this is prenatal experience, or, to be exact, high blood sugar levels in mothers during pregnancy.

Frederica P. Perera, Director of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health, became interested in the effects of polluted air on the fetus some 30 years ago. Perera’s research was associated with exposure to polluted air during pregnancy, something that affects the number of adverse birth outcomes, including premature birth, low birth weight and heart disorders. One of her most memorable studies was the one from 1998, when more than 500 pregnant women, from Upper Manhattan and South Bronx, wore identical black backpacks at all time, for two days. Inside each backpack was a device that was constantly monitoring air pollution levels. When babies were born, blood analysis from the umbilical cord showed that 40 percent of them had subtle DNA damages, and this is associated with increased risk of cancer. Further analysis revealed that these children were more than two times slower in learning at the age of 3, had less points when they enrolled in school at the age of 5, and less points on IQ tests than children who were exposed to less polluted air when they were in the womb.

During similar researches, scientists came to believe that the conditions in the womb affect not only our physical health, but also the intelligence, temperament, even sanity.

The evidences show that pregnant women, who are exposed to starvation or extreme stress, deliver children with higher risk of schizophrenia. In the mid-20th century, inhabitants of the province of Anhui in China suffered from a severe starvation. Individuals who were born to women who suffered from hunger had two times more chances to suffer from schizophrenia than those who were born in another period.

Catherine Monk, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, says that mental state of pregnant women may shape the psyche of a child. In fact, Monk and her colleagues have, in a way, "put the fetus on the couch". In her laboratory, they attached devices, that are measure breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, excitement, and heart rate of fetuses, to depressed and anxious pregnant women on one side and pregnant women with normal mood on the other side. Then they subjected these women to mental exercises. All women showed signs of physiological stress when they were answering on the questions during this test, but only fetuses of depressed and distressed women displayed their own disturbances. “This difference suggests that these fetuses are more sensitive to stress. This kind of research takes us back to the original question, when did we became what we are now” - says Monk.

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It's nothing wrong with you!

Heart palpitations, skin changes, trembling hands... Many symptoms can simulate a serious disease, but they are actually harmless. 

Our bodies have an incredible capacity to scare us. Because of a single twitch you can easily think that you have multiple sclerosis, and for a minor change on your skin that you have cancer. You can spend days studying those symptoms on the internet. But now you can finally step away from the keyboard. Most bumps on the skin and body changes are actually harmless.

Skin changes

Skin changes, in the form of small thickening which is in some parts darker, is usually developing in areas where skin rubs on skin or clothing, as well as in the armpits, neck, under breasts, even on the eyelids. It is not entirely clear why some people are more prone to these skin changes. The good news is that these spots on the skin are virtually never cancerous and can be easily removed with a help of dermatologist.

Consult your doctor if these spots on the body do not quickly disappear, become rough, or darker and redder than the skin. It could be wart, keratoses (benign tumor of the skin) or even skin cancer.

Redness

These small, round, red spots and bumps on the skin (if you have problematic complexion and you’re over forty, they can be more frequent) are likely surface blood vessels that are not absorbed into the skin. The body naturally produces new blood vessels and replaces the old ones. But, with years, our body produces more blood vessels than can be absorbed, and then these little red dots appear. 

Consult your doctor if you want to remove them (a dermatologist can do it with laser treatment). But if you find a place where they are asymmetric, or if the dots are changing size, shape or color, begin to itch or bleed, or look completely different from any other place on your body, consult a dermatologist to make sure that they are not cancerous.

Trembling hands

Trembling hands (especially after 40’s) may be a hereditary thing. It can also be a sign that your blood sugar level is low and that you need a snack with proteins. But, very often, trembling hands are a symptom of stress or anxiety. Trembling hands can be more pronounced if you drink or eat something that contains caffeine, or if you are taking medicines that contain stimulants or certain types of medications for attention disorder or thyroid disease. Trembling usually stops as soon as you eat, or reduces or completely stops after stopping using stimulants.

Consult your doctor if trembling isn’t stopping. He can prescribe you beta blockers, type of medication for blood pressure that can calm your hands by blocking the stress response. Trembling hands may mean that you have Parkinson's disease. Weight loss, increased heart rate and changes in bowel habits are often a signal of an overactive thyroid gland.

“Midges” in the eyes

Within the eyeball is a gel, a substance composed of water, collagen and hyaluronic acid. Occasionally, especially as we age, collagen clumps coagulate and create shadows on the retina, which manifest as dots, distorted lines, or other strange shapes. This can be very irritating, but it is harmless.

Consult your doctor if a light that flashes, blurs or distort your vision, appears in front of your eyes. This could mean that eyeball gel is pressuring the retina.

Eyelid twitching

The cause is stress, fatigue, a lot of time spent in front of computer, excess of caffeine and alcohol. Separately or in combination, these things cause muscle twitches in the upper or lower eyelid. These twitches usually stop soon, but if they don’t, try to relax with warm pressings on the lids muscles or with artificial tears (twitches can appear because of the dryness of the eye).

Consult your doctor if you have twitches for several weeks. That may be a sign that your eye area or membrane is irritated. In rare cases, twitches may completely close your eyes or even appear together with twitches in your mouth.

Easy bruising

Some of us are naturally inclined to easily get black and blue marks on our skin, especially if we take aspirin, ibuprofen, or any other medicine. They prevent blood coagulation, which can easily cause bruising. Collagen protects our blood vessels from deterioration and bleeding in the skin, which is resulting with a bruise.

Consult your doctor if unexplained bruises are appearing all at once. This may be an early sign of blood disorders such as leukemia.

Joint crunching

That itself should not be a problem. If you are in the 30's or 40's, the snapping sound is most likely the sound of ligaments and tendons gliding over the joints. Even the "noisy" knees and ankles are commonly the result of cartilage abrasion and soft tissue. If these sounds are boring to you, then stretch regularly.

Consult your doctor if you have redness, swelling, pain and reduced mobility, along with the joints crunch, because it may be a sign of an injury of ligaments or tendons. Osteoarthritis may also be the cause, especially if you have it in a family history, or if you are running often (according to one research, you belong to a group of high risk). If you are over 50, crunch is most likely a sign of osteoarthritis.

Heart palpitations

In most cases, occasional, transient palpitations are just a side effect of medicines: antihistamines, decongestants, antidepressants and medicines for thyroid gland. Heart palpitations can be caused by stress and anxiety, especially if you consume alcohol, cigarettes, or caffeine. Often, it is not so much because of stress, but because of refusing to deal with your stress.

Consult your doctor if you have any unusual cardiac symptoms, including palpitations in an unusual way which you have not previously experienced, especially if it is accompanied by other symptoms such as shortness of breath with exertion.  This may be a sign of heart disease.

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Blue Blood – Alexander Korda

Alexander Korda (1893-1956), renowned British director and producer of Hungarian-Jewish origin, was knighted in 1942 because of his contribution to British cinema.

Shortly after that, Korda, who was a passionate gambler, won $10,000 playing poker with the famous American film producer Samuel Goldwyn. The next day Goldwyn sent a check to Korda, written in red ink, and a letter in which he wrote:

- Bloodsucker, I signed this check with my own blood!

Shortly afterwards, Korda played again poker with Goldwyn. This time the British director lost approximately the same amount of money that he previously won. The next day he sent a check to Goldwyn written with ordinary, blue ink, with a note:

"Bloodsucker, this check is signed in my blood to. Knight Korda.”

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