Foul air may affect foetal heart development

Pregnant mothers exposed to particulate matters may experience damage to the developing cardiovascular system in their foetuses, finds a study. Exposures to these microscopic materials early in the gestation period significantly impact foetal heart development, especially the main artery and the umbilical vein. 

A single exposure during the third trimester could restrict maternal and foetal blood flow, resulting in further consequences throughout the child's adulthood, the study said. Late exposures mostly impact the foetal size as it restricts blood flow from the mother and deprives the foetus of nutrients in the final stages.

"Pregnant women should also consider monitoring their indoor air quality," said a researcher. What a mother inhales affects her circulatory system, which is constantly adapting to supply adequate blood flow to the fetus as it grows.

"These findings suggest that pregnant women, women of child-bearing age and those undergoing fertility treatments should avoid areas with high air pollution or stay indoors on high-smog days," said the author. Air pollution exposure constricts blood vessels, restricts blood flow to the uterus and deprives the foetus of oxygen and nutrients, resulting in delayed growth and development.

It can also lead to common pregnancy complications, such as intrauterine growth restriction, he explained. The study, looked at how the circulatory systems of pregnant rats' fetuses on a single exposure to nanosized titanium dioxide aerosols -- a surrogate for particles found in typical air pollution -- during their first, second and third trimesters.

The results were compared to pregnant rats that were exposed to high-efficiency filtered air. In non-pregnant animals, even a single exposure to these nanoparticles was linked to impaired function of the arteries in the uterus.

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People living in India experience the health problems associated with ageing at an early stage than those living in Japan or Switzerland, according to a first-of-its-kind study published in The Lancet Public Health. Researchers at the University of Washington in the US and colleagues found that a 30-year gap separates countries with the highest and lowest ages at which people experience the health problems of a 65-year-old.

They found 76-year-olds in Japan and Switzerland, and 46-year ..

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What is a hernia? hernia in women.

A hernia is protrusion of tissue through the wall of a body cavity in which it is normally contained, most often an opening or weakness in the muscular wall of the abdomen.

A general surgeon who trains other doctors in laparoscopic surgery, explained that in men hernias often involve an obvious outward protrusion. In rare instances, such hernias may entrap a piece of the intestine, causing gangrene and even death.

But while women can sometimes develop a similar hernia, they are more likely to have a hidden, internal kind that entraps abdominal fat and compresses nerves, causing intense pain, despite frequent misdiagnoses, the symptoms of a hernia in women are really not typical of more common gynaecological problems.

The patient recalled that  she had experienced “burning, pinching pain shot down into her groin, leg and back. It was worse with exercise, prolonged standing, lifting, bending, coughing, laughing, going up and down stairs, straining at stool, and during her menstrual period”.

In other words, anything that increases abdominal pressure, sometimes even prolonged sitting, can provoke the pain, which occurs randomly throughout the day.

“Women with young children can’t bend over to pick them up. It affects their marriage because sex hurts too much, and it impairs their ability to work,” she said. “The pain can be severe enough to cause a woman to pass out. It can be so extreme that women are given spinal injections and spinal stimulators as well as multiple pain medications and psychiatric drugs.”

Tiny hernias are the worst. “The smaller the hole, the worse the pain. But in examining a woman, even with an MRI, “you don’t see the hole — you only see the hole when something goes through it.” That may require positioning the patient to provoke the symptoms.

An abdominal exam in the standing position sometimes reveals a subtle bulge. But more often these hernias can be neither seen nor felt, and a correct diagnosis relies mainly on a vaginal examination. The pelvic muscles are often tense and tender, and the patient’s pain can be reproduced by pressure on the internal inguinal area.

When a woman’s hernia is diagnosed and surgically corrected — usually by placing mesh over the hole during a laparoscopic procedure — the pain disappears completely. “It’s so easy to fix,”.

Women are also more likely than men to develop umbilical hernias, in the bellybutton, especially if they are overweight, have had multiple pregnancies or endured very long labour when delivering a baby. A patient said that she first noticed that whenever she laughed, she automatically put her hand on her stomach and could feel an odd bulge. Though she did not have much pain at first, one day she experienced “excruciating pain, as if someone had grabbed hold of my insides and was twisting them”. The surgeon she consulted told her that a piece of fatty abdominal tissue was being caught in the weakened umbilical wall and that without an operation it would only get worse.

Umbilical hernias can also entrap intestines and become life-threatening. But umbilical hernias are easier to recognise than internal hernias in women.

“The bellybutton should be perfectly symmetrical,” the doctor said. “If you look carefully, you can see the asymmetry caused by an umbilical hernia, when a little piece of fat pushes out through a small hole.”