The 266 most important days of your life…
are already over. They were the nine months spent in utero, and scientists are increasingly discovering they have a significant impact on your future health.
As well as longevity, the likelihood of developing heart disease, cancer, asthma, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, obesity, depression and schizophrenia can all be influenced by what happens during those nine months. And there’s more: fertility, family size, soccer ability, navigational skills, personality and even the likely lifetime number of sexual partners may all have some links to events in utero.
For example:
American researchers have found a link between depression and prenatal exposure to influenza. The researchers from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, who have already noticed an increase in schizophrenia in those exposed during the second trimester to the 1957 influenza epidemic, have found a similar link between depression and flu. They found that those exposed to the flu virus were six times more likely to have a hospital diagnosis of depression than a control group.
Full story here.
[tags]pregnancy, women’s health, health, depression, heart disease, cancer, influenza, obesity, shizophrenia [/tags]