Title : Pregnancy inside Stone Age - Can We Learn Something?
The woman who became pregnant during the Stone Age faced huge risks compared with today's mother-to-be. There was no way to control bleeding or infection; Caesarean section was not an option. which we survived as a species seems remarkable - until you dig a little deeper.
The outcome of pregnancy depends on the underlying health of the mother, nutrition before in addition to during pregnancy in addition to the threat of infection. In all those areas the woman of 50,000 years ago was better off than her counterpart today. How can be which possible in an age when there was no plumbing, no medical care in addition to no protection coming from infectious diseases?
Better diet, better pregnancy
The primitive woman's diet was less likely to be deficient in important nutrients than which of today's young girls. (Ref 1) A study coming from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center has confirmed earlier reports which adolescent in addition to adult pregnant women take in too little iron, zinc, folate in addition to vitamin E.
A woman who begins pregnancy without sufficient calcium, vitamin D in addition to additional bone-building nutrients increases her risk of developing osteoporosis in middle age. however which's not the end of the story. Her infant may also be at greater risk of fracture inside future. Osteoporosis of middle age can be at least partly programmed before birth, especially if the mother smokes in addition to has little physical activity. (Ref 2, 3, 4)
Most laypersons believe which Stone Agers were hearty meat-eaters. Anthropologists know which can be not so. They lived on a predominantly meat diet for only about 100,000 years, coming from the time which Homo sapiens developed keen hunting skills until the advent of farming. Before which time meat came coming from carrion in addition to smaller game. The bulk of their calories came coming from vegetables, fruit, roots in addition to nuts.
Plant foods contain everything which a pregnant woman needs, including vitamins, antioxidants, protein in addition to minerals. Modern vegetarians often become deficient in vitamin B12 however smaller game, birds' eggs in addition to the deliberate or accidental inclusion of insects inside Stone Age diet provided more than enough of which critical nutrient.
Folic acid deficiency in early pregnancy leads to defective formation of the infant's brain in addition to spinal cord. Those abnormalities are much less likely among the babies of mothers who receive an adequate amount of folate, at least 400 micrograms per day. So few women eat enough green leafy vegetables to boost their folate levels, the US government requires which manufacturers of baked goods add the idea to their products.
Obstetricians have been prescribing multivitamins for their pregnant patients for decades however the idea can be only in recent years which studies confirmed the wisdom of which practice. In 2002 the American Medical Association reversed a position of long standing in addition to recommended which everyone, with no exceptions, needs a multivitamin / multimineral preparation every day in order to avoid subtle however health-damaging inadequacies of these nutrients. Taking a multivitamin reduces the risk of congenital defects of the newborn, especially those which involve the heart. Preeclampsia can be a serious, sometimes fatal complication of pregnancy. Women whose intake of vitamins C in addition to E can be low have a threefold greater risk of which condition. (Ref. 5, 6)
would likely these mostly vegetarian early Stone Agers have become iron-deficient? Not likely. Their diet was rich in iron as well as in Vitamin C which facilitates iron absorption. Under those conditions iron deficiency would likely have been rare. Cereal grains interfere with iron absorption, which explains why iron-deficiency can be common in societies which subsist primarily on grains. However, one of the main reasons why Stone Age women were unlikely to be iron deficient can be which they did not have nearly as many menstrual cycles as modern women do.
In a primitive society the onset of menses can be about 5 years later than which of American young women. Modern hunter-gatherers, like the oldest Stone Agers, are either pregnant or nursing during most of their childbearing years in addition to they only menstruate a few times between weaning one child in addition to conceiving another. In those groups breastfeeding does suppress ovulation because the idea can be literally on demand, ie, every few minutes, even throughout the night. For a modern breastfeeding mother, on demand often means no more frequently than every couple of hours in addition to perhaps once or twice a night after the third or fourth month. Thus menses return in spite of nursing in addition to monthly blood loss continues.
The fish-brain connection
Beginning about 150,000 years ago our ancestors discovered seafood. The increased intake of fatty acids in fish in addition to shellfish initiated the great advance in brain size in addition to complexity which allowed humans to progress more quickly inside next 100,000 years than they had inside preceding million. Enormous gains in toolmaking in addition to the development of language in addition to group communication followed.
The human brain can be composed mostly of water however the solid portion can be mostly fat. The Centeng can not manufacture the omega-3 in addition to omega-6 fats which make up so much of the structure of the brain in addition to eye so we need them in our diet. Maternal deficiency of these nutrients, especially omega-3s, prevents the newborn brain in addition to eyes coming from reaching their full potential. The best source of omega-3 fats can be fish; nuts in addition to leafy green vegetables are also not bad sources.
Omega-3 in addition to omega-6 fatty acids are found in every cell of the Centeng. They allow efficient flow of nutrients, regulate nerve impulses in addition to keep inflammation inside right balance. In a proper diet there can be an equal amount of omega-3 in addition to omega-6 fats. which allows the immune system to fight infection, a real threat which humans faced coming from the Stone Age until the age of antibiotics, a mere 70 years ago.
The advantage to the baby of a diet which can be rich in omega-3 fats can be obvious however mothers need the idea, too. Nature protects the unborn infant by tapping into the mother's stores of omega-3 fats. A woman whose intake of omega-3 fatty acids can be low during the months in addition to years preceding pregnancy will develop a deficiency of her own. This specific becomes worse with succeeding pregnancies if her intake of omega-3s remains low. Postpartum depression affects about 10 percent of women following delivery in addition to the idea can be associated using a deficiency of omega-3 fats. (Ref 7, 8)
The newest epidemic
There can be one complication of pregnancy which never occurred inside Stone Age: type 2 diabetes. No disease in modern times has risen so fast. the idea has increased several-fold since the 1950s; between 1990 in addition to 2001 the idea rose by 61 percent. Gestational diabetics (Ref. 9) are those who do not yet develop the full-blown disease however they can not process blood sugar (glucose) properly during pregnancy. About half of them will develop frank diabetes inside years following delivery of their infant.
Most of us know type 2 diabetes, which was once referred to as adult-onset diabetes, as the disease which our grandparents developed in their later years. the idea's no longer uncommon to find the idea in adolescents, even in grade-schoolers. As the idea has dipped into the younger generation the idea has alarmed - however not surprised - physicians to find which the idea can be no longer a rarity in obstetric practice.
How can we be so certain which the pregnant Stone Ager did not have diabetes? This specific can be a lifestyle disease which has three major associations: a low level of physical activity, a diet which can be high in refined grains in addition to sugars, in addition to obesity. Those conditions simply did not occur during the Stone Age. Their lifestyle demanded strenuous effort. Grains of any sort were not part of their diet because they require tools in addition to controlled heat. Sugar as we know the idea simply did not exist in addition to honey was an occasional lucky find. Obesity would likely have been non-existent, as the idea can be today among the planet's dwindling populations of hunter-gatherers.
Diabetic mothers have more complications of pregnancy than normal women do. Their babies are 5 times as likely to die in addition to are 3 times as likely to be born with abnormalities of various organs.
They kept germs at bay
Common wisdom states which Stone Age people were an infection-ridden lot however which simply can be not true. They had powerful immune systems because of high levels of physical activity in addition to a remarkably varied diet. Between the protective antibodies which a mother passed across the placenta in addition to those which she conferred on her newborn via breastmilk, Stone Age babies had more protection against the germs of the day than modern infants do.
Sexually transmitted diseases do not spread very far or very fast when people live in smaller isolated bands as they did during the Stone Age. The likelihood which today's pregnant female will have at least one of these infections can be more than 50 percent (Ref. 10). The impact on babies can be severe; some die, some will be brain-damaged.
Choice in addition to consequences
Tobacco, alcohol in addition to illicit drugs have produced a generation of infants with problems which Stone Age babies never faced. Mothers who smoke have infants which are smaller than the norm in addition to whose brain development may be compromised. Alcohol or cocaine use by the mother during pregnancy results in stunted growth, congenital defects in addition to additional severe problems.
Given a choice, none of us would likely want to live in a Stone Age world however we have neutralized the almost miraculous medical advances of the last century. We have allowed our daughters to be less physically active in addition to to subsist on a marginal diet. If we could reverse those two factors alone there would likely be a dramatic decline in prematurity in addition to additional complications of pregnancy.
The lessons which we can learn coming from the Stone Age are not subtle, obscure or beyond our capacity to imitate them. We can produce the healthiest generation ever by doing better choices for our children in addition to for ourselves.
J. Goscienski philip, MD can be the author of Health Secrets Secrets of the Stone the Age, Better Life Publishers 2005. Contact Send an him away via his web site at Http://www.stoneagedoc.com .
References
1. Giddens JB et al., Pregnant adolescent in addition to adult women have similarly low intakes of selected nutrients, J Am Diet Assoc 2000; 100: 1334-1340
2 Cooper C et al., Review: developmental origins of osteoporotic fracture, Osteoporosis Int 2006; 17 (3): 337-47
3 Prentice A et al., Nutrition in addition to bone growth in addition to development, Proc Nutr Soc 2006 Nov; 65 (4): 348-60
4 Lanham SA et al., Intrauterine programming of bone. Part I: alteration of the osteogenic environment, Osteoporos Int 2008 Feb; 19 (2): 147-56
5 Keen CL et al., The Plausibility of Micronutrient Deficiencies Being a Significant Contributing Factor to the Occurrence of Pregnancy Complications, Am Soc Nutr Sciences J Nutr 2003 May; 133: 1597S-1605S
6 Bodnar LM et al., Periconceptional multivitamin use reduces the risk of preeclampsia, Am J Epidemiol 2006 Sep 1; 164 (5): 470-7
7 Freeman MP, Omega-3 fatty acids in addition to perinatal depression: a review of the literature in addition to recommendations for future research, Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids 2006 Oct-Nov; 75 (4-5): 291-7
8 Kendall-Tackett K, A completely new paradigm for depression in completely new mothers: the central role of inflammation in addition to how breastfeeding in addition to anti-inflammatory treatments protect maternal mental health, Int Breastfeed J 2007; 2: 6
9 Greene MF in addition to Solomon CG, Gestational Diabetes Mellitus - Time to Treat, N Engl J Med 2005 June 16; 352 (24): 2544-46
10 Baseman JG in addition to Koutsky LA, The epidemiology of human papillomavirus infections, J Clin Virol 2005 Mar; 32 Supple 1: S16-24
Pregnancy inside Stone Age - Can We Learn Something?
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