Proof that High Blood Pressure Can Affect a Person All the Way From the Womb to the Later Years of Life.
Last week on October 3, 2012, the American Academy of Neurology published the results of a study that looked at the records of 398 men and their mothers’ blood pressure during their pregnancies.
The testing included math reasoning, language, visual and spatial skills.
Not only were IQ scores affected by the mother's high blood pressure when the men were young, but over the years the scores declined more than the men whose mothers did not have high blood pressure.
Why does blood pressure matter so much during pregnancy?
The baby is receiving his or her nutrients and oxygen from the blood of the mother. By the third week of the pregnancy, the rain and the beginning of the nervous system are already starting to form and it just takes off from there with major cell division and growth daily!
While brain development requires certain nutrition, especially folic acid, another very vital ingredient is oxygen.
And that’s where blood pressure comes into play. Without enough oxygen, problems such as schizophrenia and other brain disorders can occur. If the blood that’s hopefully full of oxygen and nutrients is having a hard time getting through the arteries, future child development problems could be forming right under the mother’s nose (well, maybe a little farther down!)
Guess how you can tell if that’s happening? You guessed it – knowing your blood pressure and making sure it’s where it should be!
Coincidentally, the American Heart Association’s journal “Hypertension” put out a report recently that said 5% of pregnant women are taking prescription medicine for high blood pressure, although it is closer to 10% of pregnant women that have high blood pressure.
The medicine that is prescribed which includes Ace inhibitors and angiotensin blockers have been shown to have harmful side effects during pregnancy.
Scary stuff!
What’s the moral of the story here? If you are pregnant, know your blood pressure numbers. If you do have issues, be it low blood pressure or high blood pressure, learn what you can do to bring the blood pressure into the safe range.
There are lots of natural ways to bring blood pressure down; just make sure you are keeping in touch with your doctor and letting him know what it is you are doing. Check out my e-book How to Lower Blood Pressure Fast! Control the Silent Killer with Natural High Blood Pressure Remedies for some easy and safe actions you can take to help get and keep your blood pressure at a healthy level.