For women planning to have kids, low stress is key

High levels of stress may affect fertility and conception, according to a recent study.

Image courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Researchers found that women with high levels of a certain enzyme (alpha-amylase) in their saliva, a so-called “biomarker” of stress, had almost 30% lower odds of getting pregnant than those with low levels of the enzyme.

Also, women with most stress were twice as likely to be infertile as those with less stress. These analyses took into account factors such as smoking, race, education and income.

“While this study certainly does not give a definitive answer regarding causation, it provides further evidence of the independent adverse role that stress might play,” said the researchers.

“Stress reduction modalities, such as yoga, meditation and mindfulness, that have been shown to be helpful in reducing stress in studies of other health outcomes, might be relevant for further consideration,” they added.

The research participants were 400 heterosexual couples. Saliva samples were collected from women at two points in time: when they enrolled in the study, and later when they got their first period post-enrollment. Then their time to pregnancy was calculated using personal journals and fertility monitors. Infertility was defined as failure to get pregnant in 12 months even after following all guidelines from the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.

Active moms have active kids, study says

Physical activity levels in moms and preschool-age children are linked, a new study has found.

Image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Researchers in the UK studied more than 500 mothers and their 4 year olds, and compared their activities for specific time periods, matched to the hour and day, over a maximum of seven days. The time spent sleeping was excluded.

The mothers and children wore Actiheart exercise monitors continuously over the time period of observation, even while sleeping or doing water-based activities, to measure their activity levels. Researchers divided activity levels into three categories – sedentary, light, and moderate-to-vigorous.

They found that daily activity levels of mothers and children were positively and significantly associated at all activity intensities. Each extra minute the mothers spent in daily activities led to 0.18 minutes more sedentary time, 0.14 minutes more light activity and 10% more moderate-to-vigorous activity in kids.

“This suggests mothers and children are active concurrently,” said the researchers. They added that prior research in smaller studies has also shown an association between objectively measured physical activity in mothers and their preschoolers.

However, this association was affected by factors such as the weight of the child and the mother, the mother’s education and working status, and whether the child attended full-time or part-time preschool. The study also did not consider the effect of the father’s or siblings’ physical activity on the child under observation.