Caffeine when pregnant may damage heart

A U.S. study in mice shows one dose of caffeine - two cups of coffee - ingested during pregnancy may reduce heart function for the child's lifetime. Senior researcher Scott Rivkees of Yale University in New Haven, Conn., said while the study was done with mice, the biological cause and effect described in the research paper is plausible in humans. "Our studies raise potential concerns about caffeine exposure during very early pregnancy, but further studies are necessary to evaluate caffeine's safety during pregnancy," Rivkees said in a statement. The study, published in the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology journal, found that under both circumstances, mice given caffeine produced embryos with a thinner layer of tissue separating some of the heart's chambers than the group that was not given caffeine - UPI