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

Smoking during pregnancy associated with artery damage in children

"Children of mothers who smoked during pregnancy had more damage to their arteries in young adulthood than offspring of non-smokers and the association was even stronger if both parents smoked, researchers reported in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology: Journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers from The Netherlands found children of mothers who smoked during pregnancy had linings of carotid arteries in the neck that were 13.4 micrometers thicker by young adulthood than offspring whose mothers didn't smoke. The association - which in later life could be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease - was present even after adjustment for known risk factors such as age, gender, body mass index and cholesterol levels." - AHA