From Stress to Salbutimol - In One Simple Step
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
So I was reading CBC News today (gotta keep up with the homeland), and I saw this:
"Children whose mothers are chronically stressed in the early years of their life are much more likely to develop asthma, suggests new Canadian research. [...] Researchers believe that an increase in women's stress levels overall plays a key part in the onset of asthma. 'Growth in chronic stress of women has paralleled the rising prevalence in asthma in the Western world,' reads the study. 'Stress is well-known precipitant for asthma exacerbations in children.'"
(http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/01/15/asthma-moms.html)
At first I actually thought I had misread it - a mother's stress actually causing a chronic condition in her child? Hello blame the mother!
But it looks like they're for true. And it sounds as though this isn't the only study out there that has come to this conclusion.
Which got me to thinking. The Boy's asthma didn't really come as a surprise to us (well, it did, but in hindsight, it shouldn't have) - with his family history, he was certainly predisposed. And if his father and other relatives had asthma back in the day, then it was almost impossible that The Boy could have avoided it in our current-day of who-knows-what-is-doing-it-but-suddenly-everyone's-got-it.
Still.
I can't help but be struck by the fact that The Boy's asthma showed up during a particularly stressful time in my life. And that he had just started daycare (which points squarely towards the lack of bonding with the mother the study suggests is one culprit for the heightened risk).
I'm certainly not going to beat myself up as though I was somehow the reason we ended up in the emergency room that day, but it does get me thinking about how emotional well-being links to physical well-being - even so far as to the health of others around me.
And with that, off to bed. Wouldn't do to get tired and then stressed and then make The Boy's current cold worse than it is.
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4 comments:
A similar news item on the same study in today's Free Press included the fact that stressed mothers are also more likely to smoke (which you didn't) and less likely to breastfeed (which you did). So, you did all the correct things. Even before The Boy had breathing issues there was the eczema, pointing to a strong likelihood of inheriting asthma too. But, since the study was done at U of M, it must be true, eh? :)
I also heard about a study in which they found that children of asthmatic mothers were more likely to develop asthma if they were breastfed. Insanity. Basically yer damned if you do and yer damned if you don't. I try to ignore the studies and do what I think is best - and more often than not, second guessing myself in the process. Sigh.
True enough. And perhaps it's not stress, per se, but the often-accompanying factors (like smoking and breastfeeding - or lack thereof).
Kinda like this magic rock I have - it keeps away tigers.
(But there's no such thing as a rock that keeps away tigers, you protest.)
Do you see any tigers around here?
I favor the magic rock explanation... after all, the mother's stress usually isn't coming out of thin air, and those factors (and the byproducts of stress as well) seem like they'd be the more likely culprits. Beyond that, I suppose there might be something in how the parents (okay, the study says moms, but a stressed dad wouldn't have effect either? Don't get me started there!) react to the stress & display it to the kid as well... but that's rather hard to quantify in a study.
Careful, don't get stressed about getting stressed! :)
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