Dr. Samir V Joshi

Smoking during pregnancy can adversely affect not only your health but that of your unborn too. Kicking this habit can help you to have a safer pregnancy as well as a healthier baby. If not, it can lead to a number of serious pregnancy complications including the death of your baby. According to various findings, smoking during this period can double your prospects of having a baby with low birth weight as well as your chance for stillbirth.

What happens when you smoke while pregnant?

The cigarette smoke is made up of about 4000 chemicals, which includes about 60 cancer causing substances, lead, and cyanide. Of these toxins in cigarette smoke, carbon monoxide and nicotine are the two toxins that make up much of smoking-related pregnancy complication. The toxins go directly to your baby through the bloodstream, the only source of nutrients and oxygen for your offspring. By working in tandem, the nicotine and carbon monoxide toxins bring about a decrease in the supply of oxygen for your baby. While nicotine cuts off oxygen supply by constricting the blood vessels, the red blood cells responsible for carrying oxygen also pick up carbon monoxide molecules and take them directly to your baby.

What effects does it have on your little one?

When you smoke, you put your baby on harm's way and here's what happens to your baby:

1. Smoking when you are pregnant increases your risk of miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy (a pregnancy growing outside the womb)
2. It can cause death of baby in womb (still birth) or shortly after birth
3. It can also cause abnormilities in your baby, such as face defects, such as cleft lip/ cleft palate
4. It can cause bleeding during the last months of pregnancy, which is known as an abruption (when the placenta comes away from the wall of the womb), this could be life threatening for you and your baby or premature birth, when you have your baby before 37 weeks of pregnancy.
5. In terms of weight, it has been revealed that while smoking one pack daily can bring about a 226 gm decrease in the baby's weight, smoking two packs every day can affect your baby's weight by about 453 gm. A stunted growth during this period can negatively affect your child later in life.
6. Due to the negative effects of the toxins, the development of your baby's lung and body gets hampered. It may also make your baby prone to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SID) and asthma.
7. It can also increase your baby's chance of suffering from a heart defect. Research shows that babies whose mothers smoke during the first three months of pregnancy have 20-70% chance of developing congenital heart problems compared to babies whose mothers didn't smoke.
8. Smoking can affect the development of his brain functions and cause him or her to suffer from low IQ, learning disabilities as well as behavioral issues.

Secondhand (passive) smoke also harms your baby if your husband or anyone else who lives with you smokes, their smoke can affect you and the baby both before and after birth. You may also find it more difficult to stop if someone around you smokes. Secondhand smoke can also reduce the baby's birthweight and increase the risk of cot death. Babies whose parents smoke are more likely to be admitted to hospital for bronchitis and pneumonia during their first year. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a Gynaecologist.

How can you eat healthy? This is a question that plagues many of us. The quest for a youthful looking body that is also slim and well-toned is something that we all strive for. On the other side of the spectrum, we also have people who are concerned about too much of weight loss, fatigue and general weakness. So what all can you do to ensure that you indulge in healthy eating for a healthy body and mind? Try these nine tips.

1. Eating the Right Carbohydrates: Choose the right carbs that will help you pile up on energy with the right kind of food. Sugar and flour can cause an overload of carbs in your digestive system, while oats, cereals and complex carbs like whole grains are high in fibre.
2. Lean Protein: Avoid red meat and make a beeline for fish and other lean protein that will give you omega three fatty acids in the process as well. This includes fish and chicken.
3. Good Fats: There are four major types of dietary fat found in food from plants and animals - Good Fats(monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats including omega-3s), Bad Fats(trans fats), and Saturated Fats. Good fats can improve blood cholesterol levels, lower your risk of heart disease, and benefit insulin levels and blood sugar. Omega-3 fats are particularly beneficial for your brain and mood. The best sources are fish, nuts, and seeds.
4. Superfoods: Berries and all their variants have come to be known as super foods. These are rich in anti-oxidants which can encourage better brain health. This includes blueberries, cranberries and even salmon and seaweed, used in Oriental cooking.
5. Salt Intake: Limit your salt intake but do not cut it out entirely. Ensure that you take NO MORE THAN A TEASPOON OF SALT A DAY. Try to avoid packaged food as it is high in salt content.
6. Water: Stock up on water so that you get plenty of hydration and avoid needless snacking. Avoid sugary drinks and too much of caffeine.
7. Count the calories you need: Do not simply needlessly cut down on calories, but rather calculate the number of calories you need to function on a normal basis. Then, build a diet chart around this and avoid empty calories like excessive sugary food.
8. Breakfast: This is the most important meal of the day which also fuels you into action and can potentially stop you from snacking and overeating.
9. Slow: Eat slowly and have small and frequently meals for healthy eating.

Try these healthy eating tips to change your mind set towards food and nutrition. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a dietitian-nutritionist and ask a free question.

Blockage in heart is a common term used for narrowing of coronary arteries. Coronary arteries are vessels, which supply blood and thus oxygen and food to continuously working heart muscles. Heart muscles, which are not tired working from the birth till death, however, cannot sustain long without blood supply.

A reduction in blood supply gives rise to ischemia of heart muscles commonly manifested as chest discomfort or angina. A sudden complete shutdown of blood supply leads to heart attack leading to permanent damage to heart (if blood flow not reestablished promptly).

But what causes these arteries to block? Deposition of LDL cholesterol (low density cholesterol) in inner surface of coronary arteries is the primary reason of these blockages. LDL a normal component of blood (upto certain limit) starts depositing in arteries as early as 10 years of age!

Deposition of billions of LDL molecules over several years on inner surface of arteries gives rise to visible narrowings in these arteries. Flow ahead of these narrowings is reduced in proportion to the narrowing. At a level of 70 % narrowing the flow is reduced to give ischemia (and angina) during exercise. Gradually increasing degree of narrowing reduces the exercise needed for ischemia and angina; a narrowing of more than 90 % can give symptoms at rest. A sudden clot formation at any of these stages can block the flow suddenly giving a heart attack.

If LDL is a normal component of blood, why it is deposited in the arteries at first place?
LDL above a certain limit in blood starts depositing in the arteries. Diabetes, Hypertension, smoking, less exercise and genetics makes it more sticky thus making narrowing faster. This is why these risk elements need to be properly attended for prevention from heart disease. For treatment medicines are important for stopping the progression of narrowings; angioplasty is a method of fast resolution of blockage; and bypass surgery is the method of creating a whole new blood supply for the affected part of the heart.