Mother drinking alcohol during pregnancy affects her IQ

During pregnancy, even if you drink moderate alcoholic drinks, it will still affect your child's IQ.

According to researchers from Bristol University and Oxford University, women who are pregnant drinking alcoholic beverages can affect fetal IQ.

To reach this conclusion, researchers from the two universities analyzed data from more than 4,000 mothers and their children in the 1990s study (ALSPAC). This conclusion is published in the November 14 issue of PloS ONE.

Currently, the concept of drinking alcohol in pregnancy is very contradictory, some suggest that you should abstain from alcohol completely, while others think that moderate alcohol use is safe. Previous studies have provided conflicting and inconsistent evidence of the effects of moderate alcohol consumption on a child's IQ. The reason may be that it is difficult to separate the effects of moderate drinking from lifestyle factors and other social factors such as smoking, diet, health, age of people and education.

This study, supposedly the first significant study of this type, uses genetic modification to investigate the effects of moderate drinking (

Four genetic variants in alcohol metabolism genes among 4,167 children were linked to low IQ at 8 years of age. The IQ of these children is about 2 points lower than the average for each genetic variation they own.

But this effect is only expressed among the children of moderate drinking women. There was no significant effect in children whose mothers did not drink alcohol during pregnancy. This suggests that exposure to alcohol in the uterus has led to differences in children's IQ. Cases of heavy alcoholism were not included in the study.

When a person drinks alcohol, ethanol is converted to acetaldehyde by a group of enzymes. Variations in genes "coding" these enzymes lead to differences in their ability to metabolize ethanol. In "slow metabolism" , the highest alcohol levels may be higher and last longer in "fast metabolism".

It is believed that ethanol's "fast" metabolism protects against abnormal brain development in babies because less alcohol is transferred to the fetus, although the exact mechanism is still unclear. .

Previous studies have relied on observational evidence, but this is the problem. Observational studies often find that moderate intake is beneficial compared to not drinking, but this is because mothers who drink moderately during pregnancy are usually well educated, have a diet Good drinking and non-smoking - all factors are associated with higher IQ in children, and conceal any negative effects that alcohol can cause.

Speaking of the results, the report's lead author, Dr. Sarah Lewis, said: "Our results show that even at the level of alcohol consumption that is normally considered harmless, we have can detect differences in childhood IQ, depending on the ability of the fetus to eliminate alcohol.This is proof that even in moderate levels, alcohol affects the fetal brain development. pediatric ".

Dr. Ron Gray from Oxford University, the head of the study added: "This is a complex study, but the message is simple: even moderate amounts of alcohol during pregnancy can affect the Children's intelligence in the future So it is best for pregnant women not to drink alcohol ".