Moderate Alcohol Consumption During Pregnancy May Cause Thyroid Problems in Children
Wednesday June 10, 2009
According to information just released at an Endocrine Society press conference, moderate alcohol consumption during pregnancy is a risk factor for thyroid problems in children -- including suppression of the thyroid gland. Given that some 12% of American women reportedly continue to drink alcohol when pregnant, the researchers suggested that there is the potential that levothyroxine (T4) treatment in a pregnant woman who drinks may be able to offset some of the risks of fetal alcohol exposure for her child. Source: ENDO 09 News Conference, "Ethanol in Utero Alters Imprinting of Iodothyronine Deiodinase III," Presentation by Laura Sittig, June 10, 2009
More on Drinking In Pregnancy
- Drinking Alcohol in Pregnancy is Still a Problem -- May 2009
- Pregnancy - Pregnancy and Drinking Alcohol
- Even Light Drinking While Pregnant Can Be Harmful
- When You Are Pregnant, Drinking Can Hurt Your Baby
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Comments
This is interesting from a European perspective given that Europeans in general regard the U.S. attitude to alcohol to be totally OTT. Alcohol here is regarded as a nornal part of life in moderation so the advice is – no alcohol when TTC or in the first trimester. For women who do normally consume alcohol, this should be limited to 1 – 3 units per week in the secind trimester and a limit of 5 in the third trimester.
I have been a thyroid patient since 1978 and diagnosed with Hashi’s in 1992. Got to 230, insulin resistant, depressed, and flirting with disaster. In 1998 I decided to do whatever it took to get my health and my body back and I did. Today, exactly 11 years later, I am 80lbs lighter, in great health and living proof that it is a convenient myth that you can’t lose weight with Hashi’s. I did and have maintained it (imperfectly I might add, you know those flares) for 11 years.
Dr. Stephanie Rasband
Interesting artical on drinking, as my mother was an alcholic and the majority of my siblings (8 of us total) have a thyroid condition. I now am battling the parathyroid problems. Hopefully I will be able to find more info on this also.
Cara, honestly it doesn’t matter what the European attitude is. There is a reality that is not specific to Europeans, Americans, Cambodians nor South Africans. That reality is that while alcohol might not harm your baby, it absolutely will not help. A child doesn’t need to be visibly disabled in order to have had some aspect of his full potential blunted by a selfish mother who for some reason couldn’t put the bottle down for 9 months. We’re not talking about abstaining from water…. it’s alcohol. It’s insanity that ANY mother would be willing to take that sort of gamble with the future of her unborn child.