Research Summary Archives

Attempts to determine the cause(s) of the increased prevalence of allergic diseases in Western countries have led to the investigation of how dietary fatty acids and other factors might affect the susceptibility to and severity of allergic diseases, especially in infants and children. In recent deca...

Is breastfeeding linked to the development of infant and childhood allergies? The Canadian Early Childhood Development study reported that infants who were breastfed for more than 3 months were significantly less likely to develop asthma during the preschool years. This study also observed that whee...

The importance of long-chain PUFAs, especially arachidonic and docosahexaenoic acids, in fetal and infant development is now well recognized, yet the consumption of fish and seafoods, the primary food source of the omega-3 long-chain PUFAs (n-3 LC-PUFAs), is clouded by concerns about the development...

Preeclampsia, a condition of hypertension and proteinuria that may develop late in pregnancy, and gestational diabetes mellitus are two of the most common medical complications of pregnancy. Women with hypertension prior to pregnancy are more likely to develop preeclampsia, which then increases the ...

Preterm infants, who have very little body fat, are especially dependent on postnatal feeding for their nutrition needs. Because the transfer of LC-PUFAs from the placenta, which is most rapid in the third trimester, has been interrupted, these infants must obtain their LC-PUFAs from breast milk or ...

Although the need for sufficient long-chain PUFAs to meet the postnatal developmental needs of pre- and term infants is well recognized, trials aimed at demonstrating the neurodevelopmental benefits of providing infants with abundant LC-PUFAs are inconclusive. For example, preterm infants fed 1% DHA...

Two of the most common medical complications of pregnancy are preeclampsia and gestational diabetes. Preeclampsia is a condition of high blood pressure and protein in the urine in women without a history of high blood pressure that may develop after the 20th week of pregnancy. It is more common in w...

Preterm infants are at risk for medical complications, poorer developmental outcomes and nutrient shortages for several reasons. One is their early birth deprives them of the transfer of long-chain fatty acids from the mother that occurs mainly in the last trimester. Another is that their lack of bo...

Many studies of infant development have reported improved visual, cognitive and neurodevelopmental scores in infants with higher consumption of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Improvements have been easier to demonstrate in preterm infants compared with term infants because of the nu...

The benefits of fish consumption during pregnancy, which provides nutrients and long-chain omega-3 PUFAs (n-3 LC-PUFAs), consistently outweigh the potentially harmful effects related to the exposure of environmental contaminants, particularly methylmercury, in fish and shellfish. Not all women and h...

One of the more pressing questions about perinatal depressive symptoms is why some women develop the condition and others do not. A history of depressive illness, high levels of stress and adverse socioeconomic conditions increase the risk of a woman’s developing depressive symptoms, but other facto...

The World Health Organization estimates that perinatal depressive disorders affect between 10% and 40% of women worldwide. In low- and middle-income countries, the average prevalence of common perinatal mental disorders was estimated at 15.9%. Rates in developed countries tend to be lower, ranging f...