More evidence of stress's harmful effects comes from a pregnancy study.
California researchers found that stress increases the risk that exposure to toxic chemicals in pregnancy will lead to a low birth weight baby.
"It appears that stress may amplify the health effects of toxic chemical exposure, which means that for some people, toxic chemicals become more toxic," said senior author Tracey Woodruff, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco.
Woodruff and colleagues at UC Berkeley reviewed 17 human and 22 animal studies that investigated the links between chemicals, stress and fetal development.
The review found that several toxic chemicals commonly found in the environment had a much greater impact on pregnant women if they had high levels of stress. The researchers measured stress by factors such as socioeconomic levels and years of education.
[For more of this story go to https://consumer.healthday.com...regnancy-724410.html]
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