Miscarriage and caffeine
Couples’ pre-pregnancy caffeine consumption linked to miscarriage risk
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Thursday, March 24, 2016
NIH study finds daily multivitamin before and after conception greatly reduces miscarriage risk.
A woman is more likely to miscarry if she and her partner drink more than two caffeinated beverages a day during the weeks leading up to conception, according to a new study from researchers at the National Institutes of Health and Ohio State University, Columbus. Similarly, women who drank more than two daily caffeinated beverages during the first seven weeks of pregnancy were also more likely to miscarry.
“Our findings provide useful information for couples who are planning a pregnancy and who would like to minimize their risk for early pregnancy loss”
—Germaine Buck Louis, Ph.D., Director, Division of Intramural Population Health Research
However, women who took a daily multivitamin before conception and through early pregnancy were less likely to miscarry than women who did not. The study was published online in Fertility and Sterility.
“Our findings provide useful information for couples who are planning a pregnancy and who would like to minimize their risk for early pregnancy loss,” said the study’s first author, Germaine Buck Louis, Ph.D., director of the Division of Intramural Population Health Research at NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
The researchers analyzed data from the Longitudinal Investigation of Fertility and the Environment (LIFE) Study, which was established to examine the relationship between fertility, lifestyle and exposure to environmental chemicals. The LIFE Study enrolled 501 couples from four counties in Michigan and 12 counties in Texas, from 2005 to 2009.
For the current study, researchers compared such lifestyle factors as cigarette use, caffeinated beverage consumption and multivitamin use among 344 couples with a singleton pregnancy from the weeks before they conceived through the seventh week of pregnancy.
The researchers reported their results using a statistical concept known as a hazard ratio, which estimates the chances of a particular health outcome occurring during the study time frame. For example, the researchers evaluated caffeinated beverage consumption in terms of the daily likelihood of pregnancy loss over a given time period. A score greater than 1 indicates an increased risk for pregnancy loss each day following conception, and a score less than 1 indicates a reduced daily risk.
Of the 344 pregnancies, 98 ended in miscarriage, or 28 percent. For the preconception period, miscarriage was associated with female age of 35 or above, for a hazard ratio of 1.96 (nearly twice the miscarriage risk of younger women). The study was not designed to conclusively prove cause and effect. The study authors cited possible explanations for the higher risk, including advanced age of sperm and egg in older couples or cumulative exposure to substances in the environment, which could be expected to increase as people age.
Both male and female consumption of more than two caffeinated beverages a day also was associated with an increased hazard ratio: 1.74 for females and 1.73 for males. Earlier studies, the authors noted, have documented increased pregnancy loss associated with caffeine consumption in early pregnancy. However, those studies could not rule out whether caffeine consumption contributed to pregnancy loss or was a sign of an unhealthy pregnancy. It’s possible, the authors wrote, that these earlier findings could have been the result of a healthy pregnancy, rather than caffeine consumption interfering with pregnancy. For example, the increase in food aversions and vomiting associated with a healthy pregnancy led the women to give up caffeinated beverages.
Because their study found caffeine consumption before pregnancy was associated with a higher risk of miscarriage, it’s more likely that caffeinated beverage consumption during this time directly contributes to pregnancy loss.
“Our findings also indicate that the male partner matters, too,” Dr.
Buck Louis said. “Male preconception consumption of caffeinated beverages was just as strongly associated with pregnancy loss as females’.”
Finally, the researchers saw a reduction in miscarriage risk for women who took a daily multivitamin. During the preconception period, researchers found a hazard ratio of 0.45 — a 55-percent reduction in risk for pregnancy loss. Women who continued to take the vitamins through early pregnancy had a hazard ratio of 0.21, or a risk reduction of 79 percent. The authors cited other studies that found that vitamin B6 and folic acid — included in preconception and pregnancy vitamin formulations — can reduce miscarriage risk. Folic acid supplements are recommended for women of childbearing age, as their use in the weeks leading up to and following conception reduces the risk for having a child with a neural tube defect.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offer information on the steps men and women of reproductive age can take to help ensure they have a healthy baby — whether they are planning pregnancy or not.
About the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD): The NICHD sponsors research on development, before and after birth; maternal, child, and family health; reproductive biology and population issues; and medical rehabilitation. For more information, visit the Institute’s website at http://www.nichd.nih.gov.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
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Study Links Caffeine With Pregnancy Loss
A new study has linked caffeine with miscarriages.
People who drink more than a little caffeine when they’re trying for a pregnancy are more likely to lose that pregnancy early on, the study found. And that goes equally for men or women.
When either men or women drank three or more cups a day of caffeinated drinks before pregnancy — sodas, energy drinks or coffee — the woman was nearly twice as likely to lose that pregnancy early on. And if women consumed more caffeine after they conceived, they were also more likely to miscarry.
It’s one of the most detailed studies yet to look at something that has been noted for a while now — that high caffeine intake seems to be linked with pregnancy loss.
And it’s one of the first to show that what men eat or drink can affect fertility.
“Our findings also indicate that the male partner matters, too."
“There’s something about drinking caffeinated beverages that is associated with pregnancy loss,” said Germaine Buck Louis of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, who led the study.
But women who took multivitamins before they got pregnant and early in pregnancy were 50 percent less likely to miscarry, the study found.
Their findings come out of an intensive study of 344 couples in Texas and Michigan who have agreed to be watched as they try to conceive. They wrote down every caffeinated drink they had, every serving of fish, every alcoholic drink, were weighed regularly, gave urine, blood, saliva and semen samples and the women took regular pregnancy tests.
The idea: to see what might affect a woman’s ability to get pregnant and stay pregnant.
There will be answers later to questions about mercury from fish and chemicals such as pesticides. This study looks at caffeine.
Related: Study Finds Evidence Coffee Can be a Life-Saver
“Our findings provide useful information for couples who are planning a pregnancy and who would like to minimize their risk for early pregnancy loss,” Louis said.
Of the 344 pregnancies, 28 percent of them ended in miscarriage: 98 in total, the team reports int he journal Fertility and Sterility.
Women who were over 35 had twice the risk of an early miscarriage as younger women – that’s long been known.
But drinking three or more caffeinated beverages a day raised the risk of early pregnancy loss by 74 percent. That held whether it was before conception or afterwards.
“Our findings also indicate that the male partner matters, too,” Louis said. “Male preconception consumption of caffeinated beverages was just as strongly associated with pregnancy loss as females’.”
The study did not look for differences among various caffeinated drinks, but lumped coffee and tea together with sodas and energy drinks.
Dr. Zev Williams of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a spokesman for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said an important point to note is that a little caffeine is okay.
"So many studies, including this one, show that one to two cups of caffeine is not harmful," Williams said.
"And what I do end up seeing not infrequently, an effort to really be as thorough as possible, a lot of women will go cold turkey on caffeine.
And what ends up happening is invariably these women will then develop rebound headaches and take medications to treat the headaches. Those medications may be harmful," added Williams, who was not involved int he study.
"So, it’s probably better to just have one to two cups of coffee a day and avoid to having those medications to treat a rebound caffeine withdrawal headache than to go completely cold turkey. “
“We think this is really good news. We know that vitamins protect against a lot of other adverse pregnancy outcomes.”
Louis said there has been a debate about whether caffeine causes miscarriages, or whether women who instinctively stop drinking caffeine early in pregnancy have a healthier pregnancy to start with. Because her study looked at caffeine consumption right before pregnancy, before a woman could develop an aversion to the stuff, it supports the idea that it’s the caffeine itself causing the miscarriage, Louis said.
The good news is that taking a multivitamin really helps.
‘We were really surprised at how strong the reduction in risk was,” Louis said.
“We think this is really good news. We know that vitamins protect against a lot of other adverse pregnancy outcomes.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that women planning to become pregnant take folic acid, a type of B vitamin, and avoid alcohol and tobacco smoke. Not all multivitamins are safe and most doctors recommend a specially formulated prenatal vitamin.
Dr. Rebecca Starck, who chairs the gynecology department at the Cleveland Clinic, said the study cannot show cause and effect.
"Anybody of childbearing age who is contemplating pregnancy should maintain a healthy diet."
"The main message of the study is that it’s important to seek preconception counseling," said Starck, who was not involved in the research.
"Anybody of childbearing age who is contemplating pregnancy should maintain a healthy diet and healthy lifestyle and someone who is going to conceive should be aware of effects of lifestyle on the offspring.
"
Starck noted that miscarriage is common and the study confirmed that: 25 percent to 30 percent of pregnancies end in miscarriage.
The study did not ask people what else they ate or drank besides alcohol and caffeinated beverages. Louis says it will be important to ask people about decaffeinated sodas, for instance. She said the study cannot answer questions about whether people who eat healthier diets — with more fruits and vegetables and less salt and fat — are better able to conceive and keep a pregnancy.
As with all medical and scientific studies, each one builds on the other, and it will take larger studies to answer some of the questions.
Maggie Fox
Maggie Fox is a senior writer for NBC News and TODAY, covering health policy, science, medical treatments and disease.
Felix Gussone, MD and Shelly Choo, MD contributed.
Drinking coffee in early pregnancy provokes miscarriage - Gazeta.Ru
Drinking coffee in early pregnancy provokes miscarriage - Gazeta.
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Daily use of caffeine in early pregnancy provokes a miscarriage
According to scientists from the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland, California, they were able to find evidence of the negative effects of caffeine on the body of a pregnant woman.
According to researchers, women who are in early pregnancy and drink coffee every day increase the chances of miscarriage. In order to protect themselves and the baby, women in the first 3-5 months of pregnancy should generally give up caffeinated drinks, the researchers say.
The debate about whether daily caffeine intake affects the health of pregnant women and the fetus has been going on for a long time. According to a previous study, drinking three cups of coffee or 300 mg of caffeine daily significantly increases the risk of miscarriage. There were scientists who argued that the results of the studies were somewhat distorted: many women with healthy pregnancies avoided drinking coffee because of the morning sickness that often accompanies the first months of pregnancy. However, as shown by a study of American scientists, caffeine intake still adversely affects the health of pregnant women.
During the study, Kaiser Permanente experts monitored the health of 1063 women who continued to drink coffee in the usual amount during pregnancy. Previously, all the ladies filled out special questionnaires in which they indicated the frequency and amount of daily consumption of coffee and other caffeine-containing drinks. The observation of women continued until the 20th week of pregnancy, during this time 264 women (25%) never used caffeine, 635 women (60%) noted that they consumed 0-200 mg of caffeine daily, 164 women (15%) did not deny themselves in pleasure to drink coffee, tea or hot chocolate, thus consuming more than 200 mg of caffeine per day. At the same time, during the observation period, 172 women (16.18% of participants) had a miscarriage.
As noted by study author Dr. Dekun Li, pregnant women who consumed 200 milligrams or more of caffeine daily (2 or more cups of coffee) were twice as likely to miscarry as women who did not consume caffeine. The same women who consumed less than 200 mg of caffeine daily were 40% more likely to have a miscarriage as well.
Doctors believe that miscarriage is caused by caffeine itself, and not by any of the other components in coffee, as research has shown that drinking caffeinated beverages (not necessarily just coffee, but also tea or hot chocolate) leads to an increased risk of miscarriage . Perhaps the adverse effect of caffeine is due to its effect on the development of the fetus, in particular, caffeine that enters the fetus through the placenta is not absorbed by the fetus due to the weakness of the metabolic system. In addition, caffeine can reduce blood flow in the placenta, which also negatively affects the developing baby.
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Coffee can cause miscarriage in pregnant women
During pregnancy, when a new living creature is being formed inside a woman, there are many strict rules to follow. At a minimum, expectant mothers need to get enough sleep, wear as comfortable clothes as possible, avoid heavy physical exertion, and follow a proper diet. Recently it turned out that the diet should be given especially much attention and try to minimize the amount of coffee and tea consumed. According to researchers from the US National Institutes of Health, the abuse of these drinks can lead to a terrible miscarriage.
According to statistics, about 15–20% of pregnancies end in miscarriage. When the women finally got pregnant, each of them filled out a questionnaire that asked them to indicate the amount of coffee they consumed. In addition, the researchers measured their caffeine levels in their blood. Subsequently, they monitored how the drinks they consumed affected the course of pregnancy.
The dangers of coffee for pregnant women
Observations have shown that drinking 200 milligrams of coffee per day, that is, more than two cups, significantly increases the risk of miscarriage. It is noteworthy that in the first eight weeks of pregnancy, women are most vulnerable to caffeinated drinks. But these include not only coffee itself, but also all kinds of energy drinks and even tea. Even if you reduce caffeine intake to a minimum, a child can be born with a lack of weight or with other pathologies.
Caffeine is found not only in coffee, but also in energy drinks and tea.
Scientists still do not know exactly why caffeine has such a bad effect on the unborn child. However, they have a very reasonable assumption that the stimulant properties of coffee and other similar drinks are to blame. Firstly, they increase a person’s blood pressure, and secondly, they increase the heart rate. All this together can provoke a miscarriage.
By the way, we recommend reading our article about the dangers of fast food
What to do before pregnancy?
Based on the above, the researchers recommend that women avoid caffeinated beverages during pregnancy. And it is best to prepare for this long before conception. They should also prepare themselves and their loved ones in advance for the fact that they cannot lift weights. Of course, you should also think about clothes for pregnant women a little earlier than pregnancy.
Interesting: Scientists have found a way to "pause pregnancy"
However, there is a good chance that researchers are exaggerating the dangers of caffeine for pregnant women. The results of the study may be inaccurate because the participants in the study could knowingly give false information and indicate less caffeine intake.
