Contents:
- Medical Video: Growing Healthy Babies - Stanford Children's Health
- Relationship to sugar consumption with asthma
- Pregnant women should avoid consuming too much sugar
Medical Video: Growing Healthy Babies - Stanford Children's Health
Asthma is an airway disorder characterized by inflammation and narrowing of the airway. As a result, sufferers will experience shortness or difficulty breathing, which can be accompanied by symptoms such as coughing, tightness, or wheezing. This disease can be triggered by several things such as allergic substances, even sports and physical activity.
Asthma can affect various age groups from adults to children. It is estimated that as many as 18.4 million adults in America suffer from asthma, while the number of children suffering from asthma is estimated at 6.2 million in America alone.
Asthma can be caused by various things. But recent research has linked the relationship between sugar consumption in pregnant women and the risk of the fetus it contains from asthma.
Relationship to sugar consumption with asthma
Consumption of sugar added to food and beverages, and sugars that are naturally present in honey, syrup and fruits, can trigger asthma and allergies. Research shows that as many as 38% of people with asthma are higher in those who consume large amounts of sugar during pregnancy, than those who don't.
What is meant by excessive sugar consumption in this case is the consumption of sugar equivalent to more than 5 teaspoons per day or 2 cans of fizzy drinks.
Researchers are still unable to ascertain the reasons behind these findings. But the researchers estimate that this relationship occurs because the high sugar consumption in pregnant women causes a prolonged allergic immune response, which results in inflammation of the developing lung of the fetus. But sugar consumption in children does not have a relationship to the emergence of allergies and asthma in these children.
Until now, the exact cause of diseases such as allergies and asthma still cannot be determined with certainty, because asthma and allergies are complex diseases and are associated with various factors such as genetic factors and environmental factors such as food, bacteria and pollution. So researchers until now are still doing various studies to connect the related factors to trigger asthma.
Pregnant women should avoid consuming too much sugar
From the results of the study, researchers concluded that pregnant women should avoid consuming too much sugar during pregnancy, because in addition to avoiding the occurrence of asthma in the fetus, it also helps to prevent obesity and avoid other labor disorders in mothers who will give birth.
In addition, irregular eating patterns in pregnant women can also increase the risk of developing gestational diabetes, which is a form of diabetes that occurs more often in pregnant women who are overweight or obese. This can cause the baby to grow in the womb too large, making it difficult for labor, or preeclampsia can occur.
Babies born to mothers with gestational diabetes also tend to have more respiratory problems and low glucose levels.
