A new study has found that blood pressure control in infants of smoking mothers is abnormal compared to that of infants from non-smoking parents.
Infants not exposed to tobacco experienced only a 2% increase in blood pressure when they were tilted upright at one week of age & later a 10% increase in blood pressure at one year. Infants of smoking mothers had the reverse, a 10% increase in blood pressure during a tilt at one week & only a 4% increase at one year. At three months & one year, the heart rate response to tilting in the tobacco-exposed infants was abnormal & highly exaggerated, researchers reported.
“Babies of smokers 've evidence of persistent problems in blood pressure regulation that start at birth & get worse over time,” said Gary Cohen, Ph.D., lead author of the study & senior research scientist in the Department of Women & Child Health at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. “This study reveals for the first time that early life exposure to tobacco can lead to long-lasting reprogramming of infant blood pressure control mechanisms.”
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