Guest Author - Krissi Danielsson

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a news roundup, but some interesting research findings have made their way into the press lately. Let’s have a look:

Starting with the most potentially sensitive of the findings, AllHeadlineNews reported with a headline of “Skinny or Underweight Women At Greater Risk Of Miscarriage” that a study to be published in BJOG this coming January has come up with numerous potential risk factors for miscarriage. The most controversial was that past abortions may increase the risk of miscarriages. I’m going to leave that one without much further comment because I have strong feelings on the subject of abortion and don’t want to address the issue in this column, but I do think that it must be stated that with any statistical finding that there can be confounding factors.

Perhaps more interesting was the headline finding that underweight moms may be at higher risk of miscarriages. The cause for this could be nutritional, however, because the article also reported that taking extra nutrients, such as folic acid, reduced the miscarriage risks in this population group.

The same study also found that separating from one’s partner during pregnancy could raise the risk of miscarriage, probably due to factors involving stress. Numerous past studies have found links between stress and miscarriages, although others have found no such link. Stress is not currently well understood as being a factor in miscarriages.

Of course, mitigating this more depressing news was a bright light in the same study, as reported in this press release. Chocolate, of all things, was found to reduce the risk of miscarriages. This was not the first time health benefits have been found for chocolate, however. Previous studies have linked eating dark chocolate to reduction of cardiovascular risks, among other health benefits.