Nicotine, a danger for the infant? According to a recent study published in the newspaper HeartRhyth, the use of nicotine by pregnant women, whether with cigarettes, patches or even e-cigarettes, would be closely associated with sudden infant death syndrome.
VAPE NICOTINEE DURING PREGNANCY, A BAD IDEA?
Smoking during pregnancy is clearly dangerous for the health of the unborn baby, so far no surprise. But recently, a new study also accuses nicotine of carrying risks of sudden infant death syndrome after birth. In this work reported in the journal HeartRhyth, researchers explain that the consumption of nicotine during pregnancy, whether with tobacco, patches or even an e-cigarette poses a risk to the infant.
It would also be the main cause of death during the first year of life. While in utero exposure to tobacco smoke remains the highest risk factor in 85% of cases, researchers now say that nicotine alone is enough to put people at risk.
Tobacco smoke contains over 3 toxic compounds identified to date, but of all these, only nicotine is associated with cardiac arrhythmias in newborns according to this study. To reach this conclusion, the researchers conducted their study conducted on rabbits. This is the first evidence to link fetal exposure to nicotine and long-term changes in babies' heart function. These changes can interfere with the adaptation of babies' cardiac action potential, and prevent awakening during sleep apnea.
« Clinicians Prescribe TNS Often to Pregnant Women Who Want to Stop Smoking to Reduce Sudden Infant Deaths“, Explains the researcher Robert Dumaine, Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, University of Sherbrooke, Canada. " However, our data shows that nicotine alone is enough to change the electrical currents in the heart and cause arrhythmias leading to the baby's death.“, Regrets the researcher.
AN IMPORTANT RISK FOR THE INFANT?
Researchers have a hypothesis on what triggers sudden infant deaths: in the womb, the fetus cannot breathe on its own. When oxygen is reduced, his heart responds by slowing the beating rate and its
metabolism in order to preserve energy. This fetal adaptation is called the “diver's reflex”.
After birth, when a baby has sleep apnea, the brain detects the reduction in oxygen in the blood and triggers the release of adrenaline (epinephrine) to speed up the heart rate. Once the heart rate quickens, in part due to the increased excitability (sodium flow) in the heart, the baby wakes up. But this "resuscitation reflex" seems to be absent in babies exposed to nicotine: in the event of a lack of oxygen, their heart slows down instead of accelerating, as if their postnatal cardiac development had been delayed and that it was still. in the fetal state.
Source : Heartrhythmjournal.com / Pourquoidocteur.fr/
