Learn about Unborn Babies and Usher Syndrome

Learn about Unborn Babies and Usher Syndrome Host: It is the most precious cargo you’ll ever carry as a woman. You are the soul curer of your unborn baby’s antenatal environment. Are you strong enough to give away life’s little niceties for nine months, no alcohol, cigarettes, blue cheese, the least goes on and it seems like a prison sentence but it is worth it. Even small amounts of alcohol affect an unborn child. Male: People who drank low levels are going to have problems with learning, problems with high proclivity, problems with inattention and problems with social functioning. At a low level where they struggle a little bit are not quite enough to get a diagnosis or anything. Female: There are so many things that you cannot control but this is one thing that you can so in my opinion I would rather take out the equation together. Host: If you were smoker and you have just fallen pregnant, it is time to call it quits. Every puff you take rubs oxygen from your baby and sense harmful carbon monoxide shooting down the umbilical cord instead. Experts are not certain but smoking is strongly linked to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. A recent study suggests that copious amounts of caffeine can increase the risk of miscarriage. It is best to keep caffeine consumption to 200 milligrams or less per day. That is one cup of fresh coffee or two cups of tea. Women drinking eight cups or more per day maybe restricting blood flow to the placenta and the actual caffeine that makes it to the placenta may inhibit the developmental fetal cells. Recent studies also suggests that newborns of caffeine addicts are born with higher hydrates and have trouble sleeping in the first few days out of the womb. As an expectant mother, you are your baby’s whole world. Keep it clean and safe just as you would in nursery. In 1914, British Ophthalmologist Charles Usher discovered a Reye’s Syndrome responsible for death blindness. People suffering Usher Syndrome are often born completely deaf and lose their eyesight gradually. Some over a decade, some over 20 years and others not until they are middle aged. Although affecting only one in 25,000 people, Ushers is the leading cause of death blindness in the world. It is passed on via damage recessive chain meaning that both parents have to have the defective gene in order for the disease to manifest in the child. Children with type 1 Usher’s have problems balancing due to an underdeveloped inner ear and maybe late walkers. When they begin to lose their eyesight, it is often experienced as night blindness before peripheral vision degrades. Type 1’s have usually lost all of their eyesight before the age of 10. Those with Type 2 Ushers may be partially or severely deaf at birth. These children do not have problems with balance and will lose their eyesight by the age of 20. The rarest form is Type 3 Ushers. These children may appear completely normal at birth and during childhood. Hearing loss and vision impairment will occur most likely in adulthood. People with this syndrome are never mentally impaired though. In fact there are a number of high profile academics with Ushers who have gone on to study at some of the worlds leading institutions. Life is hard without sound but still inspiring and many things are achievable. Gene therapy may hold the key to curing Ushers. Recent experiments have just reversed one form of the disease in mice by replacing the defective gene with a functional one. Other forms of the disease may be harder to cure though since the genes involved are very complicated involving large proteins. Usher Syndrome accounts for 6% of all deaf children. Soon, genetic screening will be available to assess whether an infant is suffering from or carrying the condition. Log on to the National Institute for Deafness and other communication disorders site for more information. Some ophthalmologists believe in tensed daily Vitamin A palmitate supplementation may slow vision impairment in those with Usher Syndrome.