Sober N Clean

More than half of women drink alcohol while pregnant despite growing evidence that it can lead to low IQ, attention deficit disorders and more serious lifelong complications in children.

Older mothers are more likely to drink while pregnant than younger ones, the latest figures from the National Health Service show.

This has lead experts to fear the number of damaged children will grow as more women put off having a family.

Children born to mothers who drank while pregnant are more likely to grow up to have alcohol and drug problems, be excluded from school and have antisocial behaviour problems.

More than 8,500 under 18s were admitted to hospital because of their drinking in 2006/7 it was revealed on Thursday and a proportion of those are likely to have some degree of brain damage because of their mother’s drinking, experts said.

High flying women working as stockbrokers and traders in the City have called charity helplines after their children were diagnosed with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, along with wives of MPs and members of the House of Lords, showing the problem is increasingly associated with middle class drinkers.

Damage to the child increases with the amount of alcohol drunk and the timing during the pregnancy. The full blown Foetal Alcohol Syndrome is the leading known cause of non-genetic intellectual disability in Western countries and causes severe learning difficulties, impaired intellect, certain facial characteristics and growth retardation.

Less severe damage is associated with hyperactivity, poor memory and planning skills, poor co-ordination and lower IQ, but this is often not recognised as associated with maternal drinking.

Last year the Department of Health revised guidelines to say women should not drink at all during pregnancy but if they choose to they should stick to one or two units once or twice a week and not get drunk.

Figures released by the NHS Information Centre revealed that 55 per cent of women in the UK admitted drinking alcohol while pregnant.

Of the women who drank before they conceived, only a third gave up alcohol altogether while pregnant and the rest said they cut down.

The survey also found 61 per cent of mothers aged 35 or over said they drank while pregnant compared to 47 per cent of those aged under 20.

Older mothers were also less likely to give up alcohol while pregnant.

Susan Fleischer, director of the charity National Organisation for Feotal Alcohol Syndrome, said women in powerful and male dominated careers had been calling their helpline after their children were diagnosed with the disorder.

She said these women were not alcoholics but had a regular habit of drinking with male colleagues and found it harder to stop while they were pregnant.

Ms Fleischer, who has an adoptive daughter with the condition, said: “Not all women who drink during pregnancy will harm their child but the only way to be sure is not to drink at all.

“Some of the children being admitted to hospital because of their own drinking will have brain damage caused by their mother’s drinking and there will be a smattering of middle class kids in there too.”

Survey by the charity Tommy’s in 2004 found one in four pregnant women drink between two and five units of alcohol a week, double the recommended weekly limit.

Reliable studies on the numbers of babies born affected by alcohol have not been carried out in the UK but in other European countries and in America and Canada it is estimated that between 20 and 40 children per 1,000 have feotal alcohol spectrum disorder and fewer have the full blown syndrome.
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source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk

WOMEN have been warned that they risk seriously damaging their health if they adopt a new fad diet which encourages boozing instead of eating.

Drunkorexia is the latest craze to come from the US which showbiz insiders claim is followed by Hollywood stars including Lindsay Lohan, Mischa Barton, Tara Reid and Paris Hilton.

Perhaps the most famous drunkorexic of all time is Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous, who famously lived on Bolly and Stoli, who only once, in the entire history of the sitcom, ever asked for “some of that food stuff” and who was fashionably skeletal.

Now UK health experts are increasingly worried that more and more women are following the trend in order to stay slim while drinking heavily.

Denying themselves two biscuits would allow an average woman to drink three vodkas and diet colas without gaining any weight.

And cutting out the 700 calories found in a serving of spaghetti bolognese means a woman could drink up to five alcopops without piling on the pounds.

Some health experts blame diets which encourage calorie counting for supporting the trend.

Professor Janet Treasure, head of the Eating Disorder Unit at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, described drunkorexia as “very dangerous”.

“It is more common with bulimia than anorexia, but you get the combination of empty calories with no nutritional value, and the risky behaviour that goes with being drunk.”

Marie Griffiths of the Wales-based Slimtone weight loss organisation said: “Any social life includes eating and drinking alcohol.

“I know a lot of people who will factor in the odd glass of wine into their weekly calorie intake.

“But cutting out a healthy diet in order to drink heavily obviously could be very detrimental to your health. Liver complaints are on the rise in young women already.

“And if you don’t eat all day then go out drinking, your blood sugar levels will be so low that whatever you drink will affect you that much more.”

Endorsements for dumping healthy food for alcohol are easily found on social networking sites, including Facebook.

The creator of the Anorexia Binge Drinking Diet society, which has at least one registered member from Wales, writes: “Anyone trying to lose weight and look good for the ladies?

“I created a new diet for everyone in college. Don’t eat all day, then go get s***faced every night. Drink until you throw up!

“No calories, you have to lose weight. ( I think).”

And the Binge Drinking Appreciation Group includes in its justification of binge-drinking: “If you’re going to be a fat b*****d in your later years, you may as well enjoy the process.”

In one of the most comprehensive studies into the link between alcohol and food suppression, research suggested that people with eating disorders are five times more likely to be substance abusers, while substance abusers are 11 times more likely to have eating disorders.

The study also noted that eating disorders and substance abuse have several significant characteristics in common – brain chemistry, family history, stress triggers and the prevalence of affected people also suffering from low self-esteem, depression, anxiety or a history of abuse.

Mary George, spokeswoman for eating disorders charity b-eat, said: “Drunkorexia is a form of behaviour more associated with binge- drinking than eating disorders.

“We are aware of it, but it is in some ways almost belittling to put it in the same bracket as eating disorders, which are a form of mental illness.

“Having said that, it is certainly not something which we would condone, or dismiss.”

And Mary Wood, chief executive of the eating-disorder charity Foundations UK, said: “It’s hard to generalise about the link between eating disorders and alcohol. There are so many ways in which the two work together – psychologically, physiologically and culturally.

“One thing is certain, however: all eating disorders are a way of coping with emotional pain, and so is alcohol.”

source: Celtic Weekly Newspapers