{"id":1498,"date":"2024-07-12T00:03:43","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T00:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/12\/super-strong-bones-healing-blood-and-different-brains-how-motherhood-changes-bodies-forever\/"},"modified":"2024-07-12T00:03:43","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T00:03:43","slug":"super-strong-bones-healing-blood-and-different-brains-how-motherhood-changes-bodies-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/12\/super-strong-bones-healing-blood-and-different-brains-how-motherhood-changes-bodies-forever\/","title":{"rendered":"Super-strong bones, healing blood and different brains: How motherhood changes bodies forever"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Women\u2019s brains, blood, hormones and bones change drastically during pregnancy, research suggests.<\/p>\n

We are only just discovering the full extent of what is going on with women\u2019s bodies during pregnancy and beyond after decades of only studying male bodies, say scientists.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Bones<\/strong><\/p>\n

Biologists have revealed that a new hormone protects bone density during breast-feeding.<\/p>\n

The new research, which studied mice, solves a long-standing puzzle over how the bones of breastfeeding women stay strong even as they lose calcium to milk, say researchers at the University of California San Francisco and UC Davis.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The hormone, CCN3, works by blocking certain oestrogen receptors in the brain and leads to \u201chuge increases in bone mass\u201d, according to Professor Holly Ingram.<\/p>\n

CCN3 even healed elderly bones faster when it was applied as a patch, suggesting the hormone could help with diseases like osteoporosis which women are particularly at risk of after menopause.<\/p>\n

Professor Ingram added: \u201cOne of the remarkable things about these findings is that if we hadn\u2019t been studying female mice, we could have completely missed out on this finding.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt underscores just how important it is to look at both male and female animals across the lifespan to get a full understanding of biology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the body, \u201cpowerful\u201d changes in women\u2019s brains and healing power in mothers\u2019 blood are being revealed.<\/p>\n

Brains<\/strong><\/p>\n

A woman\u2019s brain drastically changes shape during pregnancy, and never fully goes back to the way it was before, multiple studies have discovered.<\/p>\n

The changes in a woman\u2019s brain are so significant researchers recently found they could correctly tell if a woman was pregnant 100% of the time, just by looking at the shape of her brain.<\/p>\n

Dr Susana Carmona, who led the research at General University Hospital Gregorio Maranon in Spain, said the changes in a woman\u2019s brain during pregnancy \u201care the most powerful changes I have seen in my whole neuroscience career\u201d.<\/p>\n

She previously studied brain changes during schizophrenic episodes and people with ADHD and OCD.<\/p>\n

During pregnancy, the brain is altering itself to prepare for parenthood, a process triggered by hormones which activate an instinct to focus almost completely on the baby, says Dr Carmona.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think, \u2018This [baby] is super interesting, I\u2019m going to try to interact with this\u2019 and then you learn all the maternal behaviours,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Some parts of the brain associated with socialising and self-perception become smaller and thinner, and are slower to bounce back after giving birth.<\/p>\n

Blood<\/strong><\/p>\n

As well as drastically changing their mothers\u2019 brains, babies also change their mothers\u2019 blood \u2013 forever.<\/p>\n

By the time she is six weeks pregnant, an expectant mother will have her child\u2019s blood cells running through her veins, according to Dr Diana Bianchi who first observed the phenomenon in 1996.<\/p>\n

Back then, she found that women who had given birth to boys up to 27 years earlier still had their sons\u2019 cells circulating in their blood.<\/p>\n

Scientists are now discovering those cells all across the body, with a recent study from University of Jaen, Spain, confirming the cells were present in mothers\u2019 hearts.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve also been observed in areas that need healing like a diseased organ or scar tissue, suggesting the cells could help the healing process in mothers and their children long after they\u2019ve left the womb.<\/p>\n

Even if a woman miscarries, she still carries her child\u2019s blood with her for years.<\/p>\n

Studying women\u2019s bodies <\/strong><\/p>\n

The vast changes an expectant mother goes through are still being discovered, and extend to the entire body.<\/p>\n

Dr Carmona blames the fact we know so little about pregnant bodies on old scientific methods.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil very recently, studies performed on animals only included males because they thought that controlling for the menstrual cycle was too complicated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In fact, researcher Emily Jacobs from UC Santa Barbara found that of the 43,000 studies in neuroimaging during the last 25 years, only 0.5% study how women\u2019s brains are impacted by things like pregnancy, menopause and hormonal contraceptives.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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