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Weight under control in pregnancy with an App

23 February 20246 January 2024 by rosanna.feroldi

Being overweight is never advisable and at the beginning of pregnancy can be a major problem, especially if the excess pounds are numerous. The additional weight gain expected during the nine months can, in fact, lead to critical obstetric-gynecological and metabolic issues for both the mother-to-be and the baby.

In particular, overweight and obesity in pregnancy increase a woman’s risk of developing hypertension (preeclampsia) and gestational diabetes and to overgrow the baby (fetal macrosomia), preventing natural childbirth and increasing the risk of obesity in childhood and adulthood; they also make infectious complications during cesarean section delivery more likely.

To help women who are already overweight at the time of conception to avoid gaining too much weight during the following months, a group of doctors from the North Western University of Chicago (United States) has developed an App smartphone specifically for pregnant women, which can provide nutrition and lifestyle advice, support motivation with targeted messages, and improve control of metabolic parameters.

The use of this App by 140 overweight or obese women from 16 weeks of pregnancy, in the context of the MOMFIT project (Maternal Offspring Metabolics: Family Intervention Trial) funded by the National Institutes of Health Americans, it actually resulted in an average 1.7 kg reduction in weight gain over the next 6 months compared with an equal number of women with comparable initial characteristics (control group).

It may not sound like much, but according to the doctors it is a very good start, especially considering that the women enrolled were evidently very disinclined to eat a healthy diet and engage in physical activity prior to pregnancy, and that the hormonal changes typical of gestation certainly do not help with self-monitoring of food intake or weight loss.

At the heart of the App and the MOMFIT program is the so-called diet DASH (Diet Approach to Stopping Hypertension): a calorie-balanced dietary pattern based on the predominant consumption of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, fish and other nonfat protein sources and reduced salt and saturated fat, which has already been used for years to combat high blood pressure. In addition, for all of them, the App’s constant invitation to walk for at least 30 minutes or 10,000 steps per day.

“Once triggered, the weight gain that leads to obesity is difficult to reverse,” Prof. Linda Van Horn, coordinator of the study, pointed out. “This App provides an opportunity to defuse it at a stage when the woman is particularly motivated to take care of herself in order to protect the health of the child, and lays the foundation for the subsequent persistent adoption of a healthier lifestyle by the whole family.”

The researchers’ next goal is to understand whether to curb pregnant women’s weight gain through the program MOMFIT can also help reduce the percentage of obese children after age 3-5 (who, according to epidemiological data, remain obese or overweight as adults in more than half of cases).

While waiting for new results, even without having the specific App, it is important for all aspiring mothers with a few extra pounds to agree with their gynecologist and nutritionist on a personalized diet plan simple to follow and not too restrictive, but able to avoid excessive weight gain, and try to move more every day (unless specifically contraindicated).

Source

Van Horn L et al. Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension Diet and Activity to Limit Gestational Weight: Maternal Offspring Metabolics Family Intervention Trial, a Technology Enhanced Randomized Trial. Am J Prev Med 2018; https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(18)32025-7/abstract
National Institutes of Health – NIH Clinical Trial(https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01631747)

Smartphone addiction is like a drug

23 February 20246 January 2024 by Alessia Giannino

The 21st century is marked by new technologies, smartphones and everything that revolves around these devices that are as useful as they are harmful. According to Erik Peper, professor of health education at theUniversity of San Francisco,“addiction to smartphone use begins to form neurological connections in the brain similar to those that develop in those who acquire an addiction to opioid drugs for pain relief.”

The professor through a survey of 135 students found that those who continuously use phones have higher levels of feelings of isolation, depression and anxiety. The research, published in Neuro Regulation, confirms that this strong feeling of isolation is due to the fact that we have unfortunately replaced cell phones with face-to-face communication. This situation allows us to stay connected all the time, but at the same time prevents us from using body language effectively, also causing a sense of dissatisfaction. Being social, paradoxically, makes us asocial, developing a greater aptitude for communicating through a cell phone rather than in person.

App notifications

It seems that apps have also come into the scientists’ sights, in fact, according to research conducted,notifications can trigger neural pathways. During the survey, students were likely to look at their smartphones at any time of the day, while studying and eating, as if in a state of
“semi-tasking”
, in which they multitask at the same time, achieving, however, half the results they could have achieved without this harmful technological device. The main cause is push notifications, which almost force us to look at our phones and unconsciously activate neural pathways within our brains. Once these would have alerted us to danger, but today “we are diverted, by the same mechanisms that once protected us, to the most mundane information,” these are Professor Peper‘s words. People, especially young people, because of smartphones are totally losing control. This is the reason why its abuse is compared to that of addictive drugs.

Professor Erik Peper, along with the authors of the research, incited users to take back command of their lives, take their eyes off their smartphones and respond to notifications only at specific times of the day.

Can the smartphone make us fat?

17 February 20246 January 2024 by Redazione My Special Doctor

Between apps to promote physical activity, monitor cardiopulmonary performance, weight and calorie intake, smartphones would seem to be great allies of physical fitness. Yet this is not always the case, especially if one’s use of it is associated with or encourages a more sedentary and “distracted” lifestyle toward food.
The details of the study
, which warns of risks to the scale.

Improving sleep with a smartphone or portable kit is now possible

18 February 20246 January 2024 by Renato Torlaschi

A cutting-edge kit that helps analyze an individual’s microbiome may provide insight into why some people sleep poorly: that’s one of the new technologies that were unveiled at the Consumer Digital Association 2019 Digital Health Summit in Las Vegas, developed for the purpose of improving sleep.

It is not easy to give the doctor objective information about sleep quality or to explain why you have difficulty having deep sleep-it is a complicated problem to describe and solve.

Using the kit, consumers send a stool sample to a laboratory that, using special metagenomic technology, is able to assess the presence of different bacteria in the gut.

In addition to the effect of microorganisms on gluten sensitivity, inflammation, lactose intolerance, weight and metabolism, the analysis examines the levels of bacteria that produce certain neurotransmitters involved in natural sleep rhythms, such as serotonin and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA).

The report generated by the microbiome analysis provides information on ways in which diet and lifestyle can help change the bacterial composition of the gut. A second test is recommended to verify the effectiveness of the interventions.

Another technology presented at the summit makes it possible to assess sleep quality. It is in this case a App which can tell whether the user is in a waking, light sleep, deep sleep or REM sleep state: simply place your smartphone on the bedside table to detect, every 30 seconds, the radio frequency and low-power energy emitted by the body. An algorithm built into the App generates a score from 0 to 100 to indicate a person’s sleep quality-the data can provide doctors and patients with objective information.

Again, the instrument not only measures sleep quality but also offers breathing techniques for relaxation and provides personalized advice; it also has a smart alarm clock that sounds during the light sleep phase, when waking up is less traumatic.

According to Daniel Kraft, who works in medicine and neuroscience at Singularity University, an organization dedicated to technology development, these are examples of the kind of tools that will increasingly allow us to affect not only sleep, but different aspects of our health: “Insights into the microbiome, glucose monitoring, metabolic data from respiration, and much more, detectable with a simple handheld device…the combination of all of this gives us new ways to get detailed information. We will be able to use these tools to track not only vital signs, but also behaviors, providing help to change them and make them healthier.”