The "Organic" Brain -How Smart You Are May Depend On When You’re Conceived

Research is confirming that children conceived between June through August are likely to score lower on cognitive tests. Leading researchers suggest that the cause is seasonal pesticides and nitrates, which are detrimental to brain development. The researchers found that test scores for math and language were distinctly seasonal with the lowest scores received by children who had been conceived in June through August.

Does that mean children conceived during these months may not be as smart as they could have been? Yes. "The fetal brain begins developing soon after conception. The pesticides we use to control pests in fields and our homes and the nitrates we use to fertilize crops and even our lawns are at their highest level in the summer," said Paul Winchester, M.D., professor of clinical pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine. "Exposure to pesticides and nitrates can alter the hormonal milieu of the pregnant mother and the developing fetal brain."

Winchester and others have also pinpointed the increase of premature births to be strongly associated with increased use of pesticides and nitrates. Dr. Winchester and colleagues found that preterm birth rates peaked when pesticides and nitrates measurements in surface water were highest (April-July) and were lowest when nitrates and pesticides were lowest (Aug.-Sept.). Pesticide and nitrate levels in surface water were also highest in May-June and lowest in August --September, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

"A growing body of evidence suggests that the consequence of prenatal exposure to pesticides and nitrates as well as to other environmental contaminants is detrimental to many outcomes of pregnancy. As a neonatologist, I am seeing a growing number of birth defects, and preterm births, and I think we need to face up to environmental causes," said Dr Winchester, who is also director of Newborn Intensive Care Services at St. Francis Hospital in Indianapolis.

Organic produce never sounded so good…

*Dr Winchester reported these findings yesterday (May 7) at the Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting, a combined gathering of the American Pediatric Society, the Society for Pediatric Research, the Ambulatory Pediatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Posted by Rebecca Sato