Have you ever wondered why you irritable or depressed just because of today Monday or your cell phone or look up the mess after work? If so, maybe you need to ask your mother.
A new study claims the reason why some people are more prone to suffer from stress and anxiety symptoms than others is because they share a mother perceived stress while still in the womb.
Normally, the placenta protects the baby candidates of the hormones 'evil' that has accumulated in the mother's blood when he is stressed. But in certain women, this protective function as weak or deformed easily and consequently fetal exposure to stress hormones from the mother. Later, the child will be more prone to depression or anxiety symptoms while growing up.
"There is an enzyme found in the placenta and the baby's brain with high levels. Seems that this is the natural barrier of stress hormones and enzymes that deactivate this protection function of the placenta," said researcher Professor Jonathan Seckl from Edinburgh University, as reported by the Daily Mail on Monday (15/07/2013).
"If you inhibit this barrier (with stress), do not be surprised if your child had a low birth weight and stress response and depression has changed. Perhaps this stress response that distinguish one individual with another individual," he added.
Related to these findings, the researchers suspect the protective barrier function of the placenta can be overwhelmed by high levels of stress that occurs during pregnancy. Or if not, some women may not be able to produce enough enzyme inhibitors to perform the function of protection.
Whereas once the stress hormone broke through the barrier, they can affect brain development as well as trigger the brain changes that make the baby vulnerable to symptoms of anxiety and behavioral problems when growing up.
Stress in the womb is also known to provide long-term effects on the physical health of the unborn child.
Even a study conducted in the UK recently found that mothers experiencing tremendous tragedy in his life such as the loss of or separation will dramatically increase the chances of the baby having health problems when he was only four years old.
