Even Minimal Drinking During Pregnancy may Affect Unborn Child's IQ

A joint study conducted by researchers at Oxford and Bristol universities warns that drinking even one or two glasses of wine in a week may be harmful for the unborn child and may negatively affect its IQ levels.

In the study, published in the journal PLOS One, the researchers recorded the IQs of more than 4,000 children and also recorded the drinking habits of their mothers during pregnancy.

The researchers found that drinking even one to six units of alcohol in a week may lower the IQ levels of the unborn child, though the effect was small.

The researchers said that drinking alcohol could lead to the formation of four genetic variants in alcohol-metabolizing genes in children by the time they turned eight and reduced the IQ levels by two points. "It is for individual women to decide whether or not to drink during pregnancy, we just want to provide the evidence. But I would recommend avoiding alcohol. Why take the risk?", lead researcher Dr Ron Gray said.

Source: Medindia