The legal use of marijuana is growing, with three U.S. states and the District of Columbia now endorsing legal marijuana use. An additional 21 states allow use of medical marijuana under physician prescription and supervision.

The brain is a sensitive organ vulnerable to a variety of insults. This is particularly true during periods of brain development from conception through adolescence. Studies of pot’s effect on adults cannot be generalized to pregnant women, children or adolescents.

This growing trend for marijuana legalization has not come without a variety of emerging adverse consequences. A recent review of the unexpected adverse health effects of marijuana legalization in Colorado found a spike in marijuana-related burns and increased emergency room visits related to high tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels and vomiting.

Children have also been vulnerable to growing environmental exposure to pot. Legalization of marijuana in Colorado has resulted in a spike in emergency room and hospital admissions related to children accidentally ingesting edible THC products. Concern regarding pot and children extends to pregnancy and the developing fetal brain. Despite growing acceptance of marijuana in adults, very little is known about the effect of pot exposure during pregnancy.

What we do know is unsettling. Pot use by pregnant mothers, or second-hand exposure to smoked marijuana, leads to fetal exposure as the active ingredients in pot cross the placenta barrier. Pot contains chemicals related to natural chemicals involved in fetal brain development. Normal fetal brain development requires a precisely-timed, specific-dose exposure to unique chemical signals. Chemicals in pot may disrupt this process and lead to abnormal development and to abnormal migration of fetal brain cells.

Research into fetal pot toxicity is very much in an early stage. What we know is much less than what we don’t know. Given the potential for fetal brain toxicity with pot it is best to err on the side of caution. General medical consensus exists that pot should be avoided during pregnancy.

Pot-smoking female adolescents and women who are considering pregnancy need to stop the use of marijuana. If this can’t be accomplished on their own, they should find an addiction specialist or treatment center that can provide expert care.

Click here to read the article in Addiction.com.

A new study

A new study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reports that 7 percent of pregnant women use marijuana during pregnancy based on health surveys involving nearly 500,000 U.S. women. Pot use during pregnancy has doubled since 2002, research shows. Dr. Nicole Saphier warns that pot and pregnancy can be a dangerous combination.

The purpose of the study was to determine if there was an increase in marijuana use among pregnant women, as we are witnessing a rising number of states where marijuana has been legalized for medical and recreational use.

Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug during pregnancy. Based on 467,100 respondents surveyed between 2002 and 2017, the prevalence of daily cannabis use increased among pregnant (and non-pregnant) women ages 12 to 44 years. It was also higher among women in their first trimester of pregnancy, which is a crucial time in fetal development.

Because of concerns regarding impaired fetal development, as well as maternal and fetal exposure to the adverse effects of smoking, women who are pregnant or contemplating pregnancy should discontinue recreational marijuana use and discuss the potential risks with their doctor if using it for medicinal purposes.

Many organizations and growing numbers of elected officials – including Democratic presidential hopefuls Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts – are pushing for marijuana for legalization.

In light of this concerning trend, it is would be bordering on negligent to not issue warnings about the safety of marijuana use during pregnancy. The drug has the proven potential to restrict fetal growth as well as to impair childhood mental functions such as memory, verbal skills and emotional development.

Click here to read the full news article.

According to an article in this week’s STAT News, neuroscientist Elseline Hoekzema and colleagues have studied brain plasticity — that is, the way the adult brain changes — for years. But it wasn’t until one of her colleagues was trying to become pregnant that the team started pondering questions of how pregnancy and motherhood change a woman’s brain.

What they found was that pregnancy reshapes the brain for at least two years afterward, with strongest effects in regions of the brain that are involved in social processing and those that respond to their child’s face. Those changes, the scientists say, may prepare a woman for the social demands of motherhood.

Previous animal studies have established that reproduction leads to long-­lasting changes in brain and behavior. And scientists have long understood that hormones can change brain structure and function.

But there have been few human studies. A widely reported nine-­cohort study from 2002 helped create the popular idea of memory difficulties (or “momnesia”) and a general “fuzziness” in thinking as a result of having been pregnant.

Hoekzema and colleagues at the Autonomous University of Barcelona wanted to investigate how the brain physically changed in mothers. They recruited 25 first­-time mothers and performed MRI brain scans both before conception and after birth, looking for pregnancy-­induced structural changes in the women’s brains’ gray matter.

Their brains were compared to the brains of 19 first-­time fathers (scanned both before and after their partner’s pregnancy), 17 men without children, and 20 women who had never given birth.

The scientists observed that first­-time mothers, but not fathers, exhibited reduced gray matter in brain regions associated with the ability to attribute thoughts, feelings, and intents to themselves or other people. But that doesn’t mean that those social capabilities were dampened — on the contrary, the researchers think the shrinkage was evidence of maturation of those social networks. Other studies have shown that pregnant women have enhanced emotion and face recognition.

Mothers with the greatest gray matter shrinkage had the highest quality of mother­-to-­infant attachment after birth. And a follow­ up imaging session found that almost all of these brain changes lasted for nearly two years after giving birth. The study was published Monday in Nature Neuroscience.

Hoekzema and her colleagues are now working on follow ­up studies based on their findings. Specifically, they want to examine how the regions of reduced brain volume are working together in the new mothers, and find out if the brain changes can predict the emergence of postpartum depression. They also want to find what happens to women’s brains after multiple pregnancies.

“This has opened up a complete new line of investigation, and I imagine we will be studying this for many years to come,” Hoekzema said.

Click here to read an updated 2016 flyer from the Medical Society of the State of New York about the Zika virus with lots of information and links for you.

After reading the flyer you can learn more by visiting our Zika webpage here or spending the time to listen to this Zika virus podcast.

How many people do you see when you spot a pregnant woman? At His Branches Health Services, we see two and we’re ready to care for both of them because we believe in the sanctity (miraculous God-like nature) of all human life, from the moment of conception to the time of natural death. Join us in celebrating and promoting Life, not only during January but all year long!

Do you know someone who is or might be pregnant and is struggling with how she is going to carry on? Call our office at 585-235-2250 for an appointment and bring her in right away.

Are you part of a church? Join believers around the country in upholding the lives of the unborn on January 17, national Sanctity of Human Life Sunday.

to join us in making 2016 an even better year for all of us in our personal health and in our relationships with our families, friends, neighbors, and co-workers, as well as in learning how to live meaningful lives of service to those around us! His Branches Health Services is looking forward to continued growth, and we’re counting on your support and prayer along the way as we:

• work more closely together as teams to meet your needs.
• grow our Patient Centered Medical Home and make it even more “home-like.”
• learn more about the advanced capabilities of our new Medent EMR system.
• expand our national certifications beyond Meaningful Use and PCMH to FQHC status.
• recruit another physician to join our staff who likes to deliver babies.
• understand more about applying living faith in all that we do.

God bless you all!