Eating Fish During Pregnancy Boosts Baby's Brainpower

FRIDAY, Oct. 21 (HealthDay News) -- Women who eat fish during pregnancy may help increase their infants'' cognitive abilities, says a Harvard Medical School study.

The finding, published in the October issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, suggests that recent guidelines from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration advising pregnant women to limit the amount of mercury-containing fish they eat may have the unintended effect of depriving fetuses of essential nutrients found in fish.

The researchers noted that while excessive mercury intake during pregnancy can harm neurological development in fetuses, n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and other nutrients in fish may play a crucial role in the neurocognitive development of infants.

In their study, the Harvard team tested the cognitive ability of 6-month-old infants, and compared the results to the amount of fish the infants'' mothers ate during pregnancy and the amount of mercury in the mothers'' hair.

While elevated mercury levels in mothers were associated with infant cognition deficits, the study also found that higher fish intake by mothers was associated with higher infant cognition, especially after the researchers adjusted for mercury levels.

Infants who scored highest on the cognitive tests had mothers who ate more fish during pregnancy and had lower levels of hair mercury.

"The most likely explanation is that the benefit is conferred by consuming fish types with the combination of relatively little mercury and high amounts of beneficial nutrients," such as salmon, canned light tuna and sardines, the study authors said.

More information

The U.S. Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction has more about mercury and pregnancy.

--Robert Preidt

SOURCE: Environmental Health Perspectives, news release, October 2005

Last Updated: Oct. 21, 2005