Do sleep disturbances cause disease?

A woman’s age is the most accurate test of egg quality , because egg quality decreases as the woman approaches menopause. An important change in egg quality is the frequency of genetic abnormalities which make the ageing woman less likely to become pregnant and more likely to have miscarriages . As a woman gets older, more and more of her eggs have either too few or too many chromosomes. That means that if fertilisation occurs, the embryo also will have too many or too few chromosomes.

Avoiding certain foods in pregnancy is recommended for maternal and foetal well-being. Pregnancy is a state of lower immunity and pregnant women catch infections easily. Moreover, not all medications can be used to treat diseases in pregnancy. Hence it is safer to avoid certain foods in pregnancy which can give rise to food poisoning or infections. Fish such as shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish have high mercury levels and must be avoided. Smaller fish have less mercury content can be chosen instead as their longevity in water is short such as fresh water fish. Similarly, smoked meat or fish should be avoided as they can cause infections. Raw uncooked eggs or poultry, unpasteurised milk and milk products, raw sprouts, unwashed fruits or vegetables are not advisable as well. Pregnant women should carefully avoid excess caffeine, alcohol or tobacco as these could harm the baby. Artificial sweeteners, sugar rich foods, canned foods and foods containing nitrates as in frozen meat are better avoided in pregnancy.

Certain genetic risks present more often in pregnancy as women age. For example, the rate of having a baby with Down syndrome accelerates with maternal age. While the rate of an embryo having Down syndrome at the 10-week mark of pregnancy is 1 in 1,064 at age 25, this rises to 1 in 686 at age 30 and 1 in 240 by the age of 35 years. At the age of 40, the Down syndrome rate increases still to 1 in 53, and down to 1 in 19 embryos at age 45.