Word: alcoholism
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Unlike such drugs as barbiturates and opiates, which affect the nervous system, alcohol can attack virtually any of the body's cells. It can cause stunted growth, distorted faces, poor eyesight, learning disabilities and hyperactivity. In the recently published book The Broken Cord (Harper & Row; $18.95), author Michael Dorris tells the heartbreaking story of his adopted son Adam, whose Sioux parents died of alcohol abuse. Adam was institutionalized and diagnosed as retarded before he turned three. At five, he still wore diapers, could not count consecutively or even identify colors. "Adam's birthdays are reminders for me," writes Dorris...
Everyone should know by now that drinking alcohol during pregnancy can cause serious physical and mental problems in the unborn child. Most doctors have told their patients, television announcements have dramatized the dangers, and warning signs have gone up in restaurants and bars. But too many mothers-to-be are not getting the message. More than 50,000 babies are born in the U.S. each year with alcohol-related defects. In about one-fourth of these cases, the damage -- ranging from facial deformities to heart abnormalities -- is severe enough to be classified as fetal alcohol syndrome...
...tragedy of FAS is that it is entirely preventable. If a woman, even an alcoholic one, stops drinking before she tries to become pregnant, her fetus will not develop FAS or any alcohol-related birth defects. But pregnancies are not always planned. If a woman does not realize for several weeks that she is pregnant, she may not stop drinking in time to prevent harm to the fetus...
...nine months and rapid body growth does not occur until the third trimester. Even after the baby is born, abstinence may be advisable. A study in last week's New England Journal of Medicine suggests that when mothers have one or more drinks a day, their children ingest alcohol in breast milk, which may impede the infants' motor development...
Nearly all known cases of FAS involve children whose mothers have chronic alcohol problems. Says Barbara Morse, director of the Fetal Alcohol Education Program at the Boston University School of Medicine: "The more a woman drinks while she is pregnant and the longer she drinks, the higher the risk of FAS." Even so, moderate drinking is not considered safe. "Our best evidence is that we cannot detect adverse consequences to very light drinking," says Dr. Robert Sokol, head of the federally funded fetal alcohol research center at Wayne State University, in Detroit. "But that doesn't mean they...