Mom's Hypertension Affects Cognition in Offspring

And guess which mom's are more likely to have elevated blood pressure.

Fat ones.

Hypertension during pregnancy can lead to life-long cognitive deficits in offspring, a new study suggests.

Researchers report that older men whose mothers had hypertension during pregnancy had more cognitive deficits than those with mothers who were normotensive. The deficits, first identified when the study participants were 20 years old, were uncovered again when they were almost 70 years old.

The study demonstrates that an adverse prenatal environment can have long-term consequences, said study author Katri Räikkönen, PhD, professor, psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland. "It shows that these effects are still present and evident several decades later, in other words, that these prenatal effects persist to old age," Dr. Räikkönen told Medscape Medical News.

More early nutritional child abuse.