By: Silvija Čolić |
Ultrasound - a blow to the health of unborn children |
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Ultrasound can adversely affect the brain development of fetuses, which means that pregnant women should not undergo frequent and unnecessary ultrasound scans.
It is the conclusion of a team of scientists from Yale University.
Under the leadership of Croatian neurologist Pasko Rakic, a team of researchers conducted a study in which they found that ultrasound harms brain development of unborn mice, and that it could have the same effect on children.
The results of this study were published in August 2006 in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and echoed in a number of international media, including CNN, Reuters and the New York Times.
Dr. Rakic further pointed out that it was necessary to conduct further research in order to determine the actual risk of ultrasound and warned that pregnant women should not use it too often, especially not out of curiosity.
What causes the danger
During the fetal brain development neurons are placed in their final position in the cortex, which is of great importance for future normal functioning of the brain as a whole.
But, once pregnant mice were exposed to ultrasound for 30 minutes, it appeared that a number of neurons failed to take the proper position in the cerebral cortex, but were left far behind in the deeper layers of the cerebral cortex or in the white matter of the brain.
The results of this experiment are extremely important due to the fact that the disturbances in the migration of neurons may be one of the possible causes of a number of neurological and psychiatric diseases and ailments, such as dyslexia, autism, mental retardation and schizophrenia.
Specifically, during the ultrasound examination, the child - and especially its head - is exposed to the bombardment of the rapid stream of high frequency sound waves.
It has already been established that these waves can damage chromosomes, cause cell heating, damage cells and slow down its development.
A blow to the genes
The results of several previous studies have shown that long and repeated exposure to ultrasound, in addition to impairing the development of the brain, can cause a lower birth weight.
Also, these children after birth often become left-handed, and were slower to develop the ability to speak.
Furthermore, American scientists found in the 90’s that ultrasound heating of tissues could lead to intestinal bleeding.
After that, they began to adjust power equipment to remove the danger.
Scientists at the University of Dublin found that ultrasound produces changes in the cells.
In their study 12 mice were subjected to an ultrasound of 8 MHz for a period of 15 minutes.
You should have in mind that ultrasound examinations in hospitals can take up to an hour, using frequencies from 3-10 MHz.
Russian scientists under the leadership of Peter Gariaev, a research fellow of the Russian Academy of Sciences, reliably argued that ultrasound - which was considered safe and harmless for many years - could damage the genetic circuit.
His team, on basis of multiple studies, came to the startling conclusion that ultrasound is a direct blow to the gene.
Overexposure to ultrasound gives our DNA a strong shake, from which it has difficulties recovering.
Further research found that during ultrasonic irradiation the double helix of the DNA unfolds and even ruptures.
These experiments - said Gariaev - show that ultrasound causes not only a mechanical damage to the DNA, but also distorts its field.
This means that the hereditary program can be interrupted: distortion of the field will cause the formation of damaged tissue from which it is impossible for a healthy organism to develop.
Unnecessary exposure to ultrasound
Unfortunately, besides the reasons related to monitoring the fetal development, nowadays it is very popular to undergo ultrasound scan in order to obtain the first picture of the future child or the first video, i.e. 4D ultrasound for the home video.
At the same time, no-one thinks about the short-term and long-term consequences on the baby's health.
The American Medical Association clearly warned against unnecessary exposure to ultrasound for the purposes of:
- determining the sex of the child
- determining weeks of pregnancy (fetal age)
- confirming multiple pregnancies
- determining the position of the fetus in the womb
Nevertheless, ultrasound is still used for those purposes, although - except for determining the sex of the child – all the other information can be obtained through a normal manual inspection by an experienced gynecologist using fetoscope or stethoscope to detect a heartbeat.
In fact, an ultrasound scan, which is routinely performed on healthy pregnant women, does not do anything would improve the health of their children.
Generally, the ultrasound scan has only proved useful in a small number of specific cases where the diagnosis remained unclear after the examining history and after clinical examination.
For this reason, one should emphasize the difference between its use in case of necessity and a routine use that has become part of the standard (unnecessary) procedures.
Taking into account that some animals, such as dolphins and whales, use ultrasound as a weapon which stuns the fish, it is really amazing that it should be carelessly used for diagnosis.
Formerly it was thought that the X-ray examination during pregnancy was safe only to be proven wrong.
While history should be life's teacher, caution is constantly missing or is being overlooked in favor of interests that have little do with health.
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