There always has been a debate on whether the seasons affect the Humans .
Behavior of Animals are affected by seasons ,as we all know.
The information that the seasons affect the babies in a noticeable manner is interesting.
Common sense says that this is possible and probable as well.
If seasons could affect the babies ,is it not logical to say that planets affect behavior and the birth of Babies for all planets ,Sun ,Moon and the Stars affect the physical environment and we are placed in this environment?
Hope this information does not lead to more Cesarean operations!
A 2006 study published in Schizophrenia Research found that winter babies (born in winter and spring) were on average both bigger and brighter than their summer (born in summer and fall) counterparts. The study, led by Harvard University scientists in collaboration with Queensland University researchers from Australia, followed the development of 21,000 children from birth to 7 years of age. Children in the study were given a series of mental and motor tests at birth, at 8 months, at 4 years, and at 7 years of age. By the 7 year mark, winter children emerged, on average, 210 grams heavier, 0.19 cm taller, and higher scoring on intelligence exercises than summer children.
The 2006 study wasn’t the final word on the subject, however. In a separate study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience in 2010, Vanderbilt University researchers found that mice exposed to different amounts of light at birth coped differently with changes later in life. One group of newborn mice experienced summer-like light conditions (16 hours of light and 8 hours of darkness) while the second group experienced winter-like light conditions (8 hours of light and 16 hours of darkness). The mice then maintained either the same or opposite cycles for 28 days. Once mature, both groups were plunged into darkness. The “summer” mice kept to a daily routine even in the dark, while their “winter” counterparts struggled. While it’s unclear how well these results translate to human populations, the “winter” and “summer” mice were found to have distinctly different biological clocks. The Vanderbilt study suggests that seasonal light exposure after birth could be linked to emotional regulation later in life—think humans with seasonal effective disorder, for example.
Still other studies on the topic of birth season and behavior have linked, among other things, more food allergies to fall birthdates, higher rates of anorexia to spring birthdates, and increased chances of schizophrenia to summer birthdates (with possible roots in the biological clock that the Vanderbilt study points to). Optimism, diets, athleticism—all have possible links to birthdate.
What to make of all these findings? Are those with winter birthdays smarter or healthier than those with summer ones—or vice versa? We decided to look at Lumosity’s own database of human cognition for guidance.
After examining results from 12,259 members who played the popular free game Memory Matrix, we found no statistically significant performance differences between members born in the four different seasons. We used only US members’ gameplay data to insure that all birthdates corresponded to the same seasons. Here’s a graphical representation of the data below:
Related:
Newborns whose first few months of life coincide with high pollen and mold seasons are at increased risk of developing early symptoms of asthma, suggests a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.
Researchers found that children born in the high mold season, which generally encompasses the fall and winter months, have three times the odds of developing wheezing – often an early sign of asthma – by age 2 compared with those born at other times of the year.
The study results, reported online Tuesday, Feb. 24 (12:01 a.m. GMT) in the journal Thorax, may help shed light on why babies born in the fall and winter appear to have a higher risk of eventually developing asthma than children born in the summer.
Numerous factors have been linked to asthma risk, including heredity and exposure to air pollution, animal dander and tobacco smoke. A 2008 study of birth and medical records found that babies born in the fall are at greater risk of later developing childhood asthma. That study suggested an influence from early exposure to respiratory viruses, which is more common during the peak of cold and flu season.
“In our study, we took a different tack to understand the link between month of birth and asthma by considering ambient concentrations of fungal spores and pollen, which follow distinct seasonal patterns,” said Kim Harley, associate director of health effects research at UC Berkeley’s Center for Children’s Environmental Health Research and lead author of the new study. “Until our paper, there were very little data about exposure to allergens in the air, which we know can trigger symptoms for those who already have asthma. This is the first study to look at the potential role of early life exposure to multiple outdoor fungal and pollen groups in the development of asthma.”
The researchers examined 514 children born in 1999 and 2000 in California’s Salinas Valley, a region with mild, rainy winters and dry summers. They identified 27 spore and 48 pollen groups in the study, recording the average daily concentrations for the groups that accounted for more than 3 percent of the total during the first three months of life for each child in the study.
http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/02/23_wheezing.shtml
The season in which you are born may affect everything from your eyesight to your eating habits and overall health later in life, according to a blossoming field of research. The latest study shows that spring babies are more likely to suffer from anorexia nervosa as adults.
“We found an excess of anorexia births in the spring months compared to the general population,” said study researcher Lahiru Handunnetthi, of the Wellcome Trust Center for Human Genetics. “The idea is that there is some sort of risk factor that varies seasonally with anorexia.”
The researchers found that eight out of every 100 people born between March and June had anorexia compared with 7 percent of those without anorexia. This is a 15 percent increase in risk for those born during these spring months.
Previous studies have found similar links between spring births and various disorders, including schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis and even Type 1 diabetes. It’s possible thesediseases are linked to some environmental influence during gestation or the first few months of life, though researchers aren’t sure what that could be.
The leading candidates including vitamin D levels, infections that come and go seasonally, changes in nutrition, and even possibly weather
fluctuations, Handunnetthi told LiveScience.
These changing environmental factors seem to influence a wide array of conditions:
- A study from 2003 published in the Journal of Nutrition showed that African-American babies born in the summer and fall were smaller than those born at other times. Also, babies of African-American and Puerto Rican decent gained less weight in their first four months if they were born in the fall.
- Babies born in the fall have a 9.5 percent risk of having food allergies, up from 5 percent for babies born in June and July. Those babies born in November or December were also three times more likely to suffer from eczema and wheezing. That study was published in 2010 in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
- Moderate and severe nearsightedness, or the inability to see well at long distances, is highest for babies born in the summer months, suggests research published in April 2008 in the journal Ophthalmology.
- Birth month might even affect your biological clock, a mouse study published in 2010 in the journal Nature Neuroscience showed. Mice born in the winter were less able to adapt to a summer light cycle, which could be related to the increased risk of mental health disorders in humans born in the winter, the researchers speculated.
- Leukemia has also been linked to being born in the spring, with a peak in April.
Common causes?
Birth month has even been linked to longevity, which could be because of these other adverse health effects. Studies in Austria and Denmark have found that those born in the fall live longer than people born in the spring.
“When we look at diseases we need to identify the risk factor that led to them,” Handunnetthi said. “In general, risk factors could be environmental or genetic. Genetic risk factors you are born with and can’t really change. If you identify environmental factors you can mediate them to carry out prevention studies.”
These environmental causes are still unclear, though some of these birth-month effects may be related. “Perhaps a risk factor is playing a part that is common to all these conditions but we don’t know that yet,” Handunnetthi said.
http://www.livescience.com/13958-birth-month-health-effects.html
Related articles
- Month a baby is born ‘suggests what career they will have’ (telegraph.co.uk)
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