Be that as it may, most major health organizations (see below) say to nix the alcohol -- be that beer, wine or any other liquored beverage. While there is no hard and fast evidence that one drink -- or even two over the course of pregnancy -- will harm your baby, there's nothing to say that it definitely won't. We're talking about a little imbibing on your part that may affect your baby's life for the worse. Is that worth the risk? Not to lecture you or anything, but we here at P&B say no way. There will be plenty of time to booze it up after pregnancy, if you must. Here's what five major pregnancy- or government-related associations and agencies had to say: Drinking alcohol during pregnancy can be harmful to you and your growing baby. Thus, the best course is not to drink at all during pregnancy. This will give your baby the best start in life. Although many women are aware that heavy drinking during pregnancy can cause birth defects, many do not realize that frequent episodes of moderate -- or even light -- drinking may also harm the developing fetus, particularly during the first and third trimesters.

"Numerous studies have shown that exposure to alcohol in the womb on a regular basis, has been linked to decreased birth weight, growth abnormalities, as well as behavioral and learning problems," says ACNM Executive Director Deanne Williams, CNM, MSN. pictures of wine colour"If you are pregnant or think you might be pregnant, play it safe."best wine store brooklyn ny "We must prevent all injury and illness that is preventable in society, and alcohol-related birth defects are completely preventable," Dr. Carmona said. best wine label paper"We do not know what, if any, amount of alcohol is safe. the best homemade wine kits

But we do know that the risk of a baby being born with any of the fetal alcohol spectrum disorders increases with the amount of alcohol a pregnant woman drinks, as does the likely severity of the condition. buy french wine in australiaAnd when a pregnant woman drinks alcohol, so does her baby. great wine marketing ideasTherefore, it's in the child's best interest for a pregnant woman to simply not drink alcohol." Stopping or cutting down drinking alcohol while pregnant will help ensure a healthy baby. No alcohol is the best (and the safest!) choice for having a healthy baby... Beer, wine, cocktails, coolers, hard liquors such as whiskey, gin or vodka, liqueurs or even hard ciders all contain alcohol that can hurt your developing baby. There is no safe type of alcohol to drink when you are pregnant. When a pregnant woman drinks alcohol, the alcohol passes through the placenta and can affect the baby's development.

This happens throughout the pregnancy, not just in the first few weeks. Excessive drinking can lead to low weight at birth and can also affect the physical and mental development of the child. Getting drunk is particularly risky. The advice is avoid getting drunk and drink no more than one or two units once or twice a week. One UK unit contains eight grams of pure alcohol and it's the strength and size of a drink that determines how many units it has. As you can see, Great Britain offers the only dissenting view. If you want to know more, here are some other articles on this topic: If you do decide to go out drinking in public while visibly pregnant, don't expect acceptance. Gwyneth Paltrow couldn't get away with it (even with the okay of her accepted British homeland), and it's unlikely that you will manage to, either. Sometimes, peer pressure is a good thing.Recently, as a “kick-in-the-butt” motivator, I promised myself that I would abstain from alcoholic beverages until I finished the first draft of a novel I’ve been working on.

I had set a target date for completing the project (June 30th), with the idea that if I didn’t finish by that date, I’d stop drinking booze until I was done. I didn’t think of it as “punishment” so much; rather a modest motivational booster to propel me towards my goal. I enjoy drinking — especially wine — and I knew that going without would help me stay focused. Well, June 30th came and went with no completed first draft in sight. No problem — it would only take a few more days to finish — soon I would be popping a cork and savoring my first glass. I did finally finish the first draft of my sci-fi novel … on August 10th. Forty days with no booze. Here’s what it felt like:Unlike giving up coffee, I felt no physical craving for alcohol, despite having a drink or two nearly every day for at least the past fifteen years. For the first few days, I found it surprising to not have a drink in my hand around 6pm, but this was a psychological effect. Giving up drink for a while helped me understand why alcoholism is often linked to highly driven, ambitious, over-achieving personality types.

The reason: a drink helps you unwind fast. With a glass of wine, you can go from 60 to 0 in half an hour or less. Without a drink, I found it took me a couple hours to come down from my more intense workdays. The no-booze period happened to coincide with some particularly stressful work situations; a large software project I had developed went into production and ran into some issues. I managed to get everything sorted out, but that involved some hair-pulling, and working more than a few nights. A glass of wine or a beer would have been really nice to help me unwind. Instead, I stayed over-alert for hours after I was done working, and sometimes (unwisely) went back to work when I should have just called it a day. After a few weeks of this, I realized I needed a better way to deal with stress. I began to meditate more, sometimes several times a day for short periods. I also tried to take the “big picture” approach to my work (nobody was going to die from any of the software malfunctions, and I would fix them all eventually).

These things helped a little, but ultimately the only thing that restored me to equilibrium was working a shorter work day, and allowing more time to unwind. Summary: booze enables workaholism, because of the fast unwind time Fat Loss and Water Retention I got skinnier during this experiment, dropping several pounds below my ideal weight. I also retained less water; after a week or so I noticed my jawline tightened up. My wife said I looked like I had been living in the mountains with bears, subsisting on fish and berries. I guess I looked a little gaunt. This, despite eating more complex and simple carbs, including a fair amount of ice cream. I had only been averaging a couple drinks a day, so I’m not sure this metabolic change was strictly caloric. I suspect my liver was slightly overburdened by daily drinking, even though I wasn’t drinking huge amounts. I think abstaining from booze allowed my liver to burn fat more efficiently, and signaled my kidneys that dehydration wasn’t as much of a risk (therefore less water retention).

Definitely better, with fewer early morning awakenings. Also, I found I no longer had to drink a lot of water in the evening to avoid waking up parched the next morning (or in the middle of the night). As I mentioned above, I definitely felt more anxious during this experiment, though a good part of that anxiety was because of my work situation. What I did notice was that when my anxiety did finally wear off, I felt happier, and optimistic about my ability to work through the problems I was facing. Sometimes I can get so amped up and worried that my anxiety morphs into despair and inaction, but this didn’t happen while I wasn’t drinking. I felt more resilient. Alcohol consumption alters the gut biome, reducing strains of Bacteroidetes and increasing Proteobacteria. Gut biome composition is related to mood, especially how we deal with stress. In the study discussed in this interview, mice fed a strain of lactobacillus (L. rhamnosus) and subjected to stressors were much calmer than the control group.

The gut bacteria communicate with the brain via the vagus nerve, influencing GABA levels in the brain (it sounds crazy, I know — but read the interview or listen to the show, or read the original study). The genus Lactobacillus is within the phylum Firmicute (and therefore neither Bacteroidetes nor Proteobacteria), but the fact remains that alcohol changes the composition of gut bacteria. This article discusses the same study in more detail. As part of the experiment, the mice were dropped into water. The probiotic-fed mice were less likely to “drift motionlessly”; instead they swam vigorously and refused to give up. I can’t explain why I felt more resilient during the no-booze period; the gut bacteria idea is pure speculation. But I definitely noticed a change in my mood. I felt a great deal of anxiety, but it didn’t get me down. Summary: despite higher stress, a sense of resilience and optimism I noticed a slight resurgence in asthma symptoms during my forty days without booze.

This was the only negative physical effect I noticed. I controlled my symptoms by increasing my vitamin D levels (I had slacked off on supplementation recently), and taking bromelain when needed. Not sure why — possibly moderate alcohol consumption modulates my immune system, making it less “twitchy” — less likely to react to grasses, pollens, and dust mites. Or it could be related to changes in the gut biome. I wouldn’t recommend booze as an asthma cure. Try vitamin D and fish oil instead. If you do drink wine, and are sensitive to sulfites, consider supplementing with small amounts of molybdenum, which is necessary to produce the enzymes involved in sulfite detoxification. Summary: for me, completely abstaining from alcohol seems to be associated with increased asthma symptoms I’m used to having a drink with friends, and I was worried that my enjoyment of social situations would be dampened by my teetotaling. This turned out not to be the case, at least while spending time with people I liked.

I did find it more difficult to remain polite in the presence of people who were actively annoying me, but I managed to hold my tongue in most cases. First draft is complete, and I’ve had my first drink. I’m relieved that the experiment is over, but I hope to drink less (and less often) from here on out. I enjoyed many of the benefits of not drinking, but it will be especially nice to be able to drink at parties. I hope to break my habit of drinking every day, and I also hope to rely less on alcohol as a workaholism-enabling crutch. I’ll let you know how it goes. Study after study points to the probability that light drinkers live longer and are healthier than strict teetotalers. But it’s now obvious to me that I was drinking more than ideally benefited my health. Since I have only one functioning copy of the MTHFR gene, alcohol may adversely affect my folate levels, and perhaps other physiological processes as well. Hope you found this post to be helpful, or at least entertaining.