Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/yYmS5vid8Q4   Pregnant women who use marijuana in its various forms give birth to babies who, at nearly 5 years of age, are 8 times fatter than the offspring of non-users.  Epidemiologists at the University of Texas and the Colorado School of Public Health studied 193 mothers whom they tested for serum cannabis metabolites during their pregnancies and their offspring who underwent in-depth metabolic testing at an average of 4.7 years of age.  na The results of two separate analyses indicate that children who were cannabis-exposed during their fetal development vs those who were not had fat masses that were an average of 2.6 kg higher, fat-free masses that were 13 kg higher, adiposity levels that were 17%age points higher and BMIs that were 15.9 kg/m2 higher.  The exposed children also had fasting glucose levels that were 74.9 mg/dL higher.   The bottom line: marijuana use by pregnant women is associated with heavier children and a possibly higher risk of developing obesity and dia