IF PREGNANT women can鈥檛 give up drinking there might one day be a drug they can take to protect their fetuses from brain damage.
of Texas A&M University gave pregnant sheep alcohol and then doxapram, a drug that counteracts some of the effects of ethanol. He found the drug stopped the alcohol from destroying cells in the fetuses鈥� brains (American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, ). 鈥淭he best solution is not drinking, but when education has done everything it can, and women still drink, we have to look for alternatives,鈥� he says.
Meanwhile, to see if supplements of choline, found in the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, can achieve similar results.
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