Anchor - Part 1

As early as 7 weeks before ovulation this ‘pre-egg’, or Oocyte, in the ovary since before birth, will have 'woken up' and be developing.

Round the Oocyte, Food-stores form for the coming 8-day free-floating journey to the womb-wall. A Gland to sustain pregnancy also forms.

The right nutrients are vital to build healthy cells, free of interfering toxins.

Public pollution - we can help reduce. Personal pollution - we can stop.

At conception the sperm and ovum have been long developing, so smoking and alcohol are harmful, not just in pregnancy, but in the months before pregnancy. [18]

For some weeks before conceiving, changing from a contraceptive pill to condoms avoids possible harm from residue of a hormonal contraceptive.

Low birthweight and prematurity carry risks. What factors increase the risks?

This list shows the 10 main risks from before conception. [113, 4]

Premature birth, often due to poor growth, aggravates problems.

When people are young and may be swept off their feet in love, they may find themselves starting a baby sooner than they expected. It's best if people keep themselves well nurtured to give any children the best chance in life.

Stress, whether emotional, nutritional or from disease, is best minimised for everyone's sake, especially the child's.

The man as well as the woman needs to be toxin-free and well-nourished. Sperm are developing many months ahead of possible fertilisation, an important time for the child-to-be.

In both sperm and ovum, around conception, switches on the genes ('epigenetic') are being reset (see below).

Appropriate settings are essential to development and health through life, another reason for robust health and nutrition of both partners before conception.

The health of each parent affects their children's lasting health and ability, and their children's children. [5,6,7]

L Nilsson

Preconception care is not a new idea
Good feeding before conception has been practised for thousands of generations - for farm animals if not always for humans! A renewal of preconception care was sparked by the terrible Dutch Hunger Winter of 1944/5.

Babies conceived during the worst shortage suffered most deaths and malformations

Babies conceived during, and just following, the worst shortage were worst affected, and their children too suffered effects.

By the 1990s, vitamins including B9 folate, and minerals, given before conception in controlled trials, greatly reduced infant malformations.

Sources (Stein 1975, Heijmans 2008, House 2009) {99, 100, 101}

The embryo at 3 weeks is a disc, which curls and then seals into a neural tube. If specific nutrients are short, sealing may be incomplete, leaving malformation. Ensuring complete sealing protects from spina bifida, cleft palate and limb reduction.

Those brain cells you can see are also vulnerable at this early stage.

Physical impairments cannot be corrected by subsequent development but can mainly be prevented by preconception care.

Preparation for conceiving a child could not be more rewarding.

Preconception care gives your child the greatest chance of fulfilling his or her genetic potential.

The preconception supplement best known is folic acid - or better folate - vitamin B9, which is best eaten as food - leafy greens, beans etc. [12]

People conceived during Gambia's wet vegetable season are 10 times less likely to die from disease than those conceived in its dry grain season.

Folate fortification of flour is reducing neural tube defects in many places including UK.

Nutrients powerfully affect first trimester development, as has long been clear of the neural tube, for instance.

Specifically brain development is affected by first trimester intake of nuts.

Performance at 1.5 years; 5 years; and 8 years correlated with nut intake specifically in the first trimester - longitudinal study May 2019 by Gignac F, Julvez J. et al. [25]

Obstetrics & gynaecology

Fish for the brain

Another vital nutrient, especially for the brain, is omega-3 DHA, mainly from fish, long associated with brain quality, and explained scientifically in the 1970s. [21]

By 6 months in the womb, the already large brain is growing extra fast, making a huge demand on the mother for DHA. The ‘placental pump’ favours the fetus, If DHA is short, the fetus draws it from the mother’s brain, Her lack of DHA often causes her depression, as is common with the Western diet and affects the child [24] .

L Nilsson

Brain grows fastest from 6-months in the womb to the first months after birth.

Contrast the hand-sizes of mother and baby. The baby's brain and head size is fast catching up with his mother's.

Simon House

DHA has been essential to evolve and sustain the brains of all species. Of larger mammals, only sea mammals can reach brain size comparable to humans, since they need mainly fish or algae.

Only seashore evolution - or riverside or lakeside - and fish could have fed our brain to reach the size it has [24]

Shellfish are perfect for pregnant mothers to gather their own supply. [48]

Shutterstock.com

Foresight Preconception Care was established for couples suffering infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth, or a malformed baby.
For 40 years Nim Barnes showed the value of preparing for pregnancy,

Foresight screened both partners, and corrected for nutrient deficits, toxins, and hidden diseases. In a university-monitored cohort of 367 couples 89% conceived, all bearing healthy well-developed babies. Subsequent records are also available. [26]

Foresight Preconception Care achieved twice the success rate of IVF's just for conception, [29] preventing the need for IVF with its related risks, and raising IVF's success rate when used in combination.

The very caring attitude of Nim Barnes no doubt reduced stress, a significant factor. [27,28] For further comment click: https://www.michellesblog.co.uk/conceiving-healthy-babies-naturally/

L Nilsson

Like the baby here, we all begin in our grandmothers, a generation before our conception!

Transgenerational effects pass down by both genders. [38]

So our grandparents’ lifestyles have affected how we are, and our lifestyles are affecting how our grandchildren will be, as well as our children.

The longer ahead parents have been building their own health, the healthier the generations to come – unintended babies too!

Do not forget - we are still evolving!

Both parents, especially the woman, need to be healthy. As children they need to have learned how to nourish themselves, keep exercised, and free of infection and toxins.

Children need to learn young how to build their health.

Eat-Better-Start-Better [1]

Whatever your age, you may like to understand more about this fascinating subject in Part 2.

Home: Part 2 - for experts

PART 2. is primarily for health professionals, teachers, and authorities, yet it is for everyone who wishes to understand the reasons to promote healthy conception. It is the way for the world’s babies to begin life with the best chances possible.

Our Brain, most important, complex and vulnerable,
is most in need of protection to reach its full potential.

Preconception care can turn the rising tide of disorders, of learning and behavioural problems, school exclusion, un-employability and crime.

So many children are conceived and
born to be happy. But . .

MRI scan M Witmore

80% of crime follows
childhood behaviour problems,

some at 2 or 3 years, [4]
with a high risk of problems
of learning, of unemployment, even prison.

Yet specialist care preschool stabilised half the children
by age 5½
in mainstream education,
freeing them from high risk.

[4,39,40]

Eat-Better-Start-Better [1]

Epigenetic switches are altered biochemically by nutrition and emotions. At conception they are set some according to mother's, some to father's.

Epigenetic changes continue but fewer after conception.

Epigenetic settings from healthy parents help protect a child from: obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular and mental disorders,

Healthy settings also reduce risks of:
autism, dyslexia, dyscalculia, behaviour and learning problems, and eating disorders.
Causes of these are likely prenatal, very likely before conception.

Below 3.2 kg - only slightly below average -a child’s birth-weight correlates with the mother's nutrient deficits by some:

20% - key minerals & vitamins, [19]
50% - omega-3 DHA [19,20]
70% - ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 oils (since omega-6 competes with omega-3 for enzyme use).

Note: The wide range of theses nutrients trialed and advised is tabled & referenced shortly before the main References.

The source of omega-3 DHA is mainly fish, long associated with brain quality, since 1972 shown scientifically. [21]

The mother's build-up of micro-nutrient stores for crucial stages, such as the neural tube's sealing at 3 weeks; or major call for DHA in the brain’s rapid growth spurt in the third trimester, is high priority. DHA shortage will prejudice the baby's brain and deplete the mother’s brain, rendering her liable to depression.

Deprivation’s worst and lasting effects on the fetus are due to poor maternal nutrition, and increased stress, with high maternal-fetal cortisol. [41] Stress and its effects are reduced by caring family, friends, and professional support, Comfort reduces cortisol, increasing endorphins and other hormones favouring development.

All negative factors play a part in the Cycle of Deprivation, repeating each generation. Badly deprived areas have many more low birthweight babies than better off areas, eg UK [42] or Berlin [61]

Twins, low birthweight and IVF.

With twins: low birthweight is 10 times as likely to occur; preterm 9 times as likely, infant death 5 times; cerebral palsy 4 times, neonatal costs are on average 16 times average.
Of 20 twin pairs in the UK, 13 to 19 have been from IVF.

IVF is used most wisely and effectively in the tenth of cases when preconception care has not been enough to allow conception. Preconception care saves hassle, risk, and high cost and it has been shown to double the chance of IVF success,[27] with a strong record of achieving fully healthy children. IVF is important in specific cases such as a blocked fallopian tube.

Low birth weight has long been the main marker of poor development.

The lower a child's birth-weight below 3.2 kg the greater the risk of problems.

Anchor 1

Prevention of problems before conception works best. Preconception supplementing of minerals & vitamins, notably folate, was shown to prevent neural tube disorders by around 90% and cardiovascular disorders by 50% in large controlled trials. [9, 10, 11]

Folate takes some weeks to build up in red blood cells so needs to be increased well in advance of conception.

Foresight Preconception Care, for couples suffering infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth, or malformation, screened both partners,
correcting for nutrient deficits, toxins, and hidden diseases. With such high risk parents, figures on the right show a university monitored cohort, Similar records extend over several decades.

Building cells and setting switches

Epigenetic re-setting continues during gestation and subsequently but never as extensively as at conception. These settings are reversible, but in evolution multiple epigenetic changes correlate with mutations, which are not reversible, making diet especially significant (House 2011). [43] The danger is sudden changes to our evolutionary diet through our revolutions in agriculture, industry and food preparation. These endanger our health, particularly in reproduction. ‘The metabolic syndrome’ – obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular and mental disorders – is related particularly to periconceptional epigenetics.

Brain development and vital omega-3 DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) - The connection between brain health and fish was first made scientifically in 1972 by Professor Michael Crawford (Crawford & Crawford 1972).[44] The prime molecule is omega-3 docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), the most important lipid (fat) in the brain’s structure, and even in the whole body.

The mother’s shortage at conception of omega-3 DHA risks leaving her baby's brain with developmental flaws visible in scans at birth. [22,23] This is scarcely surprising, recalling the visibility of early brain-cells at 3 weeks from conception.

Any such flaws will be experienced later as mental disorder.

The main factors underlying brain developmental disorders are understood through blood analyses, brain-scans, epidemiology, genetics and epigenetics.

Mental health's dependence on fish/ DHA is clear in these cross-nations graphs (Hibbeln 2001). [47]

The biggest demand for DHA is when the already large fetal brain is growing rapidly, during the 3rd-trimester and soon after birth (Crawford & Sinclair 1972)[45], when the brain’s demands are often too much for the mother’s supply (Cunnane 2014)[46].

The ‘placental pump’ then favours the fetus, leaving the mother’s brain short of DHA.
This is commonly the cause of a mothers’ perinatal depression, which harms her bonding with her child and wellbeing of both.

The baby's large brain's months of fastest growth, before and following birth, making heaviest demand for DHA, must be when shortage impacts worst on mother & baby.

As well as leaving the mother with depression, shortage can impact on the offspring's brain, with subsequent problems in mental health, behaviour and learning.

Children’s mental problems are often named to classify a child's prime need for help in school. But they they are not entirely distinct.. 67% of Conduct Disorders co-occur with Speech Language & Communication Needs (SLCN), [59] which in turn co-occurs with Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy and Autism. [60] And children's classifications vary from one school-stage to another.

Cerebral Palsy, not common but can be a severe brain disorder at high cost - the tip of the iceberg.

Autism and Epilepsy come next, less severe, less expensive per person, but more common.

Still less severe but still more common are
Speech, Language & Communication Needs (SLCN).
Boundaries between these three are unclear.
Prevalence & Costs are UK indicated in Chart.

All these problems impinge heavily on the child’s life, the family, and the school.

Sources (Boyes Turner UK, All Party PG Epilepsy 2007, Knapp 2014, Secretary for Health 2001, Cooper 2004, Freeman 2006) [53,54,55,56,57,58]

Behaviour problems and co-occurring disorders

Behaviour difficulties correlate with Disadvantaged Environment [62] as well as with Low Birthweight,
and either factor raises the risk of behavioural problems.
- behavioural problems increase 30% for each kilogram drop in birthweight. [63]
- at school age ADHD and other behaviours directly relate to prematurity, as do cognitive scores. [64]
These problems can be temporarily ameliorated by nutrition. Both children’s behavioural problems, and young prisoners’ violence, were significantly reduced by fish oil supplements. [65,66]

Special Educational Needs (SEN) are clearly related to prenatal factors, as shown by SEN's strong correlation with low birthweight.
(The dip after 'Very low' is due to mercifully few birthweights so low). [61]

The size of Bettge's study indicates reliability.

The correlation of birthweight below 3kg with learning difficulties at 5-6 years, reflects the harsh reality that:

Central Nervous System Disorders likewise correlate with Low Birth Weight. [102]

Late adolescence and adulthood
In unfolding lives we see developmental problems striking teenagers more deeply. Many find themselves excluded from school, 'Not in Education, Training or Employment' (NEET), and even falling into crime.

The prevalence and cost of NEETs, and of crime after early onset behaviour problems, are portrayed in this Chart. [27,4]

Preventing offensive behaviours before they arise

The excellent success of Sure Start and others' parent-child preschool programs, particularly in disadvantaged areas, (Farrington 2006) [70] encourages preconception care to prevent developmental problems before any occur. Education in such as nutrition and not smoking, care to reduce hidden diseases, and stress, would reduce low birth-weight, prematurity, and brain damage, behavioural and learning problems.

Children, whose mothers in pregnancy had eaten less than two meals of fish a week, scored lower at age 3 years, and at 7,
on four intelligence counts:
     - social
      - prosocial development
      - fine motor
      - verbal IQ

Serious shortfall in such development is likely to risk serious social problems, even violence, [50]

Homicide and suicide rates across nations correlate with lower seafood consumption. Again, fish or DHA shortage is likely to affect populations at the point in the life-cycle when it is needed in greatest quantity, that is in the third trimester, the peak of demand by fetus and mother.

Clearly increasing fish intake promises a fall in violent behaviour, and best policy would be a general raising of DHA levels by algae and fish consumption, especially for those most likely to conceive.

Particularly with tendencies to violence, plentiful DHA is vital not only in brain development but in sustaining its good function,

Similar nutrition improves problems not
prevented in development. -

Supplemented with fish-oils:

1. schoolchildren with coordination disorders significantly improved performance.

2. young prisoners' incidents of violence fell by 37% within a fortnight, sustained for 9 months of the double-blind controlled trial.

Throughout pregnancy, loving support, especially in times of stress or shock, is important to the child's present and future life. [32,33,34] This has for decades been the concern of key pre- and perinatal societies. [35,36]

A child is powerfully affected by the psycho-neurological state of the mother, and the family emotional environment.

Shock and stress in pregnancy

Stress and shock have different effects on a child’s life depending on stage of gestation.

Women in pregnancy were surveyed following this earthquake in California.

Women who had been shocked during their first trimester had significantly more premature births.

After 9/11, the twin towers’ destruction in 2001, women who had been in their third trimester had children significantly more stressed.

Shock or stress, or separation, is often unavoidable, but recognising their effects in pregnancy increases the chance of extra protection or support, and perhaps counselling.

There can be profound effects on the child's behaviour and learning ability.

Impacts on a child in pregnancy or birth vary according to stage of development, as shown here.

A cell-memory scientist, Frank Lake, became a psychiatrist.

Lake, and his large team of psychotherapists, became convinced that their patients’ anxieties were rooted in early cell-memory, and that events at conception and in early pregnancy had the strongest impact. [30,31]

Frank Lake's view was widely rejected until scientists understood epigenetics, changeable switches on the genes, all of which are reset at the time of conception.

The lower a baby's birthweight below normal, and the more preterm, the more risk of problems, including long-term. Here are some of the problems: [103,104]

The risk of perinatal death with normal birth-weight is just over 1 in 1000. But with low birth-weight the risk rises 27 times, very low 130 times.

For ear and retina, and lungs, risks also rise steeply as birth-weight falls.

White matter brain circuits with low birthweight are altered, likely reducing cognitive function, & contributing in early adulthood to psychotic experiences. [105]

Shorter gestational age means risk of:

- less well developed Cortex

- abnormal White matter

- differences between Regions

A premature child tends to have a brain showing less folding because the extension of arteries and other tissue has been inhibited, as is apparent in this scan.

The shorter gestation, the more neuromotor and cognitive impairments. Below 32 weeks these correlate with :
- A disability at 5 years
- DCD and ADHD at 7-8

These disorders contribute to poor coordination and communication, with learning and behaviour difficulties and disabilities, and in adolescence with nervousness and moodiness. Below 27 weeks, risk of cerebral palsy increases 56 times.

The high risk of crime after early onset conduct disorder [4]

Above we referred to toddlers with behavior problems established, by child-parent intervention, in mainstream education. If intervention could be advanced to prevent the developmental damage in the first place, serious suffering would be more effectively reduced, and much more money saved. Strong evidence shows this is achievable, and is just what Sainsbury CMH's following report in 2010 [114] called for, jointly with the Medical Research Council's Strategic Review [115]

Figures above have been indicating the bearing of prenatal and preconceptional conditions on subsequent intelligence, learning and behaviour.

Preconception care would surely reduce prenatal impairment and the need for special preschool programs

Most important is that all children and young generally are educated in preconception care.

The simplest and most promising first step seems to be extending school sex-education to conception-education, making its significance part of public awareness.

By the time couples intend children they are often distracted with earnings home-finding for such attention. Anyway, so many conceptions are unintended. [71]

Even in 1986 the renowned pioneer Geoffrey Chamberlain MD, FRCS, FRCOG said ‘prepregancy education’ should be long before anticipation of pregnancy, by those who look after young people in schools. [37]

Raised Relative Risks from unemployment to crime

Even if success of wider preconception care were only a small percentage, some millions of offspring in the UK would be protected: some £billions pa would be saved from the Costs Table further below.

The red figure ~ 3 is hard to gauge. The graph above (Find 'Deprivation') shows socially 'upper' parents have only one-fifth as many babies of low birthweight as 'lower'. [58,61,72] Improving conditions is essential.

[

Early-life risks of those in prison are shown in a Table just before main references.

Underlying violent tendencies are depression and mental disturbance, easily triggered by political terrorism.

In recent US mass shootings at least 57% had shot someone in the family or intimate relationship. In at least 21 incidents the shooter had a prior domestic violence charge. [106]

Brain scan of a murderer (right) and a normal control (left), illustrating the lack of activation in the prefrontal cortex in the murderer.

Warm colors (e.g., red and yellow) indicate areas of high brain activation; cold colors (e.g. blue and green) indicate low activation. [110]

Comparing prisoners’ relative risks further, their mental disorders and suicide are 14 and 15 times general levels.

A criminologist, imprisoned for growing cannabis, commented on prisoners’ disturbed lives:

"I found 50% of my fellow inmates functionally illiterate, 50% mentally or emotionally disturbed, with horrendous childhood backstories. Helping a suicidal young guy with form-filling, I asked his age and place of birth - he replied:

'I dunno. They never told me.'”

The World Health Organisation pays great attention to children's stunting, emphasising the vital importance of preventative caring.

Parenting and caregiving programs are protecting fetal/child development, focusing on nutrition, disease-prevention and alleviating stress,

WHO's Preconception Care is maximizing the gains for mother and child health preventing stunting, prematurity and low birthweight.

4 out of 10 women report that their pregnancies are unplanned. WHO is raising awareness so that more conceptions, even unintentional will be by healthy parents.[112]

To see health optimisation from the beginning of each life as first priority is truly encouraging, particularly through:
- Adolescent preconception nutrition

- Agriculture and food security

- Social safety nets [111]

"Conception-education of children & adolescents is now foreseen". And strongly promoted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) [90]

Preconception & Pregnancy Care (PPC)

Lifecycle’s most vulnerable phase is PRECONCEPTION. Society throughout the lifecycle needs to keep this in mind in relation to forming partnerships

Infancy & Pre-school care

PPC learning in School & adolescence

Infancy, Pre-school

School & adolescence

"Pre-pregnancy education should be long before anticipating pregnancy, by those who look after young people in schools“

Pioneer - Geoffrey Chamberlain MD, FRCS, FRCOG – 1986 [37]

“The school curriculum is a key vehicle to support
better preconception care: relationships, sexual health, and preparation for parenthood”

Secondary School guidance teachers and youth workers
have the most opportunity
to work with young people prior to conception

Reproductive years

World Health Organization 2012

PPC revision in Reproductive years

Grandparental encouragement

in Preconception & Pregnancy Care (PPC)

Preconception, Pregnancy,

Schools + NHS + Church in Lanarkshire
coordinate
preconception care & awareness-raising
including
social media and mobiles

Extending sex-education to conception-education would reach everyone in good time. If left until conception is intended (Van Dijk 2016), [71] income- and home-finding are too distracting for such attention. And so many conceptions are unintended. Even in 1986 the renowned pioneer said

"Pre-pregnancy education’ should be long before anticipation of pregnancy,

by those who look after young people in schools".

(Geoffrey Chamberlain MD, FRCS, FRCOG 1986). [37]

]

Developmental disorders, crime, and heavy costs, reducible by preconception care

Reduction of disorders of even a few percent would save in the UK some millions of offspring, and some
£ billions pa. The

UK Peace Index (UKPI) [73] rated crime at £124billion in 2010 for England and Wales.

The question is ‘Can we afford NOT to implement such preconception programs?’ We have only to see the UK figures.

* Fineberg excludes cerebral palsy & Knapp’s autism figure. References in next Table.

Prevalence and cost of UK's mental and other problems reducible by preconception care

This total £351bn is over 17.5% of our Gross National Product (£2 Trillion)

Preconception care could substantially reduce this huge cost, protecting the health of millions.

Only 1/3rd of this cost is the official cost of UK brain disorders £113 billion (2010).

Taking a wider view - in 2010

Europe's Brain Disorders cost 800€billion. The indirect costs of preventable disorders and indirect effects could, like ours, have been some 3 times this amount. [88]

World costs, with wider variations, would not necessarily be so much more than the rated $2.5 trillion but are forecast to by 2030 to be $6 trillion. [89]

Earlier intervention to build on the success reported by Sainsbury
We can complement this early intervention success against conduct disorders reported by Sainsbury 2009. Our evidence justifies two actions:

Promote preconception care to reduce fetal brain impairment and raise levels of health and ability .
Extend our study in periconception maternal blood analysis that predicts pregnancy outcome.

Protection from harm in reproduction inevitably has the greatest potential for health.

The Mother and Child Foundation needs financial support for these actions.

The World Health Organisation's agenda features their attractive preconception care leaflet. [90]

The International Society for the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD)[91] is associated with WHO,
Their Mobile Health Platform [92] helps to implement preconception care, locally and globally, approaching couples wishing to have children. [71] Success is yet partial, but at this stage the young tend to be distracted by home- and job-seeking. Extending sex-education to conception-education seems more promising.

ACTION

A healthy, able and happy generation will only come from women and men who have been brought up healthy, active, and well-nourished, free of toxins and excessive stress. We must give the young this knowledge so that they can make informed choices.
The reasons for preconception education and care must be brought home to:

Appropriate professions Schoolchildren The general public

"Fish is good for the brain" - an age-old saying but
in 1972 Professor Michael Crawford showed us the molecule that matters most - omega-3 DHA - short for docosahexaenoic acid.

DHA, a chain of 22 carbon atoms, has 6 double-bonds giving it unique electronic and photo-electric properties. The landmark research won Michael Crawford the Alexander Leaf Award. DHA, in the oceans' algae and seaweeds for 2 billion years, is essential to cell membranes, and now especially to brain and retina.

Pinterest.com

Professor Michael A Crawford, PhD, FRSB, FRCPath, Imperial College, London

Director The Institute of Brain Chemistry & Human Nutrition & The Mother and Child Foundation

http://www.themotherandchildfoundation.org/how-eat-well-before-pregnancy/ Vital work you can donate to

Awards include:

~ Order of the Rising Sun, 2015, Tokyo
~ Chevreul Medal, 2015, Paris
~ Alexander Leaf Distinguished Scientist Award 2016
for Lifetime Achievement, ISSFAL, Stellenbosch

~ Global Award for Research 2018, Omega 3 and
Neuroscience, Much Love Foundation, China.

Michael Crawford Order Rising Sun Borodun CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57123722

From great kelp forests to micro-algae with their omega-3 DHA, plus iodine, selenium, zinc, copper and manganese, all are essential to brain development and function. Consumed by fish, and in fish, around the world, these are our main brain-food.

DHA is important,to every cell in the body, especially to brain, retina and heart.

Fish, and shellfish, their habitats and foods must be regenerated.

Brain-food resources seriously threatened - in 1990 Crawford sparked Japan's planting of seaweeds and corals, with reefs for habitats and structures to divert pollution flow, winning him Japan's Order of the Rising Sun.

China, the Philippines, Oman, and others have followed his sea-bed agriculture, essential to human and planetary well-being.

Bluegreen algae like trees photosynthesise carbon dioxide into oxygen, reducing global warming.

Regeneration of fish habitats and algae should be happening globally, with inland waters too.

Micro-algae, such as spirulina and chlorella, are a source of DHA, so essential to fish, as well s ourselves..

Seagrass is needed for fish to graze, just as grass for cows to graze.

Kelp - https://ideas.ted.com/vertical-ocean-farms-that-can-feed-us-and-help-our-seas/

Smithsonian Ocean Institution

Algae around waterlily https://www.peacefuldumpling.com/algae-vegan-protein

steemit.com/superfood/@vitaminoza/superfoods-spirulina

Seagrass Smithsonian Ocean Institution

DHA's control of electron flow seems due to exceptional closeness of the double-bonds.
Still at the cutting-edge in this field

Michael Crawford's Chevreul Medal is on the quantum qualities of DHA and its π-electrons effect,

This presents the closest understanding yet of brain functions: how we sense the outside world, how we remember and act, even how we are conscious at all.. [94]

Such understanding is crucial against today's major threats to the human brain.

Crawford et al 2008 https://www.terrapub.co.jp/onlineproceedings/fs/wfc2008/pdf/wfcbk_057.pdf

chem.ucla.edu
http://www.chem.ucla.edu/~harding/IGOC/P/pi_electron.html

https://www.ocl-journal.org/articles/ocl/pdf/2018/04/ocl180011s.pdf

On land as well as at sea we have to evolve our practices beyond current intensive farming methods. We have to safeguard both nutritional content and our environment.

Global food choices better for our health and the planet’s are vital for our survival, to reduce climate change and meet nutritional needs.

Farming less intensively, more in keeping with our evolutionary variety, will benefit us, reducing dangers to children conceived.

Intensive farming Evan Raffi

3 Books

Nutrition & Evolution, by Professor
Michael Crawford & David Marsh, clarifies our evolution from the earliest, through eons enjoying sea and land's combined nutrition for our amazing brain,

The book warns how modern food choices imperil our health, most seriously our brain, yet also shows how we can regenerate resources and health.

Nutrition and Science,
a Darwinian Perspective
by Dr John Nichols, is a scholarly detailed book, including his 1990s
preconception clinic in General Practice.

The Unborn Child by Roy Ridgway and
Simon House shows that conception free from nutritional or emotional stress can benefit a person's entire life.

This is the website of Simon House.

http://www.herald.co.zw

Michael Crawford David Marsh,

John Nichols Simon House

All these books show how our evolution continues to be affected by our environment, particularly diet and lifestyle. Effects are now as dangerous as changes are rapid.

So we have to do all we can to communicate this science, for world peace, prosperity and creativity.

CONCLUDING

Outcry against air pollution – alarm at traffic fumes stunting children’s lungs and brains. Yet even earlier, in the womb, or even before conception, poor conditions can cause more serious damage, leaving both cognitive and emotional brains stunted.

Most children seriously affected are in our shamingly deprived areas. We cannot as a society afford to have such areas, damaging our children, our gene-pool, in degenerative evolution. The economic folly of policies allowing such disadvantage are made clear in financial costings above,

Much damage is preventable as explained . To prosper, any society must sustain and safeguard all its members. Our voices have to shout loud, for public action for government action, to achieve comprehensive welfare. The young especially need to understand how they as partners can protect their children in advance of conception.

Sure Start and others have wonderfully redirected toddler’s lives. But damage begins earlier, and is largely preventable. Every woman, man and child needs to know the best chance of giving children the best possible beginning in life.

Is that what you wish?

We wish you the very best outcome!

Every boy and every girl, before leaving school, needs to understand how people need to prepare for having healthy and able children, Never again will they have such a chance to learn, and prepare..

The World Health Organisation says we must invest in healthy and able future generations, the lives of billions of people and families. So people will be healthier, happier and more creative.

Eat-Better-Start-Better

Eat-Better-Start-Better

This website is set up by Ben House & Callum House-Davies

for Simon H House MA Cantab, Natural Sciences & Theology

Publications by Simon House include:
Transgenerational healing: Educating children in genesis of healthy children, with focus on nutrition, emotion,
and epigenetic effects on brain development, 2014 Nutrition & Health 22.1
Epigenetics in Adaptive Evolution and Development, in Handbook of Epigenetics 2011, Tollefsbol. Also 2014
Nutrition & Health 23.1
Nurture of the brain, nutritional and emotional, in the lifecycle. 2009 Int J Pre- Perinatal Psych & Med
Schoolchildren, maternal nutrition and generating healthy brains. 2009 Nutrition & Health 20.1
The Unborn Child - Beginning a Whole Life and Overcoming Problems of Early Origin. 2006 R Ridgway &
SH House. Karnac Books
Stages in reproduction particularly vulnerable to xenobiotic hazards and nutritional deficits. In Generating

Healthy People. 2000 Nutr & Health 14.3
Primal Integration Therapy – Frank Lake MRC Psych, DPM, 1999 Int J Pre- Perinatal Psych & Med
Ed Generating Healthy Brains, articles of conference 17 Jan 2006. 2007 Nutrition and Health 19.1-2

Societies

Mother & Child Foundation – http://www.themotherandchildfoundation.org/how-eat-well-before-pregnancy/

Inst of Brain Chemistry & Human Nutrition – www.ibchn.org.uk

McCarrison Society for Nutrition & Health – www.mccarrisonsociety.org.uk/his.htm

Royal Soc of Med – Food & Health Council - www.rsm.ac.uk/

Assoc for Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health – N. America – www.birthpsychology.com/

Child Health International – www.childhealthinternational.org/

Eat-Better-Start-Better

Nutrient correlations with birthweight, supple-mentation comparisons and recommended levels .

Interest in folate fortification can be advised by Czeizel's results, showing a fraction of folate B9 content of the 7 Countries study to be at least as effective with stronger support from other vitamins, notably B12.

Foresight's high performance is notable for analysis of each partner's hair and blood, assessment of lifestyle and hidden infections.

Prisoners’ mental problems are understandably more prevalent than the general level. But these are problems mainly from earlier life, likely to contribute to offending rather than purely result from imprisonment.

Many problems of IQ are found, of learning and communication; of early behavioural records and mental diagnoses.

The relative risks carried by inmates earlier in life ranged from 6 to 28 times the general level.

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At conception the sperm and ovum have been long developing, so smoking and alcohol are harmful, not just in pregnancy, but in the months before pregnancy. [18]

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For some weeks before conceiving, changing from a contraceptive pill to condoms avoids possible harm from residue of a hormonal contraceptive.

Low birthweight and prematurity carry risks. What factors increase the risks?

This list shows the 10 main risks from before conception. [113, 4]

Premature birth, often due to poor growth, aggravates problems.

When people are young and may be swept off their feet in love, they may find themselves starting a baby sooner than they expected. It's best if people keep themselves well nurtured to give any children the best chance in life.

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Stress, whether emotional, nutritional or from disease, is best minimised for everyone's sake, especially the child's.

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The man as well as the woman needs to be toxin-free and well-nourished. Sperm are developing many months ahead of possible fertilisation, an important time for the child-to-be.

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L Nilsson

L Nilsson

MRI scan M Witmore

Sources (Boyes Turner UK, All Party PG Epilepsy 2007, Knapp 2014, Secretary for Health 2001, Cooper 2004, Freeman 2006) [53,54,55,56,57,58]

The correlation of birthweight below 3kg with learning difficulties at 5-6 years, reflects the harsh reality that:

Central Nervous System Disorders likewise correlate with Low Birth Weight. [102]

Children, whose mothers in pregnancy had eaten less than two meals of fish a week, scored lower at age 3 years, and at 7, on four intelligence counts: - social - prosocial development - fine motor - verbal IQ

Serious shortfall in such development is likely to risk serious social problems, even violence, [50]

Throughout pregnancy, loving support, especially in times of stress or shock, is important to the child's present and future life. [32,33,34] This has for decades been the concern of key pre- and perinatal societies. [35,36]

A child is powerfully affected by the psycho-neurological state of the mother, and the family emotional environment.

The lower a baby's birthweight below normal, and the more preterm, the more risk of problems, including long-term. Here are some of the problems: [103,104]

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The risk of perinatal death with normal birth-weight is just over 1 in 1000. But with low birth-weight the risk rises 27 times, very low 130 times.

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For ear and retina, and lungs, risks also rise steeply as birth-weight falls.

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White matter brain circuits with low birthweight are altered, likely reducing cognitive function, & contributing in early adulthood to psychotic experiences. [105]

The high risk of crime after early onset conduct disorder [4]

Raised Relative Risks from unemployment to crime

Underlying violent tendencies are depression and mental disturbance, easily triggered by political terrorism.

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In recent US mass shootings at least 57% had shot someone in the family or intimate relationship. In at least 21 incidents the shooter had a prior domestic violence charge. [106]

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Extending sex-education to conception-education would reach everyone in good time. If left until conception is intended (Van Dijk 2016), [71] income- and home-finding are too distracting for such attention. And so many conceptions are unintended. Even in 1986 the renowned pioneer said

"Pre-pregnancy education’ should be long before anticipation of pregnancy,

by those who look after young people in schools".

(Geoffrey Chamberlain MD, FRCS, FRCOG 1986). [37]

Developmental disorders, crime, and heavy costs, reducible by preconception care

This total £351bn is over 17.5% of our Gross National Product (£2 Trillion)

Taking a wider view - in 2010

"Fish is good for the brain" - an age-old saying but in 1972 Professor Michael Crawford showed us the molecule that matters most - omega-3 DHA - short for docosahexaenoic acid.

Pinterest.com

Professor Michael A Crawford, PhD, FRSB, FRCPath, Imperial College, London

Director The Institute of Brain Chemistry & Human Nutrition & The Mother and Child Foundation

http://www.themotherandchildfoundation.org/how-eat-well-before-pregnancy/ Vital work you can donate to

Michael Crawford Order Rising Sun Borodun CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57123722

From great kelp forests to micro-algae with their omega-3 DHA, plus iodine, selenium, zinc, copper and manganese, all are essential to brain development and function. Consumed by fish, and in fish, around the world, these are our main brain-food.

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DHA is important,to every cell in the body, especially to brain, retina and heart.

Fish, and shellfish, their habitats and foods must be regenerated.

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Brain-food resources seriously threatened - in 1990 Crawford sparked Japan's planting of seaweeds and corals, with reefs for habitats and structures to divert pollution flow, winning him Japan's Order of the Rising Sun.

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China, the Philippines, Oman, and others have followed his sea-bed agriculture, essential to human and planetary well-being.

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Bluegreen algae like trees photosynthesise carbon dioxide into oxygen, reducing global warming.

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Children, whose mothers in pregnancy had eaten less than two meals of fish a week, scored lower at age 3 years, and at 7,
on four intelligence counts:
- social
- prosocial development
- fine motor
- verbal IQ

"Fish is good for the brain" - an age-old saying but
in 1972 Professor Michael Crawford showed us the molecule that matters most - omega-3 DHA - short for docosahexaenoic acid.

DHA's control of electron flow seems due to exceptional closeness of the double-bonds.
Still at the cutting-edge in this field

chem.ucla.edu
http://www.chem.ucla.edu/~harding/IGOC/P/pi_electron.html

Nutrition & Evolution, by Professor
Michael Crawford & David Marsh, clarifies our evolution from the earliest, through eons enjoying sea and land's combined nutrition for our amazing brain,

Nutrition and Science,
a Darwinian Perspective
by Dr John Nichols, is a scholarly detailed book, including his 1990s
preconception clinic in General Practice.