Medicine: Caffeine Nerves

A warning to pregnant women

When next a pregnant woman reaches for a cup of that old pick-me-up, she should be urged to put it down. So advised the Food and Drug Administration last week. For coffee—like tea, cola drinks, chocolate and cocoa, and some drugs—contains caffeine, and, says the FDA, that substance may be linked to birth defects.

Caffeine is a stimulant known to penetrate the placenta and reach the fetus. A new FDA study has shown harmful effects on the offspring of 305 pregnant rats force-fed caffeine through a tube into the stomach. Those that consumed caffeine in amounts equivalent to a human drinking between twelve and 24 cups of coffee a day gave birth to offspring with missing toes. After birth, rats whose mothers had received caffeine in amounts comparable to only two cups of coffee a day in humans did not grow as fast as normal.

Though suggestive, the findings do not firmly establish a relationship between caffeine and human birth defects. After all, people are not force-fed caffeine by tube into the stomach, and they may not metabolize the chemical in the same way as rats. The FDA will attempt to resolve these issues by further studies. Meanwhile, the National Coffee Association and the soft-drink industry have announced plans to do their own surveys of pregnant women to determine patterns of caffeine consumption and birth defects.