Despite its abundant resources, the United States lacks unlimited capacity to advance medical research.
Having acknowledged that, it is reasonable to conclude that the country is not utilizing all of its available research capacity and that the country, and the rest of the world, would benefit in the long run if most of that unused capacity were utilized.
That said, it would be encouraging if both 2024 US presidential candidates, if elected, promised to invest significantly more money into research to develop cures for cancer, Parkinson’s, lupus, and many other diseases for which there are currently no cures.
Unfortunately, one of those “many others” is what the Wall Street Journal’s Sept. 5 edition described as a deadly obstacle threatening new mothers.
The paper was referring to preeclampsia, a life-threatening complication that occurs during and after pregnancy that is diagnosed in part by a sudden rise in blood pressure.
“The condition is becoming increasingly common even among otherwise healthy women, yet much of it remains a mystery,” the journal article states.
The incidence of pregnancy-induced hypertension and other pregnancy disorders related to high blood pressure more than doubled between 2007 and 2019, according to the journal.
Dr. Gregory B. Schneider, an associate professor of medicine at Northwestern University, said preeclampsia and other pregnancy-related conditions are “no longer uncommon,” noting that complications occur in one in seven pregnancies each year.
“Preeclampsia can cause organ damage, seizures and strokes,” a Sept. 5 Journal article noted. “Studies have shown that patients are at significantly increased risk of heart attack or stroke several years later.”
Meanwhile, it has been reported that treatment for pregnancy-induced hypertension has remained virtually unchanged for 100 years, and although there are treatments available today for the symptoms, there is no treatment for the underlying disease.
Eleni Tsigas, CEO of the nonprofit Pregnancy Toxicology Foundation, told the Journal that researchers began studying postpartum blood pressure to better understand what happens to the body immediately after birth.
“But it’s an area that has been largely ignored and needs to receive more attention,” she said.
Presidential candidates should heed the message that more needs to be done to help women after giving birth and speak out about how to do more.
The journal noted that while many people think preeclampsia occurs during pregnancy, it actually often develops after a woman has given birth, and there is a lack of research into postpartum complications.
The Journal reported that the situation surrounding pregnancy-induced hypertension has become a health care crisis for pregnant women and new mothers in the country.
The Wall Street Journal also noted that the U.S. maternal mortality rate is the highest among high-income countries and has been rising since 2018, even excluding the spike during the COVID-19 pandemic.
And then there’s this paragraph that’s part of this long journal article: “Nearly two-thirds of postpartum deaths occur after birth, a period that researchers and doctors increasingly refer to as the ‘fourth trimester.’ Researchers say that home visits by medical staff after birth and guaranteed paid time off are more common in other high-income countries than in the United States, factors that help prevent fatal complications.”
The threat that preeclampsia poses to new mothers is an issue that needs more attention and decision-making on the “national stage.”
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