Research from Karen Lindsay, PhD, RDN, early career Samueli endowed chair and registered dietitian nutritionist at the Samueli Institute, is providing essential insights that support the development of comprehensive, whole-person nutrition and mindfulness interventions that reduce disease risk and promote well-being for both mothers and developing children.
In March 2024, Lindsay’s paper “Mindfulness and Cardiometabolic Health During Pregnancy: An Integrative Review” was published in the journal Mindfulness.
“With the increasing popularity of studies that involve mindfulness interventions in pregnancy, it is important to understand if potential benefits may extend beyond psychological aspects of maternal health and support cardiometabolic health outcomes, especially given rising rates of maternal obesity, gestational diabetes, and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy,” said Lindsay, who is also an assistant professor of pediatrics.
While growing evidence supports beneficial effects of mindfulness on weight management, glycemic, and blood pressure outcomes in non-pregnant populations, Lindsay’s review identified only a small number of mindfulness studies conducted in pregnant populations that evaluated such outcomes.
What’s more, though, is that Lindsay’s review also identified evidence from qualitative studies that revealed enthusiasm and interest among pregnant participants about mindfulness practice and its potential to support healthy weight gain through their pregnancies.
This shows, Lindsay said, that “rigorous studies are required to understand whether mindfulness is an efficacious approach, either alone or in combination with other lifestyle modalities, to improve gestational cardiometabolic health outcomes, as well as potential downstream physiologic health benefits for the offspring and for the mothers postpartum.”
Lindsay is dedicated to understanding the profound role of maternal nutrition and mental health during pregnancy and its health impacts on the mother and her child. This year she was awarded National Institutes of Health pilot grant funding through the Southern California Center for Latino Health to collaborate with a local community-based organization for low-income pregnant women and develop a culturally sensitive mindfulness program for Spanish-speaking clients. This study will also pilot test the feasibility of collecting dried blood spots from participants for measurement of cardiometabolic health markers and inflammatory gene expression, with the goal of building a larger study to test the efficacy of the intervention on these important outcomes that impact maternal and infant health. She ultimately hopes to integrate nutrition and mindfulness in whole-person interventions during preconception and pregnancy that have the potential for intergenerational impact on mental and physical wellbeing.
Reference: Lindsay KL, Guo Y, Gyllenhammer LE. Mindfulness and Cardiometabolic Health During Pregnancy: An Integrative Review. Mindfulness. Published online March 28, 2024. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-024-02337-2
