Ladies, time to take it easy on taking pregnancy prevention pills. We all know that birth control pills have been known to cause mood swings, weight gain and nausea, now part from these side effects, new study claims there may be another troubling side effect to the drug; it could shrink your brain.
Neuroscientists at University of California, Los Angeles found out that the two key brain regions that is responsible for emotion and
decision-making are less active in people who take the Pill.
For the
study, lead author, Nicole Petersen, recruited 90 women, with 44 women
on combined birth control and 46 women who did not use any type of
hormonal birth control.
Brain
scans revealed the orbitofrontal cortex, responsible for
decision-making, and posterior cigulate, which processes emotions, were
smaller than average in those taking birth control pills.
However, researchers are still unsure whether this shrinkage is permanent, and are now planning further studies to find out.
In another study last month, scientists found that taking the
contraceptive Pill triples the risk of developing an incurable disease
of the digestive system.
Researchers
have found sex hormones in contraceptive Pills can weaken the gut,
creating the perfect conditions for Crohn’s (Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract) to develop.
Doctors
also fear that repeated use of the ‘morning-after pill’ – which
contains even higher doses of sex hormones than the daily tablet – might
make women still more prone to it.
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