Smoking in pregnancy has been tied to child's cholesterol

Scientists recently said that mothers who smoke while pregnant might be causing changes to their unborn babies and that can lead them to have less of a type of cholesterol known to protect against heart disease.

In a study published in the European Heart Journal, Australian researchers found that by the age of eight, children born to mothers who smoked in pregnancy had lower levels of High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, at around 1.3mmol/L than those born to mothers who hadn't smoked, with about 1.5 mmol/L.