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This review focuses on the nutritional needs and reality of women while pregnant. In addition the physiology of the pregnant woman is discussed including the weight gain associated with pregnancy the energy and nutritional requirements of pregnancy and the changes is basic metabolism and homeostasis. Pregnant women are considered a nutritionally vulnerable group; however if women were so vulnerable why is there a massive overpopulation problem? That is to say that obviously many women living in nutritionally poor environments sustain healthy pregnancies. To investigate this paradox clinical and epidemiological studies are reviewed and it was found that: 1) in communities where dietary standards are not grossly defective the improved feeding of pregnant women produce only a marginal but by no means unimportant increase of reproductive efficiency; and 2) maternal stature has a considerable influence on reproductive efficiency possibly as a result of the influence of nutritional status during growth i.e. preceding pregnancy. This review compares recorded dietary intakes of pregnant women with recommended dietary allowances but such a comparison fails to produce cogent evidence of serious deficiencies. Nor was evidence found to indicate that many clinical abnormalities can be unequivocally attributed to dietary defects. Maternal weight gain and its implication for nutritional requirements are discussed. And alterations of maternal metabolism and homeostasis are now thought to favor transfer of nutrients to the fetus over uptake of nutrients by the maternal tissues; before these alterations had been viewed as signs of nutritional depletion.

As an N-methylaspartate antagonist on cat and frog spinal neurones, (−) cyclazocine was twice as potent as (+) cyclazocine. This stereoselectivity is similar to that of cyclazocine at sigma rather than at mu or kappa opiate receptors. Cyclazocine also reduced synaptic excitation in rat cortex.

These experiments were an attempt to study the possible interactions between cells of the supraoptic nucleus. In isolated brain slices pairs of supraoptic neurones were recorded simultaneously either with a single electrode or with two electrodes and cross-correlograms produced. Correlations were demonstrated in 22 of the 82 pairs studied and were found to be more common between closely neighbouring pairs of cells. Ten of the correlations indicated that the spikes of one cell followed spikes in the other cell. The correlations of another 10 pairs indicated that the cells were coactivated. In only 2 pairs was there a correlation indicative of an inhibitory connexion. That these correlations could result either from synaptic connexions within the nucleus, or from coactivation of cells from an extranuclear site is discussed.