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Vitamin C May Guard Against Labor Complication

Prenatal Choline May Improve Babies’ Brains Posted on: 03/15/2004 DURHAM, N.C.--Women who take dietary choline supplements while pregnant may benefit their infants’ brains, according to Duke University researchers. Together with existing data on choline and brain health, the findings suggest the addition of choline to the diets of pregnant women could affect their children’s life long learning and memory.

“Previous studies at Duke have shown that choline-supplemented animals are smarter and have a greater learning capacity, but we hadn’t known until now whether the cells that make up memory-relevant brain circuits are changed by choline,” said Qiang Li, M.D., one of the study’s authors. “Choline didn’t just change the general environment of the brain, it changed the fundamental building blocks of brain circuits--the cells themselves.”

This year, approximately 4000 pregnancies in the United States will be affected by neural tube defects....

...and according to the Center for Disease Control, 50%-70% of these defects could be prevented with daily intake of 400 micrograms of folic acid throughout the periconceptional period.

Earlier this year, the American Dietetic Association reported that nearly 2,500 newborns in the United States are born each year with preventable neural tube defects such as spina bifida. In a recent study from the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, a survey of low-income neighborhoods revealed that more than 75 percent of residents had never heard of spina bifida or neural tube defects and that four out of five did not know which nutrients can prevent neural tube defects.

The March of Dimes recently launched a three year campaign to increase awareness of preventing neural tube defects through supplementation of a multivitamin with folic acid for all women of a childbearing age. The goal of the campaign is to reduce neural tube defects in the United States by at least 30 percent by the year 2001.

According to the March of Dimes, only 29 percent of nonpregnant women of childbearing age report taking a vitamin containing folic acid daily. Independent surveys have revealed that health care providers who work with women of childbearing age report a gap in knowledge about the benefits of folic acid and that as much as 36% of these providers rarely recommend folic acid to their patients. The primary goals of the campaign are to increase awareness of folic acid and neural tube defects in the community and in health care providers.

The Bottom-Line: The importance of folate for women of childbearing age is well-established. To reduce neural tube defects, it is important to have adequate folic acid in your system right before and early in pregnancy. Because 50% of pregnancies are unplanned, it is critical that all women who could become pregnant ingest 400 micrograms of folic acid every day.

Food sources of folate include: leafy vegetables, beans, lentils, orange juice, nuts and seeds. According to the March of Dimes, the only way to ensure adequate folic acid is to consume a multivitamin containing 400 micrograms of folic acid daily in addition to eating a healthy diet rich in folate.

Elements of High Blood Pressure May Begin Before Birth

Your mother’s nutritional habits during pregnancy might make you predisposed to high blood pressure later in life.

A new study found that people with primary hypertension, or high blood pressure that is not caused by another disease, may have fewer nephrons in their kidneys than people with normal blood pressure.

Nephrons play a role in eliminating waste and excess fluid from the body, which in turn helps to regulate blood pressure. The number of nephrons in the kidneys, typically about 1 million in a normal kidney, is set during fetal development.

The study involved the examination of kidneys from 20 middle-aged, white people who had died in accidents, 10 of whom had had high blood pressure. Their findings support the theory that having fewer nephrons makes a person more susceptible to high blood pressure, a finding which was been supported by both animal and human research in the past.

Individuals with high blood pressure may have fewer nephrons because they were born that way, researchers speculate.

Low protein intake during pregnancy may affect the number of nephrons in the fetus and the risk of high blood pressure and other types of cardiovascular disease later in life, according to researchers.

The findings point to the importance of prenantal nutrition in determining the future health of the child. Other recent studies on the topic have found similar results, for example low birth weight may increase the baby’s risk of cardiovascular disease during adulthood.

Although further research is needed, researchers say that improving nutrition during pregnancy may prevent low nephron number in the fetus, which may ultimately prevent high blood pressure.
The New England Journal of Medicine January 9, 2003; 348:101-108

All information is for informational purposes only, and not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. No statements have been evaluated by the FDA. We always suggest talking to your physician concerning any questions you may have about supplement/drug interactions.