As preterm births are on the rise worldwide, there is powerful new evidence supporting the claim that sufficient vitamin D levels can reduce your risk of having a premature delivery. It can also help protect your newborn baby from other health problems.
In what is considered the first scientific trial that meets the most stringent criteria for “evidence-based inquiry,” US researchers Drs. Hollis and Wagner divulged their findings at a recent international vitamin D research conference in Brugge, Belgium.
Their findings included:
- Mothers who took 4,000 IU’s (ten times the RDA of 400 IU) of vitamin D during pregnancy had their risk of premature birth reduced by half
- Premature babies born to women taking high doses of vitamin D were reduced by half at both 32 and 37 weeks, and
- There were also fewer babies who were born “small for dates”
- Women taking high doses of vitamin D had a 25 per cent reduction in infections, particularly respiratory infections such as colds and flu as well as fewer infections of the vagina and the gums
- The “core morbidities of pregnancy” were reduced by 30 per cent in the women who took the high-dose vitamin D (including diabetes, high blood pressure, and pre-eclampsia – a potentially deadly increase in blood pressure and
fluid) - Babies getting the highest amounts of vitamin D after birth had fewer colds and less eczema
Reported by www.naturaleyecare.com