Women who've just become pregnant may want to watch how much vitamin E they take in.
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Article originally in
Reuters
Women who've just become pregnant may want to watch how much vitamin
E they take in. It seems that high levels of vitamin E early in
pregnancy may increase the risk of the baby being born with a heart
defect, according to a Dutch research team.
They studied 276 mothers of children born with heart defects and 324 "control" mothers whose babies were free of heart defects.
When their infants were 16 months old, the mothers completed food
frequency questionnaires for the 4 weeks prior to the study. According
to the researchers, dietary patterns during this time are similar to
those before the women became pregnant.
The likelihood of having a baby with a heart defect was 70 percent
higher for women with the highest vitamin E intake from diet alone,
compared to those with the lowest intake, the investigators found.
Moreover, high dietary vitamin E intake plus the use of a supplement
containing vitamin E increased the risk of congenital heart defects 5-
to 9- fold, Dr. R. P. M. Steegers-Theunissen at University Medical
Center, Rotterdam, and colleagues report in BJOG: An International
Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The researchers point out that high levels of vitamin E "may imbalance the oxidant/antioxidant state" in embryonic tissues.
Other possible mechanisms for the adverse effects of high vitamin E
on the baby, they say, include modification of genes involved in
embryonic heart development and inhibition of cellular enzymes involved
in clearing away naturally occurring toxins.
SOURCE: BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, February 2009.