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Sat, Jan-07-06, 10:45
Prenatal vitamin D may better children's bone health
By fc
Jan 7, 2006, 02:19
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Women who take vitamin D supplements and or get lots of sunshine during pregnancy may improve the bone health of their children, according to a UK study published in the January 7, 2006 issue of The Lancet – a medical journal.
Vitamin D, a fat soluble vitamin, is well known to play a critical role in the body absorbing calcium and prevention of osteoporosis. But it has not been known how the maternal vitamin D level affects children’s bones.
The study of 198 children, born to white mothers in 1991-1992 and aged 9 years, found that children whose mothers took vitamin D supplements during pregnancy had significantly larger bones and greater whole-body bone mineral concentrations than children whose mothers didn’t.
In the study, Cyrus Cooper, of the MRC Epidemiology Resource Center at the University of Southampton, England, and colleagues assessed the body build, nutrition, and vitamin D supplementation of the mothers during pregnancy.
Nine years after birth, the children were examined for their whole-body and lumbar spine bone-mineral content, bone area, and bone-mineral density with a dual-energy x-ray absorptiometer.
31 percent of the mothers had insufficient levels of 25(OH)-vitamin D (11 to 20 µg/L) and 18 percent were vitamin D deficient, with less than 11 µg/L of 25(OH)-vitamin D, the study found.
Women who used vitamin D supplements or were exposed to higher levels of sunshine during pregnancy were less likely to be vitamin D deficient.
Low levels of 25(OH)-vitamin D, characterized either as insufficient or deficient, during pregnancy, especially during the last trimester were associated with reduced whole-body bone-mineral content and lumbar-spine bone mineral content in the nine-year olds.
Also those children whose mothers took vitamin D supplements had significantly higher whole-body mineral content and bone areas. However, Vitamin D supplementation was not correlated with bone mineral density.
Vitamin D insufficiency was common among the mothers studied. The researchers suggested pregnant women taking a vitamin D supplement, particularly if the last trimester occurs in the winter months, may enhance peak bone-mineral accrual and reduce risk of fragility fracture in their children in later life.
The finding was only a correlation between vitamin D intake of mothers and bones of their nine-year-old children, which could not establish a causal relationship between the two. As always, the results of this type of study may depend highly upon the factors chosen for the statistical analysis.
Although it is possible vitamin D deficiency in pregnant women has an effect on their children, it is not clear how a diet or a supplement for the mothers could affect their children’s bone health. In the nine-year childhood, many factors such as the children’s dietary habits and levels of exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun could also affect the child’s bone health.
The findings of the study echoed previous studies with regard to the effect of prenatal vitamin D on the children’s bones. The Nutrition Committee of Canadian Paediatric Society reported in the June 1995 issue of Canadian Medical Association Journal that maternal vitamin D deficiency is related to the status of vitamin D in the infants, which affects the need of the children for vitamin D in early life.
Terence A. Joiner et al. reported in the Sept. 2000 issue of American Academy of Pediatrics that vitamin D deficiency in pregnant women or low maternal intake of vitamin D and calcium could result in congenital rickets.
Vitamin D deficiency, characterized by inadequate mineralization or demineralization of the skeleton, can lead to rickets, osteomalacia or soft bones, muscle weakness and pain.
Sources of vitamin D include fortified foods such as fortified milk and cereals, natural foods such as cod liver oil, fatty fish such as cooked salmon, mackerel, tuna fish and sardines, egg yolks, liver of animals, supplements. Sunshine is another important source of vitamin D.
Unfortified foods generally can not serve as vitamin D sources because they lack vitamin D, with the exception of fish, many of which contain 5 to 15 µg (200 to 600 IU)/100 g; Atlantic herring contain up to as much as 40 µg (1,600 IU)/100 g.
The U.S. Food and Nutrition Board established a conservative Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) for vitamin D of 2,000 IU/day (50 mcg/day) for children and adults and 25 mcg (1000 IU) and infants aged 0-12. Vitamin D overdose can be toxic.
For more information, visit Vitamin d supplement fact sheet
http://www.foodconsumer.org/777/8/Prenatal_vitamin_D_may_better_children_s_bone_health.shtml
By fc
Jan 7, 2006, 02:19
Email this article
Printer friendly page
Women who take vitamin D supplements and or get lots of sunshine during pregnancy may improve the bone health of their children, according to a UK study published in the January 7, 2006 issue of The Lancet – a medical journal.
Vitamin D, a fat soluble vitamin, is well known to play a critical role in the body absorbing calcium and prevention of osteoporosis. But it has not been known how the maternal vitamin D level affects children’s bones.
The study of 198 children, born to white mothers in 1991-1992 and aged 9 years, found that children whose mothers took vitamin D supplements during pregnancy had significantly larger bones and greater whole-body bone mineral concentrations than children whose mothers didn’t.
In the study, Cyrus Cooper, of the MRC Epidemiology Resource Center at the University of Southampton, England, and colleagues assessed the body build, nutrition, and vitamin D supplementation of the mothers during pregnancy.
Nine years after birth, the children were examined for their whole-body and lumbar spine bone-mineral content, bone area, and bone-mineral density with a dual-energy x-ray absorptiometer.
31 percent of the mothers had insufficient levels of 25(OH)-vitamin D (11 to 20 µg/L) and 18 percent were vitamin D deficient, with less than 11 µg/L of 25(OH)-vitamin D, the study found.
Women who used vitamin D supplements or were exposed to higher levels of sunshine during pregnancy were less likely to be vitamin D deficient.
Low levels of 25(OH)-vitamin D, characterized either as insufficient or deficient, during pregnancy, especially during the last trimester were associated with reduced whole-body bone-mineral content and lumbar-spine bone mineral content in the nine-year olds.
Also those children whose mothers took vitamin D supplements had significantly higher whole-body mineral content and bone areas. However, Vitamin D supplementation was not correlated with bone mineral density.
Vitamin D insufficiency was common among the mothers studied. The researchers suggested pregnant women taking a vitamin D supplement, particularly if the last trimester occurs in the winter months, may enhance peak bone-mineral accrual and reduce risk of fragility fracture in their children in later life.
The finding was only a correlation between vitamin D intake of mothers and bones of their nine-year-old children, which could not establish a causal relationship between the two. As always, the results of this type of study may depend highly upon the factors chosen for the statistical analysis.
Although it is possible vitamin D deficiency in pregnant women has an effect on their children, it is not clear how a diet or a supplement for the mothers could affect their children’s bone health. In the nine-year childhood, many factors such as the children’s dietary habits and levels of exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun could also affect the child’s bone health.
The findings of the study echoed previous studies with regard to the effect of prenatal vitamin D on the children’s bones. The Nutrition Committee of Canadian Paediatric Society reported in the June 1995 issue of Canadian Medical Association Journal that maternal vitamin D deficiency is related to the status of vitamin D in the infants, which affects the need of the children for vitamin D in early life.
Terence A. Joiner et al. reported in the Sept. 2000 issue of American Academy of Pediatrics that vitamin D deficiency in pregnant women or low maternal intake of vitamin D and calcium could result in congenital rickets.
Vitamin D deficiency, characterized by inadequate mineralization or demineralization of the skeleton, can lead to rickets, osteomalacia or soft bones, muscle weakness and pain.
Sources of vitamin D include fortified foods such as fortified milk and cereals, natural foods such as cod liver oil, fatty fish such as cooked salmon, mackerel, tuna fish and sardines, egg yolks, liver of animals, supplements. Sunshine is another important source of vitamin D.
Unfortified foods generally can not serve as vitamin D sources because they lack vitamin D, with the exception of fish, many of which contain 5 to 15 µg (200 to 600 IU)/100 g; Atlantic herring contain up to as much as 40 µg (1,600 IU)/100 g.
The U.S. Food and Nutrition Board established a conservative Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) for vitamin D of 2,000 IU/day (50 mcg/day) for children and adults and 25 mcg (1000 IU) and infants aged 0-12. Vitamin D overdose can be toxic.
For more information, visit Vitamin d supplement fact sheet
http://www.foodconsumer.org/777/8/Prenatal_vitamin_D_may_better_children_s_bone_health.shtml