Mothers to Be, Better Get Your Vitamin D!

When we speak of disease and health, we often think that people who are healthy are 'lucky' and people who are unhealthy as 'unlucky'. But the debate is beginning to tip towards the fact that environmental factors influence genetics more than we can ever imagine, and luck of the genes has less to do with health than environmental factors. Vitamin D as an environmental factor in our health is not debated, only HOW MUCH of a factor in our health is what is debated.

"Careful attention to maternal vitamin D status
could translate into diverse improvements in health
outcomes for the following generation"
Professor John McGrath
Queensland Centre for Schizophrenia Research,
Wolston Park Hospital, Wacol, Queensland, Australia

Vitamin D deficiency has long been associated with osteoporosis, but most of us think of osteoporosis as starting in older age. Since women are particularly affected, it's often that vitamin d and calcium supplementation is begun after menopause to help prevent the associated fractures of osteoporosis. But women in their pre reproductive and reproductive years need to be supplemented too, less for themselves, but more for the health of their offspring. Several studies have shown that Levels of Vitamin D During Pregnancy can determine bone mass and risk of fracture as an adult! Disturbingly, Deficiency of vitamin d and pregnancy is rampant among pregnant women and it could be having devastating consequences on the youngest generations.

"Vitamin D supplementation of pregnant women,
especially during winter months, could lead to
longlasting reductions in the risk of
osteoporotic fracture in their offspring."
'Maternal vitamin D status during pregnancy and
childhood bone mass at age 9 years: a longitudinal study'

Bone strength isn't the only health issue that seems to be already determined by our mother's intake of vitamin D and pregnancy, our mental health is also affected. Schizophrenia has long been associated with vitamin d levels due to its odd characteristic of occurring more frequently in those born in winter or early spring. This association is not just coincidental; vitamin D levels in the womb affect the health of the baby, even much later in life. Even a child's lungs are affected by a mother's vitamin D levels. Asthma, a common childhood problem, has been linked to Low Vitamin D and Pregnancy. The Journal 'Clinical and Experimental Allergy' published an article entitled, 'Childhood asthma is a fat-soluble vitamin deficiency disease.' which outlines this strong link between vitamin D and childhood asthma.

An even larger health problem in the younger generations could also be the result of maternal vitamin D deficiency. 'Syndrome X' is a collection of signs that include:

Together, these problems give sufferers an increased risk of acquiring diabetes and heart attacks later in life. Children are acquiring Syndrome X at such an alarming rate and at younger and younger ages, that public health policies and awareness campaigns are being put into place in many areas to deal with this dangerous problem. None of these, however, mention vitamin D supplementation as a possible solution to this growing problem.

These diseases are only the beginning of the conditions that researchers have put forward as problems of Low Vitamin D and pregnancy. Multiple sclerosis, diabetes, breast cancer, colon cancer, autism and autoimmune disorders have all been associated with vitamin d deficiency and are candidates for future long term studies of how vitamin d deficiency in infants could affect their incidences in later life.

Unfortunately, these long term studies, even if started immediately, wouldn't yield conclusive results for decades. In the meantime, women are simply not getting enough vitamin D during pregnancy. With current recommendations in the US for pregnant women at only 800 IU's per day, this is in stark contrast to many studies that urgently recommend dosages of between 4000 IU's to 6500 IU's a day for pregnant and lactating women. This suggests that a woman needs Vitamin D Supplements in an amount eight times higher than she is getting in order to prevent vitamin d deficiency in infants and herself to prevent many of these chronic illnesses that plague so many of us, and that are growing by leaps and bounds in ever younger and younger children.

"Vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy not only
is linked to maternal skeletal preservation and fetal skeletal formation but also is vital
to the fetal "imprinting" that may affect chronic disease susceptibility
later in life as well as soon after birth"
Bruce W Hollis, PhD
Professor of Pediatrics, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Director, Pediatric Nutritional Sciences
Medical University of South Carolina

With all of the research that is coming out about vitamin D and so many other diseases, it's likely that the link between vitamin d and pregnancy and diseases such as diabetes and cancer later in life is much stronger than we know. But without swift policy changes by medical associations and governments the spread of these vitamin D related diseases will continue to rise, even as these incredibly inexpensive Vitamin D Supplements are literally just a click away.