Columbus Foodie

Vitamin boost for baby; Daily pill during pregnancy beats low birth weight.(News)

Daily Mail (London) April 26, 2010 Byline: Jenny Hope PREGNANT women taking a daily multivitamin pill have bigger babies, a study has shown.

Taking the supplement cuts the risk of having low birthweight babies, which can have health problems.

This is the first study to show multivitamins specially tailored for pregnancy make a difference for women living in developed countries.

It was already known that the pills work in developing countries, where food may be scarce and diets lacking in nutrients.

The study looked at the effect of multivitamins on 400 pregnant women with vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

During the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, half started taking Pregnacare pills. These contain 19 vitamins and minerals, including iron, folic acid and vitamin D. The rest had dummy starch tablets. After the babies were born, doctors found those taking the supplements had higher levels of iron, folate, thiamin and vitamin D. allfishoilbenefitsnow.com all fish oil benefits

Although iron levels fell in both groups, in late pregnancy 55 per cent of women taking dummy pills were deficient compared with 36 per cent of those on supplements. The most significant finding was that mothers taking multivitamins had fewer small babies.

Eight out of the 88 babies born to women on supplements were considered small, compared with 13 out of 61 on dummy pills. site all fish oil benefits

Women on supplements had babies four ounces heavier on average.

Consultant obstetrician Pat O’Brien, of University College London, said: ‘What happens in the womb can almost programme the baby for life.’ Small babies are more likely to have breathing problems and develop jaundice, he explained.

As adults, they also have a higher chance of suffering from obesity, diabetes, heart attacks and strokes.

It is cheaper to give specially tailored multivitamins to mothersto-be than look after a baby in intensive care, added Mr O’Brien.

Pregnacare, made by the company Vitabiotics, costs [pounds sterling]6.95 for one month’s supply.

Mothers-to-be are not generally advised to take supplements, with the exception of folic acid.

A report in Ireland found that babies born to parents who are unemployed were more than twice as likely to have low birth weights when compared to those born to parents with highly professional jobs.

Teenage and unmarried mothers were also at higher risk of low birth weight babies.

reporter@dailymail.ie NO PROOF OF FISH OIL BENEFITS ALL the fuss over fish oils as brain food may be unjustified.

The largest ever trial of fish oil supplements has shown there is no evidence that they offer benefits for brain function in older people.

These findings contradict previous surveys on the wonders of omega-3 fatty acids.

Nine hundred volunteers, aged between 70 and 80 took part in the study.

They were all considered to have ‘good mental health’ and were split into two groups.

The first group received fish oil supplements, while the others had a placebo. fish Two years later, each of the elderly volunteers was given a series of memory and concentration tests. Those who took fish oil had far greater levels of omega-3 in their bloodstream but did no better in the tests.

Leading the research, Alan Dangour, a senior lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said: ‘Although this is the longest trial of its kind ever conducted, it may be that it was not long enough for any true beneficial effects to be detected.’ The study is reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.