Low Vitamin D Levels During Pregnancy May Increase Risk of Severe Preeclampsia

NIH is the National Institutes of Health, a federal agency. A drug company is unlikely to fund such a study, since it does involve a drug they can patent.

http://www.upmc.com/media/NewsReleases/2014/Pages/gsph-study-vitamin-d-levels-preeclampsia-risk.aspx

Lisa Bodnar, Ph.D., M.P.H.,R.D, is the lead author of this study
Additional co-authors include: Hyagriv N. Simhan, M.D., Janet M. Catov, Ph.D., James M. Roberts, M.D., and Jill C. Diesel, M.P.H., all of the University of Pittsburgh; and Robert W. Platt, Ph.D., of McGill University.

This research was supported by NIH grant HD 056999.

PITTSBURGH, Jan. 24, 2014 – Women who are deficient in vitamin D in the first 26 weeks of their pregnancy may be at risk of developing severe preeclampsia, a potentially life-threatening disorder diagnosed by an increase in blood pressure and protein in the urine, according to research by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

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The researchers found that vitamin D sufficiency was associated with a 40 percent reduction in risk of severe preeclampsia. But there was no relationship between vitamin D and mild preeclampsia.

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“Scientists believe that severe preeclampsia and mild preeclampsia have different root causes,” said senior author Mark A. Klebanoff, M.D., M.P.H., Center for Perinatal Research at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the Department of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. “Severe preeclampsia poses much higher health risks to the mother and child, so linking it with a factor that we can easily treat, like vitamin D deficiency, holds great potential.”

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