Mom's vitamin E linked to bigger babies

Mom's vitamin E linked to fetal growth Reuters/Yahoo!News 1/4/07 "Pregnant women with high vitamin E levels in their blood may tend to have bigger babies...For the study, Dr. Theresa O. Scholl and colleagues at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Stratford followed 1,231 pregnant women. They measured the women's blood concentrations of two forms of vitamin E at the start of the study and again during the 28th week of pregnancy...Only one form of vitamin E -- alpha-tocopherol, the form used in supplements -- was related to fetal growth, the researchers found. On average, birthweights were highest among the 20 percent of women with the highest alpha-tocopherol levels...These mothers were also three times less likely to have a smaller-than-average baby than women with the lowest concentrations of the vitamin...However, it's not clear that women should take any extra vitamin E beyond what's in standard prenatal multivitamins. In fact, one recent clinic trial found that large doses of vitamins C and E not only failed to prevent the pregnancy complication pre-eclampsia, but also seemed to raise the risk of low birthweight."

This might be another example where a large dose of supplements can actually be counter-productive. Beyond prenatal vitamins it is probably best to get vitamin E from the diet.

For a variety of reasons almonds are probably one of the best sources of vitamin E.

Vitamine D (D3) and calcium have been shown to help prevent preeclampsia.

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