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Expectant Mothers, Vitamin E may cause more harm than good to your baby.

by Medindia Content Team on Jun 13 2006 2:19 PM

Specialists have issued a warning to expectant mothers to completely avoid consuming Vitamin E supplements, as this is fraught with grave risks to the unborn child .

A leading obstetrician, Prof Stuart Campbell, has appealed to the government to issue a health warning on Vitamin E following clinical trials that have revealed that this vitamin can cause health problems in the unborn child. It is also known to increase the rates of still births and cause the birth weight of the babies to be low.

Many women in Britain led by the benefits of Vitamin E tend to go overboard with its consumption during pregnancy. While previous research had thrown light on the benefits of Vitamin E to prevent miscarriage and pre-eclampsia when consumed in combination with Vitamin C, recent studies now available in The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine have proved the contrary. Prof Campbell believes that Vitamin E can disable the flow of nutrients into the placenta and can cause a whole lot of health complications to the growing baby in the womb.

A Department of Health spokesman said "The only vitamin supplements recommended by the Department of Health during pregnancy are folic acid and vitamin D. We advise against vitamin A supplements during pregnancy. We keep all evidence on other vitamin supplementation under review."


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