The multiple uses of vitamin C notwithstanding, British researchers have added another feather to the vitamin’s cap!! It is now said that vitamin C reverses pre eclampsia in pregnant women. Pre eclampsia is one of the leading contributors to complications in childbirth and in late stages of pregnancy. This can lead onto eclampsia which, when left untreated, causes life threatening consequences.
Pre eclampsia occurs when a pregnant woman develops high blood pressure, swelling in the legs and other symptoms. The complication affects as many as 1 in 10 first pregnancies. More dangerous is eclampsia, in which, a woman has convulsive seizures in late pregnancy or during the first week after delivery.The root cause of all problems is the inability of maternal blood vessels to widen. This impaired blood vessel response is the single most important cause of eclampsia and pre eclampsia.
Scientists have proposed that oxygen free radicals may be responsible for impaired blood vessel response, and the new study findings support this hypothesis. Free radicals are molecules that are byproducts of the body's normal processes. Because free radicals react strongly with many types of other molecules, they can damage body tissues.
However the good news is that vitamin C reverse the problem by its anti oxidant role. Along with vitamin C, vitamin E can also act as scavengers and reduce the damage caused by the free radicals which act on the blood vessels and trigger the whole crisis.
This is the first time that scientists are studying a mother’s blood vessel response independent of the placenta. The findings will now encourage those who avoid vitamins to rethink their decisions.
