Pregnant women should avoid taking vitamin E supplements after a study showed they may double the risk of a stillbirth, experts have warned.
Researchers found that taking high doses of the vitamin also led to low birth weights and increased health complications in newborns. Professor Andrew Shennan, who led the two-year study at St Thomas' Hospital in London, warned that pregnant women could be putting their unborn babies at risk by 'self-medicating' with high doses of vitamin E.
One leading obstetrician, Professor Stuart Campbell, last night called on the Government to issue a health alert on the vitamin.
Concern over vitamin E, an anti-oxidant found naturally in foods including nuts, vegetable oil and broccoli, comes as Britons are spending more than £300million a year on vitamin supplements.
The Department of Health advises women take only vitamin D and folic acid during pregnancy.
However, earlier research has suggested that vitamin E, particularly taken with vitamin C, can help protect against miscarriage and pre-eclampsia.
The London study and separate research in Australia - published in The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine - now suggest this is untrue.
Doctors at St Thomas' Hospital conducted a two-year trial on 2,400 pregnant women at risk of pre-eclampsia.
Some took 250mg of vitamin E and 1,000mg of vitamin C each day from 14 weeks until they gave birth.
Those women who took the high doses, which were typical to those found in supplements, developed pre-eclampsia sooner and had a more severe form of the illness.
Nineteen babies were stillborn to mothers taking vitamin E supplements, compared with just seven in the group which did not take the pills.
In addition, the birthweight of the babies whose mothers had taken the vitamins was on average 60g less than the placebo group.
The EU-recommended daily amount for vitamin E is 20mg but the official 'safe' level is 540mg a day.
The Australian study, by the University of Adelaide and the Women's and Children's Hospital, found little or no difference between women who took vitamin E supplements and those who did not.
Prof Shennan said: "Vitamins are deemed to be innocent and good and there is no doubt that pregnant women are out there, self-medicating with these high doses."
Professor Campbell, who pioneered 3D scans of foetuses in the womb, added: "The evidence suggests vitamin E may be harmful in pregnancy and it's therefore wise to avoid it."
June 2006
|
Health Service Continues to fail Parents of Children who have Down's Syndrome
