Remember the research that resulted in the advice that all women of childbearing age should take prenatal vitamins all the time?
A new analysis of all the published research on prenatal vitamins have lead to a startling relevation: prenatal vitamins containing folic acid taken during pregnancy reduces the risk of childhood cancer.

If 2006 was the year of the prenatal vitamin, 2007 may be the year of fish oil capsules. An Australian study published in The Archives of Disease in Childhood, says that women who took fish oil for the second half of pregnancy, gave birth to children who performed better on hand-eye coordination skills tests than the control group participants who took an olive oil supplement. The research sample group was very small, reported the International Herald Tribune in their analysis of the study.

A few months ago, doctors in Toronto recommended that all women of childbearing age take prenatal vitamins even if they aren’t planning to become pregnant to prevent birth defects. In addition, women who have just given birth are advised to continue to take their vitamins to aid recovery and help prevent post partum depression.
The new news reported in Maclean’s magazine is that taking vitamins may prevent infertility due to ovulation problems.

Further to Thursday’s post about a study the recommends all pre-natal vitamins, a Scottish study reported in the Scotsman this morning suggests that rising rates of childhood asthma may be linked to a diet low in vitamin E.

Why is it is that women’s health concerns are often so different from those of the general population?
Over the past few months, a number of widely-reported studies have lamented that taking daily vitamins doesn’t seem to improve health or longevity of the general population.
There is one serious exception to those findings: vitamins for prenatal health. While it has long been known that folic acid helps to prevent neural tube defects, and that iodine helps prevent other kinds of retardation, this new study shows that prenatal vitamins also help prevent cardiovascular and limb defects, cleft palate, oral cleft, congenital hydrocephalus, and …read more