CNN /Health.com (5/1, Mann) reported that, according to research presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting, "pregnant women could -- and probably should -- consume 10 times more vitamin D than experts currently recommend." While "current guidelines for daily vitamin D intake during pregnancy range from 200 international units (IU) per day to 400 IU, the amount found in most prenatal vitamins," researchers now suggest that "women who took 4,000 IU were least likely to go into labor early, give birth prematurely, or develop infections."
Researchers "enrolled 494 pregnant women in a randomized trial of three daily doses of the vitamin -- 400, 2,000, and 4,000 IU a day until delivery," MedPage Today (5/1, Smith) reported. The investigators found that those "getting the highest of three daily doses of vitamin D had half the risk of co-morbidities as those in the control group." As a result, "the take-home message is that pregnant women should take 4,000 International Units a day, according to Carol Wagner, MD, of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston." The UK's Telegraph (5/1, Smith) also covered the story.
