Vitamin B12 Could Reduce Diabetes in Pregnant Women

New research underway to measure effectiveness of Vitamin B12 supplement in preventing gestational diabetes in mothers and obesity in later life.

Warwick Medical School, part of the University of Warwick, in partnership with the University of Southampton and King Edward Memorial Hospital in Pune, India, hopes to recruit 4,500 women in the early stages of pregnancy so they can study whether micro nutrients such as Vitamin B12 reduce the risk of developing gestational diabetes (GDM).

Numbers of mothers affected by GDM are rapidly rising, and with it, all manner of additional health complications for both the mother and the baby. In seven out of ten cases, mothers who have GDM go on to develop full blown diabetes. And babies born to women with GDM are at a higher risk of developing obesity and diabetes as an adult.

Ponnusamy Saravanan, Associate Clinical Professor of Diabetes, Endocrine & Metabolism, explained how this new research would build on earlier studies which indicate that the risk of diabetes is determined in the womb: “This research will study pregnant women and follow the growth and development of their babies. The current research is funded until childbirth and we hope to closely follow up both mothers and baby beyond. Our earlier research in India shows that mothers with low Vitamin B12 levels gave birth to babies with features suggestive of them developing diabetes and cardiovascular diseases soon after birth and at 6 years.”

He believes that the micro-nutrients in a woman’s diet fundamentally influence how the DNA functions, and this gene-diet interaction determines, at least in part, whether you are going to be more prone to being overweight as an adult. So this very early ‘in-utero’ stage is seen as critical in mapping out your adult health.

REHACARE.de; Source: University of Warwick