Early pregnancy vitamin D status and risk of preeclampsia.
J Clin Invest. 2016 Nov 14. pii: 89031. doi: 10.1172/JCI89031. [Epub ahead of print]
Mirzakhani H, Litonjua AA, McElrath TF, O'Connor G, Lee-Parritz A, Iverson R, Macones G, Strunk RC, Bacharier LB, Zeiger R, Hollis BW, Handy DE, Sharma A, Laranjo N, Carey V, Qiu W, Santolini M, Liu S, Chhabra D, Enquobahrie DA, Williams MA, Loscalzo J, Weiss ST.
Note: low vitamin D is this study is < 30 nanograms
Healthy pregnancies need lots of vitamin D has the following summary
Most were taking 2,000 to 7,000 IU daily for >50% of pregnancy
Click on hyperlinks for details
Problem | Vit. D Reduces | Evidence |
0. Chance of not conceiving | 3.4 times | Observe |
1. Miscarriage | 2.5 times | Observe |
2. Pre-eclampsia | 3.6 times | RCT |
3. Gestational Diabetes | 3 times | RCT |
4. Good 2nd trimester sleep quality | 3.5 times | Observe |
5. Premature birth | 2 times | RCT |
6. C-section - unplanned | 1.6 times | Observe |
Stillbirth - OMEGA-3 | 4 times | RCT - Omega-3 |
7. Depression AFTER pregnancy | 1.4 times | RCT |
8. Small for Gestational Age | 1.6 times | meta-analysis |
9. Infant height, weight, head size within normal limits | RCT | |
10. Childhood Wheezing | 1.3 times | RCT |
11. Additional child is Autistic | 4 times | Intervention |
12.Young adult Multiple Sclerosis | 1.9 times | Observe |
13. Preeclampsia in young adult | 3.5 times | RCT |
14. Good motor skills @ age 3 | 1.4 times | Observe |
15. Childhood Mite allergy | 5 times | RCT |
16. Childhood Respiratory Tract visits | 2.5 times | RCT |
RCT = Randomized Controlled Trial
Pages listed in BOTH the categories Pregnancy and Hypertension (preeclampsia)
- Low Vitamin D is a top predictor of adverse events during pregnancy – Feb 2024
- Preeclampsia reduced by 33 percent if high vitamin D – meta-analysis Feb 2023
- Risk of preeclampsia should drop to nearly zero at 60 ng of Vitamin D – July 2022
- Hypertension during pregnancy: low Vitamin D, poor Vit. D genes – June 2022
- Low Vitamin D associated with preeclampsia - meta-analysis Feb 2022
- Low Vitamin D associated with pre-eclampsia -40th meta-analysis – Feb 2022
- Preeclampsia reduced by Vitamin D - many studies
- Preeclampsia (hypertension while pregnant) varies with season (O.R. 0.57) – June 2021
- Preeclampsia (low vitamin D) doubles the risk of later cardiovascular problems – Sept 2019
- Preeclampsia 11X more likely if poor Vitamin D Binding Protein (South Africa) - Sept 2019
- Preeclampsia 2X more likely if poor Vitamin D Receptor – April 2019
- Preeclampsia reduced 1.7 X by aspirin (but reduced 7 X by Vitamin D) – Feb 2018
- Preeclampsia risk reduced 7X by 4,000 IU of Vitamin D daily – RCT March 2018
- Preeclampsia of offspring cut in half if mother who smoked had vitamin D fortified margarine – Dec 2017
- Preeclampsia reduced 2X by Vitamin D, by 5X if also add Calcium – meta-analysis Oct 2017
- Child 49 percent higher risk of being overweight if preeclampsia during pregnancy – Sept 2017
- Preeclampsia risk reduced 60 percent if supplement with Vitamin D (they ignored dose size) – meta-analysis Sept 2017
- Preeclampsia recurrence reduced 2 X by 50,000 IU of vitamin D every two weeks – RCT July 2017
- Preeclampsia is not reduced by vitamin D (if you ignore vitamin D level, dose size, frequency and duration) – July 2017
- Preeclampsia doubles the risk of mild cognitive impairment – July 2017
- No Preeclampsia during pregnancy if more than 60 ng of vitamin D – RCT July 2013
- Preeclampsia changes to Vitamin D Binding Protein reduces Vitamin D in placenta – Dec 2016
- Preeclampsia risk reduced by higher levels of vitamin D (VDAART 4,400 IU) - RCT Nov 2016
- MAGNESIUM IN MAN - IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH AND DISEASE – review 2015
- Preeclampsia 4X less likely if vitamin D levels increased by 8 ng during pregnancy – March 2016
- Preeclampsia 2X more likely if low vitamin D, unless adjust for vitamin D factors (BMI, skin color) – Dec 2015
- Preeclampsia and eclampsia associated with lower vitamin D, etc. – Sept 2015
- Preeclampsia increased risk of Congenital Heart Defects by 60 percent (vitamin D not mentioned) Oct 2015
- Preeclampsia reduced by Vitamin D (50,000 IU bi-weekly) and Calcium – Oct 2015
- Burka clothing reduces vitamin D levels, which causes pregnancy problems – Oct 2015
- Preeclampsia – hypothesis as to why vitamin D helps – June 2015
- Preeclampsia inversely proportional to serum Magnesium – Oct 2014
- Hypertension in pregnancy (preeclampsia) more frequent in winter (low vitamin D) – Jan 2015
- Preeclampsia rate cut in half by high level of vitamin D – meta-analysis March 2014
- Preeclampsia 40 percent less likely if mother had more than 20 ng of vitamin D – Jan 2014
- Preeclampsia 2.7X more frequent if low vitamin D – meta-analysis Sept 2013
- During pregnancy even 400 IU helps metabolic status – RCT July 2013
- 2X more preeclampsia when vitamin D less than 30 ng, etc. - meta-analysis March 2013
- 7X increase in early severe preeclampsia associated with low vitamin D – Aug 2012
- 200 IU of Vitamin D does not prevent preeclampsia – RCT Aug 2012
- Preeclampsia 3X more likely if low vitamin D at 25th week – April 2012
- Low vitamin D results in severe preeclampsia and low birth weight – Mar 2011
- Women with low vitamin D 4X more likely to have preeclampsia in pregnancy – Nov 2010
- Seasonal variation on preeclampsia is correlated with sunlight intensity - June 2010
 Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki
BACKGROUND:
Low vitamin D status in pregnancy was proposed as a risk factor of preeclampsia.
METHODS:
We assessed the effect of vitamin D supplementation (4,400 vs. 400 IU/day), initiated early in pregnancy (10-18 weeks), on the development of preeclampsia. The effects of serum vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D [25OHD]) levels on preeclampsia incidence at trial entry and in the third trimester (32-38 weeks) were studied. We also conducted a nested case-control study of 157 women to investigate peripheral blood vitamin D-associated gene expression profiles at 10 to 18 weeks in 47 participants who developed preeclampsia.
RESULTS:
Of 881 women randomized, outcome data were available for 816, with 67 (8.2%) developing preeclampsia. There was no significant difference between treatment (N = 408) or control (N = 408) groups in the incidence of preeclampsia (8.08% vs. 8.33%, respectively; relative risk: 0.97; 95% CI, 0.61-1.53). However, in a cohort analysis and after adjustment for confounders, a significant effect of sufficient vitamin D status (25OHD =30 ng/ml) was observed in both early and late pregnancy compared with insufficient levels (25OHD <30 ng/ml) (adjusted odds ratio, 0.28; 95% CI, 0.10-0.96).
Differential expression of 348 vitamin D-associated genes (158 upregulated) was found in peripheral blood of women who developed preeclampsia (FDR <0.05 in the Vitamin D Antenatal Asthma Reduction Trial [VDAART]; P < 0.05 in a replication cohort). Functional enrichment and network analyses of this vitamin D-associated gene set suggests several highly functional modules related to systematic inflammatory and immune responses, including some nodes with a high degree of connectivity.
CONCLUSIONS:
Vitamin D supplementation initiated in weeks 10-18 of pregnancy did not reduce preeclampsia incidence in the intention-to-treat paradigm. However, vitamin D levels of 30 ng/ml or higher at trial entry and in late pregnancy were associated with a lower risk of preeclampsia. Differentially expressed vitamin D-associated transcriptomes implicated the emergence of an early pregnancy, distinctive immune response in women who went on to develop preeclampsia.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00920621.
FUNDING: Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation and Genome Canada Innovation Network. This trial was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
PMID: 27841759 DOI: 10.1172/JCI89031