Saudi pregnancies – only 1 in 16 had even 20 nanograms of vitamin D – Nov 2015

Vitamin D deficiency and dyslipidemia in early pregnancy.

BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2015 Nov 26;15(1):314.
Al-Ajlan A1, Krishnaswamy S2, Alokail MS3, Aljohani NJ4, Al-Serehi A5, Sheshah E6, Alshingetti NM7, Fouda M8, Turkistani IZ9, Al-Daghri NM10.
1Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, PO Box 10219, Riyadh, 11433, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. aalajl at hotmail.com.
2Prince Mutaib Chair for Biomarkers of Osteoporosis, Biochemistry Department, College of Science, King Saud University, PO Box, 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. ksounder at gmail.com.
3Prince Mutaib Chair for Biomarkers of Osteoporosis, Biochemistry Department, College of Science, King Saud University, PO Box, 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. msa85 at yahoo.co.uk.
4Specialized Diabetes and Endocrine Center, King Fahad Medical City, Faculty of Medicine, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, 11525, Saudi Arabia. najij at hotmail.com.
5Maternal-Fetal Medicine Department, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, 59406, Saudi Arabia. aalserehi at kfmc.med.sa.
6Diabetes Care Center, King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. eman_shesha at hotmail.com.
7Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. alshingetti at yahoo.com.
8Department of Medicine, Endocrinology Division, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, 12372, Saudi Arabia. monafoudaneel at yahoo.com.
9Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, 12372, Saudi Arabia. iqbalzmt at hotmail.com.
10Prince Mutaib Chair for Biomarkers of Osteoporosis, Biochemistry Department, College of Science, King Saud University, PO Box, 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. aldaghri2011 at gmail.com.

BACKGROUND:
Vitamin D deficiency is a common nutritional issue and dietary supplementation in the general population, including pregnant women, is generally advised. Appropriately high levels of vitamin D are expected to play a role in containing the glycemic and atherogenic profiles observed in pregnancy. However, the relation between vitamin D status and the lipid metabolic profile in Saudi women, who are known to suffer from chronic vitamin D deficiency and high incidence of obesity and type II DM, during the course of pregnancy is not known.
METHODS:
In this study, we analyzed the relation between serum vitamin D level and various serum metabolic markers among Saudi women (n = 515) in their first trimester of pregnancy (11.2 ± 3.4 weeks). Coefficients of Pearson correlation and Spearman rank correlation were calculated for Gaussian and non-Gaussian variables, respectively. Serum vitamin D status was defined as (in nmol/L): deficient (<25), insufficient (25-50); sufficient (50-75) and desirable (>75).
RESULTS:
Results indicated that vitamin D status was sufficient in only 3.5 % of the study participants and insufficient and deficient in 26.2 % and 68.0 % of participants, respectively. Serum vitamin D values in the overall study population correlated positively with serum levels of total cholesterol (R = 0.172; p < 0.01), triglycerides (R = 0.184; p < 0.01) and corrected calcium (R = 0.141; p < 0.05). In the subgroup of vitamin D deficient subjects (n = 350), log serum vitamin D values correlated with serum triglycerides (R = 0.23; p = 0.002) and cholesterol (R = 0.26; p = 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS:
The positive correlations between serum vitamin D and the atherogenic factors such as total cholesterol and triglycerides indicate a pro-atherogenic metabolic status in vitamin D deficient expectant mothers. This may represent an adaptation to the high metabolic demands of pregnancy.

PMID: 26610599

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See also VitaminDWiki

Overview Pregnancy and vitamin D has the following summary

IU	Cumulative Benefit	Blood level	Cofactors	Calcium	$*/month
200	Better bones for mom with 600 mg of Calcium	6 ng/ml increase	Not needed	No effect	$0.10
400	Less Rickets (but not zero with 400 IU) 3X less adolescent Schizophrenia Fewer child seizures	20-30 ng/ml	Not needed	No effect	$0.20
2000	2X More likely to get pregnant naturally/IVF 2X Fewer dental problems with pregnancy 8X less diabetes 4X fewer C-sections (>37 ng) 4X less preeclampsia (40 ng vs 10 ng) 5X less child asthma 2X fewer language problems age 5	42 ng/ml	Desirable	< 750 mg	$1
4000	2X fewer pregnancy complications 2X fewer pre-term births	49 ng/ml	Should have cofactors	< 750 mg	$3
6000	Probable: larger benefits for above items Just enough D for breastfed infant More maternal and infant weight		Should have cofactors	< 750 mg	$4

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 of the categories Pregnancy and Middle East

Overview Middle East and vitamin D has the following