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Vitamin B12 status and risk of neural tube defects

Friday, October 19, 2012 10:31

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Home of Kyle J. Norton for The Better of Living & Living Health The vitamin B-complex are essential water-soluble vitamins, including vitamin B1(thiamine), vitamin B2 (riboflavin ), vitamin B3 (niacin), vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid), vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), biotin, folic acid and vitamin B12 (cobalamins).
Vitamin B12 (Cobalamins) not only plays an important role in fatty acid synthesis and energy production, but also is essential in the normal functioning of the brain and nervous system, and for the formation of blood.
Vitamin B12 status and risk of neural tube defects
In the study of pregnancy vitamin B(12) status concentrations in blood samples taken at an average of 15 weeks’ gestation from 3 independent nested case-control groups of Irish women within population-based cohorts, at a time when vitamin supplementation or food fortification was rare. Group 1 blood samples were from 95 women during a neural tube defect-affected pregnancy and 265 control subjects. Group 2 included blood samples from 107 women who had a previous neural tube defect birth but whose current pregnancy was not affected and 414 control subjects. Group 3 samples were from 76 women during an affected pregnancy and 222 control subjects, researchers found that deficient or inadequate maternal vitamin B(12) status is associated with a significantly increased risk for neural tube defects. We suggest that women have vitamin B(12) levels of >300 ng/L (221 pmol/L) before becoming pregnant. Improving B(12) status beyond this level may afford a further reduction in risk, but this is uncertain(5).