Vitamin D Has a Lot of Benefits for Pregnant Women: Study

A new study published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found out that Vitamin D can give a lot of benefits, especially for pregnant women to boost the immune system of their child. Expectant moms who love to take food rich in the said nutrient can now feel secured as their babies have the lower risk to develop allergies and childhood asthma.

Vitamin D is mostly known as the "sunshine vitamin," because people can get more from it from the sun. But, it can also be found in different kinds of foods, like fish, eggs, dairy products, mushrooms and cereals, according to Daily Mail.

"Expectant mothers have questions about what they should eat during pregnancy," the study author Dr Supinda Bunyavanich said. "And our study shows that it's important to consider the source of nutrients in a mother's diet."

Hence, a group of researchers from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai studied about 1,248 mothers together with their children in the US. The participants were evaluated from their first trimester, to their childbirth until their kids reached seven years old.

The analysts found out those women, who took a lot of Vitamin D rich foods on their gestation, have children with the lower risk of developing allergies during grade school years. "[The study] "may influence nutritional counselling and recommendations to expectant moms to include vitamin D-rich foods in their diets," Bunyavanich added.

Also, Vitamin D is essential for bone health, immunity against colds and for fighting depression, Health.com reported. Furthermore, there are some people, who lack to have Vitamin D.

MedicineNet added, via Latinos Health, that Vitamin D deficiency can result to skeletal diseases, metabolic disorders, cancer, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune diseases, infections, cognitive disorders, rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults.

These people can fill that insufficiency by taking fortified milk, beef liver, cod liver oil, canned tuna and some kinds of orange juice. And by taking sun bath or being exposed to the sunlight for some period of time.