Preeclampsia (elevated blood pressure in pregnancy) is a serious condition of pregnancy, and one of the most common serious ones that can become life threatening (e.g. seizures), so we thought this research could be beneficial for you or someone you may know who is pregnant and may risk of the disease.
An article in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology involved a meta-analysis of nine studies and over 20,000 pregnant women, looking at those who took extra doses of vitamins C and E, as opposed to those who took a placebo, in preventing preeclampsia.
The studies showed that taking vitamins C and E made you no less likely to develop preeclampsia during pregnancy than the placebo group, and actually those in the vitamin group developed more high blood pressure than the control group. The vitamins could actually cause more harm then good.
The take-home message here is that sometimes things that we think we are doing to benefit our health prove not to give us improvement, and may even end up being harmful. But one thing we do know about pregnant women and want to point out is that they should be taking folic acid. There is good evidence to show that folic acid is important in helping prevent spina bifida and other spinal deformities.
If you are at risk of preeclampsia, you should talk to your doctor about maybe taking a baby aspirin to prevent problems. Its also extremely important to eat nutritiously, stay away from alcohol and take special care of your body during this time.