A study found that taking vitamin D supplements during pregnancy significantly reduced the risk of atopic eczema, an intractable skin condition, in the first year of giving birth.
Atopic dermatitis is a chronic recurrent skin eczema disease accompanied by severe itching.
A joint research team from the University of Southampton Medical Research Council Epidemiology Center and Southampton Biomedical Research Center conducted a study on 703 pregnant women as part of the maternal vitamin D osteoporosis Study (MAVIDOS). As a result of the research conducted, this fact was revealed, Science Daily reported on the 5th.
The research team divided them into two groups and had one group take 1,000 IU (international unit) of vitamin D supplement, and the other group take a placebo from the 14th week of pregnancy until childbirth.
They found that babies born to women who took vitamin D supplements during pregnancy had a lower risk of atopic dermatitis by the first year of life than babies born to women who did not take vitamin D supplements.
This effect of vitamin D seems to be because it affects the immune system and proteins that make up the skin, the research team explained.
This effect was greater when women who took vitamin D during pregnancy and breastfed their babies following giving birth.
The researchers speculated that this may be because taking vitamin D supplements during pregnancy caused more vitamin D to enter breast milk.
However, this effect was not observed at 24 and 48 months of age.
After the first year of life, other effects may be more important, or it might mean that vitamin D supplementation is necessary following birth for the effects to last, the researchers noted.
The MAVIDOS study previously reported that taking vitamin D supplements during pregnancy may have a positive effect on bone mineral density by the time the baby is 4 years old.
The results of this study were published in the latest issue of the British Journal of Dermatology, an academic journal of the British Association of Dermatologists.
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