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L-arginine plus vitamins could lower blood pressure during pregnancy

05/23/2011 20:45:00 admin
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by Aimee Keenan-Greene

Pregnant women taking supplements with the amino acid L-arginine plus vitamins are significantly less likely to develop pre-eclampsia, according to a new study in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

Scientists say supplementation during pregnancy with a medical food containing L-arginine and antioxidant vitamins reduced the incidence of pre-eclampsia in a population at high risk of the condition. Antioxidant vitamins alone did not have a protective effect for prevention of pre-eclampsia.

Pre-eclampsia is a condition marked by abnormally high blood pressure and high protein levels in the urine.

Experts say defective synthesis of nitric oxide has been documented in pre-eclampsia as well. 

L-arginine, an amino acid that helps to maintain a healthy blood flow, could "provide a source of substrate for nitric oxide synthesis during pregnancy, which could promote vasodilatation."

In this study, scientists defined pre-eclampsia as hypertension (systolic blood pressure ≥140 mm Hg, diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mm Hg, or both) and proteinuria (>300 mg/24 hours) presenting after 20 weeks of gestation in women known to be previously normotensive.

Pregnant women between 14 and 32 weeks of gestation at high risk of pre-eclampsia who were receiving prenatal care at the Instituto Nacional de Perinatologia Isidro Espinosa de los Reyes in Mexico City between January 2001 and December 2005, participated in the study.

For the study, two hundred twenty-two women were allocated to the placebo group, 228 received L-arginine plus antioxidant vitamins, and 222 received antioxidant vitamins alone.  

L-arginine plus antioxidant vitamins compared with antioxidant vitamins alone resulted in a significant effect whereas antioxidant vitamins alone showed an observed benefit, but this effect was not statistically significant compared with placebo.

BMJ-British Medical Journal says in a press release " The proportion of women developing pre-eclampsia was 30.2% in the placebo group, 22.5% in the vitamin only group, and 12.7% in the L-arginine plus vitamin group."

Felipe Vadillo-Ortega of Universidad Nacional in Mexico and colleagues concluded "Supplementation during pregnancy with a medical food containing L-arginine and antioxidant vitamins reduced the incidence of pre-eclampsia in a population at high risk of the condition."

Arginine is found high in peanuts.

Photo credit: wikipedia
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