Welcome, or No unauthorized entry / Mosfilm, 1964
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American scientists have shown that the concentration of vitamin D in the second trimester of pregnancy is positively associated with the intelligence level of a child at four to six years old, and an increase in concentration by 10 ng / ml leads to an increase in the assessment of intellectual ability by more than one point. And while blacks are more at risk of developing vitamin D deficiency, the authors found no evidence of color-dependent effects. Article published in the journal The Journal of Nutrition.
During the prenatal period, vitamin D, which the baby receives from the mother through the placenta, plays an important role in the development and functioning of nerve tissues. Low Vitamin D Levels During Pregnancy bound with the occurrence of brain pathologies in children. And the development of the nervous system affects the intelligence of the child, which means that the concentration of vitamin D during pregnancy can affect the formation of cognitive abilities. Moreover, such studies contradict each other: alone find a positive relationship with the improvement of the child’s mental and psychomotor development, others – no.
In addition, the concentration of vitamin D in black people belowespecially if they live in cold climates. Melanin, which is abundant in dark skin, acts as a filter for solar radiation, reflecting up to 90 percent of ultraviolet light, and the synthesis of vitamin D in the skin under the influence of sunlight is the main source of it for many. Thus, the risk of vitamin D deficiency in black mothers may be higher.
Melissa Melough of the Seattle Children’s Research Institute and her colleagues conducted a study of 1,019 women in the second trimester of healthy singleton pregnancies and their babies when they were four to six years old.
Scientists collected demographic data of mothers and children (gender, age, education), described the socioeconomic status of the family, measured the concentration of vitamin D in blood plasma of women in the second trimester of pregnancy, assessed the intelligence of mothers using shortened Wechsler scale and after four to six years, the intelligence of their children with the help Stanford-Bine test, which allows you to measure both verbal and non-verbal components of cognitive activity.
Among all participants, 45.6 percent had vitamin D concentrations below 20 ng / ml, which was considered a sign of deficiency. About 63.2 percent of the participants were black, and the average vitamin D level in black women was lower at 19.8 ± 7.2 ng / ml than in white women at 25.9 ± 9.3 ng / ml (p < 0.001). Vitamin D concentrations above 20 ng / ml also positively correlated with high levels of maternal education, nutritional quality, and family income (p <0.05).
The researchers showed that an increase in vitamin D concentration in the second trimester of pregnancy by 10 ng / ml was associated with an increase in general intelligence scores by 1.17 points, points for verbal tasks increased by 1.17, and for non-verbal tasks – by 1.03. (p <0.05). The authors did not find any evidence of a change in effect depending on skin color (p <0.05).
The scientists noted that their findings could help guide nutritional recommendations for pregnant women and may be especially beneficial for black and other black women at high risk of vitamin D deficiency.
Formerly Dutch and Spanish explorers found outthat pregnancy causes changes in the structure of the gray matter of the brain in the mother, which persist for at least two years after delivery. Moreover, the more strongly the mother is attached to the child, the more pronounced the changes in the gray matter.
Ekaterina Roshchina
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