Vitamin B12 deficiency linked to heart defects in newborns: NewsTarget.com

Vitamin B12 deficiency in women near the time of conception increases the risk of having babies with congenital heart defects, according to researchers participating in the Dutch HAVEN study, an ongoing study designed to examine the relationship between environmental and genetic factors and congenital heart defects (CHD).

The study's findings on vitamin B12, suggesting some congenital heart defects are preventable, were first published in the European Journal of Nutrition in December 2006.

"The mother serves as the environment of the child as the embryo forms," said the study's project leader Régine Steegers-Theunissen, MD, PhD, of the Erasmus MC University Medical Center in Rotterdam, "Both genetic and environmental factors, such as nutrition and lifestyle, play important roles in the prevention or development of congenital heart defects."

Researchers surveyed 192 mothers of children with CHD and 216 mothers of children without CHD. Low intake of B12 was linked to CHD with the level of risk doubled among women with the lowest intake of B12.

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Vitamin B12 deficiency linked to heart defects in newborns

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