“People should not go into a pregnancy low in vitamin D.” This statement was made by Anne-Louise Ponsonby, PhD, from Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia. She authored a paper that shows that low maternal exposure to sunlight during the first trimester of pregnancy may increase the risk of offspring later developing multiple sclerosis (MS).
She states that is a pregnant woman is showing up at her obstetric appointment at 12 weeks, “they’ve pretty much missed the boat according to the timing that comes from this study.” She instructs that vitamin D levels should be checked and normalized before conception to make sure they don’t start a pregnancy vitamin D deficient.
Given this information, we are presented with just one more important reason to measure vitamin D levels and make sure they are adequate. Vitamin D levels optimally would be 55-60 or higher in some individual cases. Make sure to have your vitamin D levels checked…especially if planning on ever becoming pregnant.
