Ban on vitamin sales to pregnant women

By Jane Bradley
Published on Friday 17 February 2012 00:00

PHARMACIES and medical staff have been warned not to issue standalone vitamin D supplements to pregnant women – leaving many mothers-to-be unable to follow new government guidelines.

Chemists have been told that the strength of vitamin D in the typical single capsule has not been tested on pregnant women and could harm the foetus. They have been instructed not to sell the product to women expecting a baby.

A new pregancy-safe product is currently under consideration by the Scottish Medical Consortium – the organisation which supplies advice on new medicine to NHS Boards – for approval later this year, but women wanting to take the supplement cannot currently get it on prescription or from any pharmacy.

This comes despite new Scottish Government warnings that pregnant and breastfeeding women should take a ten microgram supplement of the vitamin every day to protect against bone disease and other illnesses.

Scotland’s chief medical officer, Harry Burns, wrote to health professionals earlier this month to encourage them to recommend the supplement to women, as well as instructing them to tell patients that children aged between six months and five years should be taking a daily dose of the vitamin in a drop formula. But most over-the-counter formulas contain 12 micrograms of the vitamin and are deemed not to be suitable for children under the age of 12 – including unborn foetuses.

The only option available at pharmacies for pregnant women is to buy specially-formulated multivitamins containing a range of supplements, including iron, folic acid and vitamin D – which costs more than three times the price of a box of single vitamin tablets and are not suitable for all women.

Supermarkets Asda and Morrisons are the only retailers which do sell the vitamin in a single pack at the ten microgram level – but only as a food supplement rather than as a clinical product.

Iain Brotchie, spokesman for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) in Scotland, said: “It’s important that people maintain healthy levels of vitamins, minerals and nutrients through a balanced diet and when appropriate through supplements.

“However, it’s also important to make sure that you take the correct amount, so it’s a good idea to check with your pharmacist before starting taking any vitamin supplements.”

A spokeswoman for pharmacy chain Boots said: “We are looking at changing our range to include a single 10mg product, as well as launching a Folic Acid and vitamin D line.”

The government was urged to ensure the product was available for women to obtain before issuing guidelines. Scottish Conservative health spokesman Jackson Carlaw said: “It is ludicrous that our Chief Medical Officer has issued advice to woman that they are then not able to follow.

“If pregnant women are to be encouraged to take vitamin D supplements then we must make sure that they are offered the chance to obtain a safe dosage.”

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orielwen

Monday, February 27, 2012 at 05:00 PM

You've left out a critical piece of information. Exactly who is it who's telling the pharmacies and medical staff not to give Vitamin D supplements to pregnant women? The article implies, but doesn't state, that it's the Scottish Medical Consortium, but I can't find anything about it on their website. If this is a government instruction then it's a farce of the left hand–right hand knowledge discrepancy type, but if it's some other, non-official, body then the instruction is not legally binding and means nothing. I can't find any information about this anywhere on the entire internet, other than in this story. Please, Jane Bradley, tell us who's giving this instruction!

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RufusGreenbaum

Friday, February 17, 2012 at 02:44 PM

This is utter nonsense !!!!!!!!! The Canadian Paediatric Society currently advises every pregnant woman to take 50 micrograms ( 2,000 IU ) of Vitamin D3 per day Professor Bruce Hollis has been running trials since 2005 in which he has given pregnant women 100 micrograms ( 4,000 IU ) per day. This has proven to be totally safe and very effective. Babies were bigger and healthier and the pregnancy was easier in many ways, with reduced pre-eclampsia and less gestational diabetes. In 1999 Professor Reinhold Vieth wrote: “If there is published evidence of toxicity in adults from an intake of 250 micrograms ( 10,000 IU ) per day, and that is verified by the 25(OH)D concentration, then I have yet to find it.” Both these experts spoke at a scientific conference about Vitamin D & Obstetrics held at the Wellcome Trust in London in May 2011: www.vitamindassociation.orgevents ( Select May 17 ) Go to www.ucsd.tv and search for a talk by Carol Wagner entitled: Vitamin D: Pregnancy and Lactation - Preventing Complications, Growing Healthy Babies For more about Vitamin D please check out: www.vitaminduk.com

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Pete1959

Friday, February 17, 2012 at 01:25 PM

The French (Comité de nutrition de la société française de pédiatrie.) recommend 30 micrograms a day for children up to 18 months, including newborn and they live much further south. They also recommend "a single dose of 80,000 to 100,000IU at the beginning of the 7th month of pregnancy". I think you may be better with a steady dose myself. Also this is not a medicine it is a food supplement. ------- Arch Pediatr. 2012 Jan 27. [Epub ahead of print], Vitamin D: Still a topical matter in children and adolescents. A position paper by the Committee on Nutrition of the French Society of Paediatrics. Vidailhet M, Mallet E, Bocquet A, Bresson JL, Briend A, Chouraqui JP, Darmaun D, Dupont C, Frelut ML, Ghisolfi J, Girardet JP, Goulet O, Hankard R, Rieu D, Simeoni U, Turck D;

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Pete1959

Friday, February 17, 2012 at 01:12 PM

The reference for the paper showing safehelpful doses of vitamin d for pregnant women is. General article http:www.sciencedaily.comreleases201005100501013417.htm Actual paper . Vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy: double-blind, randomized clinical trial of safety and effectiveness., Hollis BW, Johnson D, Hulsey TC, Ebeling M, Wagner CL., J Bone Miner Res. 2011 Oct;26(10):2341-57. doi: 10.1002jbmr.463 AndrewJohnYounger: The light must contain UVB preferably of exactly the right frequency range not no UV. These UV light were used in Glasgow for children in the 1950s.

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Eliz

Friday, February 17, 2012 at 11:56 AM

For goodness sake, when will we get over listening to ancient witch-doctors and do what other Northern countries do - give our pregnant women the Vitamin D they cannot get in Scotland? We are just so far behind in our thinking that I'm surprised any researcher worth his salt is interested in coming to this country. Read the up-to-date research Mr Linskaill, look up George Eber's work and that of countless researchers throughout the world and do try and take a more balanced view. Are all the children in Canada dying or born deformed from taking Vit D3 supplements or receiving supplementation through foodstuffs? Haven't heard about it. Obviously you have, so let's have examples of the poisoning of large numbers of babies. Get a grip man!

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4

AndrewJohnYounger

Friday, February 17, 2012 at 08:12 AM

Vitamins are not always vitamins and without scare monger check what you consume, D2 is synthetic and "maybe" better to use D3. However, "perhaps" the best form of vitamin D is from the use of lighting of contains no UV spectrum. "Caution," its only in the last twenty years science found how our bodies work with vitamin D and maybe that "could" be awaiting fresh data. Anyone consumption vitamins should in the first instance be given a blood test to confirm they indeed require that specific nutrient. That is the beauty of light, your body does the job for you, mere asks for healthy helpful eating plan - much to a ray of light. Await the official Scottish study on Vit D lighting of must be soon available for release.

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paulr

Friday, February 17, 2012 at 08:11 AM

The important fact here, actually the only fact here is that the multivitamin is three times as expensive as the single vitamin!!!

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2

Pete1959

Friday, February 17, 2012 at 08:05 AM

Charles Linskaill: And it is a known fact that too much water kills so pregnant women should avoid drinking water. Your argument is rather silly, this type of rat poison contain vast amounts of vitamin d and the average person can eat about 0.5 kilo of vitamin d3 rat poison with little effect (do not try as they often contain other things like warfarin as well). There is literature showing levels much higher are safe and beneficial. I will dig out the paper and post its details later.

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1

Charles Linskaill

Friday, February 17, 2012 at 01:04 AM

Known Fact!, Vitamin D is a 'rat-poison', Vitamin D supplements are glorified far too much by our Health Authorities, who are in cahoots with our greedy drug companies, both who are poisoning us, And our stupid green Doctors prescribe Vitamin D as if it was going out of fashion, Shame on their utter Stupidity!, So This is 'Of-Course' why there is no surprise that Vitamin D, more than likely damaging the foetus.

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