Supplementation during pregnancy with nutrients such as folic acid or iron is commonly accepted in medical practice. In addition, these prevention strategies have been unanimously recommended by major international organizations for many years (WHO, CDC ...). Over the last 6 months, numerous studies and reports have underlined the importance of iodine before and during pregnancy, for both the mother and her child.
The National Institute of Health (USA) published in January 2018 a prospective cohort study demonstrating the importance of iodine during the pre-conception period. According to the study, women with moderate to severe iodine deficiency have a 46% lower chance of becoming pregnant1. Thus, this study highlights the importance of iodine in the pre-conception period.
Several studies and reports have also shown that all populations around the globe are affected by iodine deficiency problems. According to the same study conducted by the NIH (USA), it is found that 44.3% of participants have insufficient levels of iodine1. Similarly, recent studies in Europe have shown that pregnant women do not achieve the recommended daily intakes of iodine, for example the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) has shown that 63% of Norwegian women had a low daily intake of Iodine2. Recently, in March 2018, UNICEF and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (Gain) published a joint report highlighting the risks of iodine deficiency for early childhood brain development. This report has shown that 19 million newborns are at risk of irreversible brain damage (reduced IQ) that could be prevented by a correct iodine intake during pregnancy3.
Increasingly, international recommendations agree on the need for Iodine supplementation during pregnancy. This is particularly the case of the 2017 guidelines of the American Thyroid Association which recommends: " All pregnant women should ingest approximately 250 μg iodine daily. (recommendations 5). In most regions, including the United States, women who are planning pregnancy or currently pregnant, should supplement their diet with a daily oral supplement (recommendation 6). "4 Thanks to quality products that meet the latest recommendations like Yodocefol or Natalben plus, Versalya Pharma meets the needs of healthcare professionals by providing practical and accessible solutions to all patients.
Bibliography :
- J L Mills, G M Buck Louis, K Kannan, J Weck, Y Wan, J Maisog, A Giannakou, Q Wu, R Sundaram; Delayed conception in women with low-urinary iodine concentrations: a population-based prospective cohort study, Human Reproduction, Volume 33, Issue 3, 1 March 2018, Pages 426–433.
- Marianne H Abel et al. Suboptimal Maternal Iodine Intake Is Associated with Impaired Child Neurodevelopment at 3 Years of Age in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study, The Journal of Nutrition(2017).
- UNICEF, GAIN. Brighter Futures: Protecting early brain development through salt iodization – The UNICEF-GAIN partnership project. New York: UNICEF; 2018
- Alexander Erik K., Pearce Elizabeth N., Brent Gregory A., Brown Rosalind S., Chen Herbert, Dosiou Chrysoula, Grobman William A., Laurberg Peter, Lazarus John H., Mandel Susan J., Peeters Robin P., and Sullivan Scott.Thyroid.Mar 2017.315-389.