Sounds like a dietary issue
Folic Acid in Pregnant Black Women Studied
By RENEE C. LEE
Associated Press Writer
DALLAS Researchers studying pregnant women found that black women with a dangerous high blood pressure complication had less folic acid and more of a certain amino acid than white women.
The difference could help explain why black women are at higher risk for the life-threatening complication, pre-eclampsia. And it suggests they should take higher doses of the vitamin, folic acid.
The finding also could indicate future risk for cardiovascular disease.
Pre-eclampsia affects 3 percent to 5 percent of pregnant women and is a common cause of premature births. It typically occurs very late in a pregnancy. Besides inducing high blood pressure, it can cause kidney failure, swelling of hands and feet, seizures and death.
In the United States only a few hundred women die from pregnancy-related causes each year, but pre-eclampsia kills thousands in developing countries.
Researchers have long known that black women have higher incidences of pre-eclampsia, but they have yet to pinpoint why.
"We know that when black woman experience the disorder, they are more likely to have a more severe form that shows up as early as six months into pregnancy," said lead researcher Thelma Patrick, an assistant investigator at the Magee-Womens Research Institute in Pittsburgh. "We've been looking at biochemical evidence to help us understand why they're at higher risk."
