• Posted March 7, 2025

Select Vitamins, Minerals During Pregnancy Protect Heart Health Later

Getting essential vitamins and minerals during pregnancy can help a woman maintain healthy blood pressure into middle age, new research suggests.

High levels of the minerals copper and manganese in pregnant women were associated with lower blood pressure decades later, as well as a reduced risk of high blood pressure, researchers reported.

Higher levels of vitamin B12 also were associated with lower blood pressure in later life, according to findings published March 6 in the journal Hypertension.

“Optimizing these essential metals, minerals and vitamins -- particularly copper, manganese and vitamin B12 -- during pregnancy may offer protective benefits against hypertension in midlife, an especially critical time period for women’s future cardiovascular risk in later life,” lead researcher Mingyu Zhang, an epidemiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, said in a news release.

For the study, his team analyzed data from an ongoing long-term study of nearly 500 pregnant women recruited between 1999 and 2002.

The women underwent blood testing during their pregnancy for their levels of healthy essential minerals, such as copper, magnesium, manganese, selenium and zinc, researchers said. They also were tested for levels of folate and vitamin B12.

After nearly 20 years of follow up, researchers checked in again with the women, who’d now reached an average age of 51.

The women’s blood pressure was tested during this check in, and was considered high if greater than 130/80 or if they’d been prescribed high blood pressure meds.

Results showed that if women had doubled levels of copper and manganese in their blood during pregnancy, their risk of midlife high blood pressure was 25% and 20% lower, respectively.

Doubled levels of vitamin B12 also contributed to lower blood pressure, but researchers noted that about 95% of participants had B12 levels within the normal range.

Copper, manganese, selenium and zinc all lowered blood pressure, and the higher the levels, the more blood pressure benefitted later in life, researchers found.

However, the findings should not be interpreted as recommendations, since researchers were unable to tell whether women got these vitamins and minerals from food, dietary supplements or other sources, Zhang said.

“More research including clinical trials is needed to determine the optimal dietary intake of these minerals and micronutrients,” Zhang said.

Researchers hope to ultimately identify women at high risk for developing high blood pressure later in life and intervene during pregnancy, either with enhanced nutrition or supplements.

These results were scheduled for presentation Saturday at an American Heart Association meeting in New Orleans.

More information

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has more on nutrition during pregnancy.

SOURCE: American Heart Association, news release, March 6, 2025