A historical survey of congenital malformations indicates a strong connection with food shortages at the relevant times. Following the epidemic of malformations caused by the drug thalidomide it was found experimentally that deficiencies of many individual vitamins greatly increased the teratogenic potency of thalidomide and this has since been demonstrated for other teratogenic substances. Nutritional deficiencies early in pregnancy may cause malformations synergisti‐cally with maternal infections and teratogenic drugs and toxins. A recent British study has shown’ that vitamin supplementation around the time of conception reduces the risk of neural tube malformations.
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Wynn et al. (1981) studied this question.
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