Hellp and weight

[caryn]

Preeclampsia isn't really related to diet or exercise, so far as we can tell -- but it is related to obesity.

This likely means one of two things: obesity unmasks a tendency to be carrying the genes for preeclampsia (remember, an awful lot of obese women do *not* get preeclampsia), or obesity triggers underlying conditions that raise risk of preeclampsia, like insulin resistance.

Even skinny women can be insulin-resistant; to a great extent the tendency to gain weight in the abdomen rather than the hips (the "apple-shaped" body instead of the "pear-shaped" body) is a phenotype programmed in utero -- so while you were developing in utero. Women can be a normal weight, or even underweight, with that tendency to gain weight in the waist and an inclination towards insulin resistance.

[jgrumet]

Caryn,

Oh, yea! I didn't mean that...

I just meant that people with very high BMI's most-likely are caused by diet. I know they've linked other underlying disorders with diet as well (I have no idea how valid the claims are) like PCOS.

I come from a very nutritionally concerned family- so I think everything relates to what we put in our body to some degree...however, I don't think Preeclampsia is directly related to diet at all.

So, Dr. Brewer sounds like he may be way off, but I still think there is something to diet and overall health. (on a weird side-note if you google my dad's name Dr. Brewer's website comes up because he did a lot of research for him at Berkeley)