Nutritional aspects that may influence arterial hypertension during pregnandy

Abstract

Since hypertensive disorders are the most important medical problem associated with pregnancy and the main factor of high maternal morbidity and perinatal morbidity and mortality, it is a priority to look for preventive alternatives that could be directed toward the acetilsalicílico; prostaglandinas impravement af health indicatars in the mother and the fetus. Systemic adaptations during pregnancy lead to deep physiological modifications of the hemodynamic and vascular systems, that guarantee appropriate tissue perfusion with decrease of peripheral vascular resistance and, therefore, a fall of systemic pressures toward the middle of pregnancy. Risk factors and some particular conditions of maternal health could reduce the adaptative capacity of pregnant women and therefore favor the appearance of this illness. From the nutritional perspective, the factors that can be modulated depend on social and culo tural conditions (inadequate diets, obesity, metabolic dysfunctions and nutritional deficiencies), natural factors that can influence the autoregulation of the microcirculation (formation of reactive species of oxygen and production of enzymes for regulating the oxidative stress), capacity of local regulation in res pon se to situations of tisular stress (prostaglandin formation and assimilation of acids fatty precursors). On the whole, all these factors are susceptible of preventive modulation by means of nutritional careo