Dukan Diet

Miscarriage and Inflammation

Miscarriage occurs when inflammation of a pregnant uterus occurs too soon and induces labor. Aspirin, heparin and omega-3 fatty acids lower inflammation and decrease the risk of premature birth.

Pregnancy requires that a woman’s body resist the normal immunological response to foreign, non-self antigens, i.e. the fetus that has half of its genes from the father. This means that conception requires suppression of inflammation and if the woman’s reproductive system has too high a level of chronic inflammation, she may be infertile. In these cases of infertility, suppression of inflammation with aspirin and heparin can permit the woman to become pregnant and sustain a pregnancy to full term. Other approaches, e.g. omega-3 fatty acids and an anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle, should also be helpful.

Labor and birth are a result of a peak of inflammation as the baby reaches full term. A single aspirin at the first stages of labor can suppress labor. Premature labor can be suppressed with aspirin and heparin, another anti-inflammatory drug more commonly associated with one of its other effects, clot prevention. A recent study showed that omega-3 fatty acids taken as a fish oil supplement were just as effective as aspirin in suppressing premature labor. It may be considered likely that the high incidence of chronic inflammation, prominently recognized in the metabolic syndrome associated with obesity, may significantly contribute to increasing rates of infertility, miscarriage and permature births.