# Miscarriage and Preeclampsia

Category: Conditions

Also known as: miscarriage, preeclampsia, eclampsia, pregnancy complications

Preeclampsia is fundamentally a disorder of malnutrition, not a genetic inevitability, and its progression reflects a cascade of physiological stress that can culminate in eclampsia (convulsions) and fetal damage. Ray Peat argued that the medical dogma of genetic determinism…

12 passages · 2 authors · 1997–2022 · Most-cited: [Ray Peat](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/voices/ray-peat/index.md)

Canonical page: https://bioenergeticoracle.com/concepts/miscarriage-and-preeclampsia

## Synthesis

**Preeclampsia** is fundamentally a disorder of malnutrition, not a genetic inevitability, and its progression reflects a cascade of physiological stress that can culminate in **eclampsia** (convulsions) and fetal damage. [Source 2, 4, 9] Ray Peat argued that the medical dogma of genetic determinism, which blamed "bad genes" for eclampsia and poverty, served to obscure the central role of *protein deficiency* and *salt restriction* in causing the condition. [Source 5, 11] The work of Tom Brewer was pivotal in demonstrating that ensuring pregnant women consumed adequate protein (at least 80 grams daily), salted their food to taste, and drank plenty of milk could essentially prevent preeclampsia, directly contradicting the then-standard practice of prescribing low-salt diets and diuretics. [Source 3, 7, 12]

The mechanistic chain of causality begins with a diet deficient in protein, which impairs liver function. [Source 2, 10] This impairment reduces the liver's capacity to store glycogen, inactivate estrogen, and produce **albumin**. [Source 2, 10] Concurrently, high estrogen actively destroys the liver's ability to produce albumin, while low thyroid function causes sodium to be lost. [Source 1, 4, 10] The resulting loss of sodium albuminate leads to tissue edema, but critically, the *blood volume is decreased*, a state of hypovolemia and hemoconcentration that impairs circulation and paradoxically increases blood pressure. [Source 4, 10] This hypovolemic state is exacerbated by the nighttime rise in stress hormones like adrenalin and cortisol, which makes blood more viscous and prone to clotting. [Source 1] The unstable blood sugar and rising cortisol further increase the likelihood of premature labor, while the combination of high estrogen, hypoglycemia, and viscous, clot-prone blood can trigger the seizures characteristic of eclampsia. [Source 4]

Peat identified **thyroid** as the "essential fertility hormone" because it suppresses excessive estrogen and supports the production of protective hormones like **progesterone** and **pregnenolone**. [Source 3] A low thyroid state, indicated by a TSH level above 2.5 during pregnancy, contributes directly to the pathology by preventing cells from retaining magnesium, a mineral traditionally used intravenously to stop eclamptic convulsions. [Source 5, 8] Peat noted that administering triiodothyronine (T3) promotes cellular absorption of magnesium, and that without adequate thyroid function, supplemented magnesium is simply excreted in the urine. [Source 1, 8] Progesterone itself is a crucial protective factor; researchers found that a single injection could sometimes eliminate signs of toxemia, and Katherina Dalton's work showed that progesterone treatment throughout pregnancy resulted in remarkably healthy offspring with high IQs, in stark contrast to the average IQ of 85 for babies delivered after a toxemic pregnancy. [Source 6] This protective effect is partly mediated through glucose and oxygen availability to the fetal brain, countering estrogen's demonstrated effect of reducing cerebral cortex size. [Source 6]

The clinical picture is one of systemic energy failure and circulatory collapse. The failing physiology shifts from efficient glucose oxidation to the inefficient use of *free unsaturated fatty acids*, a state mirrored in heart failure and shock. [Source 1] Aspirin has been shown to protect against intrauterine growth retardation, likely by counteracting excesses of unsaturated fatty acids and estrogen, though its use near childbirth is risky due to its anticoagulant effects. [Source 1] The most effective interventions are nutritional: consuming high-quality protein from sources like milk, eggs, and potatoes to restore serum albumin and osmotic pressure, and liberal salt intake to restore blood volume and proper oxygenation of the fetus. [Source 1, 7] Peat emphasized that simply eating extra protein quickly restores blood albumin, and that hypertonic solutions of glucose and sodium, along with magnesium and T3, would be ideal to address the shock-like state by restoring blood volume and reducing the wasteful conversion of glucose to lactic acid. [Source 1]

## People also ask

### How does protein deficiency lead to preeclampsia?

Peat argued that a lack of protein impairs liver function, reducing its ability to produce albumin. This, combined with high estrogen and low thyroid, causes sodium loss, tissue edema, and decreased blood volume, which paradoxically raises blood pressure.

### Why is salt restriction considered harmful during pregnancy?

The corpus describes how salt restriction worsens the hypovolemia and hemoconcentration at the core of preeclampsia. Liberal salt intake is needed to restore blood volume, improve circulation, and ensure proper oxygenation of the fetus.

### What role does thyroid function play in preventing eclampsia?

Peat identified thyroid as essential for suppressing estrogen and supporting progesterone. Adequate thyroid function also allows cells to retain magnesium, a mineral used to stop eclamptic convulsions, whereas a low thyroid state causes magnesium to be excreted.

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## Cited passages

Passage numbers match the `[Source N]` markers in the synthesis above.

### Source 1 — Eclampsia in the Real Organism A Paradigm of General Distress Applicable in Infants Adults etc

Ray Peat · Article · 2007

> I think a hypertonic version of Locke's solution, containing glucose and sodium bicarbonate as well as sodium chloride, would be better, though I think the potassium should be omitted too, and extra magnesium would seem desirable. Triiodothyronine, I suspect, would help tremendously to deal with the problems of shock, causing potassium, magnesium, and phosphate to move back into cells, and sodium to move out, helping to restore blood volume and reduce the wasteful conversion of glucose to lactic acid.
>
> Albumin has been used therapeutically in preeclampsia, to restore blood volume. Synthetic polymers with similar osmotic properties are sometimes used in shock, and might also be useful in eclampsia, but simply eating extra protein quickly restores blood albumin. For example, in a group of women who were in their seventh month of pregnancy, the normal women's serum osmotic pressure was 247water, that of the women with nonconvulsive toxemia was 215, and in the women with eclampsia, the albumin and osmotic pressure were lowest, with a pressure of 175. In the eighth month, the toxemic women who ate 260 of protein daily had a 7 increase in osmotic pressure, and a group who ate 20 had a decline of 9. In a group of preeclamptics, plasma volume was 39 below that of normal pregnant women.
>
> If the physiology of shock has some relevance for eclampsia, so does the physiology of heart failure, since Meerson has shown that it is a consequence of uncompensated stress. The failing heart shifts from mainly glucose oxidation to the inefficient use of fatty acids, which are mobilized during stress, and with its decreased energy supply, it is unable to beat efficiently, since it remains in a partly contracted state. Estrogen (which is increased in men who have had heart attacks) is another factor which decreases the heart's stroke volume, and estrogen is closely associated with the physiology of the free unsaturated fatty acids. The partly contracted state of the heart is effectively a continuation of the partly contracted state of the blood vessels that causes the hypertension, and reduced tissue perfusion seen in shock and eclampsia. Since shock can be seen as a generalized inflammatory state, and since aspirin has been helpful in protecting against heart disease, it's reasonable that aspirin has been tried as a treatment in pre-eclampsia.

### Source 2 — Eclampsia in the Real Organism A Paradigm of General Distress Applicable in Infants Adults etc

Ray Peat · Article · 2007

> Medical textbooks and articles still commonly list the conditions that are associated with eclampsia: Very young and very old mothers, a first pregnancy or a great number of previous pregnancies, diabetes, twins, obesity, excessive weight gain, and kidney disease. Some authors, observing the high incidence of eclampsia in the deep South, among Blacks and on American Indian reservations, have suggested that it is a genetic disease because it runs in families. If poverty and malnutrition are also seen to run in families, some of these authors have argued that the bad genes which cause birth defects also cause eclampsia and poverty. (L. C. Chesley, et al., reported that women whose mothers suffered eclampsia during their gestation were likely to have eclampsia themselves. Some researchers have concluded that eclampsia is good, because many of the babies die, eliminating the genes for eclampsia and poverty.)Any sensible farmer knows that pregnant animals must have good food if they are to successfully bear healthy young, but of course those farmers don't have a sophisticated knowledge of genetics.
>
> The inclusion of obesity and excessive weight gain among the conditions associated with eclampsia has distracted most physicians from the fact that malnutrition is the basic cause of eclampsia. The pathologist who, knowing nothing about a woman's diet, writes in his autopsy report that the subject is a well nourished pregnant woman, reflects a medical culture which chooses to reduce nutritional adequacy to a matter of gross body weight. The attempt to restrict weight gain in pregnancy has expanded the problem of eclampsia beyond its association with poverty, into the more affluent classes.
>
> Freud wasn't the first physician who grasped the idea that the baby's health depends on the mother's, and that her health depends on good nutrition. Between 1834 and 1843, John C. W. Lever, M.D., discovered that 9 out of 10 eclamptic women had protein in their urine. He described an eclamptic woman who bore a premature, low-weight baby, as having …been living in a state of most abject penury for two or three months, subsisting for days on a single meal of bread and tea. Her face and body were covered with cachectic sores. S. S. Rosenstein observed that eclampsia was preceded by changes in the serum. L. A. A. Charpentier specifically documented low serum albumin as a cause of eclampsia.

### Source 3 — One Radio Network: Ray Peat with Patrick Timpone — September 21, 2021

Ray Peat · Interview · Sep 21, 2021

> **Patrick Timpone:** Just more of a variety of good nutrients of all the vitamins and minerals.
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yeah, and thyroid is the essential fertility hormone because it keeps down excessive estrogen and keeps up your pregnenolone
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** and progesterone production. I guess there's probably no clock on women's menstruation. I guess it just depends. No real-time clock on it?
>
> **Ray Peat:** No. At one of my talks, an old gynecologist said at the end of the talk, he said, yeah, progesterone is good stuff. He pointed to his wife who was a very young-looking woman. He said, I've been giving her progesterone for 20 years, and she's 63 and still menstruating.
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** Is that right? Progesterone?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yeah. Her overall appearance was maybe 40 years old.
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** And she was 63 some. Wow. So this is kind of complicated, but this lady really wants some help, and so I'm going to do it here, so bear with me. She says, I had preeclampsia in both of my pregnancies, more severe the second time. and was put on a magnesium drip, my doctor and midwife said it was very dangerous for me to consider having another baby because of my history of preeclampsia. I have a better understanding now, but there are things I can do to prepare before pregnancy again, but I want to hear from Dr. Peat. What causes preeclampsia and what can be done to prevent it from happening again?

### Source 4 — From PMS to Menopause: Female Hormones in Context

Ray Peat · Book · 1997

> **Ray Peat:** High estrogen destroys the liver's ability to produce albumin (G. Belasco and G. Braverman, Control of Messenger RNA Stability, Academic Press, 1994). Low thyroid causes sodium to be lost. The loss of sodium albuminate causes tissue edema, while the blood volume is decreased. Decreased blood volume and hemoconcentration (red cells form a larger fraction of the blood) impair the circulation. Blood pressure increases. Blood sugar becomes unstable, cortisol rises, increasing the likelihood of premature labor. High estrogen, hypoglycemia, viscous blood, increased tendency of the blood to clot cause seizures. Women who die from eclampsia often have extensive intravascular clotting, and sometimes the brain and liver show evidence of earlier damage, probably from clots that have been cleared. (Sometimes prolonged clotting consumes fibrinogen, causing inability to clot, and a tendency to hemorrhage.) M M Singh, "Carbohydrate metabolism in pre-eclampsia," Br. J. Obstet. Gynaecol. 83, 124-131. 1976. Sodium decrease, R. L. Searcy, Diagnostic Biochemistry McGraw-Hill, 1969. Viscosity, L. C. Chesley, 'Hypertensive Disorders in Pregnancy, Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1978. Clotting, T. Chatterjee, et al., "Studies on plasma fibrinogen level in preeclampsia and eclampsia, Experientia 34, 562-3, 1978; D. M. Haynes, 'Medical Complications During Pregnancy, McGraw-Hill Co. Blakiston Div., 1969. Progesterone decrease, G. V Smith, et at, "Estrogen and progestin metabolism in pregnant women, with especial reference to pre-eclamptic toxemia and the effect of hormone administration," Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 39, 405, 1940; R. L. Searcy, Diagnostic Biochemistry, McGraw-Hill, 1969. But the simple chain of causality has many lines of feedback, exacerbating the problem, and the nutritional problem is usually worse than a simple protein deficiency. B vitamin deficiencies alone are enough to cause the liver's underactivity, and to cause estrogen dominance, and a simple vitamin.

### Source 5 — Ray Peat Email Advice Depository — Post 805

Ray Peat · Email · Dec 2, 2022

> **Question:** Thanks for the reply. He believes her to be at risk because her mother had high-blood pressure and preeclampsia during all of her pregnancies, and lost one child to it in the late 3rd trimester. In fact there was no worry on part of the doctor until I mentioned this to him, and then he got worried, taking her blood pressure (which was 138systolic / 97 diastolic, 91 bpm heartrate), and then he had her go to get betametasone shots today, which has given me a very uneasy feeling. We are supposed to get the second and final dose tomorrow, but I am not sure if we should; the injections were very painful for my wife, stressed her out very much, and she has felt nauseated all day afterwards. It has felt like a whirlwind of tests and medication that we don't feel comfortable about since I mentioned to the doctor that her mom had preeclampsia. I've attached screenshots of a typical day of eating for her. She hates milk on its own so it's difficult for her to drink it unless it's made into hot chocolate, which I make for her with gelatin on some nights. We try to get salt her food, but I suspect it's not enough, so when she ever feels nausea I have her drink either salted orange juice or water. I was surprised to just find out now that she has not had either progesterone or estrogen tested; I assumed she had since the doctor had prescribed her vaginally inserted progesterone. She has not had vitamin D tested either, but here is her thyroid profile: Thyroid Stimulating Hormone 4.058 uUI/mL Total Triiodothyronine (total T3) 1.42 ng/mL Free Triiodothyronine (free T3) 2.5 pg/mL Total Thyroxine (T4) 7.74 ug/dL Free Thyroxine (free T4) 0.69 ng/dL T3 Uptake 38.34% Thyroxine (T4) Recruitment 0.93 ug/dL Free Thyroxine Index 2.2 I will add that we have not been tracking her temperature, but after breakfast today it was 36.1°C We just had a test done to measure protein lost in the urine over 24 hours and the result was 242mg. Does that tell you anything?
>
> **Ray Peat:** 50 to 60 years ago, a few doctors’ (e.g., Brewer, Shanklin, Hodin) research clarified the nature of preeclampsia and toxemia of pregnancy, but medical schools continue to teach a strange gene-based doctrine, that used to be closely involved with the ideology of eugenics. Have you seen any changes in her blood glucose, temperature, or cholesterol level? I think her TSH indicates that her thyroid function is low, which can contribute to the various signs of preeclampsia. "The new recommendations for TSH levels during pregnancy are the following: First trimester: less than 2.5 with a range of 0.1-2.5. Second trimester: 0.2-3.0. Third trimester: 0.3-3.0.Nov 9, 2011" Guidelines for Thyroid Disease in Pregnancy: Key Points https://www.medscape.com › viewarticle

### Source 6 — Eclampsia in the Real Organism A Paradigm of General Distress Applicable in Infants Adults etc

Ray Peat · Article · 2007

> The use of the highest quality protein (egg yolk or potato juice, or at least milk or meat) is important, but the supplementation of thyroid containing T3 is often necessary. Intravenous albumin, hypertonic solutions of glucose and sodium, and magnesium in an effective form should be helpful (magnesium sulfate injected intramuscularly is the traditional treatment for eclampsia, since it is quickly effective in stopping convulsions). While the sodium helps to restore blood volume and to regulate glucose, under some circumstances (high aldosterone) it helps to retain magnesium; aldosterone is not necessarily high during eclampsia. Triiodothyronine directly promotes cellular absorption of magnesium. Hypertonic glucose with minerals is known to decrease the destruction of protein during stress.
>
> Katherina Dalton observed that her patients who suffered from PMS (and were benefitted by progesterone treatment) were likely to develop toxemia when they became pregnant, and to have problems at the time of menopause. In these women, it is common for menstruation to continue on the normal cycle during the first several months of pregnancy. This cyclic bleeding seems to represent times of an increased ratio of estrogen to progesterone, and during such periods of cyclic bleeding the risk of miscarriage is high. Researchers found that a single injection of progesterone could sometimes eliminate the signs of toxemia for the remainder of the pregnancy. Katherina Dalton, who continued to give her patients progesterone throughout pregnancy, later learned that the babies treated in this way were remarkably healthy and bright, while the average baby delivered after a toxemic pregnancy has an IQ of only 85.
>
> Marian Diamond's work with rats clearly showed that increased exposure to estrogen during pregnancy reduced the size of the cerebral cortex and the animals' ability to learn, while progesterone increased the brain size and intelligence. Zamenhof's studies suggested that these hormones probably have their effects largely through their actions on glucose, though they also affect the availability of oxygen in the same way, and have a variety of direct effects on brain cells that would operate toward the same end.
>
> If Katherina Dalton's patients' IQs averaged 130, instead of the expected 85, the potential social effects of proper health care during pregnancy are enormous.
>
> But there is evidence that healthy gestation affects more than just the IQ.

### Source 7 — Ask the Herb Doctor: Questions and Answers

Ray Peat · Interview · Jan 17, 2014 · http://l-i-g-h-t.com/files/herb-doctors-questions-answers.mp4

> ## Preeclampsia and Nutrition
>
> **Andrew Murray:** I have several questions to pose to you before we open up the lines. One person has a young friend in the hospital with preeclampsia. The doctors want her to abort the baby because her blood pressure spikes up and down. She is at 24 weeks and refuses to abort. She is very health conscious and is eating her own food while in the hospital. What is your general impression of preeclampsia and the best approach to its treatment?
>
> **Ray Peat:** When I first became interested in biology, I saw that preeclampsia was one of the most dogmatic areas of medicine. Until fairly recently, about 30 years ago, almost all doctors were taught that it is a genetic-related disease. The idea was that the mother's nutrition had nothing to do with the development of the baby. Tom Brewer, a medical doctor who actually studied nutrition, was instrumental in gradually changing that medical dogma over a period of 30 years. Two people influenced by him were Douglas Shanklin and Jay Hodin, who wrote a book about 40 years ago called *Maternal Nutrition and Child Health*. Tom Brewer found that having women salt their food to taste, drink at least a quart or two of milk a day, and definitely get 80 grams or more of protein per day was effective. He noted that the medical treatment at the time—restricting salt—was based on the idea that blood pressure in anyone with hypertension could be controlled by restricting salt. This was promoted by the drug industry when they released diuretics. That unscientific application to preeclampsia was killing babies and causing defects by starving their brains and reducing blood volume. Shanklin and Hodin cited studies where the only intervention was supplementing several grams of sodium extra a day. Those studies showed that just increasing salt intake was enough to correct the blood pressure by increasing the volume of fluid and blood, allowing for proper oxygenation of the fetus. With proper oxygenation, the kidney could regulate the production of aldosterone. Salt restriction increases aldosterone, which increases blood pressure.

### Source 8 — One Radio Network: Ray Peat with Patrick Timpone — September 21, 2021

Ray Peat · Interview · Sep 21, 2021

> He said, I've been giving her progesterone for 20 years, and she's 63 and still menstruating. Is that right? Progesterone? Yeah. And her overall appearance was maybe 40 years old. And she was 63 some. Wow. So this is kind of complicated, but this lady really wants some help, and so I'm going to do it here, so bear with me. She says, I had preeclampsia in both of my pregnancies, more severe the second time, and was put on a magnesium drip. My doctor and midwife said it was very dangerous for me to consider having another baby because of my history of preeclampsia. I have a better understanding now, but there are things... things I can do to prepare before pregnancy again, but I want to hear from Dr. Pete what causes pre-eclampsia and what can be done to be vented from happening again. If you can find any of the writings of Tom Brewer from......the 1950s, especially through the 1960s. Tom Brewer, okay. Yeah, he showed that a protein deficiency, and to some extent other deficiencies, especially sodium, he ranted about the dangers of salt restriction during pregnancy, leading to preeclampsia. But he basically had the cure for it in the 1960s, and when he died his wife, Gail I think, rewrote some of his material and I think got the essential ideas wrong. So don't look for the Tom Brewer diet, but look for the actual writings of Tom Brewer. And that's what I'm looking for. A book that he referred to, written by Shanklin and Hodin on maternal and child nutrition, I think was the title, emphasized the importance of sodium during pregnancy. But a Brewer advocated drinking of... at least a quart, I think maybe two quarts of milk per day during pregnancy was his advice. Wow. And he essentially prevented all of the expected cases of pre-eclampsia. And thyroid is another factor, if magnesium drips help. It's because the body is deficient in oxidative metabolism as a result of being low in thyroid and therefore the cells don't retain magnesium. An allergist had the interesting experience of giving magnesium intravenously every week to his allergic patients.

### Source 9 — From PMS to Menopause: Female Hormones in Context

Ray Peat · Book · 1997

> **Ray Peat:** 17, 459-497, 1962.) Although Sigmund Freud sensibly argued in 1897 that it was more reasonable to think that an infant's cerebral palsy was caused by the same factors that caused the mother's sickness, than to think that the baby's cerebral palsy caused maternal sickness and premature labor, more than 50 years later people were still taking seriously the idea that cerebral palsy might cause maternal complications and prematurity. (A.M. Lilienfield and E. Parkhurst, "A study of the association of factors of pregnancy and parturition with the development of cerebral palsy," Am. ,I. Hyg. 53, 262-282, 1951.) Medical textbooks and articles still commonly list the conditions that are associated with eclampsia: Very young and very old mothers, a first pregnancy or a great number of previous pregnancies, diabetes, twins, obesity, excessive weight gain, and kidney disease. Some authors, observing the high incidence of eclampsia in the deep South, among blacks and on American Indian reservations, have suggested that it is a genetic disease because it "runs in families." If poverty and malnutrition are also seen to "run in families," some of these authors have argued that the bad genes which cause birth defects also cause eclampsia and poverty. (L. C. Chesley, et al., "The familial factor in toxemia of pregnancy," Obstet. Gynec. 32, 303-311, 1968, reported that women whose mothers suffered eclampsia during their gestation were likely to have eclampsia themselves. Some "researchers" have concluded that eclampsia is good, because many of the babies die, eliminating the "genes" for eclampsia and poverty)\* Any sensible farmer knows that pregnant animals must have good food if they are to successfully bear healthy young, but of course those farmers don't have a sophisticated knowledge of genetics.

### Source 10 — From PMS to Menopause: Female Hormones in Context

Ray Peat · Book · 1997

> **Ray Peat:** The inclusion of obesity and "excessive weight gain" among the conditions associated with eclampsia has distracted most physicians from the fact that malnutrition is the basic cause of eclampsia. The pathologist who, knowing nothing about a woman's diet, writes in his autopsy report that the subject is "a well nourished" pregnant woman, reflects a medical culture which chooses to reduce "nutritional adequacy" to a matter of gross body weight. The attempt to restrict weight gain in pregnancy has expanded the problem of eclampsia beyond its association with poverty, into the more affluent classes. Freud wasn't the first physician who grasped the idea that the baby's health depends on the mother's, and that her health depends on good nutrition. Between 1834 and 1843, John C. W. Lever, M.D., discovered that 9 out of 10 eclamptic women had protein in their urine. He described an eclamptic woman who bore a premature, low-weight baby, as having "...been living in a state of most abject penury for two or three months, subsisting for days on a single meal of bread and tea. Her face and body were covered with cachectic sores." ("Cases of puerperal convulsions," Guy's Hospital Reports, Volume 1, series 2, 495-517, 1843.) S. S. Rosenstein observed that eclampsia was preceded by changes in the serum (Traite Pratique des Maladies des Reins, Paris, 1874). L. A. A. Charpentier specifically documented low serum albumin as a cause of eclampsia (A Practical Treatise on Obstetrics, Volume 2, William Wood & Co., 1887). Robert Ross, M.D., documented the role of malnutrition as the cause of proteinuria and eclampsia (Southern Medical Journal 28, 120, 1935). In outline, we can visualize a chain of causality beginning with a diet deficient in protein, impairing liver function, producing inability to store glycogen, to inactivate estrogen and insulin, and to activate thyroid. Low protein and high estrogen cause increased tendency of the blood to clot.

### Source 11 — One Radio Network: Ray Peat with Patrick Timpone — November 16, 2020

Ray Peat · Interview · Nov 16, 2020

> **Ray Peat:** Sometimes, yeah. If the general health is very bad, the emphasis tended to be on denying that anything was inheritable or acquired from the environment. And so it all had to be genetic. So all of the effects of malnutrition, poverty, all of these effects were blamed on bad genes. For example, until just 20 or 30 years ago, the dogma medically was that eclampsia, seizures during pregnancy, hypertension during pregnancy, premature birth, damaged babies and so on. All this was absolutely genetic, that the baby had bad genes that were causing the eclampsia in the mother. So the doctor had no responsibility to cure their bad inheritance. and they were denying that nutrition could have anything to do with prematurity and pregnancy problems because of the absolute genetic determinism. But starting with a few doctors like Tom Brewer, he showed that if you give women a reasonable amount of protein, slightly more expensive diet and don't restrict their salt or anything they crave, you absolutely prevent eclampsia and tremendously reduce birth defects and prematurity and so on.
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** So they completely wiped out, not completely, but it wiped out the genetic determinism idea.

### Source 12 — Preventing Eclampsia: An Interview with Tom Brewer, MD

Thomas Brewer · Interview · Nov 2004 · with CJ Puotinen, Thomas Brewer · https://healthybirth.net/an-interview-with-dr-tom-brewer/

> **Thomas Brewer:** They are what happens when you starve a pregnant woman or when she by circumstances, starves on her own or when some idiot doctor puts her on a low-calorie, low-salt diet and prescribes diuretics, which are the worst things you can give her. (22,37,42,44,46,49,52,58) Low blood volume, which is the inevitable result of dehydration and the use of diuretics, contributes directly to eclampsia, premature birth, and low birth weight. (23,35,36,38) And now there’s a whole group of hypertension drugs that have come out in the last 10 to 15 years. These drugs just ravage women. They cause direct damage to all of the cells in the mother’s body, particularly to the liver, a little to the kidneys, and then to the placenta and fetus. As a result of all this, my point of view or medical philosophy is not at all compatible with that of the people who are running things. I believe American medicine took a very bad turn when it let pharmaceutical companies take over.

_Generated 2026-07-20 from the Bioenergetic Oracle corpus._