CHECKUP: NEWS, TIPS AND TRENDS : STUDY: MOM'S DIET, BABY WEIGHT NOT ALWAYS LINKED.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

Despite concerns that what a woman eats during pregnancy may affect the health of her child, study findings suggest that a mother's diet has little impact on her baby's birth weight, at least in industrialized countries where malnutrition is rare.

Among a group of 693 first-time mothers in England, there was little connection between the amount of nutrients consumed during pregnancy and a child's weight at birth. Only intake of vitamin C was linked to birth weight.

``I think many women would find this message reassuring,'' said University of Oxford epidemiologist Fiona Mathews, who led the current study.

``However, I don't think that the study should be interpreted as meaning that diet is unimportant,'' she continued. ``Women with very poor diets may end up being nutritionally deficient themselves by the end of pregnancy.''

Still the one: Aspirin remains the preferred way, over a newer drug, to prevent heart attacks and strokes in patients with clogged blood vessels, researchers report.

Among patients with heart disease, aspirin has been shown to reduce their risk of dying by 27 percent, according to Dr. Philip B. Gorelick of the Center for Stroke Research in Chicago.

Gorelick with his colleagues compared the drug clopidogrel with aspirin in a review of medical literature. Clopidogrel, marketed under the name Plavix, represents the latest in a line of aspirin alternatives that act against dangerous blood clots in heart disease patients.

Gorelick's team compared 40 years of aspirin trials with the largest, most recent studies of clopidogrel. The physicians found the two drugs equivalent in their help in preventing formation of clots in the bloodstream. Aspirin, however, remains the more inexpensive and well-tested drug.

The researchers did say, though, that people who are sensitive to aspirin should take clopidogrel. Aspirin can cause bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract.