A diet with plenty of vitamin E during pregnancy could help to reduce the risk of asthma in children, a study has shown.
Graham Devereux, of the University of Aberdeen, which did the research, said: “Children born to mothers who had a low intake of vitamin E during pregnancy were five times more likely to be asthmatic than children whose mothers had eaten a diet high in vitamin E.”
The link was found in a five-year study of 1,253 mothers and children. Mothers were placed in five categories according to their vitamin E intake during pregnancy, and then children born to women in the bottom and top brackets of vitamin E consumption were compared.
Those in the first group had more than a fivefold higher risk of displaying early asthma symptoms by their fifth birthday, the team reports in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Dr Devereux said that it was possible that the declining intake of vitamin E in the past 50 years had contributed to the rise in asthma. He said that more work was needed before specific advice could be given out to pregnant women.