Researchers at the University of Aberdeen in the UK say in a new study that low maternal levels of Vitamin E are linked to increased risk of asthma in kids. The study is a continuation of a previous one where the same team showed that low vitamin E in mothers was linked to increased wheezing risk in children aged 2 years.
In this study researchers followed 1,000 children at five years. They found that a child's risk of asthma, persistent wheeze, wheezing or asthma during the previous year, was linked to low levels of vitamin E during their mother's pregnancy.
Dr. Graham Devereux, lead author of the study said that low vitamin E possibly impairs lung development in the womb or affects the immune system. He told Reuters that the study did not recommend that pregnant women start taking increased vitamin E; rather they should follow healthy diets.