Could Vitamin C improve airway function for kids of mums who smoked?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-04-09 01:00

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Smoking during pregnancy can lead to breathing issues in kids, especially wheezing, but in such cases, vitamin C could help reduce the effects, according to international researchers. The team analysed a previous trial, VCSIP (Vitamin C to Decrease Effects of Smoking in Pregnancy on Infant Lung Function), which involved 243 babies whose mothers had smoked during pregnancy and had been randomly assigned a vitamin C supplement or placebo. After analysing the wheeze of the children at 3 months, 6 months and 5 years of age, they found wheezing was still apparent, but appeared to be less prominent in the kids whose mothers had received the vitamin C. The team says the findings show smoking during pregnancy does affect children’s lung function in the long term, but if there are cases of smoking, vitamin C could help at least increase their lung function.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Pediatrics

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Oregon Health & Science University, USA

Funder: This studywas supported by grantsR01 HL105447 andR01HL 105460from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) with cofunding from the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) and by grants P51OD011092565 andUH3OD023288 from the National Institutes of Health. Additional supportwas from the Oregon Clinical Translational Research Institute funded by grant UL1TR000128 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

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