ANTIOXIDANTS AND ASTHMA

Antioxidants have been touted for starving off everything from wrinkles to cancer. Add one more to the list: asthma. A recent study by the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine in Seattle found that taking certain vitamins helps reduce sensitivity to common air pollutants such as ozone and sulfur dioxide that can trigger, an asthma attack.

Researchers gave 17 asthmatic adults 500 mg of vitamin C and 400 IU of vitamin E (both well but safely; above the recommended daily allowance) or a placebo. At the end of five weeks, the subjects were asked to exercise for 45 minutes on a treadmill while breathing ozone. They were then exposed to sulfur dioxide for 20 minutes. "The people who took vitamins were much less sensitive to these pollutants than those who were not taking the vitamins," says professor Jane Koenig, PhD, who worked on the study. "The antioxidants seemed to have a protective effect guarding the airways from constricting or becoming inflamed when exposed to these airborne toxins."

The benefits were especially dramatic in the subjects with the most severe cases of asthma. Koenig speculates these antioxidants may have the same effect on other asthma irritants, such as dust and cigarette smoke, although more research must be done to confirm this.

WorkingMother November 1997