Children born to mothers with low vitamin E levels may be more likely to require asthma medications, according to data presented this week at the 2017 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.
The study, from researchers at Vanderbilt and Northwestern University, followed 652 children and their mothers for the first 2 years of the child’s life. Researchers used post-pregnancy maternal samples to test mothers for 2 constituents, or isoforms, of vitamin E including alpha-tocopherol and gamma-tocopherol. There are 8 different isoforms, of which alpha- and gamma-tocopherol are the ones that scientists know the most about.