To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title: Vitamin E May Reduce Smoking Damage In Pregnant Women URL: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/58422.htm Doctor's Guide February 5, 1998
WASHINGTON, MD -- February 5, 1998 -- While numerous studies have warned about smoking during pregnancy, a new medical study of more than 1,500 women who delivered babies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital indicates that vitamin E may help reduce the damage caused by smoking. The study was conducted by a team of five researchers from the University of Tennessee, the University of Minnesota and the University of Alabama at Birmingham and was funded by the National Institutes of Health. The results appear in this month's American Journal of Epidemiology, a publication of the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Researchers said vitamin E reduced by almost half the calcification damage detected in placentas of women who continued to smoke during pregnancy. Vitamin C and beta-carotene, also tested, showed improvement for African-American women, but not for white women. The positive effects of vitamin E were the same for all women tested. Women who smoked compared with women who did not smoke had an 85 percent increased likelihood of damage to the placenta, which can retard growth, the study said. With increased Vitamin E, however, damage was reduced. "Specifically increase in alphatocopherol (Vitamin E) intake was associated with an approximate 47 percent reduction in the odds of calcification for both black and white women," the researchers reported. Despite public health information on the consequences of smoking during pregnancy, the study said, large numbers of pregnant women continue to smoke. Researchers said dietary oxidants such as Vitamin E, Vitamin C and beta-carotene can be a means of identifying interventions to reduce the harm of cigarette smoking in pregnant women. "Additionally, non-smokers at risk for oxidative injury such as those with pregnancy-induced hypertension or exposure to environmental pollutants may also realise benefits from nutritional adjuncts," the study said. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 1999 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of P\S\L content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of P\S\L. P\S\L shall not be liable for any errors, omissions or delays in this content or any other content on its sites, newsletters or other publications, nor for any decisions or actions taken in reliance on such content. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This news story was printed from *Doctor's Guide to the Internet* located at http://www.docguide.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to News Story Page This site is maintained by webmaster@pslgroup.com Please contact us with any comments, problems or bugs. All contents Copyright (c) 1998 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved.