Smokers’ newborns’ lungs
From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
Women who smoke while pregnant decrease the likelihood of excellent lung health for their babies, and this can continue through the child’s life. Many smokers quit before or during pregnancy, but some don’t – and, for them, a preliminary study indicates taking vitamin C may reduce the damage.
Cindy McEvoy of Oregon Health and Science University saw this in data on babies of pregnant smokers who got extra daily vitamin C versus those who got an inactive substitute.
“Our specific study was evaluating the potential for supplemental vitamin C to protect the infant’s lungs in terms of improved respiratory function after delivery. And in this pilot study, we were able to show that.”
The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Learn more at healthfinder.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.