Vitamin E and Asthma, Vitamin B and Depression
Further to Thursday’s post about a study the recommends all pre-natal vitamins, a Scottish study reported in the Scotsman this morning suggests that rising rates of childhood asthma may be linked to a diet low in vitamin E.
- Dr Graham Devereux, who led the research at Aberdeen University, told the Scotsman that a drop in people’s intake of vitamin E in the past 50 years was perhaps linked to the rising number of children with asthma. But he said more work was needed before specific advice could be given to women in order to reduce the risks to their children.
Sources of vitamin E include vegetable oils like olive oil, canola and sunflower oil, margarine, wheat germ, nuts, sunflower seeds, leafy green vegetables, meat and fish. So eating salad before one meal every day is a habit to strive for not just for pregnant women, but for everyone.
Vitamin depletion is not just about vitamine E. Yesterday, I was discussing post partum depression with a friend who recently recovered from the condition to become a depression activist. Her cure, she says, came from ensuring she got enough of the B vitamins.
Folic acid is one of the B vitamins. This made me wonder if women who stop taking their prenatal vitamins after the birth, instead of after they finish lactating, are at a greater risk of postpartum depression? I thought
I would ask about your experiences. Did you keep taking the vitamins and have PPD anyway, or did you stop taking them before you were diagnosed?
Tags: prenatal-vitamins, vitamins-for-pregnant-womenRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Mental Health
5 opinions for Vitamin E and Asthma, Vitamin B and Depression
sarah
Sep 7, 2006 at 8:07 pm
I kept taking them. I definitely felt major fluctuation in my ‘hormones’, or at least my emotional levels every day for the first few weeks which left me feeling very unstable.
However I will never know if that was all just from having a baby and knowing exactly how much worse all the things what went wrong could have been - or from knowing that my mother was so ill and I could not be there to help her. Actually I should have had PPD with all that stress!!
kbaggott
Sep 7, 2006 at 10:53 pm
The fact that you avoided PPD is a major accomplishment. I hope the vitamins helped you get through that.
Babylune » More Good News About Multivitamins
Nov 23, 2006 at 4:57 am
[…] A few months ago, doctors in Toronto recommended that all women of childbearing age take prenatal vitamins even if they aren’t planning to become pregnant to prevent birth defects. In addition, women who have just given birth are advised to continue to take their vitamins to aid recovery and help prevent post partum depression. […]
Babylune - Year One
Jan 13, 2007 at 3:10 am
[…] Then our family went to Bulgaria and, true to my lazy nature, went on vacation. I spent most of August away from a computer screen. It was my longest break from technology in more than ten years. Like most people, I got serious in September. I vowed to stop using celebrity mothers to increase traffic. Instead, I focussed on the very real issues of birth control, vitamins and Britney Spears. I also went back to work and left a trail of breast milk everywhere I went. […]
Asthma and Vitamins
Aug 2, 2008 at 8:02 am
I agree that good nutrition and vitamins are important to fighting Asthma and being healthy, but do we have any good information on just what actually helps, and how much? I mean, you should be taking your vitamins anyway, but it would be nice to know how much of what has what effect.
Cheers.
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: