Vitamin deficiency ups asthma risk

A new medical research has suggested that a diet low in vitamins A and C increases the individual's risk of developing asthma. According to the Food Standards Agency (FSA), good sources of vitamin A include cheese, eggs, oily fish, milk, fortified margarine and yoghurt, while vitamin C is found in a wide variety of fruit and vegetables such as pepper, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, oranges and kiwis. The findings, published in the journal Thorax, contradict those of a large-scale study published last year which found no link between the diet's antioxidant levels and asthma. Meanwhile, researchers found that on average asthmatic men lacked 26 percent of their daily vitamin A requirement while asthmatic women lacked 30 percent. Previous studies had shown that taking oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) places certain women at an increased risk of developing respiratory disorders such as asthma.