Anyone who's ever suffered from asthma as a kid knows how much it sucks. While all the kids are having fun outside during recess, you're stuck inside the classroom eating lunch by yourself because the teachers are worried about anything outside that could trigger your lungs and cause it to explode. And if you do go outside, you have to carry around inhalers which makes you look even more dorky.



Thankfully, scientists are now investigating a new way to help prevent future generations from having to experience all this. They are asking pregnant women to eat soups enhanced with vitamin E in the hope it  boosts their child’s lung capacity.

The idea comes from Professor Graham Devereux, a chest physician at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. To test this theory, 50 expectant mothers were recruited to eat three cans of soup a week. Half of the participants will eat normal soup while the other half will consume a special variant packed with vitamin E rich foods such as sun-dried tomatoes, sunflower oil and wheat-germ. The soups are being produced in collaboration with Scottish food company Baxters.

Researchers will then test lung function for early signs of asthma once the babies are born. The mothers who have eaten the vitamin E soups will have babies with better lung function. A larger study of 1,500 women at five centres across the UK will follow if it is successful.

via Medical News Today