Vitamin C

Britton and colleague studied the association between vitamin C and E on lung function in a study involving 2,633 subjects aged 17-70 years old. The authors found that a higher intake of vitamin C was associated with a higher forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), an important measure performance of lung function measuring amount of air movement within 1 second and a higher forced vital capacity (FVC), a measure of the strength of lung muscles by measuring the maximum amount of air a person can expel from the lungs. An increase in vitamin C of 40mg/d was associated with a significant increase in FEV1 and FVC of 25.0 ml and 23.3 ml, respectively. An increase in vitamin E of 2.2mg was also associated with increase in FEVI and FVC of 20.1 ml and 23.1 ml. However, the authors conclude that much of the beneficial effect was due to vitamin C. (2)