Originally published September 12 2005
Fruit fiber may be viable protection against childhood exposure to secondhand smoke
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A study by researchers in Singapore found that children who are exposed to second-hand smoke can develop life-long respiratory problems, but, Science Daily reports, many respondents who reported consuming fruit and soy fiber as adults seemed to be protected from early exposure to second-hand smoke.
Individuals 18 or younger, living with one or more smokers, were more than twice as likely to suffer from chronic dry cough as adults, according to a new study published by researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), a part of the National Institutes of Health, the University of Minnesota, and the National University of Singapore.
This paper, which appears online in Thorax, is the largest study to date on the effects of childhood exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) on later respiratory disease, and the first to include data on dietary intake.
"This research adds to a growing body of evidence that exposure to second-hand smoke early in life has health consequences that can last a lifetime," said Dr. David Schwartz, Director of the NIEHS.
The data for this study were collected from the Singapore Chinese Health Study, a population of men and women of Chinese ethnicity ranging in ages from 45 to 74 at enrollment, who live in Singapore.
The 35,000 non-smokers provided information regarding ETS before and after age 18, a medical history including information on respiratory symptoms of chronic cough, phlegm production and asthma diagnosis, as well as information on dietary intake.
More than 45 percent of the study participants reported having fathers who smoked, and 19 percent reported having mothers who smoked.
"Because we had previously found in this Singaporean population data suggesting that a diet high in fruit and soy fiber may reduce the incidence of chronic respiratory symptoms, we decided to study the impact of fiber on problems associated with early tobacco exposure," said NIEHS researcher Stephanie London, M.D. "We actually found that people who ate even a small amount of fruit fiber had less chronic cough related to environmental tobacco smoke."
Dr. London pointed out that the average weight of the Singapore study participants was 127 lbs.
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