Vitamin C for warding off asthma? (includes related article on number of asthma patients)

Some 800 years ago, the philosopher Maimonides said people with asthma should eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables - the major food sources of vitamin C. And in the early 1800s, a scientist named F.D. Reisseissen noted that people with scurvy, a disease of vitamin C deficiency, suffered asthmatic symptoms that improved when vitamin C-containing items were added to their diets. Now researchers are finding scientific backing for the centuries-old advice.

Consider that asthma can develop when the lungs are weakened by contaminants in environmental pollutants such as dirty air, cigarette smoke, and the like. Called oxidants, these contaminants not only contribute to the …