Lack Of Vitamin E May Affect Learning Skills In Babies

Research shows that babies who lacked vitamin E nourishment when in the womb were likely to be at a higher risk of developing impairments in mental skills. Maret Traber of Oregon State University and a colleague conducted the study on zebrafish and discovered that vitamin E-deficient embryos of zebrafish had more deformities and higher incidence of death, as well as a changed status of DNA methylation five days after fertilisation.

After being fed with a vitamin E-adequate diet, the fish failed to learn. Traber said that due to the vitamin E deficiency, the brains of embryos continued to lack choline and glucose, thus developing poorly. The research was published in the journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine.