Could Vitamin D Help Manage Asthma Attacks?

Increasing vitamin D levels in patients could help manage asthma attacks, according to a recent study.

“Vitamin D has significant immunomodulatory effects and, as such, was believed to have an effect on asthma—an immunologically mediated disease,” said Dr. Confino-Cohen, MD, lead researcher of the study and researchers at Meir Medical Center.
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“But most of the existing data regarding vitamin D and asthma came from the pediatric population and was inconsistent. Our present study is unique because the study population of young adults is very large and ‘uncontaminated’ by other diseases,” she said.

For the study, researchers evaluated the medical records of adults ages 22 to 50 years from the Clait Health Services in Israel. From 2008 to 2012, the vitamin D measurements were taken for 307,900 participants, 21,000 of which had asthma.

The study showed, that—after adjusting for predictors of asthma such as obesity, smoking, and other chronic diseases—those who were vitamin D deficient had a 25% increased chance to have had at least 1 flare-up in the recent past compared to other asthmatics.

The researchers noted that while people typically absorb vitamin D through sun exposure, patients can also obtain the vitamin from sources such as fortified milk, fish, eggs, cod liver oil or a dietary supplement.

The complete study is published in the October issue of Allergy.

-Michelle Canales

References:

Confino-Cohen R, Brufman I, Goldberg A, et al. Vitamin D, asthma prevalence and asthma exacerbations: a large adult population-based study. Allergy. 2014 October [epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1111/all.12508.

Tel Aviv University. Breathe easier: get your D. October 28, 2014.  www.aftau.org/weblog-medicine--health?=&storyid4704=2120&ncs4704=3. Accessed October 30, 2014.