{"id":5660,"date":"2010-04-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.dev\/?p=5660"},"modified":"2010-04-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-26T00:00:00","slug":"vitamin-d-allergies-asthma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.achooallergy.com\/blog\/vitamin-d-allergies-asthma\/","title":{"rendered":"Vitamin D Deficiencies Linked to Allergies, Asthma"},"content":{"rendered":"

ScienceDaily<\/a> reports that low vitamin D levels are associated with lower lung function and greater medication use in children with asthma. Researchers at National Jewish Health published these findings in the Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology<\/i>, also reporting that vitamin D enhances the activity of corticosteroids, which are the most effective type of medication for treating asthma.<\/p>\n

Dr. Daniel Searing says, ‘Asthmatic children in our study who had low levels of vitamin D were more allergic, had poorer lung function and used more medications. Conversely, our findings suggest that vitamin D supplementation may help reverse steroid resistance in asthmatic children and reduce the effective dose of steroids needed for our patients.’<\/p>\n

The study involved checking the medical records of 100 pediatric asthma patients who were referred to National Jewish Health. Of these 100, 47 had insufficient vitamin D levels and 17 had deficient levels; interestingly, these insufficient and deficient levels are consistent with levels found in the general population. <\/p>\n

The connection between vitamin D and allergies is through IgE, an allergy marker: Low vitamin D levels generally indicate higher IgE levels. Accordingly, low vitamin D levels were associated with allergies to specific indoor allergens. Furthermore, low vitamin D levels were also linked to low FEV1, the amount of air a person can exhale in one second, and lower FEV1\/FVC, another measure of lung function, ScienceDaily explains. Not surprisingly, low vitamin D levels with its tendency to signal increased allergies and decreased lung function, is also connected to greater use of oral steroids and long-acting beta agonists. <\/p>\n

The finding related to increased medication use, senior author Donald Leung, MD, PhD explains, has ‘two possible explanations. It could be that lower vitamin D levels contribute to increasing asthma severity, which requires more corticosteroid therapy. Or, it may be that vitamin D directly affects steroid activity, and that low levels of vitamin D make the steroids less effective, thus requiring more medication for the same effect.’<\/p>\n

Researchers conducted further studies that indicated corticosteroid action is enhanced by vitamin D <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ScienceDaily reports that low vitamin D levels are associated with lower lung function and greater medication use in children with asthma. Researchers at National Jewish Health published these findings in the Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology, also reporting that… <\/p>\n