Vitamin D Supplements Enhance The Anti-inflammatory Effect Of Steroids In Asthma Patients

Vitamin D Supplements Enhance The Anti-inflammatory Effect Of Steroids In Asthma Patients

According to an article published in American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, supplements of vitamin D administered to children with asthma may improve anti-inflammatory effect of corticosteroids. Ann Chen Wu, MD, MPH, assistant professor in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, said that children with mild to moderate persistent asthma and vitamin D deficiency had a weaker response to treatment after one year than children with normal levels of vitamin D.

Vitamin D Supplements

The association between low vitamin D levels and asthma was made some time ago, but now researchers have shown that vitamin D deficiency is associated with a worse prognosis of asthma. The results were drawn from a multi-center study in which 1024 children with asthma, aged 5 to 12 years were included . Children followed treatment with budesonide (a local corticosteroid ), nedocromil (mast cell inhibitor) or placebo. Vitamin D level was divided into three categories: deficient (below 20 ng / ml), insufficient (20-30 ng / ml) or sufficient (> 30 ng / ml). Researchers have found that an adequate level of vitamin D is associated with improved lung function. It should be noted, however, that the study has some limitations: the small number of children with vitamin D (101) and the fact that vitamin D level was measured at one time point.

It should be noted that the consequences of vitamin D on asthma have been established by previous studies and there was great debate on vitamin D supplementation in patients with asthma. It seems that vitamin D deficiency is associated with an increase in immunoglobulin IgE, which is involved in asthma pathogenesis. It was also questioned that vitamin D supplementation would  diminish corticosteroids dose . Discussions on supplementation of vitamin D particularly on the dose because it is difficult to adjust the  appropriate dose for each person. Supplements of vitamin D can cause thirst, dry mouth, irregular heartbeats, weakness. Also, vitamin D can raise blood calcium levels (hypercalcemia). Hypercalcemia, in turn, can cause unwanted side effects such as irregular heartbeats, kidney stones, bone loss, etc.. It is worth reminding that vitamin D is produced in the skin from cholesterol under the effect of ultraviolet rays. Therefore, vitamin D is produced in the sunny months of the year. From here came the discussion about the possible role of this vitamin in immunity. Also, vitamin deficiency was associated with an increased risk of tuberculosis, for which reason it  was used as treatment in the past. Currently there are discussions on the role of vitamin D in cancer.