Vitamin D

Over the past several years, the role of vitamin D in immunomodulation has been studied and shown to have a significant impact on innate and adaptive immunity to infections, including the pathophysiology of allergic asthma. It has been proposed that the increase in allergy and asthma is a consequence of widespread vitamin D insufficiency which appears to be frequent in industrialized countries, reflecting the insufficient intake of diet-sourced vitamin D. The serum vitamin D level is associated with asthma in children as well as adults. A randomized, placebo controlled clinical study with 1024 children suffering from mild-to-moderate persistent asthma has shown that Vitamin D deficiency has associated with a higher rate of severe asthma . There is a significant positive correlation between forced vital capacity percent predicted and serum vitamin D level children with asthma. Moreover, 91.6% of these asthmatic children are not sufficient in serum vitamin D level. Low level of vitamin D in serum is also associated with increased hyper responsiveness and reduced glucocorticoid response in adults with asthma. These studies have indicated that the low serum vitamin D level is related to reduced lung function and higher risk of asthma. Reduced risk of asthma exacerbation triggered by acute respiratory tract infection is observed in a vitamin D supplementation. Higher consumption of vitamin D during pregnancy may reduce the risk of childhood wheeze and asthma.