Micah Stanley
Vitamin D deficiency is now associated with many complaints. Various studies have also shown a connection with asthma. Vitamin D deficiency could therefore promote the development of asthma – especially in children, and then if the mother was not well supplied with vitamin D during pregnancy. Even those who already have asthma should definitely have their vitamin D levels checked. If the missing vitamin D is supplemented, an improvement in asthma could be achieved.
The risk of asthma increases with vitamin D deficiency
Vitamin D deficiency affects a large number of people worldwide and is involved in the development of numerous diseases. Conversely, this means that regulating the vitamin D level is an important preventive measure and should also be part of the therapy for every disease.
For example, we know that asthma attacks are more likely the lower the vitamin D level of the person affected.
Vitamin D: protection against asthma?
Although vitamin D is known as the bone vitamin, it has many other functions. The vitamin is also involved in the development and maturation of the lungs in the embryo. It also plays an important role in the immune system. Therefore, the better the mother-to-be is supplied with vitamin D, the better her child seems to be protected against asthma – an important aspect when you consider that asthma is the most common chronic disease in children worldwide.
As early as 2007, it was found that 50 percent of all mothers and 65 percent of their infants are vitamin D deficient – despite the usual vitamin D supplementation of pregnant women, which rarely takes into account actual needs. Instead, every woman receives the same preparation in the same dosage, which is often far too low.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School in Boston have now evaluated all the scientific work on the subject of “asthma and vitamin D” available to date and published their results in June 2016:
Asthma after respiratory infections
The causes of asthma include: called respiratory viral infections. However, not everyone who catches a viral cold gets asthma.
Asthma only appears in those who have the right conditions for the disease.
Vitamin D induces the body’s production of certain antimicrobial substances (cathelicidin) that would fight viruses and bacteria. Therefore, the intake of vitamin D also showed in studies that those affected got colds or flu-like infections less frequently as a result of the supplementation. Conversely, people with low vitamin D levels are more likely to develop upper respiratory tract infections.
This means that a good supply of vitamin D could protect against sudden asthma after a viral infection.
Asthma is caused by a weak immune system
A weak immune system is also involved in the development of asthma. Vitamin D strengthens the immune system.
Vitamin D receptors are located on cells of the immune system. Vitamin D can dock there and act on the immune cells. In this way, it suppresses inflammatory allergic reactions. Perhaps this is the reason why the mucous membranes of someone well supplied with vitamin D react less strongly to allergens and are therefore less susceptible to allergic asthma.
Asthma: If cortisone is no longer effective, test vitamin D
Vitamin D is also suitable for the concomitant therapy of cortisone-resistant asthma patients.
In some cases, asthmatics no longer react to cortisone preparations. Vitamin D can increase the sensitivity to glucocorticoids again and thus ensure that the medication is effective again when an asthma attack is approaching.
Childhood asthma
Children are particularly susceptible to asthma if their lungs have not been able to develop optimally during pregnancy and also in the first few years of life.
It is now known that vitamin D is significantly involved in embryonic lung development and also supports the maturation of the lungs after birth. Therefore, if vitamin D is lacking during pregnancy and the early years of the child’s life, the lungs cannot develop as intended and consequently become susceptible to respiratory diseases such as bronchitis. B. Asthma.
At least three studies then showed that children whose mothers had taken vitamin D during pregnancy had a reduced risk of asthma by more than 60 percent. One of these studies also showed that the mother’s vitamin D intake also reduced the child’s risk of hay fever.
Prevent and treat asthma with sufficient vitamin D
Regulating the vitamin D level is therefore one of the first preventive measures to prevent asthma (e.g. if there are already asthmatics in the family) and is part of any therapy for existing asthma.
Vitamin D occurs naturally only in small amounts in food, and only in a few foods that are hardly eaten today, such as. B. Liver and other offal and fatty fish with offal.
Basically, however, foods containing vitamin D are not necessary, since vitamin D can be built up by the body itself with the help of solar radiation.
Problem: Not everyone manages to soak up the sun regularly. Yes, it’s estimated that the average resident of a developed country spends 93 percent of their time indoors.
In Central Europe (and other regions at similar latitudes), the sun is also so low in autumn, winter, and spring that the necessary UVB radiation does not reach the earth in sufficiently high doses. No wonder vitamin D deficiency is so widespread – even where vitamin D-fortified foods can be found in supermarkets.
Taking vitamin D supplements is therefore often the only way to get enough vitamin D in a targeted manner.
Sun-dried mushrooms — which you can make yourself — are an exception among non-animal foods because they are very high in vitamin D and can raise vitamin D levels.
