Vitamin D supplements can reduce asthma attack rate

CHENNAI: Supplementation of Vitamin D reduces the rate of asthma attacks, reveals a recent study published in Lancet. Asthma attacks usually require hospitalisation and treatment with medications, but Vitamin D is known to have protective effects against the regular asthma exacerbations and can aid treatment, say, doctors. With increasing prevalence of asthma due to indoor and outdoor pollution, around 4 lakh people die due to the disease, as per the study. But Vitamin D, can aid treatment by preventing the exacerbations, which are episodes of acute worsening of asthmatic symptoms, says the study.

Asthma exacerbations are usually treated with steroids to produce required hormones, but supplementation of Vitamin D reduces the rate of asthma exacerbation in 95 per cent cases. The study claims that vitamin D supplements reduced the risk of asthma exacerbations by 26 per cent.  However, it is most effective for people who are deficient of Vitamin D.

“Vitamin D is known to have protective effects against the regular asthma exacerbations and can aid treatment by inducing hormones necessary for reducing exacerbations. However, this cannot be assured if an individual suffers from overlapping health situation of COPD and other respiratory diseases like Asthma,” says Dr V Ranjith, consultant pulmonologist, Government Hospital for Thoracic Medicine. Doctors say that people at a risk of vitamin D deficiency, including children aged less than 12 years of age should have regular supplementation of Vitamin D. “Though sunlight helps to meet the deficiency of Vitamin D during the summer, it becomes important to have Vitamin D supplementation in the winters, as respiratory diseases, including asthma surge during the winter season,” said senior pulmonologist Dr R. Prasanna Kumar.