I have mentioned many times in my writings that vitamin D deficiency is associated with the triple childhood epidemics of asthma, juvenile diabetes, and autism. One study has already shown that children born to mothers who had a higher vitamin D levels during pregnancy had lower amounts of wheezing in their early life.

Now a study has come out in the May issue of the American Journal of  Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. The study has found that low blood levels of vitamin D were associated with an increased severity of asthma in children. Those children with low vitamin D and asthma had significantly more hospitalizations, as well as weakened immune function, as well as an increased use of inhaled steroids.

  Juan Celedon and Augusto Litonjua, two of the doctors from Harvard Medical School who did the study were quoted as saying that "that vitamin D insufficiency may worsen asthma severity, and we suspect that giving vitamin D supplements to asthma patients who are deficient may help her asthma control". Of course the authors were quick to point out that it is too early to set vitamin D supplement levels to reduce asthma symptoms because a double-blind crossover placebo controlled prospective trial had not yet been done.

As my readers will know, I do not support the idea of waiting to give children vitamin D until the studies which could take many years are completed.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with normalizing a child’s vitamin D level, just as there is nothing wrong with normalizing their parents vitamin D level. Certainly no harm will come from this, and possibly great benefit will result.

I am happy to say that Dr. Bruce Hollis,  a leading vitamin D leading researcher has started a new project giving pregnant women 4000 IU of vitamin D a day, to see if this does prevent asthma in their offspring.  This prospective study will go a long way towards documenting (or refuting) what integrative vitamin D doctors have been recommending for a long time.

If you are a mother, please give your child vitamin D every day. I discuss my recommendations for this in my book.

Original Article in Globe and Mail