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Vitamin D Newsletter

Newsletter

Asthma

Joanne from Minnesota writes:

Dr. Cannell: My two children (age 5 and 7) have had asthma almost since they were born. In the winter, they are in and out of the hospital, it's horrible it is to see your child struggling for breath. Last fall I started both of my children on 2,000 IU of vitamin D a day and over the last year the asthma has just faded away. I'm afraid to stop their asthma medications but they don't seem to need them anymore. When I forget to give their asthma meds, I can't see any difference. Before the vitamin D, if I missed a dose of their asthma meds, I would know it very quickly. Could it be the vitamin D?

Dr. Cannell replies:

It seems increasingly likely that childhood asthma is but another presentation of vitamin D deficiency. At least two researchers at Harvard think so—they think it is the result of maternal vitamin D deficiency.  

It appears that childhood asthma can also be caused by simple childhood vitamin D deficiency, and thus perhaps cured by simple vitamin D.

However, I have heard from a number of parents who wrote to tell me their child's asthma went away after taking vitamin D. Also, a paper is in press that shows low vitamin D levels are a risk factor for exacerbations of asthma in children.

So, it appears that childhood asthma can also be caused by simple childhood vitamin D deficiency, and thus perhaps cured by simple vitamin D. If so, asthma is yet another disease the dermatologists worsened, one killing about 200 American children every year.


Page last edited: 09 August 2010