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March 17, 2010: 10:05 AM EST
Recent research into vitamin D has linked deficiencies to several diseases – including depression and autoimmune disorders – that have nothing to do with bones and joints. A new study adds to that research by suggesting that vitamin D deficiency may also be associated with asthma. African American children with asthma in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area were much more likely to have low levels of vitamin D than healthy African American children, according to the study. Researchers measured vitamin D in the blood of healthy African American six-to-nine-year-olds and I six-to-20-year-old asthmatic children. Eighty-six percent of the asthmatic children had insufficient levels of vitamin D, compared to only 19 percent of non-asthmatics. The findings suggest that low vitamin D levels seriously affect child lung health much more than previously thought, researchers said.
Robert J. Freishtat, MD, Sabah F. Iqbal, MD, Dinesh K. Pillai, MD, et al., "High Prevalence of Vitamin D Deficiency among Inner-City African American Youth with Asthma in Washington, DC", Journal of Pediatrics, March 17, 2010, © Elsevier, Inc.
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