On September 5th 2020, major global news agencies, including the BBC, Washington Post, NY Times, CTV News, CNN and MSN reported on this Cochrane Report.
STUDY PARTICULARS
- The report analyzed the data from 9 high quality studies lasting between 6-12 months to assess how vitamin D supplementation influences asthma symptoms and asthma attacks.
- The studies included a total of 435 children and 658 adults.
- Most of the participants had mild to moderate asthma.
- The participants received supplemental vitamin D (500 IU/day to 1200 IU/day in 8 studies; 4000 IU/day in 1 study) plus their regular asthma medication.
LIMITS OF THIS STUDY
- Most of the patients enrolled in the studies had mild to moderate asthma, so further research is warranted to determine whether vitamin D supplementation is effective for children and adults with severe asthma.
- It is not clear whether vitamin D supplements can reduce the risk of severe asthma attacks in all patients, or whether this effect is just seen in those who have low vitamin D levels to start with.
WHAT WAS ALREADY KNOWN
- Low vitamin D levels are associated with a greater risk of asthma attacks in asthmatics.
WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS
- Hospital admission or emergency department visits due to severe asthma attacks were reduced from 6% to 3% with oral vitamin D supplementation .
- Vitamin D supplementation reduced the need for steroid treatment (steroid treatment is used to reduce airway inflammation when a patient’s inhaler is no longer effective).
- The average number of attacks per person per year went down from 0.44 to 0.28 with vitamin D supplementation.
PLATINUM NATURALS VITAMIN D3
- 40% of Canadians are vitamin D deficient in the winter
- Just 1 drop or capsule per day
- 400 IU per drop for babies and children
- 1000 IU per drop or capsule for adults
Martineau, A.R., Cates, C.J., Urashima, J., Jensen, M., Griffiths, A.P., Nurmatov, U., Sheikh, A. and Griffiths, C.J. (2016) Vitamin D for the management of asthma. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews Issue 9. Art. No.: CD011511. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD011511.pub2.
Hot Topic Small Talk – Volume 1, Number 2
