Researchers at Children’s National Medical Center have discovered that African American children with asthma in metropolitan Washington, DC, are significantly more likely to have low levels of vitamin D than healthy African American children.
This study supports recent research that suggests vitamin D plays a greater role in the body than just keeping bones healthy. Vitamin D deficiency has been recently linked to a variety of non-bone related diseases including depression, autoimmune disorders, and now asthma.
The study measured vitamin D in the blood of 85 African American children with asthma, who were between 6 and 20 years old. Additionally, they also measured vitamin D levels of 21 healthy African American children between 6 and 9 years of age.
The results found that 86 percent of the children in the study with asthma had insufficient levels of vitamin D, while only 19 percent of non-asthmatics had these low levels.
[Source]
Chapter: Asthma :: 5 June 2010
