The Relationship Between Vitamin D and Asthma Exacerbation

Abstract

Asthma is a chronic airway inflammatory condition that affects millions of people worldwide. It presents with reversible bronchoconstriction that makes it difficult for patients to breathe. Asthma flare-ups have several triggers, but the symptoms are similar, including wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness. Severe asthma exacerbation is described as symptomatic asthma that is unresponsive to inhaled asthma medications and is only responsive to steroids in oral or intravenous forms. Asthma-related deaths occur during episodes of asthma exacerbation.Vitamin D is a steroid-derived vitamin produced by the body and found in some foods. Administration of doses of vitamin D can also help maintain an adequate level of the vitamin. Vitamin D plays a vital role in regulating the level of calcium in the body and bone remodeling processes. It also has an immunomodulatory effect on innate and adaptive immunity within the body and that partially explains its links to inflammation-induced epithelial changes seen in asthma.We conducted this literature review by selecting articles from PubMed and Cumulated Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) Plus databases to investigate the relationship between vitamin D level and asthma exacerbation. From the studies, we found that asthmatic patients have low vitamin D levels during an asthma exacerbation. However, supplementing vitamin D may not reduce the rates of asthma exacerbation except in adult asthmatic patients with low levels of vitamin D.

Asthma and Vitamin D Deficiency: Occurrence, Immune Mechanisms, and New Perspectives

“…Recent studies have reported an association between vitamin D deficiency and increased risk of asthma occurrence and exacerbation [2,[9][10][11]. Furthermore, in line with these findings, a study provided evidence about the association between vitamin D levels and the presence of asthma markers (i.e.…”

“…Several studies have failed to find significant changes in the asthma status of patients treated with vitamin D supplementation [2,11,15]. However, there were some limitations affecting the results, including the rate of severe asthma exacerbations in the placebo group being even lower than expectation [16].…”

The Role of Maternal Vitamin D Deficiency in Offspring Obesity: A Narrative Review

“…VD is an essential regulator of phosphate and calcium homeostasis and plays a key role in bone metabolism [ 19 ]. Additionally, VD has many extraskeletal benefits and its deficiency has been reported to be related to a wide range of diseases, such as asthma [ 20 ], cancers [ 21 ], type 2 diabetes [ 22 ], cardiovascular diseases [ 23 ], infections [ 24 , 25 ], and autoimmune diseases [ 25 , 26 ]. A systematic review stated that VD level is inversely correlated with the percentage of fat mass [ 27 ].…”

Sex differences in vitamin D and behavioral profiles among children with allergic diseases

“…The multifactual ability impacts immune cells, modulates inflammatory responses, and prevents the predisposing infection, thus making vitamin D a potential factor in reducing the severity of allergic diseases. Several epidemiological studies have found that low vitamin D levels are associated with allergy prevalence, and some have further demonstrated that vitamin D reduced the exacerbation and hospitalization of allergic diseases, suggesting that vitamin D has a protective effect on allergic diseases (Brehm et al, 2009; Ogeyingbo et al, 2021; Turkeli et al, 2016). A meta‐analysis that focused on children with atopic dermatitis found that they tend to have low levels of serum 25(OH)D and are at a higher risk of developing vitamin D insufficiency (Fu et al, 2022).…”