By David Liu, PHD

Monday Jan 23, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) --- A new review reported in Current Opinion in Allergy & Clinical Immunology finds low serum vitamin D levels are associated with increased severity of eczema and asthma exacerbation.

Augusto A. Litonjua, author of the review says in the report that over the past two years, the number of studies on vitamin D deficiency and asthma and allergies has increased drastically.

The review was intended to examine the evidence of the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and childhood asthma and allergies since the last review made by the author.

Litonjua found that most of the studies showed that low vitamin D levels were linked with elevated risk for asthma and allergies. But a few studies suggested that high levels of serum vitamin D were associated with higher risk for asthma and allergies.

In the abstract of the review, the author does not say what levels of vitamin D would be considered low or high.

The author does say that small short-term trials suggest that vitamin D supplementation decreases severity of eczema and lowers the risk of asthma exacerbation.

In a word, the optimal level of vitamin D was not clear.

Vitamin D deficiency has been linked with more than 100 health conditions including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and depression among others.

Early studies show that maternal vitamin D and breastfeeding may cut asthma risk in children while low prenatal vitamin E may boost childhood asthma risk, foodconsumer.org reported.

Asthma is a condition in which an individual has the airways of the lungs swollen and narrowed, leading to wheezing, shortness of breast, chest tightness and coughing.

Asthma is thought to be caused inflammation in the airways, which in turn is triggered by many things including animals, dust, changes in weather, chemicals, exercise, molds, pollen, respirator infections, stress, tobacco smoke.

Eczema is a form of dermatitis or inflammation of the epidermis, according to wikipedia.  An estimated 5.7 million people in England are believed to live with this condition. In the U.S., 18.7 million adults and 7 million children suffer asthma, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Symptoms of eczema including redness, skin edema, itching and dryness, crusting, flaking, blistering, cracking, ozzing or bleeding.

Doctors do not know what cause eczema. Because of this, doctors do not know how to prevent this condition from occurring. Treatment for this condition are dangerous corticosteroids, which can cause side effect if used for a long period.

At least one study suggests that milk protein causes some cases of eczema.  And studies suggest that using probiotics can help prevent eczema.

The CDC states on its website that "from 2000 to 2010, the prevalence of eczema or any kind of skin allergy increased among non-Hispanic black, non-Hispanic white, and Hispanic children in the United States. The prevalence of eczema or skin allergy increased from 8.6% to 17.1% among non-Hispanic black children, from 5.0% to 9.9% among Hispanic children, and from 7.6% to 12.6% among non-Hispanic white children."

While the optional vitamin D remains unknown, parents and children do not have to wait for future research to give them advice.  Get exposed to the sun is the best safe way to get sufficient vitamin D.

Again vitamin D deficiency is not the only thing that may be involved in the pathology of asthma and other allergies.

Keywords: allergies, asthma, vitamin D, wheeze