Vitamin D 'helps beat symptoms of asthma': Supplements could soon be used as treatment alongside
other drugs
•Vitamin D has the
potential to significantly cut the symptoms of sufferers.
•Scientists at King's
College London made the discovery
•The ‘sunshine’ vitamin
resulted in lower levels of a natural chemical in the body that aggravates
symptoms in asthma patients.
Vitamin D could help asthma patients breathe more easily,
claim British researchers.
Scientists at King’s College London have discovered vitamin D
has the potential to significantly cut the symptoms of sufferers.
They say it may one day be prescribed as a treatment
alongside conventional steroids, but reducing the need for medication.
A new study found the ‘sunshine’ vitamin resulted in lower
levels of a natural chemical in the body that aggravates symptoms in asthma
patients and cuts the effectiveness of steroids.
More than five million Britons suffer asthma, including 1.4
million children, and the disease causes 1,400 deaths each year.
Asthma is an inflammatory disease of the airways, causing
them to constrict and resulting in attacks of breathlessness and wheezing which
can be fatal.
Severe asthma is currently treated with steroid tablets which
can have harmful side effects.
Many sufferers have a steroid resistant variation of the
condition making it even more difficult to treat and putting them at greater
risk of hospitalisation from severe, even life-threatening, asthma attacks.
In a study funded by Asthma UK charity, a team of scientists
at King’s identified a mechanism through which Vitamin D can reduce asthma
symptoms, providing a potential target for future treatments.
IL -17A is a natural chemical which helps to defend the body
against infection, but is known to exacerbate asthma and reduce responsiveness
to steroids when produced in larger amounts.
The team examined the production of IL-17A and levels of the
chemical in cells from 18 steroid resistant asthma patients and 10 patients who
responded to steroids, as well as a control group of 10 healthy people.
Results showed that patients with asthma had much higher
levels of IL-17A than those without asthma and patients with steroid resistant
asthma expressed the highest levels of IL-17A.
Further tests showed that while steroids were unable to lower
the production of IL-17A in cells from patients with asthma, vitamin D
significantly cut the production of IL-17A in cells from all patients studied.
The results demonstrate that vitamin D could potentially
provide an effective add-on treatment for all asthma sufferers, reducing the
amount of steroid-based medicines prescribed.
There is growing evidence that vitamin D deficiency may be
responsible for triggering a range of diseases, including several cancers.
The body makes most of its vitamin D from sunlight, although
oily fish is a good dietary source.
Professor Catherine Hawrylowicz from the Medical Research
Council & Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma at King’s, who
led the study, said the findings were ‘very exciting’.
She said ‘They show
that Vitamin D could one day be used not only to treat people with steroid
resistant asthma but also to reduce the doses of steroids in other asthma
patients, reducing the risk of harmful side effects.
‘The results are so positive that we are testing this in a
clinical trial in steroid resistant asthma patients to further research the
possibilities of vitamin D as a potential treatment.’
The study is published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical
Immunology.
Malayka Rahman, Research Analysis and Communications Officer
at Asthma UK, said: ‘For the majority of people with asthma, current available
medicines are an effective way of managing the condition but we know that they
don’t work for everyone, which is why research into new treatments is vital.
‘We also know that many people with asthma have concerns
about the side effects of their medicines so if vitamin D is shown to reduce
the amount of medicines required, this would have an enormous impact on
people’s quality of on people’s quality of life. We look forward to the results
of the clinical trial.’
Ginger: Study shows
that human airways become more relaxed when exposed to the root.
Ginger could provide a new route for helping asthma patients,
say US researchers.
They found tissue samples taken from human airways became
more relaxed when exposed to purified components of the spicy root also may
have properties that help asthma patients breathe more easily.
The ginger extracts enhanced the effect of medication known
as beta-agonists which are commonly prescribed to people with asthma.
Researcher Elizabeth Townsend, of Columbia University
Department of Anesthesiology, said ‘In our study, we demonstrated that purified
components of ginger can work synergistically with beta-agonists to relax
airway smooth muscle.
‘These compounds may provide additional relief of asthma
symptoms when used in combination.’
The results of the study will be presented at the American
Thoracic Society 2013 International Conference in Philadelphia.
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