Prenatal vitamin D may protect child from asthma

[Celebration]

http://www.reutershealth.com/en/index.html

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - High levels of vitamin D during pregnancy may lower the risk of wheezing and asthma in offspring during early childhood, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology in Miami Beach, Florida.

During a press briefing, Dr. Carlos Camargo Jr., of Harvard Medical School in Boston noted that vitamin D deficiency and asthma are both common in the northeastern part of the United States, suggesting that the two may be related. Moreover, while vitamin D has important effects on the immune system, its affect on asthma is not known.

Camargo's team tracked 1,306 mother-child pairs for more than three years, and used a food frequency questionnaire to assess levels of maternal vitamin D during pregnancy.

By age two, there was a clear association between increasing prenatal levels of vitamin D in the mother and decreasing risk of wheezing or doctor-diagnosed asthma in the child, Camargo said.

[benburch]

1. As an Asthma sufferer...

...let me encourage all pregnant women to do this.

You have no idea what a burden asthma is unless you have it.

[CAcyclist]

2. You get Vitamin D from the sun,too nt