Title:Does Vitamin D Deficiency Epidemic Parallel with Allergy and Asthma Epidemic?
Volume: 15
Issue: 12
Author(s): Konstantinos Douros, Ioanna Loukou, Barbara Boutopoulou and Sotirios Fouzas
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Allergies, asthma, epidemic, fetus programming, vitamin D, VD supplementation.
Abstract: Vitamin D (VD) deficiency has re-emerged, after more than hundred years, as a public health problem
worldwide. Asthma and allergic disorders constitute another major public health problem with studies having recorded
increasing prevalences worldwide since the decade of the 60s. Most of the available experimental and epidemiologic
evidence point towards a causal association between low levels of VD and the development of asthma and allergic
disorders, and imply a role of VD deficiency on the currently high prevalences of asthma and allergic diseases. The
proposed, but still largely hypothetical, underlying mechanism is that VD affects the programming of the fetus and it also
has a central modulating role in immune functions involved in asthma and allergic disorders. However, the evidence is not
yet clear, since there are studies which support that VD supplementation during pregnancy may promote the development
of asthma and allergic disorders. More researches, and especially randomized clinical trials, are required in order to draw
safe conclusions and define the role of VD in the prevention or even therapy of asthma and allergic disorders.