The Surprising Link Between Asthma and Vitamin D

Vitamin D sure is in the news a lot lately. In fact, a recent statistic showed that up to 80 percent of American adults are deficient in vitami
D! That's a startling fact, especially considering all of the health benefits vitami
D can have, from keeping your heart healthy to staving off dementia and cancer. Now, a new study has shown that there's an asthma-vitami
D connection - especially if you're a mom-to-be. Let's take a look at this recent discovery.

An insufficiency of Vitamin D may be linked to the severity of asthma symptoms in children, according to a new study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. According to the study, a higher intake of vitami
D by pregnant women can reduce the risk of asthma in children as much as 40 percent.

Pregnant women who were vitami
D deficient had more of a chance of having a child who suffered from asthma and other allergies, according to the studies. The study was the first performed on children and the link to vitami
D concerning asthma.

The study also indicated that children with a vitami
D deficiency were more likely to be hospitalized for asthma symptoms than those who had enough of the vitamin in their bloodstream. In addition to being hospitalized for asthmatic symptoms, these children were also more likely to be more hyperactive and have more allergies and sensitivities.

What is Asthma?
Asthma is a serious condition that often requires hospitalization for someone experiencing an attack. Asthma has increased more than 300 percent in the last 20 years and affects around 20 millio
Americans. Clinically, asthma causes inflammation of your upper airways. The symptoms are wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightening, and coughing.

Other studies have been performed to discover how to lessen the symptoms of asthma and prevent attacks. A study performed in Australia in 2006 on mice indicated that sunlight reduced the symptoms of asthma. And for those of you who have been paying attention, one source of vitami
D is sunlight.

Researchers, according to the published report, feel that vitami
D is linked to the immune system as well as lung development in unborn children. Women who took vitami
D when pregnant had a 40 percent less risk of having children diagnosed with asthma between the ages of 3 and 5, which is when most conditions are diagnosed.

The "Founder of Homeopathy," Dr. Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843) lived at the time when medical treatments were blood letting, purging, drilling holes in people's heads to release the evil spirits, etc. Hahnemann was new out of medical school when he realized that most of the patients that saw doctors died from the treatments; so he spent some time looking at the history of medicine because the high incidences of death from medical care wasn't a historical fact-it was common, but not to the high degree of the current age.

In his studies, he came across Hippocrates' work about how to treat the whole patient: mind, body, spirit and emotions, and that no illness occurred just to the physical body; it also occurred to the mind, spirit and emotions. He also realized that doctors through time didn't have to look inside a person's body to see what was wrong-the patient told the doctor all he needed to know to treat him; the doctor had to use all his senses, not just what the patient said verbally.

Recent studies have found the reason for a correlation between the two conditions and an explanation for the atopic march. The dry skin condition can cause a rash, flaky skin, itching, and secretion from the skin. As this happens, the brain relays a message to your body that your skin is ineffective. Your skin is the protective layer and having this condition doesn't fully protect as it should. The secretion, called TSLP, is passed through your blood system and your skin. As it passes through your blood stream, it gets to your lungs which cause asthma. Having an asthma attack is your body's immune system trying to kick into gear.