Vitamin D During Pregnancy Reduces Risk of Childhood Asthma

A new review paper has come to the important conclusion that supplementing vitamin D while pregnant reduces the risk that your child will develop asthma.

Vitamin D deficiency is very common among pregnant women, especially if they are not taking supplements. An important review has now linked that deficiency with the risk of children developing asthma.

In the study, pregnant women with a family history of allergies or asthma were given prenatal vitamins that included 400IU of vitamin D plus either a placebo or an additional 4400IU of vitamin D.

When the results were adjusted to take the women’s baseline vitamin D levels into account, it was found that the additional vitamin D reduced asthma and wheezing by 50%. The reduction in risk of asthma was significant at both 3 and 6 years of age.

Based on their findings, the researchers recommend that pregnant women consider taking at least 4400IU vitamin D a day from conception to delivery.

The link between vitamin D and asthma has been growing stronger over recent years. Earlier research has suggested that the risk of asthma can also be reduced when children maintain healthy levels of vitamin D.

A 2016 study that followed children who were at high risk of developing allergies periodically measured their vitamin D levels over a 10 year period. They found that kids who were repeatedly deficient in vitamin D had a higher risk of developing asthma (J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2017 Feb;139(2):472-481.e9).

J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2023 Oct 16:S0091-6749(23)01254-X

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