Vitamin D Linked to Lung Health

[Angel]

Could simple vitamin D supplements help people breath easier?

Maybe, report New Zealand researchers who studied data from a large health and nutrition study conducted in the United States between 1988 and 1994. They find people with the highest levels of vitamin D in their blood also performed the best on spirometry -- the standard test to measure lung function.

The study divided the participants into five groups according to results on the lung function test and the vitamin D test. "The difference in lung function between the highest and lowest quintiles of vitamin D is substantial and greater than the difference between former and nonsmokers," says study author Peter Black, M.B., Ch.B., from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Adjusting the results to take factors known to affect lung function into account didn't change the findings.

So, should people start popping vitamin D pills? That might be premature, notes Rosalind Wright, M.D., M.P.H., a Boston physician who wrote an editorial accompanying the study. "Vitamin D would be a relatively simple, low-cost intervention that would likely have high compliance ... However, further studies examining the relationship between vitamin D and lung function are warranted to identify who may benefit from such an intervention."

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week.

SOURCE: Chest, 2005;128:3792-3798