DOES VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY CONTRIBUTE TO THE SEVERITY OF ASTHMA IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS?

Role of vitamin d in the health of bones has been well established for over decades; it was known that its deficiency caused rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. later it was discovered that these can be corrected by giving vitamin d. researchers discovered that vitamin d can be synthesized by exposure to sun. hence it was also named the sunshine vitamin. as time passed it was observed that low levels of vitamin d were associated with multiple diseases. this sparked the interest of the scientific community to further the research on vitamin d which led to the studies that started associating vitamin d with various diseases like cancers (prostate,colon and breast),autoimmune diseases (rheumatoid arthritis),infectious diseases (tuberculosis,hepatitis b,hepatitis c,hiv),cardiovascular diseases,mental illnesses (schizophrenia),diabetes mellitus (type 1,type 2 and gestational) and allergic conditions like asthma. with time,more studies were carried out relating levels of vitamin d to development of asthma,asthma exacerbations and risk factors leading to development of asthma like respiratory tract infections with positive associations. a number of studies were carried out which tried to explain the possible molecular mechanisms relating deficiency of vitamin d in pathogenesis of asthma. this review summarizes the role of vitamin d in development of asthma and probable mechanisms relating vitamin d to the pathogenesis of asthma.