A study found out that children with vitamin D deficiencies are more vulnerable to have both food allergies and outdoor allergies. Kids with low levels of vitamin D are were 2.3 times as likely to have allergies to oak and 2.4 times as likely to be allergic to peanuts as kids with sufficient levels of the vitamin. Kids with vitamin D deficiencies are also prone to be allergic to ragweed, dogs, cockroaches, shrimps and seven other allergens.
Tests showed that children with this deficiency have less than 15 nanograms of vitamin D per millimeter of blood. Children with enough of the vitamin have more than 30 nanograms of vitamin D per millimeter of blood. In the U.S, there is an increase in both the number of people with vitamin D deficiencies and the number of people with allergies. Vitamin D has anti-inflammatory effect in the body and it can play a role in the relation between the deficiencies and allergies.
According to a previous study, the number of people who suffer from acute allergic reactions to food rises in winter. It is because vitamin D levels tend to be lowest in winter. Due to lack of sunlight skin cells have difficulty to produce active vitamin D from other compounds in the body.
3,136 children and teens had taken part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in U.S and according to this researchers measured vitamin D levels in the blood and conducted interviews and physical examinations. They also conducted a study on 3,454 adults but found no link between lack of vitamin D and allergies in adults.
The study researcher Dr. Michal Melamed, assistant professor of medicine and of epidemiology and population health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York said that this study shows only an association and does nor prove that vitamin D deficiency causes allergies in children. However, she said that kids should certainly consume appropriate amounts of vitamin D which is 600 IU of the vitamin daily.
A more recent 2010 study has suggested a similar link. It has been published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation and showed vitamin D decreased the production of proteins related to mold allergies. Another research done at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston showed that lack of vitamin D was associated with an increased risk of respiratory infections.
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