The Relationship Between Vitamin D and Asthma Exacerbation

Asthma is a chronic airway inflammatory condition that affects millions of people worldwide. It presents with reversible bronchoconstriction that makes it difficult for patients to breathe. Asthma flare-ups have several triggers, but the symptoms are similar, including wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness. Severe asthma exacerbation is described as symptomatic asthma that is unresponsive to inhaled asthma medications and is only responsive to steroids in oral or intravenous forms. Asthma-related deaths occur during episodes of asthma exacerbation. Vitamin D is a steroid-derived vitamin produced by the body and found in some foods. Administration of doses of vitamin D can also help maintain an adequate level of the vitamin. Vitamin D plays a vital role in regulating the level of calcium in the body and bone remodeling processes. It also has an immunomodulatory effect on innate and adaptive immunity within the body and that partially explains its links to inflammation-induced epithelial changes seen in asthma. We conducted this literature review by selecting articles from PubMed and Cumulated Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) Plus databases to investigate the relationship between vitamin D level and asthma exacerbation. From the studies, we found that asthmatic patients have low vitamin D levels during an asthma exacerbation. However, supplementing vitamin D may not reduce the rates of asthma exacerbation except in adult asthmatic patients with low levels of vitamin D.