Vitamin D the Natural “D”rug.
Research published this week in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology shows that vitamin D can significantly improve symptoms in asthma sufferers.
Researchers from Kings College, London found that the 'sunshine' vitamin works better than steroids at reducing levels of a natural chemical in the body — called IL-17A — which aggravates symptoms in asthma sufferers.
This is exciting news for Australian adults and children who suffer asthma, as it's also expected that it will help reduce asthma-related deaths every year.
The other great news is that this now means that asthma sufferers can potentially cut down on the amount of steroids they take, which come with their own catalogue of unpleasant side effects.
90 per cent of us are vitamin D deficient
There are literally dozens and dozens of recently published studies from Harvard Medical, Oxford University and many other renowned research establishments which all confirm just how crucial vitamin D is in warding off chronic diseases such as diabetes, dementia, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease... even cancer!
What we need to be careful of in Australia is when and how the “sunshine” vitamin is delivered.
Time of day is critical, not too early and not too late, the sun needs to be above 50 degrees from the horizon at both ends of the day or the wrong frequency of radiant light can do more damage than good.
Also consider days where solar UV radiation is increased to a danger level during periods of reflected light such as cloud.
Get slightly pink and that’s enough, too much creates the potential to develop melanoma particularly if you are vitamin D deficient to begin with.