14 DAY TRIAL // A team of researchers working with King's College London now claim that, according to their investigations, vitamin D is fairly efficient in terms of relieving the symptoms associated with asthma.
The specialists believe that, given their findings, it will not be long until this so-called sunshine vitamin is used alongside other asthma-targeted medication in order to make patients affected by this condition feel better.
Once this happens, it may very well be that asthma patients will find themselves needing less amounts of the medication they are currently forced to take, Daily Mail informs us.
The King's College London researchers explain that asthma is basically an inflammatory disease that affects an individual's airways first and foremost.
Because of the inflammations associated with this condition, a person experiences attacks of breathlessness and wheezing which, under certain circumstances, can lead to their death.
Presently, asthma is treated with the help of steroid tablets. However, it sometimes happens that patients display a so-called steroid resistant variation of this medical condition.
Furthermore, some of the people prescribed steroids for their asthma find themselves experiencing negative side effects.
The same source informs us that asthma patients display high levels of a chemical compound known as IL -17A in their bodies, and that people suffering with steroid resistant asthma have the highest levels of this compound.
By the looks of it, vitamin D helps lower the IL-17A concentrations found inside an asthma patient's body, hence its now being referred to as a potential treatment for this condition.
“They [the findings of this investigation] show that Vitamin D could one day be used not only to treat people with steroid resistant asthma but also to reduce the doses of steroids in other asthma patients, reducing the risk of harmful side effects,” study leader Catherine Hawrylowicz said.
“The results are so positive that we are testing this in a clinical trial in steroid resistant asthma patients to further research the possibilities of vitamin D as a potential treatment,” said specialist further added.
A detailed account of this research into how the sunshine vitamin might help treat asthma patients is made available to the public in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.