A recent study headed by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, of the Yeshiva University shows an association of low Vitamin D levels and allergies in children. This was published in a Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology research paper.
A cautionary note, by Michael Melamed, M.D., M.H.S., an assistant professor of medicine and of epidemiology and population heath at Albert Einstein, points out once again, this is only an association, and does not provide any proof that Vitamin D deficiency causes allergies in children. In any case, the present recommended daily dietary amount is 600 IU’s of Vit. D, which should keep children from having a lack of the vitamin.
The research for this paper included 3,100 children, and another test group of 3,400 adults. The study looked at the serum levels of Vitamin D in blood among all subjects during the period of 2005 to 2006. The samples for the paper came from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the NHANES. This program assesses the health and nutrition of children and adults in the U.S. By measuring the Immunoglobulin E, the IgE, a protein which is created as the immune system responds to allergies, and was among the tests in which it assessed the sensitivity to seventeen different allergies.
As the researchers analyzed the data, they noticed no association between Vitamin D and allergies in adults. Among children, it was a different story. Low Vitamin D levels in children presented sensitivity to eleven to seventeen allergies which were tested. The allergies included environmental allergies, such as ragweed, dogwood, oak, and cockroaches, and food allergies, such as peanuts.
Children who ingested less than fifteen nanograms of vitamin D, were 2.4 times more likely to have a peanut allergies versus those children who took the recommended daily allowance. A number of the tests presented the same type of results for children.
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