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Research carried out by the Children's National Medical Center in Washington DC measured the amount of vitamin D in the blood of 85 African American children between the ages of six and 20 with asthma and in the blood of 21 healthy African American children between the ages of 6 and 9 years of age. They found that 86% of the children in the study with asthma had low levels of vitamin D, while only 19% of non-asthmatics had low levels. These findings suggest that low vitamin D levels have more serious effects on a child's lung health than previously believed although more research is needed to establish definitively how. Meanwhile, parents should ensure that their children receive sufficient amounts of vitamin D by seeking a doctor's advice about supplementation. Robert J. Freishtat, Sabah F. Iqbal, Dinesh K. Pillai, Catherine J. Klein, Leticia M. Ryan, Angela S. Benton, Stephen J. Teach. High Prevalence of Vitamin D Deficiency among Inner-City African American Youth with Asthma in Washington, DC. The Journal of Pediatrics, 2010; DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2009.12.033 Courtesy of Science Daily First Published in March 2010 Click here for more research on the possible causes of asthma
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