New study finds Vitamin D can prevent potentially fatal lung attacks

Topping up the Vitamin D levels of patients with certain respiratory conditions leads to a 45{648ff2b140dd79f8b10f01740237e66061b7c0f8b396ba52d99047c684c8722c} reduction in lung attacks according to researchers from Queen Mary University of London.

The researchers recently reviewed the results of three clinical trials involving 469 people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and found that those who started out with low levels of Vitamin D could significantly reduce their risk of lung attack by increasing their Vitamin D to optimal levels.

Increasing Vitamin D was shown to have significant benefit only in those study participants who started out with low levels of Vitamin D. No benefit was observed for those whose Vitamin D levels were already adequate.

COPD is an umbrella term that includes a number of lung conditions including emphysema, chronic bronchitis and chronic asthma. Most COPD-related deaths occur due to lung attacks which have a tendency to escalate rapidly, inflaming the airways and making it very difficult to breath.

In the study, recently published in the British Medical Journal’s Thorax, an approach known as “individual participant data meta-analysis” was used to extrapolate data from the three trials and compile it into one database for greater statistical analysis.

According to the authors of the study, “Around one-fifth of COPD patients in the UK – about 240,000 people – have low levels of vitamin D. Reducing risk of attacks in such a large group would have major benefits for patients and for health services, since many attacks require costly hospital admission.”

The implications of the research are many – Vitamin D has a very good safety profile, can be safely taken in conjunction with many other medications and comes at very low cost.

However the researchers caution that their review included a statistically small number of participants and that a much larger clinical trial  needed to be conducted to verify the significance of their findings. The authors report that a much larger trail is currently underway in the Netherlands and is due to conclude in 2020.

National Custom Compounding can make up once-weekly and once-monthly doses of Vitamin D. We can prepare 10000IU doses which is a stronger preparation than the typical dose of 1000IU produced by most vitamin companies.

For more information contact one of the friendly team from National Custom Compounding on 1300 731 755 or [email protected].