- A review of 15 years worth of study data has found that taking vitamin D supplements during pregnancy may reduce the risk of asthma and wheezing in children.
- Given the lack of vitamin D among many pregnant women who do not use supplements, experts say this research supports the idea of increasing daily vitamin D3 intake starting from conception.
- The new research is in contrast to past studies in which researchers concluded that vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy was not highly effective.
New research published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology reinforces the association between prenatal vitamin D levels and the risk of wheezing and asthma in children.
The analysis, involving 15 years of data from the Vitamin D Antenatal Asthma Reduction (
Scott Weiss, the first author of the study and an associate director of the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham Women’s Hospital as well as a professor at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts, explained the key findings to Medical News Today by saying that “vitamin D3 given to pregnant women in a dose of 4,400 IU/day resulted in less asthma in their offspring compared to women who took 400 IU/day.”
This is important, he said, as “most pregnant women are deficient in their intake of vitamin D3.”
“Taken together with other pregnancy trials of vitamin D, we would recommend that all pregnant women take a dose of vitamin D3 of 4,000 to 6,000IU/day from conception throughout pregnancy,” Weiss added.
Based on their findings, experts suggest that pregnant women should consider consuming at least 4,400 IU of vitamin D3 daily from the start of their pregnancy.
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