Low vitamin D levels may worsen lung function in smokers
Ensuring sufficient blood levels of vitamin D may reduce the risk of reduced lung function in smokers, suggests a new study from Harvard and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Our results suggest that vitamin D might modify the damaging effects of smoking on lung function – Dr Nancy Lange
Data from 626 men indicated that vitamin D deficient smokers had a lower lung function than smokers with sufficient levels of the sunshine vitamin, according to findings published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Our most novel and important finding was the interaction between vitamin D deficiency and smoking in the effect on lung function, both in cross-sectional models examining level of lung function, and longitudinal models examining rates of lung function decline over time, wrote the researchers, led by Nancy Lange, MD, from Brigham and Womens Hospital.
These results suggest that vitamin D potentially mitigates the damaging effects of smoking on lung function. In additional exploratory analyses, we noted that we had similar findings of the protective effect of vitamin D sufficiency on FEV1 [forced expiratory volume at one second a measure of lung function,] decline when subjects with COPD were excluded, implying that smokers who have not yet developed COPD may have the potential for protection based on vitamin D status.”
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