Lee Swanson Research Update

Vitamin D Boosts Lung Health

January 2006

Lung Health

The more vitamin D you have in your bloodstream, the healthier your lungs may be, a new study by New Zealand researchers suggests.

"As far as we are aware, this is the first time that anyone has identified this association between lung function and vitamin D," according to Peter Black, lead author of the study, which appears in the publication Chest. Black is a researcher at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

The study used data from the U.S. Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), carried out from 1988 to 1994. In the study, researchers looked at more than 14,000 persons, all aged 20 and above, who were interviewed at mobile exam centers. They had lung function tests performed and had their blood levels of vitamin D measured.

Then Black’s team divided the vitamin D results into five groups, or quintiles. The higher the vitamin D levels, the better the results on the two lung function tests. The two tests were the FEV1 (forced expiratory volume; the amount of air blown out in the first second during a maximum exhalation) and FVC (forced vital capacity; the total amount of air blown out during a maximum exhalation).

"The difference between the lowest and highest quintile of vitamin D levels [on the lung function tests] was four percent for both FEV1 and for FVC," Black said. "This sounds small, but the changes seen in this study are large compared with most environmental factors that affect lung function." The association between vitamin D levels and FEV1 test results was even greater for those over age 60 and for current or former smokers.

Chest 128:3792-3798, 2005

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