A chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways affecting both children and adults, asthma had an estimated 262 million sufferers worldwide in 2019. While conventional medicine has no cure for the condition, many patients have seen significant improvements through using science-based nutritional and Cellular Medicine approaches. Providing further support for this promising therapeutic direction, a new study has found low serum levels of zinc, selenium, and vitamin D3 in asthmatic children and confirmed that these insufficiencies are associated with airway inflammation and poor asthma control.
Published in the Cureus journal by researchers from India, the study involved 100 asthmatic children and 75 healthy ones. The average age of the children was around 9 years old. Among those suffering from the disorder, a total of 39 children were considered to have uncontrolled asthma, 53 had the condition partly under control, while just 8 had it well-controlled.
The researchers examined serum levels of zinc, magnesium, selenium, copper, iron, and vitamin D3 in the children. Levels of Immunoglobulin E, an antibody, were also measured, and a high-sensitivity C-reactive protein test was performed. High levels of Immunoglobulin E in asthmatics can indicate the body is overreacting to an allergen, while levels of C-reactive protein corelate positively with the severity of the condition and are thus used as a tool for assessing an asthma patient’s status.
The study revealed that levels of zinc and selenium were significantly low in asthmatic children. While copper levels were in the normal range for all children, they were lower in the asthmatic group. Serum iron levels in asthmatic children were also on the lower side of the normal range.
While the asthmatic children had normal serum magnesium levels, the researchers say this may not necessarily reflect any cellular deficiencies. They therefore propose that measuring magnesium concentrations within the body’s cells may be a more accurate approach.
Insufficiency of vitamin D was found in all the study participants, including those not suffering from asthma. However, levels of this important micronutrient were significantly lower in asthmatic children.
As would be expected, serum Immunoglobulin E levels were higher in the asthmatics than they were in the healthy children. Interestingly, however, the study found that vitamin D insufficiency correlated to higher levels of both Immunoglobulin E and C-reactive protein. Significantly, therefore, the researchers note that vitamin D deficiency has previously been linked to increased severity of bronchial asthma in children.
The study’s findings are clearly consistent with the key principles of Dr. Rath’s Cellular Medicine approach, which describe how micronutrient deficiencies are the primary cause of today’s most common chronic diseases. For some asthma patients, preventing these deficiencies could literally be lifesaving. According to the World Health Organization, a total of 455,000 deaths worldwide were attributed to asthma in 2019.
The financial costs of the disorder are also considerable. In 2013, the economic burden of asthma in the United States alone was estimated to be $81.9 billion. Conventional medicine offers little hope that this cost will be reduced anytime soon. In contrast, nutritional and Cellular Medicine approaches have the potential to transform both the prevention and treatment of asthma. In the interests of patients and their families, it is time for these therapies to be made as freely and widely available as possible.