03 Mar Chronic Urticaria: Supplemental Vitamin D3 for Hives Management

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Jill A Poole MD
Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep, and Allergy Division, Department of Medicine
College of Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center
The Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska

MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?

Dr. Poole:  Our study found that adding vitamin D 4000 IU daily to a cocktail of anti-allergy medications resulted in a further 40% reduction in hive symptom scores at 3 months.  There was no further reduction in hive symptoms when 600 IU of vitamin D was added to the anti-allergy medications.  The anti-allergy regimen utilized was triple drug therapy with cetirizine (twice daily), ranitidine (twice daily), and montelukast (once daily).  No adverse reactions occurred.

Dr. Poole: Were any of the findings unexpected?

MedicalResearch.com: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

Dr. Poole:  Clinicians and patients might want to consider adding 4000 IU of vitamin D with their anti-allergy medications to gain further reduction in hive symptoms.  They should note that supplemental vitamin D should be taken for 3 months. Vitamin D has a long half life, meaning, it takes 6-8 weeks to replenish vitamin D stores and/or reach a steady state.  Our findings of a beneficial role for add-on vitamin D were independent of patient’s vitamin D status; therefore, a minimum of a 3 month trial of supplemental vitamin D might be a consideration for management, even in patients with normal serum vitamin D levels.

MedicalResearch.com:  What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Dr. Poole:  Future research should consider extending the observation time past 3 months, as benefits with vitamin D supplementation were not at 6 weeks, but at 3 months. It is not known whether further improvement would occur beyond 3 months.  Next, our study was a single center study, and a multi-center study could be considered.  Next, our study population was representative of persons in our Mid-West region, and we would recommend studying the effects of supplemental vitamin D in other diverse and under-represented, minority populations.

Citation:

Beneficial role for supplemental vitamin D₃ treatment in chronic urticaria: a randomized study

Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology

Available online 5 February 2014
Andy Rorie, Whitney S. Goldner, Elizabeth Lyden, Jill A. Poole

Last Updated on March 3, 2014 by Marie Benz MD FAAD