Abstract
The history of the allergy pandemic is well documented, enabling us to put the vitamin D hypothesis into its historical context. The purpose of this study is to compare the prevalence of rickets, vitamin D supply, and allergy prevalence at 50-year intervals by means of a retrospective analysis of the literature since 1880.English cities in 1880 were characterized by an extremely high rickets prevalence, the beginning of commercial cod liver oil production, and the near absence of any allergic diseases. By 1930 hay fever prevalence had risen to about 3% in English-speaking countries where cod liver oil was preferentially used for the treatment of rickets. In 1980 vitamin D was used nation-wide in all industrialized countries as supplement to industrial baby food, thus eradicating nearly all cases of rickets. At the same time the allergy prevalence reached an all-time high, affecting about 30% of the population.Time trends are therefore compatible with the vitamin D hypothesis although direct conclusions cannot be drawn. It is interesting, however, to note that there are at least two earlier research papers linking synthesized vitamin D intake and allergy (Reed 1930 and Selye 1962) published prior to the modern vitamin D hypothesis first proposed in 1999.
Highlights
Introduction of oral vitaminD supplementation and the rise of the allergy pandemic Matthias Wjst1,2Address: 1Institute of Genetic Medicine, EURAC research, Drususallee 1, I-39100 Bozen, Italy and 2Helmholtz Zentrum München, Institute of Lung Biology and Disease, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Ingolstädter Landstr 1, D-85764 Neuherberg, GermanyPublished: November 2009 Allergy, Asthma & Clinical Immunology 2009, 5:8 doi:10.1186/1710-1492-5-8Received: October 2009 Accepted: 19 November 2009This article is available from: http://www.aacijournal.com/content/5/1/8 AbstractThe history of the allergy pandemic is well documented, enabling us to put the vitamin D hypothesis into its historical context
A related editorial in Science [36] made clear that "the investigators who repeat Selye's laboratory work will raise this question about the major premise of calciphylaxis: Is it an allergic or hypersensitive state or is it better defined by some other concept?". It was not until 1999, when the basic process of sensitization was associated with the immune effects of oral vitamin D supplements [1], that researchers arrived at a preliminary answer to this question
A factor repeatedly associated with allergic sensitization, this gives us the opportunity to think about rational strategies for allergy prevention including randomized clinical trials that are planned or already underway
Summary
It was not until 1999, when the basic process of sensitization was associated with the immune effects of oral vitamin D supplements [1], that researchers arrived at a preliminary answer to this question. A series of clinical and epidemiological studies [37,38,39,40,41,42] provided further evidence, this may still not be the final answer. More recent unpublished work shows that there may be a complicated relationship between external supply, endogenous production, metabolism, signalling pathways, and the development of allergy. A factor repeatedly associated with allergic sensitization, this gives us the opportunity to think about rational strategies for allergy prevention including randomized clinical trials that are planned or already underway
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