Looking after lungs

About 12 million people in the UK, equivalent to one in five of the population, have been diagnosed with lung disease, according to the British Lung Foundation (BLF). Lung disease kills 115,000 people annually – equivalent to one death every five minutes.

And there are 550,000 new diagnoses of lung disease a year¹ – about one new case a minute. However, a spate of recent studies raises the prospect of improving care for two of the most common lung diseases: asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

For example, about 8 million people in the UK have been diagnosed with asthma, the BLF estimates.¹ Now a new meta-analysis suggests that vitamin D supplements reduce the risk of severe exacerbations and healthcare use in people with asthma.²