The Association between Dietary Calcium Intake and premenstrual asthma (PMA) among University Students in Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia: Cross Sectional Study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Nutrition and Food Science - Faculty of Home Economics - Menofia University - Shebin El-Kom - Menofia governorate

2 FRCOG, College of Medicine, King Fahad University Hospital, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Premenstrual asthma (PMA) is a variant of asthma in women that causes symptoms to intensify a few days before menstruation. Increased bronchial hyperreactivity owing to unstable equilibrium calcium levels in intracellular cytoplasm has been proposed as one of the most important background causes for asthma aggravation during the perimenstrual period.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate if there was a relation between dietary calcium intake and the severity of PMA.
Method: A cross-sectional study was performed on seventy asthmatic students recruited from the IAU, were divided into three groups mild, moderate, and severe based on the severity of menstrual syndrome and asthma, also there is negative control group (NCG). Dietary calcium intake was assessed based on FFQ questionnaire. Anthropometric measurements, pulmonary function, serum calcium and estrogen hormone were analyzed.
Results: Serum calcium was cut down ranged between 7.87±3.24 and 5.33±0.39 mg/d respectively in moderate and severe groups which had the lowest concentrate of estrogen hormone at 28.49±12.70 and 26.73±6.50, respectively. Also, dietary calcium was decreased significantly (P-value  0.001) among asthmatic students who suffered from 1 to 4 times attacks per month. There is a positive correlation between estrogen hormone and serum Ca at (P-value  0.05). Also, dietary calcium was correlated significantly at (P-value  0.05) with estrogen hormone and pulmonary functions, including FVC and FEV1.
This study declared a positive relationship between dietary calcium consumption, estrogen hormone, and pulmonary functions, which concluded that calcium homeostasis is a fundamental mechanism for relieving the severity of PMA.

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