Vitamin D can produce 'amazing' improvements in heart function, study finds

A daily dose of vitamin D3 can dramatically improve heart function in people with chronic heart failure, British researchers have found.

The study, funded by the Medical Research Council, involved 160 patients who were already being treated for heart failure using proven treatments and medicines. Vitamin D3 can be boosted by exposure to sunlight, but older heart failure patients are often deficient in it.

Half the participants were asked to take vitamin D3, in the form of the blackcurrant-flavoured chewable tablet, while the other half took a placebo tablet.

Dr Klaus Witte, who led the five-year University of Leeds research project, told The Independent the improvements seen in patients taking the vitamin were “nothing short of amazing,” and called his team's findings a “significant breakthrough.”


READ MORE
Pregnant women who take Vitamin D in winter 'strengthen baby's bones'
Over the course of a year, those who took the vitamin D3 experienced a great improvement in heart function compared to those who took the placebo, with the results being the best seen "in a generation", according to Dr Witte.

Researchers made ultrasound scans of participants' hearts and measured the how much blood was being pumped with each heartbeat, to get a figure called ejection fraction.

The ejection fraction of a healthy person is usually around 60 to 70 per cent, but it dropped to an average of 26 per cent among the patients enrolled in the study.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...s-a6968841.html

Low vitamin D levels may increase one’s risk for cardiac events

The risk of heart attack, stroke, heart failure and other cardiac events could be predicted by measuring levels of two vitamin D components, suggest researchers from the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City, UT.
[A man holding his heart]
Low levels of total and bioavailable vitamin D may predict poor cardiovascular health, say researchers.
Lead researcher Dr. Heidi May, a cardiovascular epidemiologist at the Institute, and colleagues found that individuals with low levels of both total vitamin D and bioavailable vitamin D were more likely to experience poor cardiovascular outcomes.

Bioavailable vitamin D is vitamin D that has been absorbed into the bloodstream but has not attached to surrounding proteins.

The researchers recently presented their findings at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions in Chicago, IL.

To reach their results, Dr. May and colleagues analyzed the vitamin D levels of 4,200 individuals aged 52-76. Of these, around a quarter had diabetes and around 70% had coronary artery disease.

The team focused on measuring the participants' levels of various vitamin D metabolites - elements of the vitamin that are produced during metabolism - and assessed whether they were associated with future cardiac events.

Poor cardiac outcomes with low total and bioavailable vitamin D
The researchers explain that only 10-15% of total vitamin D has the ability to act on target cells during metabolism; most vitamin D metabolites are attached to vitamin D binding proteins.

The team says it is important to assess the proportion of these "unbound" vitamin D metabolites - such as bioavailable vitamin D - that is available to pursue target cells.

From their analysis, the researchers found that measuring both total levels of vitamin D and levels of bioavailable vitamin D demonstrated the highest accuracy for predicting the risk of cardiac events.

In other words, individuals with low levels of both total vitamin D and bioavailable vitamin D were at greatest risk for heart attack, stroke, heart failure and even cardiovascular death, compared with people whose levels of these vitamins were high.

Commenting on the results, Dr. May says:

"This study is the first research that evaluates the association of vitamin D metabolites with cardiovascular events. And evaluating usable vitamin D could mean the difference on the amount of vitamin D prescribed, if it's prescribed at all."

The researchers say their findings build on previous research associating low vitamin D levels with poor heart health. However, they call for future studies to further investigate this link in non-white populations, noting that past studies have shown the effects of vitamin D metabolites vary between white people and those of other ethnicities.

Last November, Medical News Today reported on a study suggesting that vitamin D levels below 15 ng/mL are associated with poor heart health.

And another study published last year suggested vitamin D supplements may improve exercise performance and reduce the risk of heart disease.

Written by Honor Whiteman

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/308566.php

Avoiding Sun as Dangerous as Smoking

Avoiding Sun as Dangerous as Smoking
Marcia FrellickMarch 23, 2016
Nonsmokers who stayed out of the sun had a life expectancy similar to smokers who soaked up the most rays, according to researchers who studied nearly 30,000 Swedish women over 20 years.

This indicates that avoiding the sun "is a risk factor for death of a similar magnitude as smoking," write the authors of the article, published March 21 in the Journal of Internal Medicine. Compared with those with the highest sun exposure, life expectancy for those who avoided sun dropped by 0.6 to 2.1 years.

Pelle Lindqvist, MD, of Karolinska University Hospital in Huddinge, Sweden, and colleagues found that women who seek out the sun were generally at lower risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and noncancer/non-CVD diseases such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and pulmonary diseases, than those who avoided sun exposure.

And one of the strengths of the study was that results were dose-specific — sunshine benefits went up with amount of exposure.

The researchers acknowledge that longer life expectancy for sunbathers seems paradoxical to the common thinking that sun exposure increases risk for skin cancer.

"We did find an increased risk of...skin cancer. However, the skin cancers that occurred in those exposing themselves to the sun had better prognosis," Dr Lindqvist said.

Some Daily Exposure Important for Health

Given these findings, he told Medscape Medical News, women should not overexpose themselves to sun, but underexposure may be even more dangerous than people think.

"We know in our population, there are three big lifestyle factors [that endanger health]: smoking, being overweight, and inactivity," he said. "Now we know there is a fourth — avoiding sun exposure."

Sweden's restrictive guidance against sun exposure over the past 4 decades may be particularly ill-advised, the study finds, in a country where the maximum UV index is low (< 3) for up to 9 months out of the year.

Use of sunscreen is also widely misunderstood in the country and elsewhere, Dr Lindqvist said.

"If you're using it to be out longer in the sun, you're using it in the wrong manner," he said. However, "If you are stuck on a boat and have to be out, it's probably better to have sunscreen than not to have it."

Women with more pigmentation would be particularly well-served to stop avoiding sunshine, he said, adding that many people in India, for instance, follow guidelines like those in Sweden to avoid sun year round.

And because melanomas are rare among women with darker skin, benefit goes up in those populations when weighing sun exposure's risk against benefits, Dr Lindqvist said.

Age and Smoking Habits

The researchers studied sun exposure as a risk factor for all-cause mortality for 29,518 women with no history of malignancy in a prospective 20-year follow-up of the Melanoma in Southern Sweden cohort.

The women were recruited from 1990 to 1992 when they were 25 to 64 years old. Detailed information was available at baseline on sun-exposure habits and potential confounders such as marital status, education level, smoking, alcohol consumption, and number of births.

When smoking was factored in, even smokers at approximately 60 years of age with the most active sun-exposure habits had a 2-year longer life expectancy during the study period compared with smokers who avoided sun exposure, the researchers note.

The authors do, however, acknowledge some major limitations. Among them, it was impossible to differentiate between active sun-exposure habits and a healthy lifestyle, and they did not have access to exercise data.

Role of Vitamin D Still in Question

The results add to the longstanding debate on the role of vitamin D in health and the amount of it people need, but this study doesn't resolve the question.

"Whether the positive effect of sun exposure demonstrated in this observational study is mediated by vitamin D, another mechanism related to ultraviolet radiation, or by unmeasured bias cannot be determined. Therefore, additional research is warranted," the authors write.

"From Irish studies we know that vitamin D deficiency makes melanomas more malignant," Dr Lindqvist said.

"This is in agreement with our results; melanomas of [those not exposed] to the sun had a worse prognosis."

This study was supported by the Clintec at the Karolinska Institute; ALF (Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Region Skane); the Swedish Cancer Society; and the Swedish Medical Research Council. Funding was also received from Lund University Hospital; the Gustav V Jubilee Fund; the Gunnar Nilsson Foundation; the Kamprad Foundation; and the European Research Council. The authors declared no relevant financial relationships.

J Intern Med. Published online March 16, 2016. Article


Medscape Medical News © 2016 WebMD, LLC

Low vitamin D linked to higher morbidity, disease severity in IBD

Low serum vitamin D levels were found to be associated with worse outcomes in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, and supplementation appears to be associated with reduced health care use, according to the results of a 5-year longitudinal study.

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“There is growing interest in long-term, multi-year, prospective observational registry datasets, as we can gain important information regarding the natural history of complex, chronic illnesses and clinical factors including nutritional status,” David G. Binion, MD, of the department of medicine and division of gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, told Healio Gastroenterology. “By capturing ‘Big Data’ on a large number of prospectively tracked IBD patients followed over a multi-year time period, we gained insight into the importance of vitamin D assessment and treatment. This type of prospective, observational registry data is essential, as a clinical trial which fails to correct vitamin deficiency detected in participants would be impossible, as with-holding vitamin treatment would be unethical.”


David G. Binion

Binion and colleagues identified 965 IBD patients (61.9% Crohn’s disease; 38.1% ulcerative colitis; 52.3% women; mean age, 44 years) with up to 5 years of follow-up data in University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s longitudinal IBD natural history registry. They categorized patients based on mean serum 25-OH vitamin D levels, and examined associations between vitamin D levels, IBD clinical status and health care use.

At enrollment, 8.9% of patients were vitamin D deficient and 33.1% had vitamin D insufficiency vs. 4.9% and 23.6%, respectively, at the conclusion of the study period. Among patients who received vitamin D supplements, 67.9% achieved normal levels by the end of the study.

“Our examination of vitamin D status over a 5-year time period in close to 1,000 IBD patients demonstrated that deficiency was associated with poor clinical status as assessed by health care utilization, such as emergency room visits, hospitalizations and abdominal imaging studies,” Binion said.

Overall, patients with low vitamin D levels required significantly more steroids, biologics, narcotics, computed tomography scans, emergency department visits, hospital admissions and surgeries compared with those who had normal mean vitamin D levels (P < .05). They also had worse pain, disease activity scores and quality of life (P < .05).

“More importantly, correction of vitamin D deficiency was associated with overall improvement in clinical status,” Binion said. “Our data suggests that correcting vitamin D deficiency will help IBD patients achieve clinical remission. There is precedent for the idea that correction of vitamin D deficiency helps to improve disease course and treatment efficacy in other forms of chronic inflammation, specifically asthma. Our work extends this observation into the IBD patient population.” – by Adam Leitenberger

Disclosure: Binion reports consulting or advisory board relationships with AbbVie, Janssen and the FDA Safety Board of UCB Pharma, and grant support from Janssen, Merck and UCB Pharma. Please see the full study for a list of all other researchers’ relevant financial disclosures.

http://www.healio.com/gastroenterol...severity-in-ibd

Healthy vitamin D levels associated with significant decrease in cancer risk among women.

A recent pooled analysis of a randomized trial and prospective cohort study determined that women with vitamin D levels of at least 40 ng/ml were associated with > 65% reduced risk of developing cancer.

Cancer is highly prevalent, affecting approximately 40% of men and women in their lifetime. In 2012, a total of 14 million new cases of cancer were diagnosed worldwide with 8.2 million cancer-related deaths. This number continues to rise with an estimated increase of 22 million cancer cases within the next 20 years.

Cancer creates a significant financial burden. In 2010, cancer care accounted for a total of $125 billion in the U.S. alone. With cancer diagnoses continuing to grow, this number is projected to go up to $150 billion by 2020. Therefore, it is important for physicians to implement preventative measures in order to decrease the medical and financial burden of those affected by this disease.

Current evidence suggests that vitamin D status is inversely associated with several types of cancer, including prostate, lung and breast cancer. Furthermore, vitamin D has shown to exert anti-cancer properties. There are several mechanisms that may be responsible for these findings, including vitamin D’s ability to prevent cellular proliferation, promote programmed-cell death and decrease inflammation in cancer cells.

Although the role of vitamin D in cancer has been studied extensively, researchers recently aimed to determine if the previous findings are replicable, and to identify a reference range of 25(OH)D levels for the ideal prevention of cancer development among women 55 years and older.

In the current study, the researchers utilized data from two cohorts: The Lappe cohort (a double blind randomized control trial) and the GrassrootsHealth cohort (a prospective cohort). Unlike other studies, these studies represented different median vitamin D levels, offering a broader range of 25(OH)D concentrations to analyze.

The Lappe cohort took place in Nebraska, and evaluated a total of 1,169 women over the age of 55 years with no history of cancer. The participants were randomly assigned to one of the following treatments: calcium plus vitamin D placebo (either 1400 mg/day of calcium citrate or 1500 mg/day of calcium carbonate, calcium plus vitamin D (calcium as mentioned previously plus 1000 IU/day of vitamin D3), or control (calcium and vitamin D placebos).

The GrassrootsHealth cohort, conducted by a fellow public health non-profit in San Diego, CA, gathered the vitamin D levels of 1,135 women ages 55 and older who voluntarily joined the study with the aim to reach and sustain a serum 25(OH)D level of the participant’s choice. The participants measured their vitamin D levels via in-home vitamin D tests and reported their health outcomes by filling out an online questionnaire.

The researchers pooled data from both cohorts and compared the incidence of cancer with the subsequent vitamin D concentration over a median if 3.9 years. All types of cancers were included in the analysis, with the exception of non-melanoma skin cancer.

Did the researchers find a relationship between vitamin D status and cancer incidence in women? Here is what they found:

The median baseline vitamin D status was 28 ng/ml in the Lappe cohort and 43 ng/ml in the GrassrootsHealth cohort (p<0.0001).
There was a total of 840 cases of cancer per 100,000 individuals in the combined cohort (1,020/100,000 persons in Lappe cohort and 722/100,000 individuals in GrassrootsHealth cohort).
Cancer incidence was lower for individuals with higher levels of vitamin D.
At baseline, there was a 77% decreased incidence rate of cancer for those with levels > 40 ng/ml compared to those with < 20 ng/ml.
The greatest decrease in cancer risk occurred between 10–40 ng/ml, with a further beneficial effect at levels ≥40 ng/ml.
A 25(OH)D > 40 ng/ml was associated with a 67% decreased risk of cancer compared to those with a vitamin D status of < 20 ng/ml, after adjusting for several cofactors (age, BMI, smoking and calcium supplementation).
The researchers summarized their findings,

“We found a clear association between 25(OH)D serum concentration and cancer risk, according to multiple types of analyses. These results suggest the importance of vitamin D for the prevention of cancer.”

As always, it is important to note the limitations to this study. The use of self-reported data may result in recall bias, potentially skewing the results. Additionally, not all covariates could be accounted for. Furthermore, the analysis did not have the power to evaluate the role of vitamin D status on specific cancer types. Lastly, the study showed the relationship between vitamin D and cancer risk specifically among non-Hispanic, white women 55 years and older; therefore, the results may not be generalizable to other target populations.

The researchers concluded,

“Primary prevention of cancer, rather than solely expanding early detection or improving treatment, will be essential for reversing the current upward trend of cancer incidence worldwide; this analysis suggests that improving vitamin D status is a key prevention tool.”

Citation

Sturges, M. & Cannell, JJ. Healthy vitamin D levels associated with significant decrease in cancer risk among women. The Vitamin D Council Blog & Newsletter, 2016.

Source

McDonnell SL, Baggerly C, French CB, Baggerly LL, Garland CF, Gorham ED, et al. Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Concentrations ≥40 ng/ml Are Associated with >65% Lower Cancer Risk: Pooled Analysis of Randomized Trial and Prospective Cohort Study. PLoS ONE, 2016. e0152441.

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/blog..._eid=032f6d7ee3

Research finds vitamin D to be a safe and effective treatment for painful diabetic neuropathy


A new study published in the journal BMJ Open Diabetes Research and Care discovered that treatment with a single intramuscular dose of 600,000 IU of vitamin D in patients with painful diabetic neuropathy caused significant reductions in symptoms.

Diabetic neuropathy is a type of nerve disorder that can occur if a person has diabetes. High blood sugar can injure nerves throughout the body, but diabetic neuropathy most commonly affects nerves in the legs and feet. It often causes pain and numbness in the extremities, but may also cause problems in the gastrointestinal tract, urinary tract, blood vessels and heart.

Approximately 21% of the population is affected by painful diabetic neuropathy. Treatments for diabetic neuropathy are limited. The therapeutic effectiveness for all medications is at best near 50% pain relief. In addition, most of the medications are accompanied by unwanted side effects. This has left the medical community searching for new treatments.

A previous study suggested vitamin D supplementation may help treat diabetic neuropathy. The researchers found that weekly vitamin D supplementation of 50,000 IU for 8 weeks reduced symptoms but not disability. In an effort to confirm the treatment effect of vitamin D on diabetic neuropathy, researchers recently conducted a prospective open-labeled trial in Pakistan.

A total of 143 patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes were included in the study. All patients received a single intramuscular dose of 600,000 IU of vitamin D3. Pain was assessed using three different questionnaires: The Douleur Neuropathique 4 (DN4), total McGill pain and Short Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SFMPQ). The researchers wanted to compare pain severity before and after the administration of the vitamin D injection. Here is what they found:

Average vitamin D levels increased from 31.7 ng/ml at baseline to 46.2 ng/ml at week 20.
Total McGill pain score, DN4 and SFMPQ significantly decreased after vitamin D administration (p<0.001).
The researchers concluded,

“The administration of 600 000 IU of vitamin D results in a modest but significant increase in 25(OH)D levels measured at 20 weeks. This improvement in 25(OH)D levels was associated with an improvement in several independent measures of PDN, which became significant approximately 10 weeks after administration of vitamin D.”

The researchers noted that the average vitamin D levels of the patients at baseline was much higher than previous studies, indicating that a proportion had likely received vitamin D supplementation from their primary physician previously. This shows vitamin D supplementation has become a more widely accepted practice for diabetic patients.

Future studies should follow a randomized controlled trial design and use a daily dosage regimen.

Citation

Tovey, A. & Cannell, JJ. Research finds vitamin D to be a safe and effective treatment for painful diabetic neuropathy. The Vitamin D Council Blog & Newsletter, 2016.

Source

Basit A. et al. Vitamin D for the treatment of painful diabetic neuropathy. BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care, 2016.

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/blog..._eid=032f6d7ee3

UK study supports cardiovascular safety of calcium and vitamin D supplementation

UK researchers have presented a new study that supports the cardiovascular safety of calcium and vitamin D supplementation. The study was based on analysis of the UK Biobank, a very large study comprising 502,664 men and women aged 40-69 years.

Of the total UK Biobank participants, 34,890 individuals (6.94%) reported taking calcium supplements, 20,004 taking vitamin D supplements, and 10,406 taking both (2.1%). The researchers found no associations between the use of calcium supplements and hospital admissions related to ischaemic heart disease (e.g. heart attacks), any cardiovascular event, or death following admission for either admission category. Results were similar for vitamin D and combination supplementation.

Furthemore, regardless of whether participants had a history of cardiovascular disease or not at baseline, calcium supplementation (with or without vitamin D) did not increase the risk of future cardiac events, findings which remained robust after other factors such as age, fatness, medication use and blood pressure were considered.

Presenting author Prof. Nicholas C. Harvey of the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, noted, "Calcium supplementation is widely used, including as an adjunct to therapy for osteoporosis. Previous studies have provided inconsistent findings with regard to associations between calcium supplements and cardiovascular events. Our results, using the largest single study to date, provide reassurance that such supplementation appears safe."

Professor Cyrus Cooper, Director of the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, added, "This study illustrates the importance for the University of Southampton and MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit in leading large, multicentre analyses on this internationally leading UK Biobank dataset. The findings will be built upon in further analyses that capitalise on the genetic and intensive musculoskeletal phenotyping components of the study in which we continue to play an important role."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releas...60416153144.htm

New study finds vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy helps reduce childhood allergies

Vitamin D supplements during pregnancy and infancy may help to reduce New Zealand's high childhood allergy rate.
In a study, published today in the internationally ranked journal Allergy, Associate Professor Cameron Grant from the University of Auckland (and paediatrician at Starship Children's Hospital), showed for the first time, that vitamin D supplements prevent allergy sensitisation to house dust mites in children.
He believes vitamin D supplements may also help prevent asthma developing in young children.
The study report notes that in New Zealand there is a sun-avoidance public health policy, our diet has a low vitamin D content and vitamin D supplements are not widely used.
Vitamin D deficiency is prevalent with 57 percent of New Zealand newborns having low concentrations of vitamin D at birth.
Both asthma and allergies are highly prevalent in New Zealand with 25 percent of six to seven year olds reported with asthma and 35 percent of 11 to 12 year olds having an allergic response to house dust mite, plant, food or other allergens.
"In our clinical trial of vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy and infancy, we showed that when these supplements were started in the mum at 27 weeks gestation and then continued in her child until the child was six months old, they prevented sensitisation of the child to house dust mites (measured when the child was 18 months old)," says Dr. Grant.
"Based upon a careful review of the records of the children's visits to their family doctor, we also saw that this vitamin D supplementation reduced the proportion of children making primary care visits which their family doctor thought were due to asthma," he says.
"Diagnosing asthma at such a young age is a difficult thing to do so we have to take this family doctor visit data with a grain of salt and certainly could not say for sure that the study shows the vitamin D prevents asthma," says Dr Grant.
"But it's the first study to show that correcting poor vitamin D status during pregnancy and infancy might prevent childhood asthma."
Dr Grant says, "an interesting aspect is that the effects we saw were measured a year after the vitamin D supplementation was stopped."
"This implies that vitamin D caused some change in the child's immune system as it was developing in utero and during early infancy which then resulted in differences in the immune response to house dust mites at age 18 months."
"Early life events, including those before birth, can influence a baby's later sensitivity to allergens," says Dr Cameron Grant.
"Vitamin D receptors are present on many immune cells and so vitamin D can affect how the immune system works," he says. "In theory maintaining normal vitamin D status when that sensitivity is developing late in pregnancy and early in infancy, could prevent later allergy sensitivity in the child."

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-...od-allergy.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36846894

Unless I converted wrong (confusing ways to measure) this isn't very much for a country where "sunlight can be scarce" and at a higher latitude than US, where recommended daily is 600 IU or 15 mcg? And 800 IU for over 70. I need 5,000 a day to keep level over 30.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releas...61201101709.htm

Vitamin D supplementation improves autism in children, according to new study


In 2008, Dr. John Cannell, MD, Founder of Vitamin D Council published the first paper suggesting a relationship between low vitamin D status and increased risk of autism. He created his hypothesis based on the data that illustrated an increased prevalence of autism in the regions of greater cloud cover and rainfall. Only observational studies had confirmed his hypothesis until now.

In a groundbreaking study, researchers proved that vitamin D supplementation reduces the symptoms of autism among children.

More than 3.5 million Americans live with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), affecting approximately 1 in 68 people. The prevalence of autism among U.S. children increased by nearly 120% from 2000 to 2010, coinciding with the increased prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in the U.S.

ASD describes a range of conditions categorized as neurodevelopmental disorders. Characteristics of autism include deficits in social skills, impairment in verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive patterns of behavior, interests or activities.

Currently, there are no effective treatments for the core symptoms of autism. Thus, researchers all over the world are seeking solutions.

Vitamin D plays an essential role in neurodevelopment and gene regulation. More than 2,700 genes contain vitamin D receptors, and vitamin D regulates the expression of over 200 genes. Furthermore, vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy is associated with adverse effects for the baby, including an increased risk of autism. This evidence led researchers to recently conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT), the gold standard of research, to evaluate the effects of vitamin D supplementation on autism in children.

The RCT consisted of 109 children with ASD, ages three to ten years. Half of the children were randomized to receive a daily vitamin D dose of 300 IU per kg of body weight, equivalent to 136 IU per pound, but no greater than 5,000 IU daily. The other half received a daily placebo pill. The experiment lasted for a total of four months.

The researchers assessed vitamin D levels, autism severity and social maturity of the children at the beginning and end of the study.

After four months, vitamin D supplementation significantly improved the core manifestations of ASD, which include irritability, hyperactivity, social withdrawal,

stereotypic behavior and inappropriate speech. Whereas, the placebo group did not experience any significant improvements.

Furthermore, children who received vitamin D supplementation experienced increased cognitive awareness, social awareness and social cognition compared to those who only received the placebo. Vitamin D supplementation significantly decreased repetitive hand movements, random noises, jumping and restricted interests.

The researchers concluded,

“This study is the first double-blinded RCT proving the efficacy of vitamin D3 in ASD patients…Oral vitamin D supplementation may safely improve signs and symptoms of ASD and could be recommended for children with ASD.”

The study also mentioned that the supplementation regimen was well tolerated among the children. Only five children experienced minor side effects during the four-month study period, such as skin rashes, itching and diarrhea.

Due to the lack of autism treatments currently available, the implications of this study could be life changing for many. However, the researchers reminded the readers that the study consisted of a relatively small number of patients, and further studies are needed to confirm the efficacy of vitamin D in ASD.

Citation

Tovey, A. & Cannell, JJ. Vitamin D supplementation improves autism in children, according to new study. The Vitamin D Council Blog & Newsletter, 2016.

Thanks for all the posts, everyone.

I've taken Vit D for years now, differently levels and different forms. With and without K, with and without calcium, with and without A.

What I find the most bothersome is that I don't seem to actually be storing it when I get this way.

I've had my level go up into the 70s, but within a few days of stopping Vit D, it goes right back down. Yes, I've tested several times.

Has anyone else noticed this and have any insight?

I mean if I'm taking 10,000 a day, at some point I should be storing it, esp in the summer...wouldn't you think?!

If you look at blood glucose--a person's blood glucose could be 86, perfectly normal. But this 86 could result from a very high output of glucose from the liver/absorption from the gut that's matched with a comparably high uptake of glucose by muscle and brain etc. Or the rate glucose uptake and production/absorption could be very low, resulting in the same number. All you really know is that taking a certain amount of vitamin D daily raises your serum levels to a certain point--you don't really know whether this is in the face of high absorption, low absorption, high or low storage, high or low breakdown of vitamin D.

Thanks for asking the question. This might be more relevant than my blatherings.

http://blogs.plos.org/obesitypanace...tamin-d-levels/

I guess an obvious question to ask here is, was there a difference in the amount of vitamin D stored in the fat cells, between the people who lost less than 15 percent of their body weight, and those who lost more?