No risk of calcium overload with high vitamin D dosage

22 October 2012


Recent research presented at the American Academy of Family Physicians reports there were no toxic calcium levels seen in patients taking high-doses of vitamin D.

The small retrospective study examined 121 patients without kidney or liver dysfunction taking 2,000 – 7,000 IU vitamin D/day, who also had their calcium levels measured. Patients were ages 30 to 90, all with a minimum calcium intake of 1,000 mg/day.

Dr Neena E. Thomas-Eapen, MD reported none of the patients developed hypercalcemia (calcium >10.5 mg/dL). As the vitamin D levels of the participants increased, so did their calcium status, but it never exceeded 9.5 mg/dL.

Dr Thomas-Eapen told MedPage Today,

“We want physicians to know that if there is a need for vitamin D supplementation, which is very important for bones, the brain, the endocrine and the immunological systems, they should feel free to use a few thousand international units to 7,000 international units of vitamin D safely in patients with normal liver and kidney functions.”

She recognized the need for increased dosage when increasing vitamin D status in patients with osteoporosis and osteopenia. She said that in practice, she has not seen hypercalcemia, and wanted to conduct the research to provide conclusive data demonstrating the observation.

The authors call for studies larger sample sizes and longer duration to confirm the results.

Source:

Kaiser C. No risk of calcium overload with mega vitamin D. MedPage Today. Oct 2012.

Review: The facts on vitamin D and fertility
Posted on November 2, 2012 by John Cannell, MD


Up to 15% of couples are infertile and about 20% of infertility is unexplained by known causes. If you are trying to get pregnant or are having difficulty getting pregnant, a recent review paper should interest you.

Drs Elisabeth Lerchbaum and Barbara Obermayer-Pietsch of the Medical University of Graz in Austria published an authoritative review of vitamin D and fertility. They reviewed all the literature on the subject, test tube studies, animal data and human data.

Lerchbaum E, Obermayer-Pietsch B. Vitamin D and fertility: a systematic review. Eur J Endocrinol. 2012 May;166(5):765-78. Epub 2012 Jan 24. Review.

They highlighted the following points:

1.Both the vitamin D receptor (VDR) and the enzyme that turns 25(OH)D into a steroid hormone (1-hydroxylase) are present throughout the reproductive system of both males and females.
2.Vitamin D increases production of sex steroids in both male and female laboratory animals.
3.Severe vitamin D deficiency reduces fertility of male and female rats by up to 73%.
4.Laboratory animals without the genes for the VDR and the 1-hydroxylase seldom reproduce.
5.Some studies show that women with polycystic ovarian disease, which is associated with infertility, may have higher fertility rates with supplementation.
6.In men, better sperm motility is associated with higher vitamin D blood levels.
7.Supplementation with vitamin D increases men’s testosterone levels.
8.Some studies show that women with higher levels are more likely to succeed with in vitro fertilization.
9.Vitamin D supplementation of pregnant women (4,000 IU/day) resulted in a 50% lower rate of preterm delivery, a 25% reduction in infections of the mother, and a 30% decreased risk of complications of pregnancy.
10.However, many women get pregnant who are vitamin D deficient.
As most infertility is due to endocrine problems or prior illness and resultant structural changes in the reproductive tract, they conclude,

“We want to emphasize the fact that in infertility cases drastic improvements in reproductive failure may not be achieved by vitamin D treatment alone. However vitamin D supplementation is a safe and cheap treatment, which might have some beneficial effects on human reproduction.”

The Vitamin D Council recommends that any couple thinking about conceiving a child should first get their vitamin D levels up to the natural range (50 ng/ml) for a year, maintaining that level during pregnancy, and ensure that the infant and later child is adequately supplemented throughout growth and development. We believe there is sufficient scientific evidence to suspect this will reduce the incidence of numerous pregnancy complications and later childhood diseases.

http://blog.vitamindcouncil.org/2012/11/02/5497/

Is D deficiency a risk factor for peripheral artery disease?
Posted on October 31, 2012 by John Cannell, MD
Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is atherosclerotic lesions of arteries other than the heart or brain, like in the legs. It affects 4% of the general population above age 40 and 15% of those over the age of 55. Known risk factors include diabetes, smoking, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, black race, and elevated CRP and homocysteine levels. By the way, it is important to know that vitamin D directly upregulates the enzyme that gets rid of homocysteine.

Kriebitzsch C, Verlinden L, Eelen G, van Schoor NM, Swart K, Lips P, Meyer MB, Pike JW, Boonen S, Carlberg C, Vitvitsky V, Bouillon R, Banerjee R, Verstuyf A. 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 influences cellular homocysteine levels in murine preosteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells by direct regulation of cystathionine β-synthase. J Bone Miner Res. 2011 Dec;26(12):2991-3000.

PAD is associated with cardiovascular disease, all-cause mortality, coronary heart disease, and stoke, independent of traditional risk factors. PAD is often diagnosed with an ultrasound of an artery in your ankle. Dr Gouveri and colleagues from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki wrote an excellent paper about PAD and vitamin D, reviewing the evidence that vitamin D deficiency is yet another risk factor for PAD.

Gouveri E, Papanas N, Hatzitolios AI, Maltezos E. Hypovitaminosis D and peripheral arterial disease: Emerging link beyond cardiovascular risk factors. Eur J Intern Med. 2012 Jul 24. [Epub ahead of print]

They discussed several studies:

1.A large population (NHANES 2001-2004) study showed a strong negative correlation between PAD and vitamin D levels.
2.Multiple similar studies have shown the same thing.
3.For each 10 ng/ml lower your vitamin D, the risk of PAD went up by 13 %.
4.8.5% of older black adults have PAD compared to 5.3% of older Whites.
5.Patients with severe PAD are more likely to have lower vitamin D levels than do patients with mild disease.
6.PAD patients often have trouble walking, so they stay inside setting up a viscous cycle of immobility and sunlight deficiency.
7.In PAD patients, amputation is higher among those with the lowest 25(OH)D levels.
8.Vitamin D decreases the inflammatory cytokines (TNF and IL-6) and increases the anti-inflammatory cytokine (IL-10) associated with PAD.
9.Vitamin D regulates multiple genes involved in maintenance of the wall and inner lining of arteries.
The authors conclude, “Combining outdoor activity with sun exposure emerges as a challenging practice that might help prevent vitamin D deficiency and PAD,” They add that until randomized controlled trials show that supplements help prevent or treat PAD, “sun exposure is the recommended lifestyle practice to prevent both PAD and hypovitaminosis D.”

http://blog.vitamindcouncil.org/201...artery-disease/

Vitamin D levels during pregnancy and infant brain development

Posted on November 9, 2012 by John Cannell, MD


In a landmark study, Dr Eva Morales of the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Spain and numerous colleagues wanted to know if maternal vitamin D deficiency has an effect on human brain development. As you may know, a recent study in Pediatrics found a strong association between maternal vitamin D deficiency and impaired language development in the child.

Whitehouse AJ, Holt BJ, Serralha M, Holt PG, Kusel MM, Hart PH. Maternal serum vitamin D levels during pregnancy and offspring neurocognitive development. Pediatrics. 2012 Mar;129(3):485-93.

Dr Morales and colleagues measured vitamin D levels in 1820 pregnant women. When the infant was 14 months of age, neurocognitive and psychomotor testing revealed that mothers with levels above 40 ng/ml had infants with the best brains. The improvement curve appears to slightly improve with a maternal level of 50 ng/ml, but the difference does not appear to be significant, as the curve flattens out around those two levels.

Morales E, Guxens M, Llop S, Rodríguez-Bernal CL, Tardón A, Riaño I, Ibarluzea J, Lertxundi N, Espada M, Rodriguez A, Sunyer J; on behalf of the INMA Project. Circulating 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 in Pregnancy and Infant Neuropsychological Development. Pediatrics. 2012 Sep 17.

http://blog.vitamindcouncil.org/201...in-development/

Increasingly it appears that low maternal levels of vitamin D have long-lasting ill effects on the child’s brain function.

RCT: Vitamin D and Prozac

Posted on November 6, 2012 by John Cannell, MD


Many readers have either taken a selective serotonin reuptake inhibiter (SSRI) like Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, Lexapro, Luvox, or Paxil for one of the following:
■depression
■anxiety
■obsessive-compulsive disorder
■or for other indications



While the potential side effects of these SSRIs are considerable, most people tolerate the drugs just fine. However, the drugs frequently either don’t work or only help a little.

Iranian researchers, led by Dr Nayereh Khoraminya, recently tested vitamin D in a randomized controlled trial to see if it helped Prozac work better. Vitamin D was added to standard treatment to see if Prozac and vitamin D worked better than Prozac alone. They studied 42 patients with major depression, giving half of them 20 mg/day of Prozac and the other half 20 mg/day of Prozac plus 1,500 IU/day of vitamin D.

Khoraminya N, Tehrani-Doost M, Jazayeri S, Hosseini A, Djazayery A. Therapeutic effects of vitamin D as adjunctive therapy to fluoxetine in patients with major depressive disorder. Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2012 Oct 23

The researchers tested depression severity at the beginning of the study then every two weeks for eight weeks. The first thing they found was that 95% of their patients had levels less than 30 ng/ml. They also found the lower the level at the beginning of the study, the worse the depression, a correlation that has been reported many times before.

What had not been reported before was that vitamin D made Prozac work better. Prozac often takes 8 weeks to begin working, but here, after only four weeks, , they saw that the Prozac and vitamin D group had improved more than the Prozac only group (p<.001). That improvement continued throughout the study.

Depression is a serious disease, it often makes life not worth living. I recommend standard treatment by a physician together with 10,000 IU/day of vitamin D. That dose, 10,000 IU/day, is safe according to the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) as that is the NOAEL or “no observed adverse effects level.” That is, the FNB says that there are no credible reports of adults taking 10,000 IU/day and suffering any ill effects.

If you want to try 10,000 IU/day before seeing the doctor, I understand, but unless you notice a response within the first few weeks, please see a doctor as major depression is a life threatening disorder.

Remember also that sunlight and sunbeds help depressive symptoms via a number of non-vitamin D mechanisms including bright light, endorphins, melatonin, and probably other mechanisms. I have treated some people with depression where the only thing that cured their depression was daily sunlight or sunbed exposure.

RCT: Vitamin D improves exercise tolerance in COPD patients

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Brant Cebulla


A new analysis of a randomized controlled trial has found that vitamin D helps inspiratory muscle strength and peak exercise tolerance in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients.




The study, published in the journal Respiratory Research and led by Dr Miek Hornikx and colleagues of the University Hospital Gasthuisberg in Belgium, studied a subgroup of patients that were administered 100,000 IU of vitamin D per month for a year and participated in a three month rehabilitation program at the beginning of the study.

COPD is considered a complex disease and is marked by the occurrence of chronic bronchitis or emphysema. It is defined by low airflow in the lung and gets worse over time. Smoking is the primary cause, but there are other causes, too, like air pollution and exposure to coal dust. Comorbidities include skeletal muscle weakness, which is why patients with COPD are often suggested to enroll in a rehabilitation program.

In this study, this subgroup was part of a larger study that sought to discover if vitamin D could help reduce exacerbations. While the larger study had 182 enrollees, only 50 of these enrollees participated in this three month training program. The participants were split evenly to either receive 100,000 IU of vitamin D/month or placebo. These patients had to complete 90 minutes of training three times per week, consisting of a circuit of exercises including: cycling, walking on the treadmill, stair climbing, and strength exercises for the upper and lower extremities and arm cranking.

The researchers wanted to see if vitamin D enhanced the effects of rehabilitation training via pulmonary function, peripheral muscle strength, respiratory muscle strength, functional exercise capacity, maximal exercise capacity, and health-related quality of life.

After three months of training, the researchers noted the following changes:
■Vitamin D levels increased from 15 to 51 ng/ml in the vitamin D group and remained stable in the placebo group, from 19 ng/ml to 18 ng/ml.
■Inspiratory muscle strength significantly improved more in the vitamin D group compared to placebo.
■Maximal oxygen uptake significantly improved in the vitamin D group compared to placebo, thus improving peak exercise tolerance.
■Though not statistically significant, there was a trend toward higher quadriceps strength, six minutes walking distance and dyspnea scores in the vitamin D group compared to placebo.

The authors note that their subject numbers and small length of study may not have produced the most statistically and clinically significant findings, but this small set of data is encouraging for future study and practice. They state:


“Overall, the present post-hoc analysis supports the idea that in patients with COPD high dose supplementation with vitamin D can be beneficial when combined with exercise training.”

Here, the investigators raised levels to 50 ng/ml on a dose equivalent to 3,300 IU of vitamin D/day and found some encouraging results for COPD patients. The Vitamin D Council recommends 5,000 IU/day for the general population.

https://blog.vitamindcouncil.org/20...-copd-patients/

I'm posting this in the interests of even-handedness.

Vitamin D scientist fatality in the 30′s

Posted on November 7, 2012 by John Cannell, MD


In 1936, Dr Ferdinand Vowinckel was apparently experimenting on himself to see if vitamin D could cure arthritis. Reportedly, he took 2,100,000 IU/day of D2 for 18 days and died.

Too much vitamin D fatal. New York Times, March 10, 1936

Why did he take so much? Apparently, the reason he took so much was that the year before two physicians reported that megadoses of vitamin D “cured” arthritis. Dr. Reed and his colleague Dr Dreyer of the University of Illinois, reported giving as much as 3,000,000 IU/day with the average dose being 300,000 to 500,000 IU/day.

Big vitamin D doses given for arthritis. New York Times, December 9, 1935.

By the early late 1930s and early1940s, such doses were reported to be injuring patients.

Leake CD. Vitamin D Toxicity. Cal West Med. 1936 Mar;44(3):149-50

Deaths were reported. For example, nine weeks after taking 300,000 IU/day, a New Jersey woman died.

Vitamin D causes death. New York Times, June 28, 1942

However, it took a few years more until such doses were clearly known to cause death or severe toxicity. In 1947, medical convention proceedings warned that “even in doses [of vitamin D] of 50,000 to 100,000 IU/day” could cause toxicity or even death “unless carefully administered.” Apparently, at the time, a 50,000 IU tablet was the lowest dose available.

Vitamin D self-usage called dangerous. New York Times, December 10, 1947.

When I hear of people taking 50,000 IU per day I worry. Everyone is different in how they metabolize vitamin D. Some people can tolerate 50,000 IU per day and some people can’t. By the time you realize you are in the latter category, it may be too late. Make sure to follow the Council’s guidelines for adults of 5,000 IU/day, at the most 10,000 IU/day, as 10,000 IU/day is the no observed adverse effects level (NOAEL) of the 2010 Food and Nutrition Board, the amount that has never been shown to cause harm. Do not exceed 10,000 IU/day unless you have a scientific level of understanding of vitamin D metabolism and test often.

http://blog.vitamindcouncil.org/201...ity-in-the-30s/

*********************
Food for thought

I'd like to point out that the vitamin D used here was D2.

I'd also like to remind people that I've injected 1.2 MILLION IUs of vitamin D3 per week for 6 weeks all over my body which reversed great body pain.

I've also injected at least 300,000 vitamin D3 in my knees for years at intervals of 4-15 days.

A stoss dose of vitamin D3 is 250,000 IU for three days.

Manufacturing processes during the 1930s for food/supplements were prone to contamination and miscalibrations in dose measurements.

Vitamin D3 needs are influenced by body weight and time of year.

Vitamin D: Repair and maintenance

Posted on November 8, 2012 by John Cannell, MD


A xenobiotic is a chemical found in an organism that is not normally expected to be in that organism. Examples include drugs, pesticides, cosmetics, flavorings, fragrances, food additives, industrial chemicals and environmental pollutants. Humans are exposed to millions of xenobiotics in their lifetimes.




When your body absorbs drugs, pesticides, heavy metals or other potential toxins, what happens to them? How does your body get rid of these xenobiotics?

Most xenobiotics enter the body via the diet, air, drinking water, drug administration, and lifestyle choices. They then undergo a detoxification that in general renders them less toxic, and more readily excretable.

So how does your body rid itself of xenobiotics? Often through an enzyme called “CYP3A4 cytochrome P450.” CYP3A4 cytochrome P450 actually activates some drugs as well, turning them into their active metabolite, but it is mainly involved in cellular detoxification. Guess what, its gene is upregulated by vitamin D!

Thompson PD, Jurutka PW, Whitfield GK, Myskowski SM, Eichhorst KR, Dominguez CE, Haussler CA, Haussler MR. Liganded VDR induces CYP3A4 in small intestinal and colon cancer cells via DR3 and ER6 vitamin D responsive elements. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2002 Dec 20;299(5):730-8.

One possibility that is not in the literature is that vitamin D may shorten the effectiveness of many prescription drugs by hastening their removal from the body via inducing CYP3A4 cytochrome P450. If so, that may have major medical consequences, if it goes unrecognized, as it now is. In the future, drug doses may be titrated to 25(OH)D levels, knowing the higher the level the shorter the more the effect on time the drug will be in the body.

Unfortunately, medical literature lacks more studies or a review on the topic of late. A slightly more recent paper about the vitamin D receptor (VDR) mentioned it but only just barely, although as an aside, I like the “Fountain of Youth” conclusion of the authors.

“Clearly, through control of key genes, VDR indeed feeds the “Fountain of Youth” and allows one to age well by delaying fractures, ectopic calcification, oxidative damage, infections, autoimmunity, inflammation, pain, cardiovascular disease, and malignancy.”

Haussler MR, Haussler CA, Whitfield GK, Hsieh JC, Thompson PD, Barthel TK, Bartik L, Egan JB, Wu Y, Kubicek JL, Lowmiller CL, Moffet EW, Forster RE, Jurutka PW. The nuclear vitamin D receptor controls the expression of genes encoding factors which feed the “Fountain of Youth” to mediate healthful aging. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2010 Jul;121(1-2):88-97. Epub 2010 Mar 20.

So, what does this mean? As I have written before, vitamin D is the repair and maintenance man of the human body, repairing and maintaining cells and actually lengthening telomeres, shortened telomeres being the genetic markers of aging.

All steroids have their roles, testosterone in maleness, estrogen in femaleness, progesterone in pregnancy, etc. Cellular detoxification is but another repair and maintenance job of vitamin D, leading to healthy aging.

https://blog.vitamindcouncil.org/20...nd-maintenance/

Low vitamin D levels increase risk of bladder cancer

06 November 2012


Research published last week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that people who are vitamin D deficient had a significantly increased risk of developing bladder cancer.

According to the American Cancer Society, there are about 73,500 new cases of bladder cancer diagnosed and 15,000 deaths per year in the United States. Nine out of ten people diagnosed with bladder cancer are over the age of 55.

Dr Andre Amaral and colleagues collected blood samples from 1,125 patients with bladder cancer from 18 different Spanish hospitals, as well as serum samples from 1,028 matched controls.

The researchers found that those with the lowest vitamin D levels were 1.83 times as likely to have bladder cancer when compared to those with the highest levels (p=0.006). They also looked at different forms of bladder cancer and found that the patients with the lowest vitamin D levels were 5.94 times as likely to develop the most aggressive form of bladder cancer, urothelial bladder cancer (p=0.005).

Dr Nuria Malats, co-author of the study, told the LA Times:

" class="MsoNormal">"These results indicate that high levels of the vitamin are associated with protection from the illness or, similarly, that low levels are associated with a higher risk of suffering from it."

Source:

Amaral AFS, et al. Plasma 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 and bladder cancer risk according to tumor stage and FGFR3 status: A mechanism-based epidemiological study. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. October 29, 2012.

Maugh TH. Low levels of vitamin D in blood double the risk of bladder cancer, Spanish researchers say. Science. Los Angeles Times.

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/low-...bladder-cancer/

Merkel cell carcinoma prognosis linked to vitamin D deficiency

08 November 2012


Research presented at the annual congress of the European Academy of Dermatology reports a link between vitamin D deficiency and Merkel cell carcinoma.

Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare, aggressive form of skin cancer in which malignant cancer cells develop in hair follicles, or on or beneath the skin.

Dr Mahtab Samimi and colleagues found that 58 of the 89 Merkel cell carcinoma patients were vitamin D deficient (<20 ng/mL). During follow up, 19 participants died.

The 4-year metastasis-free survival rate was 20% in the vitamin D-deficient patients, and 70% in patients with sufficient vitamin D levels. The researchers also found that the 4-year Merkel cell carcinoma-free survival rate was 40% in the vitamin D deficient patients and more than 90% in vitamin D sufficient patients.

The authors report that low vitamin D status was independently associated with a 2.9-fold increased risk of developing nodal and or metastases and a 5.3-fold increased risk for mortality resulting from malignancy. The researchers also found that the vitamin D deficient patients had a greater mean tumor size when compared with vitamin D sufficient patients (p=0.018).

Dr Samimi emphasizes that the research does not prove causality, and further studies should continue to investigate the association. A limitation to the study was that the researchers didn’t measure serum vitamin D until an average of 3 months after Merkel cell carcinoma diagnosis.

Dr Samimi did state she does advise her melanoma and Merkel cell carcinoma patients to supplement if they are vitamin D deficient.

"The protective role of doing this in terms of cancer prognosis is not proven, but at the very least the supplementation has beneficial effects on skeletal and muscle health, so it’s a good thing."

Source:

Jancin B. Merkel cell carcinoma prognosis linked to vitamin D. Clinical Endocrinology News. November 2012

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/merk...n-d-deficiency/

Vitamin D deficiency contributes to pain in African Americans with osteoarthritis

09 November 2012


A study published in Arthritis & Rheumatism reports that black Americans have higher rates of vitamin D deficiency and pain sensitivity when compared to white Americans. Vitamin D deficiency may be one of the many factors that account for increased pain in older black Americans with knee osteoarthritis (OA).

Osteoarthritis involves degradation of the joints, causing joint pain, stiffness, tenderness, and locking.

Researchers at the University of Florida and the University of Alabama at Birmingham recruited 94 participants for the study, 45 black and 49 white patients with OA. The group was 75% female with an average age of 56 years.

All patients completed questionnaires regarding their symptoms. They also underwent sensory testing, measuring sensitivity to heat and pain on the affected knee and forearm.

Eighty-four percent of black participants had vitamin D levels below 30ng/ml compared to 51% of whites. The average vitamin D level for black participants was 19.9. ng/ml compared to white participants with an average level of 28.2 ng/ml.

The researchers found that black participants reported increased overall knee osteoarthritis pain and those with lower vitamin D status displayed greater sensitivity to heat and pain.

"Our data demonstrate that differences in experimental pain sensitivity between the two races are mediated at least in part by variations in vitamin D levels,” Lead author Toni Glover explains.

The authors are currently planning further research to study the impact of improving vitamin D levels on chronic pain in black and white older Americans.

Sources:

Science News. Lack of vitamin D contributes to pain in black Americans with knee osteoarthritis. Science Daily. November 7, 2012.

Glover TL, et al. Vitamin D, race, and experimental pain sensitivity in older adults with knee osteoarthritis. Arthritis & Rheumatism. November 7, 2012.

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/vita...osteoarthritis/

Thank you so much for sharing all of this info on vitamin D! I have a lot of symptoms of a deficiency, so I will up my dose a bit and see what happens

The Vitamin D Council's 2012 Review

Some I might have missed.

Vitamin D linked to autoimmune disorders

Posted on April 12, 2012 by John Cannell, MD


There are more than 160 human autoimmune diseases, everything from type one diabetes to Lou Gehrig’s disease. They arise from an improper immune response to substances and tissues normally present in the body. In other words, the body mistakes itself as foreign and attacks its own self. The common treatment of autoimmune diseases today is to suppress the immune system in general with medications.

Recently a Chinese group led by Dr. C Mok and colleagues from Tuen Mun Hospital in Hong Kong studied 290 lupus patients and confirmed previous findings that the lower your vitamin D level, the worse your lupus. The association (remember association is not causation) was quite strong. Dr. Mok also found an amazing 96% of the lupus patients were vitamin D insufficient.


The lower your vitamin D level, the worse your lupus.

Mok CC, Birmingham DJ, Leung HW, Hebert LA, Song H, Rovin BH. Vitamin D levels in Chinese patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: relationship with disease activity, vascular risk factors and atherosclerosis Rheumatology (Oxford). 2012 Apr;51(4):644-52. Epub 2011 Jun 29.

In an accompanying editorial, Professor Luis Munoz and colleagues from Erlangen University Hospital in Germany supplied a new insight into how vitamin D is involved in autoimmune disorders, and, as far as I am aware, every one of the 160 autoimmune disorders studied so far is somehow involved with vitamin D. What could the connection be, what do 160 autoimmune diseases have in common with vitamin D?

Munoz LE, Schiller M, Zhao Y, Voll RE, Schett G, Herrmann M. Do low vitamin D levels cause problems of waste removal in patients with SLE? Rheumatology (Oxford). 2012 Apr;51(4):585-7. Epub 2011 Oct 27.

Dr. Munoz points out that vitamin D (the repair and maintenance man of the human body) has a “waste removal” function mediated via the immune system. That’s right, vitamin D is also a garbage man for the human body; it stimulates the immune system to come around and collect the debris and detritus of what is left of cells that have gone through the normal process of apoptosis, or cell death.

Evidence that a similar defect links all 160 autoimmune diseases in this garbage man process is not complete but increasingly likely. To quote Professor Munoz, “Considering these robust epidemiological data, one might believe that vitamin D deficiency plays a pivotal role in the multifaceted (cause) of autoimmunity that deserves further scientific research to pinpoint the mechanisms of action of vitamin D in the phagocytosis (eating) and clearance of dying cells.”

http://blog.vitamindcouncil.org/201...mune-disorders/

CDC nutrition report: Vitamin D status is a public health problem

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Brant Cebulla


Vitamin D Council members: you are the 1%!

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just released their Second National Report on Biochemical Indicators of Diet and Nutrition, reporting the nutritional status of various nutrients in the United States population. The full 495 page report can be found here; information on vitamin D starts on page 172 of the booklet (which is page 183 of the .pdf):

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Second National Report on Biochemical Indicators of Diet and Nutrition, 2012.

They collected 16,604 25(OH)D samples between 2003-2006 from people of all age, gender and ethnicity. The national 25(OH)D mean was 55.6 nmol/l, which is about 22 ng/ml. The figure below is in nmol/l, not ng/ml. The conversion is [ng/ml] = [nmol/l] ÷ 2.5.

It also appears that people’s sunbathing evasion habits are beginning to level off. It is commonly reported that people have increasingly avoided the sun the last 30 to 40 years. According to this report, vitamin D status is still lower than what it was between1988-1994, but is similar to status between 2001-2002. I wonder how much of this can be contributed to the general population shifting from outdoor hard labor jobs to indoor desk jobs. Has this shift leveled off the past 10 years? Below is this data, with the bar graphs displaying mean 25(OH)D status in nmol/l, broken down into total population, gender and ethnicity.

Remember this data is in nmol/l, not ng/ml. This data also begs the question, what does data look like from 2007-2011? With the amount of interest in vitamin D from the public and in study in recent years, has this translated at all into better sun exposure habits? Are we making a dent in alleviating this public health problem?

This data shows, even by the IOM’s standards, that vitamin D nutritional status is indeed a public health problem. The IOM set the sufficiency bar at 20 ng/ml (50 nmol/l). According to this CDC report, a 20 ng/ml bar implicates that over 45% of Hispanics, over 65% blacks and about 20% whites are deficient in vitamin D. Does this qualify as a public health problem?

If we went by other standards, according to this report, greater than 95% of the population would be deficient in vitamin D; which admittedly, sounds ridiculous.These standards include:
■The Endocrine Society’s recommendation of 40-60 ng/ml (100-150 nmol/l)
■Robert Heaney’s recommendation of 48-60 ng/ml (120-150 nmol/l)
■Vitamin D Council’s recommendation of 40-80 ng/ml (100-200 nmol/l)

Why might you be a part of the 1%? Assuming you live by the above standards (you are reading the Vitamin D Council’s blog after all), you probably have a 25(OH)D level of 50 ng/ml. What percentage of the population has a level of 50 ng/ml or greater? According to this report, just 0.9%.