http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051212/hl_nm/lungs_dc

Researchers link vitamin D to healthier lungs

By Susan Heavey Mon Dec 12, 5:29 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Higher amounts of vitamin D could help make it easier to breathe, according to new findings released on Monday, offering possible good news for smokers, asthmatics and other people with respiratory problems.

Researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand found people with higher levels of the vitamin in their systems showed better lung function than those with lower amounts.

While the vitamin, which people get mostly from sunlight, is linked to lung health, the exact relationship is unclear, they said. Their findings appear in the December issue of the American College of Chest Physicians' journal, Chest.

Vitamin D can also be found in certain foods like fortified beverages and fatty fish like salmon and mackerel as well as dietary supplements.

"Although there is a definite relationship between lung function and vitamin D, it is unclear if increases in vitamin D through supplements or dietary intake will actually improve lung function in patients with chronic respiratory diseases," said Dr. Peter Black, who led the study.

Black, an associate professor in the university's Department of Medicine, and his team analyzed information from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which collected data on 14,091 people from 1988 to 1994.

Their new analysis found those who had higher levels of vitamin D were able to inhale and exhale more air.

That link was seen in blacks and non-Hispanic whites and was stronger in people older than 60 and smokers. Non-Hispanic blacks and Mexican-Americans showed lower levels of the vitamin compared to whites.

The study, funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand, also found levels of the nutrient were higher among men and lessened as people aged or gained weight.

Dr. Rosalind Wright, a professor at Harvard Medical School's Department of Society, Human Development, and Health, said the vitamin could be an easy way to boost lung function.

"Vitamin D would be a relatively simple, low-cost intervention that would likely have high compliance to prevent or slow loss of lung function in susceptible subgroups," said Wright, who wrote in an editorial accompanying the study.

She added that more studies are needed to see who would benefit most.

Other recent studies have suggested Vitamin D may help strengthen bones as well as prevent some cancers and multiple sclerosis.

Hey, that was supposed to be our little secret!

--They don't get it from sunlight when they wear sunscreen/block: that prevents 95% of vitamin D from being produced.
--They don't get it from the sunlight in the fall/winter: any place 51 degrees north or south of the equator doesn't generate sufficient light to start vitamin D production, in fact, vitamin D can only be produced in those places for 4-6 months of the year.
--They don't get enough from sunlight if they're dark-skinned. Dark-skinned people require 20-30 times the sun exposure of lighter skinned people to produce the same level of vitamin D.

Consequently over 80% of the people in the US, UK, and Canada are vitamin D deficient and should be supplementing.

Ok, blacks living north of the Hudson Bay or Berlin can supplement. Everyone else can stop wearing sunscreen, eat some fish, and actually get some sun during the summer. Vitamin D is fat-soluble, it'll last you thru the winter.

I don't see the point of putting on sunscreen and then popping a pill to perhaps get the effect of sunshine.

Me either!!!

I say get what you need from the sun when you can and only supplement when and what you have to.

Note: Above 51 degrees winter sun doesn't generate vitamin D at all but above 37 degrees not enough vitamin D is generated from winter sun for daily needs, so there would need to be some level of supplementation for everyone above 37 degrees during winter.

As you mentioned, stores can be built during the summer for use during the winter lessening winter's need of supplementation. Of course, then you have to factor in cloud cover, pollution, amount of skin covered by clothing (optimum is 80% skin exposure), and days not spent outside during the optimum D production window (10-2); result: the day/budget of optimum D production at the relevant latitude (it varies) and resulting stores are reduced.

And as you stated, vitamin D is fat soluable and stores in fat. But an amount of the fat stored vitamin D is then not available for the body to use (unless you are constantly losing weight during the winter, lol!!). The greater the % of body fat, the lesser the amount of bioavailable vitamin D and so supplementation requirements become greater rather than less.

Glad I've been having my Mom take D3. She's got COPD, she's elderly and doesn't get outside much. And when she does, she's covered head to toe in clothes because she gets cold easily.

There was a study done a few years ago on some outdoor workers who got lots of sun exposure during the summer. They maxed out their D levels and the study found that their D levels still got very low during the winter. High summer levels of vitamin D do not last through the winter.

There is no definite latitude beyond which winter sunlight is strong enough, but "Human skin ... exposed to sunlight on cloudless days in Boston (42.2 degrees N) from November through February produced no previtamin D3.", so we know that 42.2 decrees north is too far north.

So maybe it was 41 degrees north and not 51? Oops, sorry!!! My Bad, lol!!!!!

Anyone have a reference that tells which months and for how long we need to spend in the sun to make adequate amounts of vitamin D? I live at 51 degrees latitude, so it is good to know that exposing skin in the dead of winter won't help.

Dr. Michael Holick, author of "The UV advantage" has a series of charts at the end of his book which tells you how long to stay in the sun at what time of year for a given latitude for adequate D production.