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March 11, 2009 -- Low vitamin D levels greatly increase a teenager's risk of diabetes and heart disease, Johns Hopkins researchers find. It is becoming clear that adults who get too little vitamin D are at higher risk for diabetes and heart disease. Now, it appears vitamin D levels also affect these risks earlier in life, say Johns Hopkins researchers Jared P. Reis, PhD, and colleagues.

Ecological studies of ultraviolet B, vitamin D and cancer since 2000. Grant WB, Mohr SB. Ann Epidemiol. 2009 Jul;19(7):446-54. Epub 2009 Mar 9. PMID: 19269856 CONCLUSION: These findings provide strong evidence that vitamin D status plays an important role in controlling the outcome of cancer. Support for the UVB-vitamin D-cancer theory is now scientifically strong enough to warrant use of vitamin D in cancer prevention, and as a component of treatment. More research studies would help to explore whether there are benefits beyond the substantial effects that have been observed.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The "sunshine vitamin," vitamin D, is increasingly seen as vital to health, yet more Americans are not getting enough, U.S. researchers said on Monday. Analyzing data from government health surveys, researchers from the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine found three out of four Americans had "insufficient" levels of vitamin D, up from about one out two 20 years ago-

Vitamin K2 is emerging as an exciting player in the control and possible regression of coronary atherosclerotic plaque. Only about 10% of dietary vitamin K intake is in the K2 form, the other 90% being the more common K1.

This web site is dedicated to vitamin D and cancer. This is because exciting new research indicates that vitamin D-whether produced in the skin as a result of exposure to ultraviolet radiation (from sunlight or sun lamps) or obtained from supplementation with cholecalciferol (vitamin D3)-may help cancer patients. However, the research is far from complete.

Low levels of vitamin D may raise a person's risk of premature death, a study by Johns Hopkins researchers shows. The research followed other recent studies showing low levels of vitamin D are linked to certain cancers, diabetes, and bone and immune system problems, but this is the first research to connect vitamin D deficiency to a higher risk of death

NaturalNews) Researchers from Oxford University and the University of British Columbia have discovered that Vitamin D deficiency affects a section of the human genome already linked with multiple sclerosis (MS) risk, adding further weight to theories that this vitamin deficiency might play a role in development of the disease. "Here we show that the main environmental risk candidate -- vitamin D -- and the main gene region are directly linked and interact," said co-author George Ebers.

Vitamin D's days of obscurity seem pretty much over. Once just an afterthought to most people-relegated to the sides of milk cartons and the pages of medical texts-it's now on the cusp of becoming a full-fledged disease prevention star. Although vitamin D has long been known as an important factor in bone health, a quickly growing body of evidence now shows that it may also help lower the risk of cancer, heart disease, and even premature death.[1], [2] Not surprisingly, scientists and the public have started to take note, particularly of vitamin D's potential to protect against cancer

Many U.S. teenagers -- including half of African Americans -- would be considered vitamin D-deficient if the definition of deficiency were changed to what many experts recommend, a new study finds. Right now, people are considered to have an overt deficiency in vitamin D when blood levels drop below 11 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL), but there is debate over how the optimal vitamin D level should be define

Now a new and controversial book by an American doctor suggests that taking even higher levels of the vitamin - 10 to 15 times the recommended amounts - can work wonders. Dr James Dowd, who works at the Arthritis Institute of Michigan, has been prescribing vitamin D to people suffering from chronic disorders such as arthritis, back pain and headaches and the result, he claims, is a huge improvement in their symptoms. In his book, The Vitamin D Cure, Dr Dowd describes a number of success stories using this approach. One of his patients, Barbara, for instance, was obese, and suffered from arthritis in one leg as well as high blood pressure. As Dowd explains: "In the past I would have given her anti-inflammatory drugs, pain medication, a pill to lose weight and drug treatment for hypertension."

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New research suggests that low vitamin D levels in the body are associated with thinking or "cognitive" impairments in older men, but whether vitamin D supplements can help is not yet known. In the study, an investigation of European men, subjects with low levels of vitamin D scored worse on a standard test of cognitive ability than did their peers with normal levels, Dr. David M. Lee, from the University of Manchester, UK, and co-researchers found. Although, the authors emphasize, the difference in scores was not that great.

ScienceDaily (Apr. 8, 2009) - Deficiency in vitamin D has been widely regarded as contributing to autoimmune disease, but a review appearing in Autoimmunity Reviews explains that low levels of vitamin D in patients with autoimmune disease may be a result rather than a cause of disease and that supplementing with vitamin D may actually exacerbate autoimmune disease.

It seems not a single day passes that I don't learn something new about this unique hormone (mis)named "vitamin D." \nFrom its humble beginnings recognized only as the factor responsible for bone maturation (with deficiency leading to childhood rickets), vitamin D now commands a recognized role in almost every conceivable aspect of health and disease. \n

The vitamin K2 story, though still preliminary, is becoming increasingly interesting from the perspective of CT heart score reduction. The origin of this concept came from some unexpected observations. One, the observation that osteoporosis (lack of bone calcium that leads to fractures) arises from deficiency of vitamin K2. Two, deficiency of K2 leads to unrestrained calcium deposition in animal models, leading to heart attack in just weeks.

Evidence continues to pile up that the sunshine vitamin protects against much more than bone-softening rickets. Vitamin D, also found in milk and oily fish, is becoming king, from fighting colds to preventing cancer. Investigators at the Medical University of South Carolina shut down part of a National Institutes of Health study that left nursing mothers and infants deficient, even though the mothers received the maximum safe amount of vitamin D allowed by the Institute of Medicine.\n\nBut here's the kicker. New research suggests we're not getting nearly enough, and recommended levels may be woefully inadequate.

Supplements of vitamin D at 'critical time periods' may be key to reducing the risk of multiple sclerosis, according to a new study from the UK and Canada. Researchers report that vitamin D may interact with a specific genetic component called HLA-DRB1*1501 that is known to increase the risk of multiple sclerosis by three-fold

I stumbled on one of the growing number of local media stories on the power of vitamin D. \nIn one story, a purported "expert" was talking about the benefits of "high-dose" vitamin D, meaning up to 1000, even 2000 units per day. \nI regard this as high-dose---for an infant. \nJudging by my experiences, now numbering well over 1000 patients over three years time, I'd regard this dose range not as "high dose," nor moderate dose, perhaps not even low dose. I'd regard it as barely adequate.

The Vitamin D Council is a group of concerned citizens that believe many humans are needlessly suffering and dying from Vitamin D Deficiency. We are incorporated as a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(e) educational corporation in the State of California. Our Board of Directors currently includes four physicians, including John Cannell as Executive Director. The board will eventually be expanded to 20 members.

Dec. 1, 2008 -- Getting too little vitamin D may be an underappreciated heart disease risk factor that's actually easy to fix.\n\nResearchers say a growing body of evidence suggests that vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of heart disease and is linked to other, well-known heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes.

Vitamin D and Cancer Mini-Symposium: The Risk of Additional Vitamin D. Vieth R. Ann Epidemiol. 2009 Apr 11. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 19364661 doi:10.1016/j.annepidem.2009.01.009