Vitamin D

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

Your cells use vitamin D to directly regulate your genes, making it one of the most powerful compounds in human health.

Maintaining adequate levels of vitamin D during winter months requires a daily dose of 20 micrograms, four times the current recommended dose, says a new study. The study, led by Susan Sullivan from the University of Maine, has important implications for ongoing consultations on vitamin D recommendations, with the current level of five micrograms (200 International Units) seen by many as insufficient.

This is a very long newsletter. I will answer questions about oil versus water-soluble Vitamin D, depression, mental clarity, malignant melanoma, Crohn's disease, an imagist poet, multiple sclerosis, sun-exposure, high-intensity red light and collagen repair in the skin, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, influenza, the 1918 influenza pandemic, statins, the new Food and Nutrition Board, thyroid disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, athletes, the upcoming 14th Vitamin D Workshop, prostate cancer, the wrong blood test, pregnancy, autism, Alzheimer's disease, soap and sebum, asthma, sleep, the co-factors vitamin D needs to work (all contained in spinach), and-my favorite-UVC light and Vitamin D

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.

What causes coronary heart disease or coronary atherosclerotic plaque, this thing that we track with heart scans? Well, here are a few little-publicized facts about heart disease that you are unlikely to hear from your When's-the-next-stent? cardiologist or the What is there besides statins? primary care doctor. (Since everybody knows that smoking is a modifiable risk for heart disease that can be readily identified, let's focus on the blood tests that reveal heart disease causes.)

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

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Too little vitamin D could be bad for more than your bones; it may also lead to fatter adolescents, researchers say.\n\nA Medical College of Georgia study of more than 650 teens age 14-19 has found that those who reported higher vitamin D intakes had lower overall body fat and lower amounts of the fat in the abdomen, a type of fat known as visceral fat, which has been associated with health risks such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and hypertension

Ecological Studies Of Ultraviolet B, Vitamin D And Cancer Since 2000. Grant WB, Mohr SB. Ann Epidemiol. 2009 Mar 6. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 19269856

Myalgias or non-specific muscle pain in Arab or Indo-Pakistani patients may indicate vitamin D deficiency. Badsha H, Daher M, Ooi Kong K. Clin Rheumatol. 2009 Mar 10. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 19277814 DOI: 10.1007/s10067-009-1146-7

Genetic and non-genetic correlates of vitamins K and D.\nShea MK, Benjamin EJ, Dupuis J, Massaro JM, Jacques PF, D'Agostino RB Sr, Ordovas JM, O'Donnell CJ, Dawson-Hughes B, Vasan RS, Booth SL.\nEur J Clin Nutr. 2007 Nov 21. [Epub ahead of print]\nPMID: 18030310 \ndoi: 10.1038/sj.ejcn\n\n

nightsurfer's vitamin D related Diigo list

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-

ScienceDaily (Mar. 18, 2009) - A lack of Vitamin D, due to reduced sunlight, has been linked to depression and the symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), but research by the University of Warwick shows there is no clear link between the levels of vitamin D in the blood and depression.

Association between depressive symptoms and 25-hydroxyvitamin D in middle-aged and elderly Chinese. Pan A, Lu L, Franco OH, Yu Z, Li H, Lin X. J Affect Disord. 2009 Feb 25. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 19249103 doi:10.1016/j.jad.2009.02.002    

Vitamin D supplementation during Antarctic winter. Smith SM, Gardner KK, Locke J, Zwart SR. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Apr;89(4):1092-8. Epub 2009 Feb 18. PMID: 19225122 doi:10.3945/ajcn.2008.27189

Long-term effects of giving nursing home residents bread fortified with 125 microg (5000 IU) vitamin D(3) per daily serving. Mocanu V, Stitt PA, Costan AR, Voroniuc O, Zbranca E, Luca V, Vieth R. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Apr;89(4):1132-7. Epub 2009 Feb 25. PMID: 19244376 doi:10.3945/ajcn.2008.26890

March 27, 2009 - A significant decrease in serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) levels has led to an increase in vitamin D insufficiency in the US population, especially in racial and ethnic groups, according to results of a population-based study reported in the March 23 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. "Vitamin D insufficiency has been associated with increases in cardiovascular disease, cancer, and infection," write Adit A. Ginde, MD, from the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado, and colleagues. "Vitamin D supplementation appears to mitigate the incidence and adverse outcomes of these diseases and may reduce all-cause mortality." [...] "These findings have important implications for health disparities and public health," the study authors conclude. "Our data provide additional evidence that current recommendations for vitamin D supplementation (200-600 IU/d) are inadequate to achieve optimal serum 25(OH)D levels in most of the US population." They add that large, randomized controlled trials of higher doses of vitamin D supplementation are needed to evaluate their effect on general health and mortality.

Prevention of nonvertebral fractures with oral vitamin D and dose dependency: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Bischoff-Ferrari HA, Willett WC, Wong JB, Stuck AE, Staehelin HB, Orav EJ, Thoma A, Kiel DP, Henschkowski J. Arch Intern Med. 2009 Mar 23;169(6):551-61. PMID: 19307517 Conclusion Nonvertebral fracture prevention with vitamin D is dose dependent, and a higher dose should reduce fractures by at least 20% for individuals aged 65 years or older.