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Vitamin D

Vitamins

Suboptimal vitamin D found in millions of US children*

Analyzing NHANES data on about 5,000 children aged 1 to 11, researchers reported in Pediatrics that roughly 20% fell below the 50 nmol/L vitamin D level the AAP recommends, and more than two-thirds — including 92% of Black children — were under 75 nmol/L.

Cancer

Vitamin D prevents breast cancer - study

A meta-analysis of 33 studies found women with high vitamin D intake were 9 percent less likely to develop breast cancer, and those in the highest quantile of circulating 25(OH)D 45 percent less likely. The highest calcium intakes went with 19 percent lower risk.

Oct 25, 2009

Vitamins

The Elderly with Vitamin D Deficiency Die Earlier*

In an Austrian study of 614 people followed 6.2 years, those in the lowest quartile of 25(OH)D were 97 percent more likely to die of any cause and 378 percent more likely to die of cardiovascular disease. The authors say it is unclear whether low vitamin D is cause or consequence.

Oct 24, 2009

Diabetes

Vitamin D may help reduce type 2 diabetes risk

In a six-month trial, 42 insulin-resistant South Asian women took 4,000 IU of vitamin D3 daily while 39 took placebo. Serum vitamin D rose from 21 to 75 nmol/L, and insulin sensitivity and resistance improved significantly, with the best results above 80 nmol/L.

Oct 19, 2009

Vitamins

Vitamin D can save half million babies each year: study*

In a trial presented in Bruges, pregnant women given 4,000 IU of vitamin D a day halved their premature birth risk compared with those on 400 IU, and had fewer small babies, 25 percent fewer infections, and less diabetes, hypertension and preeclampsia. No side effects appeared.

Oct 16, 2009

Vitamins

Once again study suggests high vitamin D cuts breast cancer risk

Rejnmark's Danish case-control study of 142 women with breast cancer and 420 without found those in the top tertile of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D were 48% less likely to have the disease, with the same pattern in receptor-positive and receptor-negative tumors.

Oct 10, 2009

Vitamins

Low vitamin D linked to higher risk of breast cancer

Among 166 women being treated for breast cancer, nearly 70 percent had low blood vitamin D, with the lowest levels in those with late-stage disease and in non-Caucasian women, University of Rochester researchers reported. The average level was 27 nanograms per milliliter.

Oct 8, 2009

Vitamins

Vitamin D and Calcium Act Jointly to Prevent Cancer

Peterlik and colleagues argue in Anticancer Research that vitamin D and calcium jointly regulate cell growth, listing three ways 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 and extracellular calcium interact, and suggest the two may work better taken together than alone.

Sep 28, 2009

Vitamins

Got hypertension? Use vitamin D!

A review in Nature Reviews Cardiology by S. Pilz and colleagues concludes vitamin D sufficiency promotes lower arterial blood pressure, though not every trial agreed. The authors suggest supplementing patients with hypertension whose 25-hydroxyvitamin D falls below target.

Sep 24, 2009

Vitamins

New Harvard Paper on Autism

John Cannell's newsletter responds to a Harvard paper by Dennis Kinney and colleagues that accepts the vitamin D theory of autism and adds five environmental toxins. Cannell objects that pollution theories cannot explain the timing, since U.S. air and water were dirtier decades ago.

Sep 23, 2009

Vitamins

Vitamin D protects against H1N1 - new evidence

Vitamin D Council president John Cannell circulates a physician's account of a June 2009 H1N1 outbreak at a Wisconsin care facility, where two of about 275 vitamin D-supplemented residents fell ill against roughly 60 of 800 staff, and urges readers to contact their representatives in Washington.

Sep 16, 2009

Vitamins

Vitamin D and H1N1 Swine Flu *****

Dr. John Cannell's newsletter argues that adequate vitamin D strengthens innate immunity by prompting hundreds of antibacterial peptides, and that the 36 U.S. children who had died of swine flu were much more likely to be vitamin D deficient, a pattern he says the CDC missed in its own data.

Sep 9, 2009

Vitamins

Vitamin D: What you need to know

A primer on vitamin D3, or cholecalciferol, which the skin makes in sunlight and the body converts into the hormone calcitriol, said to affect some 2,000 genes. It recommends the 25-hydroxyvitamin D blood test and cites the Vitamin D Council's threshold of 50 for deficiency.

Sep 7, 2009

Vitamins

The Vitamin D Newsletter: Vitamin D Studies of Interest

The Vitamin D Council's newsletter rounds up recent studies, opening with H1N1. The author notes 36 US children had died that season and argues CDC data hint at vitamin D deficiency, since nearly two-thirds of them had epilepsy, cerebral palsy or similar conditions.

Sep 6, 2009

Vitamins

Canada Looks at Vitamin D for Swine Flu Protection

The Public Health Agency of Canada confirmed it will adapt an existing study of vitamin D and severe seasonal influenza to the H1N1 virus, partly to learn whether vitamin D levels explain why most flu cases stay mild. Dr. Mercola urges readers not to wait for the results.

Aug 27, 2009

Vitamins

Low vitamin D doubles heart risk in diabetics

Washington University researchers report in Circulation that vitamin D deficiency may double cardiovascular risk in people with diabetes. Without enough vitamin D, macrophage cells take up cholesterol they cannot clear, which builds up in blood vessels and stiffens them.

Aug 23, 2009

Vitamins

Vitamin D helps prevent HIV transmission from mother to child

In a Harvard study of 884 HIV-infected pregnant women in Tanzania, infants of mothers with low vitamin D were 1.5 times more likely to acquire HIV during birth and twice as likely through breastfeeding by six weeks. By 24 months they were 61 percent more likely to have died.

Aug 19, 2009

Vitamins

Vitamin D Theory of Autism

John Cannell of the Vitamin D Council sets out his theory that vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy or childhood causes autism, arguing it fits identical-twin concordance, the rise in cases alongside sun avoidance, the male predominance and higher rates among blacks.

Aug 15, 2009

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