Posted on 11/23/2009 11:14:00 AM PST by decimon
CORVALLIS, Ore. – A string of recent discoveries about the multiple health benefits of vitamin D has renewed interest in this multi-purpose nutrient, increased awareness of the huge numbers of people who are deficient in it, spurred research and even led to an appreciation of it as "nature's antibiotic."
On issues ranging from the health of your immune system to prevention of heart disease and even vulnerability to influenza, vitamin D is now seen as one of the most critical nutrients for overall health. But it's also one of those most likely to be deficient – especially during winter when production of the "sunshine vitamin" almost grinds to a halt for millions of people in the United States, Europe and other northern temperate zones.
Analogs of the vitamin are even being considered for use as new therapies against tuberculosis, AIDS, and other concerns. And federal experts are considering an increase in the recommended daily intake of the vitamin as more evidence of its value emerges, especially for the elderly.
"About 70 percent of the population of the United States has insufficient levels of vitamin D," said Adrian Gombart, a principal investigator with the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. "This is a critical issue as we learn more about the many roles it may play in fighting infection, balancing your immune response, helping to address autoimmune problems, and even preventing heart disease."
Those issues were just outlined in a new publication in Future Microbiology, a professional journal, on the latest findings on vitamin D research, at OSU and in many other programs around the world.
Of particular interest are findings made recently by OSU scientists that vitamin D induces the "expression" of cathelicidin, an antimicrobial peptide gene. This explains in part how it helps serve as the first line of defense in your immune response against minor wounds, cuts, and both bacterial and viral infections. Experts believe advances in the use of cathelicidin may form the basis for new therapies.
Once believed to be related primarily to bone health and rickets – a disease caused by chronic deficiency of vitamin D – it's now understood that optimal levels of this nutrient influence much more than that.
"Vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency is a world-wide, public health problem in both developed and developing nations," the new report concluded. "Nearly one billion people world-wide are deficient."
Vitamin D can be obtained from the diet, often through supplemented foods such as milk, but those sources are rarely adequate, experts say. Most people get the bulk of this fat-soluble vitamin from the UV-B radiation in sun exposure, which naturally causes the skin to produce it. However, people with dark skin, infants and almost anyone living north of about 40 degrees latitude – which is a huge portion of the U.S. population and most of Europe– are often deficient after months of inadequate winter sunshine.
Among the values and observations about vitamin D that are outlined in the new report:
* Low levels of circulating vitamin D are associated with increased risk and mortality from cancer.
* Vitamin D plays an important role in activating the immune system, fostering the "innate" immune response and controlling over-reaction of adaptive immunity, and as such may help control autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis.
* Cathelicidin can profoundly boost the innate immune system, and could form the basis for new therapies to combat pathogenic infections.
* The regulation of cathelicidin by vitamin D, a unique biological pathway for the function of vitamin D that could help explain its multiple roles in proper immune function, is so important that it's only known to exist in two groups of animals - humans and non-human primates - and has been conserved in them through millions of years of evolution.
* Vitamin D deficiency is a risk factor for tuberculosis, was historically used to treat it, and analogs of it may provide the basis for new therapeutic approaches not only to that disease but also HIV infection.
* Epidemiological studies show a link between vitamin D deficiency and increased rates of respiratory infection and influenza, and it has been hypothesized that flu epidemics may be the result of vitamin D deficiency.
* Higher levels of a protein linked to vitamin D have been associated with reduced infections and longer survival of dialysis patients.
* Vitamin D has important roles in reducing inflammation, blood pressure and helping to protect against heart disease.
There is still much to explore about the mechanisms of action of vitamin D, the potential use of synthetic analogs of it in new therapies, and its role in fighting infection, Gombart said. Since only primates and humans have the same biological pathways for use of vitamin D to regulate cathelicidin, studies have been constrained by the lack of appropriate animal models for research, he said. OSU scientists hope to address that by creation of a line of genetically modified mice that have some of these characteristics.
One compelling new study just done by researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center in Utah, and presented at a meeting of the American Heart Association, followed for more than a year nearly 28,000 patients ages 50 or older with no prior history of cardiovascular disease. It found that in patients with very low levels of vitamin D – compared to those with normal levels – 77 percent were more likely to die, 45 percent were more likely to develop coronary artery disease, and 78 percent were more likely to have a stroke.
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Research at OSU on vitamin D and cathelicidin has been supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.
Whomever ping.
i believe there was one awhile back. Although I can’t remember what it was about. Thanks for the post. Now that I live in the California sunshine I get massive amounts of D. However my doctor was concerned I got 95% from D and very little from nutritional sources. So she gave me a D supplement. It is always good to test to make sure one is getting amount D. Especially considering the impact if one does not.
Correction.
I take D-3 twice a day, totaling about 12,000 IUs or whatever. It sure seems to keep the colds and flu away. It’s getting too cold to sun on my deck, or spend a lot of time working outside, so the pills are going to have to do for now.
Yes.
Good luck on getting enough. i take 50,000 units twice a week and it barely creeps up (and is still way below normal). wonder why this massive D deficiency is occurring in both adults and kids (and don’t say lack of sun). my dr said that is not the cause.
Seriously, I am now advocating that patients get sun exposure - enough to get a mild sunburn - for three days prior to a surgical procedure. UVB sunscreens defeat the purpose (and the fun of running around naked outside).
I am now 75% convinced that supplemental (oral ingestion) of Vit D is good only for prevention of Rickets. All these other Vit D benefits are not being appreciated using oral ingested Vit D. Although there does not seem to be a "first pass" effect somehting is happening across the gut wall or in the kidney or liver such that Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) is not getting to where it needs to be.
Probably a dozen just from me. ;-)
Now that I live in the California sunshine I get massive amounts of D.
Last year I would have agreed with that but not now.
From the NIH with my comment at the end:
"Sun exposure Most people meet their vitamin D needs through exposure to sunlight [5,31]. Ultraviolet (UV) B radiation with a wavelength of 290-315 nanometers penetrates uncovered skin and converts cutaneous 7-dehydrocholesterol to previtamin D3, which in turn becomes vitamin D3 [9,32,33]. Season, geographic latitude, time of day, cloud cover, smog, skin melanin content, and sunscreen are among the factors that affect UV radiation exposure and vitamin D synthesis [33]. The UV energy above 42 degrees north latitude (a line approximately between the northern border of California and Boston) is insufficient for cutaneous vitamin D synthesis from November through February [5]; in far northern latitudes, this reduced intensity lasts for up to 6 months. In the United States, latitudes below 34 degrees north (a line between Los Angeles and Columbia, South Carolina) allow for cutaneous production of vitamin D throughout the year [27]."
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp
This requires some thought. Even in the southern states there must be some months when little vitamin D can be made from sunlight.
It’s been my understanding after lots of reading on this subject that it’s specifically D3 that is most advantageous in all these studies, although this article doesn’t seem to zero in on that.
My daughter was diagnosed with very low vitamin D levels last year. I was surprised because we live in California, and she goes outside for sports and for lunch every day it isn’t raining (which is most of the year).
We started supplementing her with 1000 units every day, but that didn’t make it go up much, so I upped it to 2000 units every day. She needs to be tested again.
After she was diagnosed, I tested my levels, and they were low. However, I’ve had an injured hip and I haven’t been outside much.
Please see the NIH info in post #10. According to that info, you can’t get much if any vitamin D from sunlight for much of the year.
Please see the NIH info in post #10.
Best keep a dermatologist on retainer.
“i take 50,000 units twice a week and it barely creeps up (and is still way below normal)”
For what it’s worth - I take 5000 i.u. D3 daily along with a fish oil gelcap and a 200 mg CoQ10 gelcap. I’ve been doing so for about a year and my level (last week) was 74.7 ng/ml (reference range = 32 - 100 ng/ml)
Shoulda gone for the supplements.
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