Better vitamin D status could mean better quality of life for seniors

According to legend, it was The Fountain of Youth that the famed Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon was seeking when he landed on the Floridian coast in 1513. It has long been said that he who drinks from the Fountain will have his youth restored. Without a doubt, the quest for eternal youth is as ancient as any pursuit. However, although we are now living longer than ever, there is now growing concern that quantity of years is not nearly as important as quality of those years. Indeed, as we experience the many joys of living longer, we also must deal with myriad consequences accompanying this aging trend. For instance, osteoporosis, arthritis, and other serious and often painful bone and joint diseases are much more common as we get older. And, not surprisingly, seniors often struggle daily with what was once the simple task of getting around. Hence, the obvious question in today's society concerning our longevity is "What choices can we make to help ease these inconveniences of aging?"

One area of particular interest is the role that diet plays in keeping bones and muscles strong from infancy to old age. For instance, a limited number of studies point to the possibility that optimal intake of vitamin D (the "sunshine" vitamin) might help keep our muscles strong and preserve physical function. Although there are only few longitudinal studies investigating this relationship, their findings have been mixed. To help understand this diet-health association, Dr. Denise Houston from the Sticht Center on Aging at Wake Forest University and her collaborators studied the relationship between vitamin D status and physical function in a group of relatively healthy seniors living in Memphis, TN and Pittsburgh, PA. Their results will be presented on Sunday, April 25 as part of the scientific program of the American Society for Nutrition, composed of the world's leading nutrition researchers, at the Experimental Biology 2010 meeting in Anaheim.

This study was part of the Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) study initially designed to assess the associations among body composition, long-term health conditions, and mobility in older adults. For Houston's segment of the investigation, she studied 2788 seniors (mean age: ~75 years) for 4 years. At the beginning of the study, they assessed vitamin D status by analyzing each person's blood for 25-hydroxyvitamin D, a precursor for activated vitamin D. At baseline and then 2 and 4 years later, the research team then determined whether circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D was related to the participants' physical function. Specifically, they looked at how quickly each participant could walk a short distance (6 meters) and rise from a chair five times as well as maintain his or her balance in progressively more challenging positions. Each participant was also put through a battery of tests assessing endurance and strength.

When the results were tabulated, participants with the highest levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D had better physical function. And, although physical function declined over the course of the study, it remained significantly higher among those with the highest vitamin D levels at the beginning of the study compared to those with the lowest vitamin D levels. The scientists were not surprised to learn that, in general, vitamin D consumption was very low in this group of otherwise healthy seniors. In fact, more than 90% of them consumed less vitamin D than currently recommended, and many were relying on dietary supplements.

The good news: higher circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D is related to better physical function in seniors. But it's impossible to tell from this type of research whether increasing vitamin D intake will actually lead to stronger muscles and preserve physical function. This is partly due to the fact that our bodies can make vitamin D if they get enough sunlight. So, it is possible that the participants with better physical function had higher vitamin D status simply because they were able to go outside more often. Indeed, the ominous "chicken-or-the-egg" question can only be answered by carefully controlled clinical intervention trials. Nonetheless, it is possible that getting more vitamin D from foods (like fortified milk and oily fish) or supplements will help maintain youth and vitality as we enjoy longer lifespans. As Houston points out: "Current dietary recommendations are based primarily on vitamin D's effects on bone health. It is possible that higher amounts of vitamin D are needed for the preservation of muscle strength and physical function as well as other health conditions. However, clinical trials are needed to definitively determine whether increasing 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations through diet or supplements has an effect on these non-traditional outcomes."

Will vitamin D research lead us to The Fountain of Youth? Probably not. But paying attention to how much vitamin D we get is likely important at every age and will help enhance the "quality" component of life as we enter our senior years.

Dr. Denise Houston (Wake Forest University, Winston Salem, NC); Dr. Janet Tooze (Wake Forest University); Rebecca Neiberg (Wake Forest University), Dr. Kyla Shea (Wake Forest University), Dr. Dorothy Hausman (University of Georgia, Athens, GA), Dr. Mary Ann Johnson (University of Georgia), Dr. Jane Cauley (University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA), Dr. Doug Bauer (University of California, San Francisco, CA), Dr. Frances Tylavsky (University of Tennessee, Memphis, TN), Dr. Marjolein Visser (VU University, Amsterdam, Netherlands), Dr. Eleanor Simonsick (National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, MD), Dr. Tamara Harris (National Institute on Aging), and Dr. Stephen Kritchevsky (Wake Forest University) were coauthors on this paper.

I have the homeopathic DHEA I started taking from time-to-time... I’m interested in your adrenal issue; I have been totally unable to drop one single pound, even with a healthy low carb diet and exercise three times a week for an hour, my Rheumatologist tested and turned out my GP had lowered my thyroid way too low, so he increased it and we re-tested in a month, it came up, but not enough and still no weight loss, so I had an ultrasound the other day and the tech asked if I’ve ever had radiation treatment ( I have not) because she couldn’t find any thyroid tissue and she only sees that in patients who’ve had radiation... anyway, that has sort of thrown me for a loop... I’m supposed to be tested for Hashimoto’s before my next Dr. visit and did read the antibodies from Hashimoto can destroy the thyroid gland, but she said people with Hashimoto usually have an enlarged thyroid not no thyroid... anyway, I’ve been debating if I should go over to California and see a Endocrinologist.... especially before Obama says I can’t ~LOL~

I’ll drive miles out of my way to avoid getting on I 240 here in Memphis. I can drive the long distance 4 lanes, speed isn’t the issue, it’s the 6-8 lanes and crazy drivers. They don’t know what a turn signal is in Memphis.

Mine is on a water pill that seems to bring his BP down. One that works with his provacal. Provacal seems to have less side effects that Crestor or Lipitor.

Get all the health care while you have the chance. Who knows what the next few years are going to bring. I have a pituitary problem. Which affects all the glands of the body. So my thyroid doesn't work good. My problem was the docs fixed my thyroid problem before they realized it had affected my adrenals. It's better if you get the adrenal function up before the thyroid. Sounds like you might not have a functioning thyroid at all? It ends up being a viscous cycle. First your thyroid goes, can take weeks to months, to sometimes years before that problem is discovered. By then your adrenals take over when your thyroid isn't working or isn't working right. Then the adrenals get fatigued from doing all that work and just poop out.

Check out this website: Link to Stop the Thyroid Madness

I was interested in you taking B5 for your adrenal issues, because when I was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus 14 years ago it was adding B5 (along with ridding my shelves of all preservative containing foods) that helped me get back on my feet and remission, it is clearly an overlooked arsenal vitamin in immune issues.

I was pretty sure I was getting enough D and had the test done ... shocked I learned I was on the very low end of normal. Surprised my doctor too. I spend at least 20 minutes outside in the sunlight daily, not enough. So now I take D3 daily. My mother was recently tested and discovered she too was very low. She get daily sunlight too. I too urge everyone next time you get bloodwork to ask the doc to also test for ‘D’.

I spend at least 20 minutes outside in the sunlight daily, not enough.

That's a funny thing. You have to be directly in the sunlight when it is high in the sky.

After reading about what is beneficial sunlight, in terms of making vitamin D, I decided that I've probably not often gotten enough such sunlight. So I supplement vitamin D.

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