Most adults are not getting enough vitamin D for good bone health. Our bodies make vitamin D with exposure to the ultraviolet B rays of the sun (if you're not wearing sunscreen). If you live in an area where the sun isn't strong year round particularly in northern latitudes during the gray winter months or if you rarely go outdoor or always put on sunscreen when you do, you could be low on the level of vitamin D unless you take supplements. It isn't easy to get enough vitamin D from food. The best sources are fortified milk and cereals, eggs, salmon, tuna, mackerel and sardines. Unfortunately, most fortified foods provide vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol), a form which is much less well utilized by the body than D3 (cholecalciferol).

There are increasing evidence showing that vitamin D is more important than we once thought, not only for our bones because it promotes calcium absorption and bone mineralization but for the protection it provides against a number of serious diseases.

A Canadian study published in the February 2001 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that even while taking a 1,000 IU supplement, fewer than half of the participants were getting enough to achieve optimal blood levels of vitamin D.

A research published in the January 2003 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that 1,700 IU was needed to bring blood levels of vitamin D to optimal levels during winter months in Nebraska.

Walter Willett, MD, professor of epidemiology and medicine at Harvard Medical School said that studies have shown that an intake of 400 IU of vitamin D per day has no impact on the risk of fractures, but that 700 to 800 IU per day, with or without calcium supplements, does seem to reduce fracture incidence.

Deficiency of "Vitamin D" raises the risk of heart attack. This finding comes from the famed Framingham Heart Study and was published in the Jan. 7, 2008 Journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers looked at 1,739 offspring (average age 59) of the participants of the Framingham study and found that those with blood levels of vitamin D below 15 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) had twice the risk of heart attack, heart failure or stroke in the next five years compared with those with higher levels of "D." They also found an increase in cardiovascular risk with each level of vitamin D deficiency and noted that in many areas of the United States 20 to 30 percent of the population has moderate to severe vitamin D deficiency, due to lack of sun exposure, dark skin that prevents absorption of the sun’s rays (which triggers vitamin D production in the body), and a diet lacking in vitamin D enriched foods.

More and more studies link Vitamin D with reduced rates of a number of types of cancer (18 at last count). Some experts estimate that each year, thousands of cancer deaths could be avoided in the United States if everyone got enough vitamin D.

The connections between vitamin D, cancer and other diseases stem from observations that certain disorders, including some forms of cancer, occur much less frequently in areas with sunny warm climates than in places where the sun doesn't shine brightly throughout the year.

In 1980 a team of epidemiologists found that rates of colon cancer were much higher in populations that were exposed to the least amount of light (especially in major cities and in high-latitude rural areas). Recent research has suggested that vitamin D regulates cell proliferation and can hold in check the sort of wild cell growth that leads to cancer. A number of studies have shown that some cancer patients diagnosed in the summer or fall when vitamin D levels are high as a result of sun exposure have higher survival rates than patients diagnosed in the winter.

October 2005, the Journal of Steroid Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, looked at 18 studies of vitamin D and colon cancer. Ten of those studies showed that people who didn't get adequate vitamin D were at higher than normal risk of colon cancer. The authors suggested that colon cancer risk could be cut in half by getting 1,000 IU of vitamin D daily.

February 2006, the American Journal of Public Health, reviewed 63 studies on vitamin D and found a lower risk of colon, breast, prostate and ovarian cancer with vitamin D.

A study was just released in the news. It involved 279 women with an aggressive form of breast cancer. 204 women had the condition in its early stages; whereas 75 women had advanced forms. Blood levels of vitamin D, calcium and parathyroid hormone were measured in both groups. It was found that those with early stages of breast cancer had significantly higher blood levels of vitamin D compared to women with more advanced cancer. Authors suggested that low levels of vitamin D could promote breast cancer to progress to a more advanced stage. The studies are very clear that vitamin D above the worthless RDA/DV level of 400 IU can enhance immunity and potentially reduce cancer risk.

We've long known that multiple sclerosis is rare at the equator and becomes much more frequent at high latitudes.

January 13, 2004, in the journal of Neurology - Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston followed 185,000 nurses for 19 years. They found that those with the highest intake of supplemental vitamin D had a 40 percent lower risk of developing MS compared to women who didn't take supplements.

In Iowa, researchers who followed a group of 29,000 women for over 11 years found that those with the highest intake of vitamin D had the lowest risk of rheumatoid arthritis. Vitamin D is protective via effects on the immune system.

In the February 2006 edition of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, researchers from Switzerland conducted a placebo-controlled trial with the use of Vitamin D. In this study, 378 elderly individuals were studied for approximately thirty-six weeks. Half of the participants received vitamin D, while the other half was given placebos. At the end of the study, researchers noted that those individuals who took vitamin D and consumed more than 512 mg of calcium per day reduced their risk of falling by 55%, compared to those people who did not take supplemental vitamin D. One of the things that vitamin D does is lower a hormone in the body called parathyroid hormone (PTH). In this particular study, those individuals who took vitamin D supplements reduced their PTH levels by approximately 38%. People who have higher levels of PTH tend to lose calcium out of their bones, putting them at greater risk of fracture. In addition, high levels of PTH appear to be associated with an overall decrease in muscle strength, and therefore, a greater risk of falling.

A study published in the May 2006 edition of Osteoporosis International detailed a double-blinded, randomized, controlled trial conducted in 64 institutionalized, elderly women. Participants received either 1,200 mg a day of calcium along with 800 units of vitamin D or only 1,200 mg of calcium over a three-month treatment period. It was found that the vitamin D plus calcium group had a reduction in rate of falls by 60% compared to the calcium-alone group.

Reference

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