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Vitamin D Research Continues to Show Benefits

Posted on: Tuesday, 29 July 2008, 03:00 CDT

By Napoli, Maryann

The importance of vitamin D was featured recently in two medical journals. Archives of Internal Medicine published a study that found low blood levels of vitamin D to be independently associated with a higher death rate, especially from cardiovascular disease. And a case report in the British Medical Journal vividly illustrates why vitamin D is called the "sunshine vitamin." It recounts the severe health problems experienced by a woman of Pakistani origin whose doctors took several years to diagnose severe vitamin D deficiency. Attention to this particular vitamin comes at a time when a Workshop Consensus for Vitamin D Nutritional Guidelines recently estimated that about 50% of older people living in North America do not have satisfactory vitamin D status.

The first study, published last month in Archives of Internal Medicine, builds on what is now an enormous body of research that demonstrates the negative health effects of not getting enough vitamin D. The Austrian research team led by Harald Dobnig, MD, Medical University of Graz, followed over 3,000 men and women, mean age 62 years, who were scheduled to undergo a coronary angiography. During the nearly eight years of follow-up, 737 people died, mostly from cardiovascular disease. The researchers found that 307 of the deaths were in the group with the lowest blood levels of vitamin D, and 103 were in the group with the highest.

Now for the case report that appeared as "Lesson of the Week" in the British Medical Journal. A 53 year old woman of Pakistani origin who had been treated for breast cancer went to her doctors regularly over the next two years with severe widespread muscuIo skeletal pain. When it was misdiagnosed as metastatic bone disease, she was put on the usual drugs for that condition. Her pains worsened, but prior to going on a planned combination chemotherapy treatment, she went for a six-week summer trip to visit her family in Pakistan. On her return to the U.K., her symptoms had completely resolved. Chemotherapy was delayed, and a whole body CT scan showed no evidence of metastasis. Symptoms showed up again after another British winter. Eventually, her severe vitamin D deficiency was recognized and treated appropriately.

In the editorial that accompanied this report, Michael F. Holick, MD, Professor Medicine, Physiology and Biophysics, Boston University Medical Center, observed that people with vitamin D deficiency have no obvious symptoms until it is so severe that they develop osteomalacia (softening of the bones) and often it is misdiagnosed as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, or degenerative arthritis. Vitamin D deficiency, he continued, has been associated with autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases and schizophrenia.

Dr. Holick, who is a leading vitamin D researcher, wrote, "Vitamin D has so many health benefits because all tissues have vitamin D receptors." He observed that people who live at higher latitudes (55[degrees] N), have vitamin D deficiency, or lack exposure to the sun have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and many cancers, including breast, colon, prostate and pancreas.

Many North Americans eat few foods that naturally contain vitamin D, such as oily fish, beef liver and egg yolks. That's why milk and other products are fortified with vitamin D. Still, Dr. Holick believes that the recommended daily allowance for vitamin D is far too low: "To maintain vitamin D sufficiency... 1000-2000 IU of vitamin D3 a day is usually sufficient. Vitamin D intoxication is an extremely rare event and occurs from inadvertent or intentional vitamin D poisoning."

Maryann Napoli, Center for Medical Consumers (c) 2008

Copyright Center for Medical Consumers Jul 2008

(c) 2008 HealthFacts. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

Source: HealthFacts

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