A Too-Good-to-Be-True Nutrient? | Arthritis Information

 

Interesting article from the Washington Post concerning vitamin D.

Imagine a nutrient that could help prevent cancer, heart disease and tuberculosis, preserve bones, and thwart autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and juvenile diabetes.

Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?

But that's the potential now being attributed to Vitamin D, whose usefulness was once thought to be limited to prevention of rickets in children and severe bone loss in adults. Known as the sunshine vitamin because it is produced when the skin is exposed to ultraviolet light, Vitamin D has been garnering increasing attention recently, because of what it may be able to do and because many people appear to be getting too little of it.

"There's a drumbeat about Vitamin D that is being played very loudly," says Mary Frances Picciano of the Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institutes of Health.

Just this month, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a special supplement on Vitamin D highlighting widespread deficiencies "in various populations throughout the world, including 'healthy' people in developed countries where it was thought that Vitamin D deficiency was obsolete."

In March, Picciano chaired a session on Vitamin D at the Experimental Biology annual meeting, one of the largest gatherings of scientists in the world. Designed to pinpoint gaps in knowledge, the session was the second meeting on Vitamin D sponsored by the ODS in a year. In the wake of emerging positive results, the National Cancer Institute gathered scientists to review the nutrient's ability to reduce cancer risk, particularly of the breast, colon, prostate and lung. And last fall, the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality issued an evidence-based review of Vitamin D that found it to be key for bone health at all ages, including in the prevention of falls in the elderly.

"There are a lot of benefits to Vitamin D that have surfaced in the last 20 years," notes Hector DeLuca, a University of Wisconsin biochemist who has been a pioneer in Vitamin D research.

Among the more intriguing findings is a recent review of 18 studies involving nearly 60,000 people that showed those who took Vitamin D supplements had a 7 percent reduction in mortality from all causes compared with those who didn't take the supplements.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/25/AR2008042503119.htmlAt the time of my huge flare in June of 07, my Vit D was less than 4.  My endocrinologist wants my levels at 50 taking 1000 IU per day.  I've read alot about Vit D since I was so low. IT is an immune system modulator.  So, we've been working toward my maintenance of a higher level of D and calcium.

babs102008-04-30 10:04:15I'm on 800 mgs a day because of my prednisone use- I guess I'm killing two birds with one stone! [QUOTE=Lynn49]
IAnd last fall, the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality issued an evidence-based review of Vitamin D that found it to be key for bone health at all ages, including in the prevention of falls in the elderly.



/QUOTE]

A vitamin can prevent falling?  Who knew?
My internist yesterday recommended that I take 1000 of Vit D3 and 3000 Vit D 2. She said that here in Montana, we do not get enough sun. She also is having me do a Vit D blood level. I always thought this was a toxic vitamin and stayed away. I'm glad they know different now. My non-AP Intergrative Medicine doc noticed my Vitamin D levels were low and wants me to start taking it.  I gently refused and told him I'd get back to him with my final research.  I'm just not convinced about D as most research is 'tainted' by the Vitamin D council.  I need to learn more about 'vitamin D hypersensitivity' (which from my preliminary research is ALL AI people).  In the case of 'hypersensitivity' the problem is how we convert the D and the ratios and most MD's do not run all 4 tests to be sure.  If we do have conversion problems, D could be quite toxic to us.  Now I'm beginning to think perhaps our children are at risk for not getting/having enough Vitamin D. When you consider how many hours a day they are school buses and then in the classroom with little outside time (recess).

Perhaps our children should be tested to see if they have enough Vitamin D? Perhaps a good many health issues would be resolved.  Just my thoughts.
I think video game playing, tv watching offspring of sunscreen slathering moms might be at risk, but everything I read says the best way to get the adequate amount of D is from the sun, even on just your hands/face, 10-15 min. 2 x week.  That's waiting for the bus....unless mommy put sunscreen on you.  We didn't even get a recommendation to supplement after my older daughter had to stop drinking milk.

D is stored in fat, so it can be toxic if you get too much.   I'm concerned there is too much media focus on it now; this too shall pass, as they say.

Some people think you get low on D with autoimmune disease because the disease is using the D to progress; it feeds on it, that is why you test low; they don't supplement it because they don't want to give it more.

But when even people without AI or any other health issues test low for D (like my hubby or the hordes demanding tests after they saw it on Oprah) - maybe there is something up with the current testing?  I mean, how can the whole population suddenly have that much in common????  Media frenzy, media frenzy, media frenzy.
Perhaps a bit of media frenzy but at my age I'm aware of so many health issues faced by people of all age groups that were non-issues at least twenty-five years ago.
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