Waxing poetic on vitamin D

Steve - One of our favorite local media contributors, Dr. Patrick Massey, wrote a very precise piece on the importance of vitamin D.

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120108/entlife/701089916/

In addition to Dr. Massey's piece, a new study from Mayo Clinic Proceedings reported that low levels of vitamin D have been linked to depression. It is believed to be the largest such investigation ever undertaken. The findings suggest that screening for vitamin D levels in depressed patients -- and perhaps screening for depression in people with low vitamin D levels is useful. Researchers found that higher vitamin D levels were associated with a significantly decreased risk of current depression, particularly among people with a prior history of depression. Low vitamin D levels were associated with depressive symptoms, particularly those with a history of depression, so primary care patients with a history of depression may be an important target for assessing vitamin D levels.

Another new study in this month's issue of journal Diabetes showed a trend toward a higher risk of type 1 diabetes with lower levels of vitamin D during pregnancy . The odds of type 1 diabetes was more than twofold higher for the offspring of women with the lowest levels of 25-OH D compared with the offspring of those with levels above the upper quartile.

Finally, three compelling new studies were published in Europe:

In journal Maturitas claims that 70% of Europeans are vitamin D deficient, creating osteoporosis, the loss of motor coordination, and bone fractures. If it is 70% in Europe, it probably even higher in the US.

A new study from Nutrición Hospitalaria finds that women are not getting adequate levels of vitamin D from their diets before, during, and after menopause, which puts them at greater risk of the common health conditions that may accompany this life stage, including diabetes, osteoporosis, heart disease and breast cancer.

International experts are calling for food in Scotland to be fortified with vitamin D, in an attempt to cut the large numbers of people who develop multiple sclerosis at sunshine-deprived northern latitudes. MS levels in Scotland are some of the highest in the world, and many believe vitamin D deficiency, caused by lack of sunlight and poor weather which keeps people indoors, is partly to blame. For half the year, nobody living in Scotland gets enough UVB rays from the sun on their skin to make adequate amounts of vitamin D and many do not eat enough of the foods, such as oily fish, that contain it. Professor George Ebers of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at Oxford University believes the evidence is now good enough to justify dosing the entire population with vitamin D. His team published evidence of a genetic link between a rare inability of the body to make vitamin D and MS.

Are you worried about taking too much vitamin D? Maybe you shouldn't be. From 1955 until 1990, all East German babies received 600,000 IU of vitamin D every three months from birth until age 18 months of age. That is not a misprint...3,600,000 IU total! No vitamin D toxicity was reported. East German children were surprisingly healthy despite substandard living conditions during communist rule.