Basic Pursuits

The Vitamin D Council is a great resource for news and discoveries about Vitamin D.

Vitamin D deficiency has been implicated in a number of devastating human health issues, including "...seventeen varieties of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting, birth defects, and periodontal disease." Some experts think it's important in infectious disease vulnerability and cite epidemiological studies that show that the common cold and flu are more virulent in folks with Vitamin D deficiency.

I'm old enough to remember when the miracle vitamin was Vitamin C. It was touted as the prevention and cure for the common cold. Research has shown this not to be the case.

However, Vitamin D seems to be on firmer theoretical footing, although much more work needs to be done. The supplementing of milk with Vitamin D virtually ended rickets in the U.S. and Europe. Rickets causes deformed leg bones in youngsters. Current research shows that Vitamin D is a metabolic player in much more than bone formation. Tons of epidemiological studies suggest that Vitamin D is a major player in our immune systems. In addition, there have been some random controlled trials that seem to confirm this. Here's one.

Recently, Lappe et al. reported the first population-based, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, interventional trial of colecalciferol (vitamin D) with non-skin cancer prevention as a principal secondary end point [1]. They found that 1100 IU of vitamin D and 1500 mg of calcium per day administered to 403 Nebraska women over 4 years dramatically reduced the relative risk (0.232) for incident cancers compared with 206 placebo controls (p < 0.005). Furthermore, baseline and treatment-induced serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (25[OH]D) levels were strong and independent predictors of cancer risk.

The best source of Vitamin D for humans is the sun. Ten minutes in the summer sun produces about 10,000 IUs of Vitamin D for you, about 250 cups of fortified milk's worth. Your body also has a mechanism to store it in fat tissue.

However, most of us don't go out in the sun. Hence the epidemic of Vitamin D deficiency. This trend of sun avoidance has progressed since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the middle of the 19th Century. Can we cite a similar deterioration in chronic disease? I know that correlation does not equal causation. But humans have evolved for millions of years getting lots of sunshine. It's not unreasonable to expect consequences when exposure to the sun is greatly diminished in a 200-year span.

I usually recommend that we get all of our nutrition from food. We can get Vitamin D only in oily fish like salmon or mackerel. Many of us can't or won't eat these fishes. And because of our life commitments in the 21st Century, many of us are not able to get sunshine. In this case it seems wise to supplement.

The only way to know for sure is to get a 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (or 25-OH-Vitamin D) test from your doctor and discuss the outcome with him or her. Many experts recommend the level of Vitamin D in your blood be greater than 40 ng/ml year round, about the same as a person living naturally in a sun-rich environment.

The Vitamin D Council