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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – The evidence keeps mounting, Vitamin D known as the sunshine vitamin, is indeed more than a vitamin. Epidemiological findings, reported just last month in an article titled “Vitamin D for Cancer Prevention, a Global Perspective” states, “Higher serum levels of the main circulating form of vitamin D, are associated with substantially lower incidence rates of colon, breast, ovarian, renal, pancreatic, aggressive prostate and other cancers” (scroll for source below and definition of epidemiology).
Vitamin D is indeed more than a vitamin, it acts as a hormone as well. Officially, it is considered a pro-hormone because our body manufactures it from the sunshine we get. It also acts as a hormone because it enhances calcium absorption. Experts have long recommended that most of us need about 20-30 minutes of sun exposure a day to achieve our daily dose. But, times have changed, and so have the recommendations for how much vitamin D is considered optimal. Most importantly, research is pointing to several additional roles that Vitamin D plays in our health and in the prevention of disease. In fact, Vitamin D is so important, that making it from the sunshine through our skin, is encoded in our genes since prehistoric man! So, let’s take a look at the vitamin that does so much more.
Vitamin D
Enhances Calcium Absorption. Without enough Vitamin D, calcium absorption is inhibited, and we all know how important calcium is to our bones and teeth! When there is a deficiency of D, the production of the “calcium binding proteins” that enhance calcium absorption from our small intestine, slows down.
Promotes Calcium Deposits into Bone. Vitamin D is part of a team of nutrients including calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and fluoride that compose part of the bone material. Vitamin D also plays a role in collagen synthesis, a vital material in bones,cartilage and skin to name three major body parts. How many of us think about Vitamin D’s role in our skin health?
Acts Like a Hormone. Because Vitamin D can enter the nucleus of a cell and attach itself to parts of our DNA, it affects what happens to the cells themselves in what scientists call “cell differentiation”. What does this mean? Cell differentiation is the process by which cells become a “type of cell”. In fact, scientists have been discovering that there are “receptors” for Vitamin D in almost every cell of our body including the cells of our immune system (receptors are like doors into our cells). This includes key immune cells, which fight cancers including prostate, breast and colon.
Want to know a little more about Vitamin D and the latest research (let’s keep in mind that all researchers agree that more studies are necessary before drawing conclusions)?
Vitamin D May
Confer some protection against autoimmune diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis. In 2007, a study using blood samples from more than 7 million military personnel, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found that those with the highest blood levels of the vitamin were 62 percent less likely to develop MS than those with the lowest vitamin D levels.
Aid glucose and insulin metabolism. One study examined evidence linking abnormalities of glucose and insulin metabolism and vitamin D deficiency. One possible reason for the link may be the action of vitamin D’s stimulation of insulin secretion and insulin sensitivity. More studies are needed, but Vitamin D shows promise in the treatment of vitamin D-deficient individuals to prevent or treat diabetes
Confer protective properties for the prevention of cardiovascular disease. There is accumulating evidence that the vitamin D exerts important physiological benefits in heart muscle cells, and blood vessel cells, both in the smooth muscle and inner endothelium lining the vessels. Low levels of D were associated with myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, and calcific aortic stenosis (okay, this refers to hardening and narrowing of a major blood vessel!) .
Confer protective properties and treatment options against breast, prostate, and colon cancers. Again, research has been indicating a relationship between vitamin D deficiency and cancer. For example, in one review of metastatic bone disease in breast cancer patients, the researchers advocated routine screening for D deficiency in general.
Okay, I think I’ve made my point! While I can quote more research and possible actions of Vitamin D, I hope we all can see that the sunshine vitamin is an important one. So, while our body does make the usable form of Vitamin D from the sun we get, there are a few indicators we may not be getting enough. Here are a few clues that we may not have optimal levels of Vitamin D in our body.
We’re not out hunting and gathering. Instead, we’re indoors at work, at a desk using a computer, driving instead of walking, etc.
We don’t drink milk. Studies indicate that most of us are not drinking milk or enough milk, one of the major sources of fortified vitamin D. This includes our children, who are especially vulnerable during their growth years.
We’re dark skinned. Dark skinned individuals need longer exposure for the sunshine vitamin to penetrate.
We’re protecting ourselves from skin cancer with sunscreens. This is a good thing, so let’s not stop. However, once again, sunscreens reduce the rays from penetrating our skin, hence reducing our body’s ability to make Vitamin D.
We’re baby boomers and beyond. Ah, the aging process. This too reduces our body’s ability to make the sunshine vitamin from the sun.
Recent dietary surveys suggest that most Americans of all races, and ages are not getting even the lowest recommended amounts. What to do? Let’s NOT run out and buy high doses of Vitamin D! Vitamin D is fat soluble, which means it is stored in our fatty tissues. This makes it more likely to be toxic if we overdose. I am recommending that at our next annual physical (I hope we’re seeing our doctor’s on a regular basis), that we ask our doctor to order a serum Vitamin D test as part of our regular blood testing. We can then discuss the amount to supplement with that is right for us if necessary. One size does not fit us all. Interested in what this latest study has concluded regarding Vitamin D serum levels and intake? Scroll down, and then print to discuss with your own physician!
If our doctor does recommend supplementing, let’s look for the terms “vitamin D3” or “cholecalciferol” on labels, and in general I don’t recommend cod liver oil, sometimes used. This is also high in vitamin A (another fat soluble vitamin which we’re not likely to be deficient in, and can side effects at high levels). If we do supplement, let’s take our vitamin with a meal that has a little fat, because we will enhance its absorption (yes, I said fat!).
So is Vitamin D important to our health? I think so, because it’s more than a vitamin!
Here’s To Our Health!
(Junefit is going on vacation starting this very second, so look for more tips after Labor Day!)
June M Lay M.S.
June Fit
Please seek the advice of your own personal doctor for Vitamin D recommendations. For more information on Vitamin D and our bones, go to The National Osteoporosis Foundation at http://www.nof.org/prevention/vitaminD.htm
Epidemiology: the science concerned with the study of the factors determining and influencing the frequency and distribution of disease, injury, and other health-related events and their causes in a defined human population. Also, the sum of knowledge gained in such a study.
Junefit is included in Google’s top ranked women’s health resources scroll midway http://directory.google.com/Top/Health/Women’s_Health/Resources/
June is Lifestyle Columnist at www.healthnewsdigest.com/
Sources
CF Garland, et. al., Vitamin D for Cancer Prevention: Global Perspective, Ann Epidemiol. 2009 Jul 1;19(7):468-483, This study concluded: It is projected that raising the minimum year- round serum 25(OH)D level to 40 to 60 ng/mL (100–150 nmol/L) would prevent approximately 58,000 new cases of breast cancer and 49,000 new cases of colorectal cancer each year, and three fourths of deaths from these diseases in the United States and Canada, based on observational studies combined with a randomized trial. Such intakes also are expected to reduce case-fatality rates of patients who have breast, colorectal, or prostate cancer by half. There are no unreasonable risks from intake of 2000 IU per day of vitamin D3, or from a population serum 25(OH)D level of 40 to 60 ng/mL. The time has arrived for nationally coordinated action to substantially increase intake of vitamin D and calcium.
Zittermann A, Koerfer R., Vitamin D in the prevention and treatment of coronary heart disease.Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2008 Nov;11(6):752-7.retrieved from Pubmed.
Tai K, Need AG, et. al., Vitamin D, glucose, insulin, and insulin sensitivity.Nutrition. 2008 Mar;24(3):279-85. Epub 2008 Jan 9. Retrieved from Pubmed.
Li H, Stampfer MJ, et. al., A prospective study of plasma vitamin D metabolites, vitamin D receptor polymorphisms, and prostate Cancer, PLoS Med. 2007 Mar;4(3):e103.
Andrea Wang-Gillam, Dorothy A. Miles, Laura F. Hutchins, Evaluation of Vitamin D Deficiency in Breast Cancer Patients on Bisphosphonates; The Oncologist, Vol. 13, No. 7, 821-827, July 2008; doi:10.1634/theoncologist.2008-0013 © 2008
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