Vitamin D Discussed by Michael Murray ND

I subscribe to Michael Murray's newsletter. It is quite informative and comes once per month.

Vitamin D3 is in the news these days but not nearly enough. The news is neglecting highly useful information on vitamin D3- which Dr Murray has included.

Taking a multi-vitamin and fish oil daily is great. Adding liquid Vitamin D3 to your daily regimen is even better.

For more Vitamin D3 information:
Check out my natural health forum post on Vitamin D3 research.

Here is what Dr Murray has to say about Vitamin D3:

VITAMIN D SUPPLEMENTATION:
A quick and easy way to reduce health care costs and extend life.

While there is considerable attention focused on the need for increased levels of calcium in promoting bone health, most experts now agree that much greater attention should be focused on vitamin D.

Its metabolic products not only stimulate calcium absorption but slow bone loss, increase bone formation, and reduce the risk of falling. It is estimated that by simply supplementing the diet with 1,000 to 1,200 mg of calcium and 800 to 1,000 IU of vitamin D more than half of all hip fractures may be prevented.

The economic consequence of such a policy would be enormous as it would translate over a five-year period of time that more than 734,000 hip fractures could be avoided and more than $13.9 billion in health care costs could be saved. In addition, another study showed that an analysis of studies with vitamin D showed that the participants who took vitamin D supplements had a 7 percent lower risk of death compared to those that did not.1

Of course, this result is not surprising. It is now known that virtually every cell in our body has receptors for vitamin D and that vitamin D is not just a vitamin. It also has very powerful hormonal activities and has protective effects noted against certain cancers (particularly breast and prostate), autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes, and heart disease.2 So, lack of vitamin D would affect far more than just our bones. Can you imagine the marketing that a drug company would put behind a drug that was shown to increase your chance of living longer by 7%? Sadly, this benefit of vitamin D has gone largely ignored because there is no financial reward for anyone getting this important word out.

A recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has added another major benefit for vitamin D and also provides an explanation for its longevity promoting effects.3 Vitamin D may slow aging by increasing the length of telomeres, the section of a chromosome that shortens each time a cell replicates. The shorter the telomere gets, the more it effects gene expression. The result is cellular aging. In the study, scientists studied the effects of vitamin D on the length of telomeres in white blood cells of 2,160 women aged 18 to 79 years. The higher the vitamin D levels, the longer the telomere length. In terms of the effect on aging, there was a 5 year difference in telomere length in those with the highest levels of vitamin D compared to those with the lowest levels. Obesity, smoking, and lack of physical activity can shorten the telomere length, but the researchers found that increasing vitamin D levels overcame these effects. What this 5 year difference means is that a 70 year old women with higher vitamin D levels would have the biological age of 65 years.

TROUBLING STATISTICS ON VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY
• 40% of the U.S. population is vitamin D deficient.
• 42% of African American women of childbearing age are deficient in vitamin D.
• 48% of young girls (9-11 years old) are vitamin D deficient.
• 60% of all hospital patients are vitamin D deficient.
• 76% of pregnant mothers are severely vitamin D deficient
• 80% of nursing home patients are vitamin D deficient.

HOW TO INCREASE YOUR VITAMIN D LEVELS

Since vitamin D can be produced in our bodies by the action of sunlight on the skin, many experts consider it more of a hormone than a vitamin. The sunlight changes a compound (7-dehydrocholesterol) in the skin into vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol). It has generally been thought that as little as 15 minutes of direct sunlight on the skin can produce significant increases in vitamin D levels, but recent research has challenged this conventional wisdom. For example, from the latitude of San Francisco northward—or from Buenos Aires southward—for 3 to 6 months a year, no amount of exposure will generate substantial vitamin D in even the palest skin.4

To insure adequate vitamin D levels, supplementation is warranted especially in those who live in extreme latitudes or who get little direct sunlight. There are two major dietary forms of vitamin D - vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) and vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol). Vitamin D2 is the form most often added to milk and other foods as well as the form most often used in nutritional supplements. Vitamin D3 in nutritional supplements is most often derived from fish liver oil or lanolin. Both D2 and D3 are capable of being converted to active vitamin D in the body. Very few foods naturally contain vitamin D or are fortified. Fish such as wild salmon (360 IU per 3.5-ounce serving), mackerel, and sardines are good sources of vitamin D3, while fortified foods include milk (100 IU per 8-ounce serving), orange juice (100 IU per 8-ounce serving), and some breads and cereals provide D2. The reason I specified wild salmon is that farmed salmon has vitamin D content that is 75% less than wild caught salmon from Alaska.4

Amazingly, the U.S. Government’s National Academy of Sciences felt that there was insufficient scientific information to establish a RDA for vitamin D. Instead, the recommended intake is listed as an Adequate Intake (AI), which represents the daily vitamin D intake that should maintain bone health and normal calcium metabolism in healthy people.
Adequate Intake for vitamin D for infants, children, and adults

Dose is (µg/day)
Age Children Men Woman Pregnancy Lactation

Birth to 13 years 5 (=200 IU)
14 to 18 years 5 (=200 IU) 5 (=200 IU) 5 (=200 IU) 5 (=200 IU)
19 to 50 years 5 (=200 IU) 5 (=200 IU) 5 (=200 IU) 5 (=200 IU)
51 to 70 years 10 (=400 IU) 10 (=400 IU)
71+ years 15 (=600 IU) 15 (=600 IU)

Recently, most nutritionally-oriented physicians have been recommending higher dosages than the AI level, especially for elderly people not exposed to sunlight or living in the northern latitudes. While vitamin D conceivably has the potential to cause toxicity, the reality is that dosages in the range of 800 to 2,000 IU per day are now recognized as being safe levels.5
The drugs cholestyramine (Questran®), colestipol (Colestid®), phenytoin (Dilantin®), phenobarbital, and mineral oil all interfere with the absorption and/or metabolism of vitamin D. So, you will need to take vitamin D at the higher dosage recommendation of 2,000 IU daily if you are taking any of these drugs. The same is true if you are taking corticosteroids like prednisone because they increase the need for vitamin D. Vitamin D supplementation must be used with caution when using digoxin (Lanoxin®) and thiazide diuretics. If you are taking these drugs, do not take more than 400 to 800 IU daily without consulting your physician.


Key references:
1. Autier P, Gandini S. Vitamin D supplementation and total mortality: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Arch Intern Med 2007;167(16):1730-7.
2. Holick MF. The vitamin D epidemic and its health consequences. J Nutr 2005;135(11):2739S-48S.
3. Richards JB, Valdes AM, Gardner JP, et al. Higher serum vitamin D concentrations are associated with longer leukocyte telomere length in women. Am J Clin Nutr 2007;86(5):1420-5.
4. Chen TC, Chimeh F, Lu Z, et al. Factors that influence the cutaneous synthesis and dietary sources of vitamin D. Arch Biochem Biophys. 2007;460(2):213-7
5. Holick MF. Optimal vitamin D status for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. Drugs Aging 2007;24(12):1017-29

Source: www.DoctorMurray.com