Vitamin D Deficiency,
the Ignored Epidemic of the Developed World
by Jeffrey Dach MD
 Is it a New Bio-Tech Drug, or is it Vitamin D?
What
if I told you I discovered a Bio-Tech company with a new drug that could
reduce the number of cancer deaths in the US by 43,000 annually, reduce
colon cancer by 50%, and breast and ovarian cancer by 30%. Would you be
impressed? What if I then told you this same drug could safely prevent
or alleviate the following medical conditions: Osteoporosis,
Hypertension, Cardiovascular disease, Cancer, Depression, Epilepsy, Type
One Diabetes, Insulin resistance, Autoimmune Diseases, Migraine
Headache, Polycystic Ovary Disease (PCOS), Musculoskeletal and bone
pain, Psoriasis, and Rheumatoid Arthritis, Inflammatory Bowel Disease
(Cohn’s), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)(15), as well as improve calcium absorption and reduce hip fractures.(5A)
Above Image: Girl in the Sunlight. Portrait of Maria Simonovich. 1888. Oil on canvas. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Would
you then be even more impressed, and rush out to buy the company stock
and get rich quick? Of course you would, but we don’t need a new
Bio-Tech drug to do this, because, all of the above benefits can be
obtained with Vitamin D, an inexpensive vitamin which is free with sun
exposure.
Vitamin D Deficiency in Florida, Surely You must Be Joking:
We
all know it’s a fact: Everyone in Florida gets plenty of Vitamin D from
the Florida Sun. This would have been true except for the fact that as
Floridians, we are all told to avoid the sun to prevent solar skin
damage (brown wrinkling) and to avoid skin cancer.
So the
question remains, do we get enough Vitamin D from sun exposure? To
answer this question, we actually measured blood Vitamin D levels, and
we were surprised to discover that the majority showed Vitamin D deficiency (less than 20 ng/ml), or insufficiency (less than 40 ng/ml).
What
if you are not fortunate to live in sunny Florida and you live up north
above the Mason Dixon Line, in Boston, New York, Chicago, Canada or
Scandinavia? Northern latitudes have an even more serious vitamin D
deficiency because of the lack of UV sunlight during the winter months.
The angle of the sun through the atmosphere closes off the UltraViolet
Light from reaching the earth.
An Epidemic of Vitamin D Deficiency
Vitamin
D deficiency has been reported in 57% of 290 medical inpatients in
Massachusetts, 93% of 150 patients with overt musculoskeletal pain in
Minnesota, 48% of patients with Multiple Sclerosis, 50% of patients with
lupus and fibromyalgia, 42% of healthy adolescents, 40% of African
American Women, and 62 % of the morbidly obese, 83% of 360 patients with
low back pain in Saudi Arabia, 73% of Austrian patients with Ankylosing
Spondylitis, 58% of Japanese girls with Graves's Disease, 40% of
Chinese adolescent girls, 40-70% of all Finnish medical patients. (5A)
Vitamin D Toxicity
Vitamin
D excess and toxicity requires daily dosage in excess of 40,000 units
over a period of months, so 5,000 units a day is safe and far below the
level needed to develop vitamin D toxicity. Remember Vitamin D is a fat
soluble vitamin, so toxicity is possible with massive doses over long
periods of time. Vitamin D toxicity causes elevated calcium levels.
That’s why Vitamin D supplementation should done only under your
physician’s supervision with monitoring of serum 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D
levels.
Space Satellite Maps
Maps of UV Sunlight exposure correlate with incidence of Cancer and Multiple Sclerosis.
If you take NASA space satellite photos of North America and color code the UV sunlight exposure as Dr. Grant has done on his web site, Sunarc.org (3),
you will see a pattern remarkably similar to the incidence of cancer
and multiple sclerosis. This is thought to be due to differences in
Vitamin D levels. The farther north with less sun exposure and lower
Vitamin D levels, there is an increased incidence of cancer and multiple
sclerosis.
Diseases Caused By, or Associated With Vitamin D Deficiency:
Again
here is the list: Osteoporosis, Hypertension, Cardiovascular disease,
Cancer, Depression, Epilepsy, Type One Diabetes, Insulin resistance,
Autoimmune Diseases, Migraine Headache, PolyCystic Ovary Disease (PCOS),
Musculoskeletal and bone pain, Psoriasis, and chronic lymphocytic
leukemia (CLL)(15).
The
current recommendation for Vitamin D deficiency in those people who
must avoid the sun is 5,000 IU of Vitamin D per day which costs 5 cents a
day..
Vitamin D is not really a Vitamin, it is a Hormone.
Like all other steroidal hormones, vitamin D is made from a cholesterol
precursor, converted in the skin by sunlight. Like all other hormones,
Vitamin D enters the nucleus of the cell and binds to the DNA where it
gives a message to the DNA to manufacture proteins.
Image left: Vitamin D Chemical Structure Courtesy Wikipedia
Vitamin D And Multiple Sclerosis.
A
review by Dr. Brown reported that Vitamin D supplementation prevented
the development and progression of experimental autoimmune encephalitis,
an animal model of MS, in mice. A large, prospective, cohort study
found that vitamin D supplementation was associated with a 40% reduction
in the risk of developing MS. Four small, noncontrolled studies
suggested that vitamin D supplementation may decrease exacerbation of MS
symptoms. (20)
MRI
studies of multiple sclerosis lesions show improvement during summer
months and worsening during winter months suggesting a Vitamin D link. (36)
Vitamin D and Cancer
A four-year clinical trial,
involving 1,200 women found those taking the vitamin had about a
60-per-cent reduction in cancer incidence, compared with those who
didn't take it, a drop so large — twice the impact on cancer attributed
to smoking — it almost looks like a typographical error. The study was
done by professor of medicine Robert Heaney of Creighton University in
Nebraska and was published in June 2007. (36A)(36)
Vitamin D and Total Mortality
A
2007 meta-analysis review of 18 studies showed a reduction in all cause
mortality of about 10% in people supplementing with commonly used doses
of Vitamin D.(39)
Vitamin D Supplementation for Adults
The
RDA in America is only 400 IU per day, yet current research suggests
that our daily Vitamin D requirement is closer to 4,000 to 5,000 IU.
Twenty minutes of Sun exposure will give us ten to twenty thousand IU of
Vitamin D.
Adult Supplementation with Carlson’s Cod Liver Oil
can provide Vitamin D along with Vitamin A . However, for an intake of
5,000 IU vitamin D per day, inexpensive Vitamin D3 capsules are widely
available for about 5 cents a day. We provide these as a convenience to
our office patients.
Vitamin D Testing at the Lab
Optimal
serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D values are 45-50 ng/ml. Below 40 ng/ml is
called Vitamin D insufficiency, and below 20 ng/ml is deficiency.
Conclusion
Our
health care system is in crisis. We are spending billions on expensive
procedures like coronary artery bypass and organ transplantation, yet
measurements of health are lower than other countries that spend less.
In terms of getting more bang for your health care buck, Vitamin D
testing and supplementation for the population is one solution which is
guaranteed to improve overall health of the population at a ridiculously
low cost.
The cost saving in reduced cancer rates, and lower
osteoporotic fracture rates would be enormous, and we would all enjoy
improved health. My goal as a physician in our community is to improve
the health of of our community, and Vitamin D testing and
supplementation is one way to achieve that goal with no adverse side
effects and enormous cost savings.
Next Chapter
Articles with Related Interest:
Vitamin D Prevents Common Cold, Flu
Vitamin D Prevents Hip Fracture and Breast Cancer
Vitamin D Now Mainstream
Jeffrey Dach MD
4700 Sheridan Suite T
Hollywood Florida
954 983 1443
www.drdach.com
www.jeffreydach.com
www.naturalmedicine101.com
www.truemedmd.com
References
(1) http://www.vitamind-veith.ms-diet.org/
Prospects
for Vitamin D Nutrition. Vitamin D and Human Evolution Clinical
relevance of higher vitamin D intakes, Toxicology of Vitamin D Reinhold
Vieth, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, and
Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto Calgary AB,
Oct 13 2005. Highly recommended Web Cast video presentation on Vitamin D
by Dr. Vieth
(1A) http://wildhorse.insinc.com/directms13oct2005/
another link to this same video presentation on Vitamin D by Dr. Vieth
(2) http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2004/04/03/vitamin-d-grant.aspx
Valuable Insights Into the Importance of Vitamin D and Sun on Mercola.com, Interview with William B. Grant, Ph.D.
(3) http://www.sunarc.org/
Satellite
Maps, Cancer mortality rates and multiple sclerosis prevalence rates
for U.S. states compared to UVB doses for July, William B. Grant, Ph.D.
(4) http://www.sunarc.org/embryms1.htm
Vitamin
D Supplementation in the Fight Against Multiple Sclerosis, Ashton F.
Embry, Ph.D. 2004, Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, v.19, p. 27-38.
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Vitamin D Council, John Cannell MD Web Site: Understanding Cholecalciferol Vitamin D
(5A) http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/PDFs/cme-clinical-importance-vit-d.pdf
Excellent
review article on Vitamin D by John Cannell MD full PDF File Clinical
Importance of Vitamin D: A Paradigm Shift. ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES,
sept/oct 2004, VOL. 10, NO. 5
(6) http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/bestNewsArticles.shtml
Listing of the best Vitamin D articles on the internet posted by John Cannell Vitamin D Council.
(7) http://www.knowledgeofhealth.com/
Cancer Defeated: Vitamin D Pill For All. Economical Pill Would Cut Cancer Rates In Half.
Bill Sardi Knowledge of Health Blog
(8) http://www.lewrockwell.com/sardi/sardi70.html
Just One Pill Away, by Bill Sardi, review of Vitamin D on Lew Rockwell.
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Medical News Today. Healthcare Professionals Ignore Vitamin D Deficiency Epidemic by John Cannell MD
(10) http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2006/10/26/beware-of-most-prescription-vitamin-d-supplements.aspx
Beware of prescription Vitamin D supplements, info from Mercola
(11) http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2004/02/28/vitamin-d-part-twenty.aspx
Vitamin D Lowers inlfammation by John Cannell MD on Mercola.com
(12) http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/vitamins/vitaminD/index.html
Linus Paulng Institute on Vitamin D
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Linus Pauling Institute Vit D References with Links.
(15) http://www.clltopics.org/VitaminD3/EssentialforHealth.htm
Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Web Site: CLL topics: vitamin D is quite cytotoxic to CLL cells?
(16) http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/69/5/842
Vieth,
Reinhold. Vitamin D supplementation, 25-hydroxyvitamin D
concentrations, and safety. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol.
69, No. 5, 842-856, May 1999
(17) http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/16/3/422
Vieth,
Reinhold, Vitamin D and Reduced Risk of Breast Cancer: A
Population-Based Case-Control Study. Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers
& Prevention 16, 422-429, March 1, 2007.
(18) http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/73/2/288
Veith
R, Chan P-C R, MacFarlane G D. “Efficacy and safety of vitamin D3
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71: 288-294
(19) http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/296/23/2832
Munger,
Levin,. Hollis, PhD Howard, Ascherio, Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Levels
and Risk of Multiple Sclerosis JAMA. 2006;296:2832-2838 Epidemiological
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potent immunomodulator, may decrease the risk of multiple sclerosis.
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Brown,
Sherrill J, The Role of Vitamin D in Multiple Sclerosis , DRUG
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1158-1161. DOI 10.1345/aph.1G513
(21) http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/76/1/3.pdf
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Michael
F Holick, Vitamin D: importance in the prevention of cancers, type 1
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Holick
, Michael F VITAMIN D AND HEALTH IN THE 21ST CENTURY: BONE AND BEYOND,
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Excellent full text article review.
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D Analogs in Cancer Prevention and Therapy By Jorg Reichrath, M.
Friedrich,Chapter by Michael Holick Vitamin D in Book Online:
(25) http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/130/11/2648
1,25-Dihydroxycholecalciferol
Prevents and Ameliorates Symptoms of Experimental Murine Inflammatory
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Margherita T. Cantorna, Carey Munsick, Candace Bemiss and Brett D. Mahon
(26) http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/135/11/2739S
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Cycle, The Vitamin D Epidemic and its Health Consequences J. Nutr.
135:2739S-2748S, November 2005
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http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/130/11/2648
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(37) http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/85/6/1586
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American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 85, No. 6, 1586-1591, June 2007
Joan M Lappe, Dianne Travers-Gustafson, K Michael Davies, Robert R
Recker and Robert P Heaney.
(38) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D
Wikipedia Vitamin D Page with Links
(39) http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/167/16/1730
Vitamin
D Supplementation and Total Mortality A Meta-analysis of Randomized
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vitamin D supplements seems to be associated with decreases in total
mortality rates.
(40) www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/85/6/1586
Vitamin
D and calcium supplementation reduces cancer risk: results of a
randomized trial. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 85, No.
6, 1586-1591, June 2007 Joan M Lappe, Dianne Travers-Gustafson, K
Michael Davies, Robert R Recker and Robert P Heaney.
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suggestions, and/or recommendations has NOT been generated as part of
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www.drdach.com
www.naturalmedicine101.com
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