Dr James Sabetta and colleagues  from Yale University School of Medicine, have published yet another article showing the benefit of vitamin D in protecting against colds and other respiratory infections.

This article which just came out followed almost 200 adults and did monthly vitamin D blood levels on all of the patients from September to early January. The patients were followed for the entire study time for developing upper  respiratory infections (common cold or flu).

The findings are completely consistent with what I talk about in my book and here on my blog as well as other articles on Vitamin D and viral infections.

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In my book on vitamin D, I discuss the importance of vitamin D as observed from retrospective and epidemiologic studies in helping to prevent breast cancer and the recurrence of breast cancer.

I also mention in my book that as of the date of publication and even to this date I have not seen one breast cancer patient come to my office for immune support as an adjunct to their traditional breast cancer therapy who have had a vitamin D blood level measured by their oncologists.

Now a recently published study by KD Crew and colleagues looked at the frequency of vitamin D deficiency in premenopausal women who were diagnosed with breast cancer and undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy. Adjuvant therapy means therapy that is in addition to the primary chemotherapy that a woman would receive after a diagnosis of breast cancer.
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A recent article that one of my readers brought to my attention looked at vitamin D levels in infants who were fully breast-fed and who took oral vitamin D supplements.

Other studies have shown that nursing mothers do not give their infants sufficient vitamin D. I've written about that as well previously.

In this nice article by my colleague Bruce Hollis and associates, the authors looked at vitamin D levels in newborn infants. At the beginning of the study the average infant at one month of age had  vitamin D blood level of 16 ng/mL. This is obviously low as less than 15 would be equivalent to rickets in the child.
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Another article showing the relationship of childhood asthma and vitamin D levels in children has just been published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

In this article, Daniel Searing, Donald Y M Leung,  and colleagues at the national Jewish Hospital in Denver looked at the relationship between vitamin D insufficiency and childhood asthma and specifically the relationship with the use of corticosteroids.

They evaluated 100 asthmatic children for vitamin D levels and their degree of asthma.

There was a significant positive correlation between the vitamin D blood level in the children and their FEV levels. FEV stands for forced expiratory volume and is a measure of how quickly and how forcefully, a child can blow out air from his or her lungs. With asthma, a child has difficulty in blowing air out quickly.
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I am delighted to see a new article in the May issue of the prestigious American Journal of Clinical Nutrition which confirms advice I had been giving my patients last fall in the flu season.

In this amazing article by Hiroynik Ida and others, from December 2008 through March 2009 they researchers conducted a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial of vitamin D3 supplements in schoolchildren. In one group of children they gave the children 1200 IU of vitamin D3 every day and the other group of children received placebos.

They then specifically looked for influenza A infections in the two groups of children. The H1NI flu of this past winter is an Influenza A virus. In children who were sick they specifically diagnosed influenza A with nose swab cultures, the classical way of diagnosing these infections.

The findings were that the children who were given the vitamin D3 had a 42% reduction in the frequency of influenza A infections. This is obviously a major reduction.

Another significant finding, which I have spoken about in my book and in this blog, was that in children who had a previous diagnosis of asthma, asthma attacks were reduced by 83% in the group of children taking the vitamin D3.

I am delighted to see these type of  studies coming out, confirming what I have discussed in my book and what I have been telling my patients in my practice.

The wonderful thing about this study is that it was not an associational study. Rather they used the gold standard-double-blind crossover placebo-controlled type of trial. This is the only type of research that many conventional physicians will accept as valid. Most previous studies on the effect of vitamin D in relation to influenza were associational only.

All children over the age of 1 in our country, until their early teens, should be on at least 1000 IU of vitamin D3 every day. With blood tests even higher levels can be taken to optimize the children's health.

Please help me spread the word about this to your friends and family.

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Colorectal cancer is the third most common type of cancer in men and women in the United States according to data from the American Cancer Society.

A recent study published in the British Medical Journal looked at the association between people's vitamin D blood levels, their dietary intake of vitamin D and calcium, and their risk of colorectal cancer in European populations. 520,000 people from 10 Western European countries participated in this study. This is an enormous number! The people who were in the study gave blood samples and completed dietary and lifestyle questionnaires between the years 1992 and 1998.

The findings confirm what other studies, which I talk about in my book have shown us. Lower levels of vitamin D in the blood were associated with a higher risk for colorectal cancer. Higher concentrations of vitamin D in the blood were associated with a lower risk for this cancer. Specifically, people who had the highest blood levels of vitamin D in this study, had a 40% lower risk of colorectal cancer than those in the lowest levels of vitamin D in the blood.

In my opinion, this is just one more reason, further confirmed why everybody should take a basic dose of vitamin D, and should try to optimize their levels of vitamin D if they are able to get blood tests.

For people who do not have a blood test, and who are otherwise healthy adults I recommend 2000 IU of vitamin D daily.

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Researchers at the Medical University of Graz, Austria, have found a link between testosterone levels and Vitamin D levels.  The higher the Vitamin D, the higher the testosterone levels recorded.

It was also revealed that both fluctuate seasonally: in the winter months when sunlight is weaker and less Vitamin D is produced, less testosterone is present as well.

“Men who ensure their body is at least sufficiently supplied with Vitamin D are doing good for their testosterone level and their libido among other things,” said a Ad Brand, a spokesperson for the Sunlight Research Forum in the Netherlands in response to the study.

This is very interesting information and should be useful to primary care doctors and urologists. When a man's testosterone is found to be low, his vitamin D level should be checked. If the D level is low, the first line of treatment should be to normalize his D level and repeat the testosterone. This may make it so older men ( including all the baby-boomers) who would have needed testosterone will not need it as soon or at all.

The authors recommend that a prospective trial be run to evaluate the benefit that vitamin D replacement will have on testosterone levels.

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I apologize to all my readers with questions that there was no way to REGISTER on my forum.

That is now FIXED and I love your questions. So let me know !

We have a vitamin D Section and another Section with questions about  Integrative Medicine.

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Dr. Bruce Hollis, Professor of Pediatrics and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Director of Pediatric Nutritional Science at the Medical University of South Carolina, and Dr. Carol Wagner just presented the results of their major study on high doses of Vitamin D during pregnancy and breastfeeding at the 14th International Workshop on Vitamin D in Belgium.

They found that high doses of Vitamin D, as high as 4000 IUs, significantly improved health and outcomes for pregnant mothers and their babies.

Nursing mothers should take even more: 6400 IUs.

Dr. Hollis could not state this strongly enough.  “I think it is medical malpractice for obstetricians not to know what the Vitamin D level of their patients is.”

Pregnancy and breastfeeding are an incredibly important time in both a mother and child’s life, when she is giving the infant all the building blocks he or she needs to build the foundation for future bone health, cardiovascular health, immune function, glucose metabolism and brain development and the prevention of brain disorders.

600 pregnant women participated in the study, of diverse ethnicities and skin tones.  The control group was given the American Academy of Pediatrics-recommended 400 IU per day; the second group received 2000 IU; and the third, 4000 IU.  Discoveries included:

For the highest levels, premature births and premature labor were reduced by 50%.

Fewer babies were born smaller than expected.

Complications of pregnancy such as gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, and pre-eclampsia were reduced by 30%.

Babies born to mothers receiving the highest Vitamin D supplementation had fewer colds and skin problems such as eczema.

Dr. Hollis and Dr. Wagner are now conducting a study on the effects of Vitamin D supplementation on breastfed infants.  According to their pilot trials, in order for nursing newborns to continue getting the benefits of Vitamin D, the mothers must increase their supplementation to at least 6400 IUs. In my practice I give the nursing mothers Vitamin D and also have the children take 400 IU per day. Obviously, this is especially important for children who are not being breast-fed.
 

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An article analyzing 12 clinical trials of Vitamin D supplementation for hip fracture prevention in people over 65, was recently published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. 

The major finding was that fracture prevention was dependent on how much Vitamin D was taken. Higher doses meant reduction of fractures by “at least” 20% for the individuals 65-and-over who were studied.

Higher doses in the case of this article meant merely more than 400 Units per day!  Of great interest to me was that the effect of the vitamin D on fractures was independent of the patient taking additional calcium.

I have to wonder what would happen if every nursing home in America gave their patients 1000-2000IU of Vitamin D every day! For as we know other aspects of seniors health is also connected with low vitamin D. The bottom line for my readers is be sure you and your parents are taking vitamin D every day.

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