Medical Writer Claims "If Vitamin D Were a Drug, It's Benefits Would Make It the MOST Popular Ever…"
Filed under Vitamin D by on Jun 30th, 2008. 4 Comments. 
A vitamin made when sunlight hits the skin could help slow down the ageing of cells and tissues, say medical health researchers.
King's College – London. A study of more than 2,000 women found those with higher vitamin D levels showed fewer ageing-related changes in their DNA.
However, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study stops short of proving cause and effect.
A lack of vitamin D, also found in some foods, has also been linked to multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Read More
Filed under Vitamin D by on Jun 30th, 2008.
A new study has linked vitamin D deficiency with an increased risk of death, especially from cardiovascular disease, in the latest evidence of the important role the vitamin plays in human health.
Researchers, led by Harald Dobnig of the Medical University of Graz, Austria, measured the vitamin D levels in 3,258 patients, average age 62, who visited a medical center in Austria between 1997 and 2000, then followed their cases for 7.7 years.
Almost twice as many of the patients with vitamin D deficiency died during the course of the study, according to results published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, a publication of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Read More
Filed under Vitamin D by on Jun 30th, 2008.
An extra daily dose of vitamin D can help people suffering from chronic back pain according to a new study in the USA.
According to Stewart B. Leavitt, MA, PhD, editor of Pain Treatment Topics and author of the report, “our examination of the research, which included 22 clinical investigations of patients with pain, found that those with chronic back pain almost always had inadequate levels of vitamin D. When sufficient vitamin D supplementation was provided, their pain either vanished or was at least helped to a significant extent.”
Vitamin D is an important component for calcium absorption and bone health.
Inadequate vitamin D intake can result in a softening of bone surfaces, or osteomalacia, that causes pain. The lower back seems to be particularly vulnerable to this effect.
In a study of 360 patients with back pain, the researchers found that all the patients had inadequate levels of vitamin D.
However, after taking vitamin D supplements for 3 months, 95 pct patients showed improvement in back pain symptoms. Read More…
Have YOU Read the Back Pain Report?
Filed under Blog, Vitamin D by on Jun 25th, 2008.
University of Michigan pharmacologist Robert U. Simpson, Ph.D., describes vitamin D as “the heart tranquilizer.”
In studies in rats, Simpson and his team report the first concrete evidence that treatment with activated vitamin D can protect against heart failure. Their results appear in the July issue of the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology.
In the study, treatments with activated vitamin D prevented heart muscle cells from growing bigger – the condition, called hypertrophy, in which the heart becomes enlarged and overworked in people with heart failure.
The treatments prevented heart muscle cells from the over-stimulation and increased contractions associated with the progression of heart failure.
About 5.3 million Americans have heart failure, a progressive, disabling condition in which the heart becomes enlarged as it is forced to work harder and harder, making it a challenge even to perform normal daily activities.
Many people with heart disease or poorly controlled high blood pressure go on to experience a form of heart failure called congestive heart failure, in which the heart’s inability to pump blood around the body causes weakness and fluid build-up in lungs and limbs. Many people with heart failure, who tend to be older, have been found to be deficient in vitamin D.
“Heart failure will progress despite the best medications,” says Simpson, a professor of pharmacology at the U-M Medical School. “We think vitamin D retards that progression and protects the heart." [Source: Science Daily ]
Filed under Vitamin D by on Jun 22nd, 2008.
