A new analysis of current research provides “the strongest evidence to date” that giving small children supplemental vitamin D will help prevent them from developing type 1 diabetes later on, according to the review’s co-author.

The vitamin D Council’s Newsletter is out for June.

The focus of this issue is a 7 year old boy with autism. I’ve pasted much of the information below, be sure to check out the entire newsletter (but this is the only topic for this month)

In this month’s Vitamin D Council newsletter, Dr. John Cannell, psychiatrist and director of the non-profit educational organization, the Vitamin D Council, reports on a 7-year-old 50-pound boy whose autistic symptoms were clearly seasonal, who had a low serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D, and who appeared to rapidly respond to treatment with 2,000 IU of cholecalciferol per day.

John is a seven-year old boy living in the northeastern US with a long standing diagnosis of autism. Symptoms include temper tantrums, repetitive self-stimulatory behavior, impaired language, mood swings, fear of being alone, toileting problems, dysbacteriosis, and impaired muscle strength. John spends a lot of time outdoors starting in the spring and his mother noticed a distinct seasonal variation in his symptoms in that he improved in the summer and regressed in the winter. A 25-hydroxy-vitamin D in April of 2008 was 25 ng/ml and obtained after John had begun to play outside. Due to the seasonality of John’s symptoms the mother consulted me and I advised the mother to stop all products containing vitamin A including cod liver oil and begin John on 5,000 IU of vitamin D3 per day for two weeks followed by 2,000 IU per day in the form of powdered vitamin D dissolved in juice. Within a week of starting the vitamin D language began to return and he was no longer as fearful of being alone. At the end of two weeks his language showed further improvement, he began to toilet himself, counted to 10 and knew the spelling of his name. After three weeks language continued to improve and some improvements were noted in his dysbiosis. After four weeks of vitamin D treatment, the mother noted improvements in muscle strength as well as continued improvements in language. A repeat 25-hydroxy-vitamin D is pending while John continues taking 2,000 IU of vitamin D per day.

Dr. Cannell cautions that this is only a case report and does not prove a treatment effect. Parents need to understand that vitamin D will not cure autism. Furthermore, Dr. Cannell cautions that it is unlikely that older autistic children or individuals with severe autism will show these sorts of apparent improvements. Furthermore, autism is a multifactorial disease with strong genetic roots and it is highly unlikely that treatment of vitamin D deficiency in all autistic children will result in similar improvements. Finally, Dr. Cannell did not examine this child, and is relying on the child’s mother to report his condition and his apparent response to vitamin D treatment. However, the mother agreed to speak with the press about her son and allow for independent confirmation of the apparent treatment response.

Dr. Cannell also reminds readers that the main value of case reports is to stimulate further research. He called upon Dr. Thomas Insel, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, to see that additional needed reasearch is done in a timely manner.

OMG - This new 2008 paper is fantastic!

Expert Opinion Paper on Vitamin D Deficiency
Diagnosis and Treatment of Vitamin D Deficiency is a new paper by four vitamin D experts.
JJ Cannell†, BW Hollis, M Zasloff & RP Heaney

I’ve mentioned previously that mushrooms can be a good source of vitamin D. Well, Dole Food Company is taking mushrooms to a whole new level with their new Sliced Portobello Mushrooms. These babies are vitamin D super charged with a flash of light!

I’m not a fan of mushrooms, but for those of you who are this product might just be something you’d like to add to your cuisine.

“Vitamin D helps prostate cancer”

“it doesn’t”

“it does”

“it doesn’t”

“it does”

…..and so goes the world of nutritional medicine.

If you’d like to read a good article about a new study that says vitamin D does NOT help prostate cancer, followed by a really good explanation about how it likely does help prostate cancer check out this link:

Study looks at link between vitamin D and prostate cancer risk

Relationship between Low Ultraviolet B Irradiance [vitamin D] and Higher Breast Cancer Risk in 107 Countries – Source: The Breast Journal, May-June 2008

Epidemiological data show an inverse relationship between vitamin D levels and breast cancer incidence. This study investigates the relationship of modeled and measured serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels with age-standardized incidence rates of breast cancer in 107 countries.

The hypothesis being tested is that breast cancer incidence is inversely related to geographically-dependent cutaneous [skin] sunlight exposure. A multiple regression approach was used to examine the contributions of ultraviolet B (UVB) irradiance to age-standardized incidence rates of breast cancer in the 107 countries with data on these covariates - total column ozone thickness, per capita intake of alcohol and energy from animal and vegetable sources, cigarettes, proportion of female population overweight, and total fertility.

Age-standardized incidence rates were substantially higher at latitudes distant from the equator (R2 = 0.43, p < 0.0001). The dose–response gradient between modeled serum 25(OH)D levels and incidence rates of breast cancer followed a standard inverse dose–response curve Increasing increments in serum 25(OH)D in the range above 22 ng/mL were associated with incrementally lower incidence rates of breast cancer.

According to multiple regression, UVB irradiance adjusted for cloud cover was inversely associated with incidence rates (p = 0.04) after controlling for covariates.

Intake of energy from animal sources was also positively associated with incidence rates (p < 0.01). The overall coefficient of determination, R2, was 0.81 (p < 0.0001).

There was a protective effect of UVB irradiance on risk of breast cancer that was independent of fertility rate, proportion of the population overweight, alcohol intake, animal energy intake, and other covariates.

Source: The Breast Journal, May/June 2008, 14(3) pp. 255-260. PMID: 18422861 by Mohr SB, Garland CF, Gorham ED, Grant WB, Garland FC. Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla; and Sunlight, Nutrition, and Health Research Center, San Francisco, California, USA [E-mail: cgarland@ucsd.edu]

A new study has come out about kids and vitamin D deficiency that will soon be published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Here’s the headline from this important research:

Raising current vitamin D levels from 200 International Units (IU) to 2,000 IU could boost bone health amongst children and have long-term health benefits, says new research.

Now that is exciting stuff!!

Would you ever have imagined that the people who live in the UAE in the middle east would be seriously at risk of vitamin D deficiency? 65% of females and 60% of males were vitamin D deficient in a recent study of 17,000 residents there. The latitude is just 24 degrees north of the equator!

I’ve got to think that it’s just too hot to get outside for most folks during the peak vitamin D hours of the day. It also may correlate with staying covered up as I’ve already mentioned in recent posts.

Wow, who would have imagined!

New research shows a connection between low vitamin D and back pain in older women.

Here’s a quote from the study:

“Given that low vitamin D status is fairly prevalent in older adults and that there are significant functional consequences to untreated chronic pain, these findings argue strongly for querying adults about their pain and potentially screening older women with significant back pain for vitamin D deficiency,” Dr. Gregory E. Hicks of the University of Delaware in Newark and his colleagues write.

There’s more information coming out with regard to vitamin D being connected to various pain problems. There was a recent pilot study completed at a Multidisciplinary pain rehabilitation center. The study was call - Prevalence and Clinical Correlates of Vitamin D Inadequacy among Patients with Chronic Pain

Here’s the conclusion of that study:

Conclusion: The prevalence and clinical correlates identified in this pilot study provide the basis for the assertion that vitamin D inadequacy may represent an under-recognized source of nociception [feeling pain] and impaired neuromuscular functioning among patients with chronic pain.

How about you? Have you noticed any reduction in pain by taking vitamin D?

This is sort of a follow-up post to the previous one about Asian women hiding from the sun for cosmetic purposes. There’s quite a body of work studying veiled women and vitamin D deficiency. I get so focused on the parts of the world that are naturally deprived of vitamin D due to latitude I guess I sometimes forget about those deprived of vitamin D due to cultural circumstances.

Vitamin D deficiency in veiled or dark-skinned pregnant women

Vitamin D deficiency in mothers of infants with rickets

A study of Arab women in Denmark (Calcif Tissue Int 2000; 66: 419-424) by researchers Glerup, Mikkelsen, Poulsen and others found that a group of Arab women suffering from muscle pain and weakness were suffering from a deficiency of vitamin D, which improved after three months of vitamin D therapy.
High prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among pregnant women and their newborns in northern India

“Almost every woman I see has osteomalacia,” Samar says. “Their bones are softening due to a lack of Vitamin D. They survive on a diet of tea and naan because they can’t afford eggs and milk and, to complicate matters, their burqas and veils deprive them of sunshine.