Vitamin D, calcium combo may cut exercise-related stress fractures
Daily supplements of calcium and vitamin D, long linked to improving bone health, may also reduce the risk of stress fractures during exercise, scientists have reported.
Female arm recruits receiving the daily supplements experienced 20 per cent fewer stress fractures than their un-supplemented counterparts, according to research published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.
Low levels of vitamin D were associated with an increased risk for peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in a large, cross-sectional study.
Women with a very low blood level of 25(OH)D have a considerably increased breast cancer risk. The effect was found to be strongest in women who were not taking hormones for relief of menopausal symptoms.
In the past 10 years a stream of reports has announced the return of rickets. Although small in number, these cases foreshadow a larger problem of vitamin D-deficient children.
Vitamin D reverses diabetic neuropathy
Vitamin D supplementation is an effective treatment of neuropathic pain in Type 2 diabetes patients, new Australian research suggests.
Vitamin D in brain function
Vitamin D supplementation for high risk groups may be warranted. McCann & Ames point out that evidence for vitamin D’s involvement in brain function includes the wide distribution of vitamin D receptors throughout the brain. They also discuss vitamin D’s ability to affect proteins in the brain known to be directly involved in learning and memory, motor control, and possibly even maternal and social behavior.
Can vitamin D make you a bigger, faster, stronger athlete?? This is a cool subject and it might just help spread the word about the importance of knowing your vitamin D level.
I’ve always been a fitness nut and sports fan. I’ve coached a ton of baseball in the past 8 years, so I’m always curious about ways to help my players become better athletes and or heal from their injuries. I also specialize in treating sports injuries with acupuncture, so I guess you could say it’s “my thing” (or at least one of them). read on………
Let’s take a look at a piece of the Q and A from the new issue of the Vitamin D councils April newsletter…
Dear Dr. Cannell:
After reading your previous newsletter, I looked for and found a definite correlation between the average UV radiation in a state and the number of quality athletes the state produces per million population. Hawaii is way in front and the southern states way ahead of northern states. I’ve also found a correlation of multiple super bowl appearances/wins with team geographic UV radiation. I’ve also found a correlation between the per capita number of PGA golfers (with most annual wins) and UV radiation (not published yet). Thought you might find my website of interest: Sunshine and Peak Performance.
Tonis, Greensboro, NC
Dear Tonis:
Good work. And once again, the first reference in the world’s literature that vitamin D will help athletes was published by this newsletter. Can you imagine what will happen in professional sports when athletes realize that vitamin D improves their speed, strength, timing and quickness?
John Jacob Cannell MD
That’s the end of the piece from the April news letter, so I went to dig up more info that Dr. Cannell refers to. It’s from the Vitamin D Council’s March 2007 newsletter. you can read the whole thing here, but I’ve pasted the summary below.
In Summary (John Jacob Cannell MD)
Five converging—but totally separate—lines of scientific evidence leave little doubt that vitamin D improves athletic performance. There is actually a sixth line of evidence that i left out due to its complexity: the two studies I found on muscle strength and vitamin D receptor polymorphisms (genetic variations), both were positive. Anyway, the scientific evidence that UVB radiation, either from the sun or a sunbed, will improve athletic performance is overwhelming and the mechanism is almost certainly vitamin D production. Peak athletic performance will probably occur with 25OHD levels of about 50 ng/mL, a level that can be obtained through the use of supplements as well.
All that is missing is a big time professional or college team identifying, and then treating, their elite athletes who are vitamin D deficient. Can you imagine what such performance enhancing effects would do for basketball players, the majority of which are black and practice and play indoors all winter? Or gymnasts? Weight lifters? Can you imagine what it might do for those chronic neuromuscular injuries which are so common in sports medicine?
A word of caution, though. The above studies suggest that taking too much vitamin D (more than 5,000 IU/day) may actually worsen athletic performance. So take the right amount, not all you can swallow. Take enough to keep your 25 hydroxyvitamin D levels around 50 ng/mL, year round. Easier yet, regularly use the sun in the summer and a sun bed (once a week should be about right) in the winter—with care not to burn.
When you think about it, none of this should surprise anyone. Every bodybuilder knows that steroid hormones can improve athletic performance and they certainly increase muscle mass. Barry Bonds knows they increase timing and power. Activated vitamin D is as potent a steroid hormone as exists in the human body. However, unlike other steroids, levels of activated vitamin D in muscle and nerve tissue are primarily regulated by sun exposure. That’s right, the rate limiting step for the autocrine function of activated vitamin D is under your control and depends on how much daily vitamin D you receive. It’s ironic that many athletes now avoid the sun. Organized baseball is even promoting sun avoidance and sunblocks. The ancient Greeks knew better; they had their elite athletes train on the beach and in the nude.
So the level of vitamin D (50 ng/mL) associated with peak athletic performance is the very same level that recent studies show also helps to prevent cancer, diabetes, hypertension, influenza, multiple sclerosis, major depression, cognitive decline, etc. But who cares about all that disease stuff old people get! We’re talking about important stuff here: speed, balance, reaction time, muscle mass and strength, squats, reps. As for my young basketball player, guess who’s now taking 4,000 IU vitamin D a day? That’s right! And his 25?hydroxyvitamin D level is now 54 ng/mL. Has this improved his game? Well…he said to me he feels his timing is better, can jump a little higher, run faster and…oh yeah! and that the ball feels “sweeter”—whatever that means.
John Jacob Cannell MD Executive Director
So there you have it. Pretty interesting stuff wouldn’t you say? Based on this information, evaluating your vitamin D level and maintaining it in the 50-65 ng/mL part of the range seems like a reasonable thing to do if you’re an athlete trying to improve your game. I’d be curious to know if anyone hears any buzz about this in sports circles out there!
Results of a new study gives a great reason for expectant mothers to figure out their vitamin D status!
Vitamin D Deficiency May be to Blame for Soft Bones in Baby’s Skull:
Description
Softening of the skull bones in normal-looking babies might reflect vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy, according to a new study accepted for publication in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). Furthermore, breast-feeding without vitamin D supplementation could prolong the deficiency which might lead to a risk of serious health problems later in life.
MUSC doctors look at vitamin D’s effect on early-stage prostate cancer
Vitamin D kills prostate cancer cells in the laboratory. Now, specialists at the Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina are studying whether vitamin D will halt the cancer’s progression in early-stage patients. (read more)
A Ray Of Sunshine In The Fight Against Cancer: Vitamin D May Help
“As time has gone by, Vitamin D has raised its head as a sort of ambrosia for cancers,” says Dr. Louise Parker, an epidemiologist and a world expert in the environmental exposures that can lead to cancer. Or, in the case of Vitamin D, the lack of exposure. (read more)
There’s a new study out that is shows some promising correlations between kids getting enough vitamin D and preventing type 1 diabetes later in their lives. It wasn’t a clinical trial, but it will probably help inspire one.
On another note, one of our patients mentioned that his nephew asked her doctor to check her vitamin D, which he did. When the result came back at an 8 (normal range starts at 32), she was told not to worry about it! Huh? Is that strange or what? Why run the test if you’re not going to do anything about it being abnormally low?
I just finished reading a fantastic article on vitamin D. Surprise surprise, it’s out of Canada. The Canadians have been doing such an awesome job of giving this subject excellent exposure. The article is called The vitamin D miracle: Is it for real? It’s 4 pages long so don’t miss the links to click to the next page at the bottom of each page. I particularly liked reading the last page where there’s discussion of some of the theories behind how exactly vitamin D might be playing a roll in preventing cancer at the cellular level.
In other vitamin D news, there was an interesting study headed up by Michael Holick, comparing the effectiveness of D2 and D3. This particular study concludes that they both work equally well at maintaining serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels. There have been a couple of other studies that show D2 to be less effective. You can see the details here: Vitamin D2 Is as Effective as Vitamin D3 in Maintaining Circulating Concentrations of 25-Hydroxyvitamin D. We’ll be sticking with the D3 at our clinic, since it’s the natural (bioidentical) variety of the supplement, and we have seen the D2 not maintain the levels as well as the D3.
Man, this was a surprise…..Check out this quote from the conclusion of recent vitamin D study in Arizona “Despite residing in a region with high chronic sun exposure, adults in southern Arizona are commonly deficient in vitamin D deficiency, particularly blacks and Hispanics.” You can read the details of the study here - Vitamin D insufficiency in southern Arizona
1. Back in September 07 there was a big vitamin D conference called Vitamin D and Health in the 21st Century — An Update. Just a heads-up, the proceedings from the conference will be published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in the spring of 2008. Should be some very interesting news and information coming out from this conference!
2. This is sort of Vitamin D news……Cod liver oil has long been known to be a good source of vitamin D, so this headline got my curiosity up: Cod liver oil tied to low bone mass in women. Researchers speculate that it might be related to the vitamin A content of the oil. Since the population they studied (Norwegians) already eat a diet very rich in vitamin A, the additional vitamin A in the cod liver oil might be causing the bone density problem for these folks.
3. I just checked the UV forecast for today. We’re holding steady at low here in Bellingham, as we have been for several months now. Hawaii is in the extreme high end of the range at 11 which means it can take less than 10 minutes for skin damage!
