A recent study from the University of South Australia, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that vitamin D deficiency is associated with premature death. It also found that with severe vitamin D deficiency, the risk of mortality is even greater. We obtain Vitamin D from the sun, but despite the climate of Australia providing easy opportunity for adequate sun exposure, one third of Australian adults are deficient in vitamin D. Vitamin D is produced in the skin when exposed to the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Sunlight triggers cholesterol in skin cells to synthesize vitamin D. When one has been exposed to the sun for about half of the time it would take to get a sunburn, it has produced the daily requirement for vitamin D.
Lead researcher Josh Sutherland phD says that although it is difficult to prove a causal effect, Vitamin D deficiency being associated with excess mortality seems clear. “While severe vitamin D deficiency is rarer in Australia than elsewhere in the world, it can still affect those who have health vulnerabilities, the elderly, and those who do not acquire enough vitamin D from healthy sun exposure and dietary sources. Our study provides strong evidence for the connection between low levels of vitamin D and mortality, and this is the first study of its kind to also include respiratory disease related mortality as an outcome.” He continues, “We used a new genetic method to explore and affirm the non-linear relationships that we’ve seen in observational settings, and through this we’ve been able to give strong evidence for the connection between low vitamin D status and premature death. Vitamin D deficiency has been connected with mortality, but as clinical trials have often failed to recruit people with low vitamin D levels — or have been prohibited from including vitamin deficient participants — it’s been challenging to establish causal relationships.”
The validity of this study’s statistical analysis is strengthened by its size and the length of time it followed its study subjects until its completion. The blood measurements of 307,000 people were utilized, and a follow up of 14 years was done to obtain death rates among the subjects. Low levels of vitamin D were defined at less than <25 nmol/L . The average level was found to be 45.2 nmol/L. At the end of the 14-year follow up period, it was found that the strongest negative effect on mortality was seen among those with severe deficiencies.
Senior study investigator Professor E.Hyppönen, Director of the Australian Centre for Precision Health, says that effective public health strategies need to be implemented to benefit the population at large. “The take-home message here is simple,” she says. ” The key is in prevention. It is not good enough to think about vitamin D deficiency when already facing life-challenging situations, when early action could make all the difference. It is very important to continue public health efforts to ensure the vulnerable and elderly maintain sufficient vitamin D levels throughout the year.”
The study was published under the heading Vitamin D Deficiency Increases Mortality Risk in the UK Biobank. 2022; DOI: 10.7326/M21-3324
When one considers the extensive scientific literature documenting the many health benefits of optimizing Vitamin D levels it should not be surprising that a deficiency would result in excess mortality.
Here is a summary of research showing the various disease preventing benefits of Vitamin D: https://drsobo.com/anti-
Cancer
Research has shown a consistent association between good vitamin D levels and a lower risk for a number of cancers. Patients who regularly consumed vitamin D found in fish were 40 per cent less likely to develop colonic polyps than those who got little or no vitamin D. One cancer study found that giving cancer patients vitamin D could help radiation work more effectively. Another study from the Dartmouth Medical School using mice found that combining vitamin D with radiation enhanced the destruction of cancer cells. The mice given Vitamin D were shown to have tumor size approximately 50 percent smaller than in those that received radiation alone. https://drsobo.com/
Heart Disease
Researchers from University of Bonn found that levels of the vitamin D levels are lower in the blood of patients with chronic heart failure. A study from the University of California at San Francisco with over 9,000 female subjects who were 65 years of age and older, found that the women who used vitamin D supplements had a 31 per cent lower risk of heart disease death than those who did not.
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Osteoporosis
Vitamin D deficiency has also been linked to osteoporosis. That’s because the body can’t adequately absorb calcium — which is needed for strong, healthy bones that resist fracture — without vitamin D.
Diabetes
Finland has the highest reported incidence of type 1 diabetes in the world. In north Finland, there are only two hours of sunlight —the key source of vitamin D — every day in December.
Muscle and bone pain
University of Minnesota Medical School published a study of 150 children and adults with unexplained muscle and bone pain. Ninety four per cent were found to be deficient in vitamin D Fifty five percent were severely deficient.
Vitamin D Improves Mood
Oregon State University published research from a study of 185 female college students, between 18 and 25 years of age. Study participants completed a depression symptom survey weekly for five weeks. Vitamin D blood levels were measured and it was found that the subject’s vitamin D levels dropped during the fall, were even lower in winter, and rose again in the spring. The women with lower levels of vitamin D were more likely to have significant depressive symptoms.
A study of patients diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) had improved when given vitamin D supplementation during the winter. https://drsobo.com/
Headaches
The University of Eastern Finland published a study showing that Vitamin D deficiency was associated with an increased having of chronic headaches. Their analysed vitamin D levels in 2,600 men between 42 and 60 years of age. Those with low levels of Vitamin D were more than twice as likely to suffer from headaches. Outside of the summer months of the year, this problem was even more apparent.
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Dementia
The Universityof California at Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center, studied the relationship between vitamin D levels and decline in cognitive functions in elderly subjects. Those with low levels developed dementia at a rate three times faster than those with healthy vitamin D levels as published in JAMA Neurology.
They studied 400 men and women of various backgrounds from Northern California with a mean age of seventy six. They followed the study participants for five years. At the beginning of the study start the study they classified the subjects as being cognitively normal, having mild cognitive impairment or having dementia. The serum vitamin D levels measured at the beginning of the study, and after five years showed that the vitamin D deficient subjects suffered cognitive decline that was up three times faster than those with healthy vitamin D levels.
Joshua Miller, MD the lead author said “Independent of race or ethnicity, baseline cognitive abilities and a host of other risk factors, vitamin D insufficiency was associated with significantly faster declines in both episodic memory and executive function performance… This work, and that of others, suggests that there is enough evidence to recommend that people in their 60s and older discuss taking a daily vitamin D supplement with their physicians”.
Director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Center Charles DeCarli explains, “We expected to see declines in individuals with low vitamin D status. What was unexpected was how profoundly and rapidly low vitamin D impacts cognition. I don’t know if replacement therapy would affect these cognitive trajectories. That needs to be researched and we are planning on doing that.This is a vitamin deficiency that could easily be treated and that has other health consequences. We need to start talking about it, particularly for people of color, for whom vitamin D deficiency appears to present an even greater risk,” he said.
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Chronic Inflammation
The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center found that weight loss, along with vitamin D supplementation, produced a greater effect on reducing chronic inflammation than weight loss alone. Being overweight is associated with chronic inflammation which is known to contribute to the development and progression of many diseases including cancer .
Their study, published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research had involved 200 overweight and vitamin D deficient postmenopausal women. Lead researcher Catherine Duggan, Ph.D says, “We know from our previous studies that by losing weight, people can reduce their overall levels of inflammation, and there is some evidence suggesting that taking vitamin D supplements can have a similar effect if one has insufficient levels of the nutrient. This the first study to test whether adding vitamin D augments the considerable effect of weight loss on inflammatory biomarkers.” They found that it does. At the completion of the study, all of the participants who had lost weight had reduced levels of inflammation, regardless of whether they took However, those who took Vitamin D supplements had the most significant decline in markers of inflammation. “That suggests vitamin D can augment the effect of weight loss on inflammation.” Dr Duggan concluded. https://drsobo.com/weight-
Multiple Sclerosis
Johns Hopkins published a study in the Journal Neurology in which they gave study subjects with relapsing-remitting MS, either a high dose (10,400 IU) or a low dose (800 IU)of vitamin D3 supplements daily for six months. Blood tests were done at the start of the study and again again at three and six months. They measured vitamin D in the blood and the response of the person’s immune system’s T cells which are fet to play a role in Multiple Sclerosis. The subjects who took the high dose had a reduction in the percentage of inflammatory T cells related to MS severity. Those who had taken the low dose did not have any significant change.
- Lead study author of the study Peter Calabresi, MD. said, “We hope that these changes in inflammatory T cell responses translate to a reduced severity of disease. Other clinical trials are underway to determine if that is the case. More research is needed to confirm these findings with larger groups of people and to help us understand the mechanisms for these effects, but the results are promising. Vitamin D has the potential to be an inexpensive, safe and convenient treatment for people with MS”.
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Asthma
- As per a study published in the medical journal Allergy,
those subjects with a Vitamin D deficiency were 25 percent more likely to suffer an asthmatic attack in a defined time period. For this study Vitamin D levels from the medical records of more than 300,00 people were viewed to reach their conclusions. They also found that asthmatics who were Vitamin D-deficient were more likely to have “uncontrolled asthma” requiring the prescription of multiple inhaler medications, or steroids to control their asthma, or having had four or more doctor visits for asthma attacks over ayer’s time. Dr. Confino-Cohen of the reseacrh team said, “Our results add more evidence to the link between Vitamin D and asthma, suggesting beneficial effects of Vitamin D on asthma exacerbations.”
