Can vitamin D add years onto your life?

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A meta-analysis of 18 already published studies shows a 7% lower risk

of death from cancer, heart disease, and diabetes among those who take

vitamin D supplements.

Dave

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link:

http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/news/ng.asp?id=79675-archives-of-internal-me\

dicine-vitamin-d-mortality

full text:

Can vitamin D add years onto your life?

By Clarisse Douaud

9/11/2007- Take vitamin D supplements if you want to shuffle off this

mortal coil at a slower rate than others, is the message coming out of

a new meta-analysis.

Published in the September 10 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine,

the meta-analysis examined 18 previously published studies which had

suggested that deficiencies in vitamin D lead to a higher risk of

death from cancer, heart disease and diabetes. However - given that

these illnesses account for between 60 and 70 percent of deaths in

high-income nations - the current analysis indicates the opposite.

In fact, those individuals isolated from the studies who did take

vitamin D had a seven percent lower risk of death than those who did

not take it.

" If the associations made between vitamin D and these conditions were

consistent, then interventions effectively strengthening vitamin D

status should result in reduced total mortality, " wrote the

researchers, hailing from the International Agency for Research on

Cancer in France and from the European Institute of Oncology in Italy.

They searched for randomized controlled trials of vitamin D

supplements published before November 2006. In the end, they analyzed

18 separate trials involving 57,311 participants.

The average vitamin D dose was 528iu (international units), but ranged

from 300 to 2,000iu. Commercially available supplements generally

range from 400 to 600iu.

Over an average follow-up period of 5.7 years, 4,777 of the

participants died. Of the nine trials that had collected blood

samples, those who took supplements had an average of between 1.4 and

5.2 times higher blood levels of vitamin D than those who did not.

" In conclusion, the intake of ordinary doses of vitamin D supplements

seems to be associated with decreases in total mortality rates, "

summed up the authors.

However, the relationship between vitamin D status and supplementation

remains to be understood and the researchers are calling for

population-based, placebo-controlled randomized trials to further

investigate the findings.

" Mechanisms by which vitamin D supplementation would decrease

all-cause mortality are not clear, " said the researchers.

Despite gaps in understanding vitamin D's role in prevention, it is

even more urgent to improve public awareness on the need for vitamin D

supplementation and exposure. Such is the opinion of Dr.

Giovannucci, from the Harvard School of Public Health, who wrote an

editorial accompanying the published meta-analysis.

" Nonetheless, based on the total body of evidence of health conditions

associated with vitamin D deficiency, abetted with the results from

this meta-analysis, a more proactive attitude to identify, prevent and

treat vitamin D deficiency should be part of standard medical care, "

wrote Giovannucci.

" From a broader public health perspective, the roles of moderate sun

exposure, food fortification with vitamin D and higher-dose vitamin D

supplements for adults need to be debated. "

In adults, vitamin D deficiency can lead to osteopenia, osteoporosis,

muscle weakness, fractures, common cancers, autoimmune diseases,

infectious diseases and cardiovascular diseases.

Median adult intake of vitamin D in the US is said to be only 230iu

per day, versus what scientists have said should instead be 2000iu per

day. In addition, they call into question the type of vitamin D used.

Source:

Study

Autier, Philippe and Sara Gandini. " Vitamin D Supplementation and

Total Mortality: A Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. "

Arch Intern Med. 2007;167:1730-1737.

Editorial

Giovannucci, . " Can vitamin D reduce total mortality? " Arch

Intern Med. 2007;167:1709-1710.