Critical Importance of Vitamin-D -- Excellent Article

[Guest guest]

Hello CR ALL:

On behalf of my good friend Bob Bessen, I am posting at his request

the following information about the importance of Vitamin-D.

If this is a duplicate posting -- no apologies. It is important

enough to read twice. Please read.

For me Warren, lack of Vitamin-D was one of the primary causes of

my own severe osteoporosis. For 5 years, I was photophobic

(completely avoided any sun exposure). I failed to take any

supplements, and the resultant vitamin-D deficiency resulted in

osteoporosis more severe than any person 1 in 1000 suffers at my age.

Lesson 1: Get enough Vitamin-D

Lesson 2: Read Bob's quotes from the Dec 2003 Nutrition Action

Health Letter -- Many reasons to supplement Vit-D.

Below is courtesy of Bob Bessen (Thank you).

============================================

Excellent Vitamin D article:

Here are some excerpts from an article called " Soaking Up The D's, " in

the December 2003 issue of Nutrition Action Healthletter.

The people from the Center For Science In The Public Interest (CSPI)

interviewed F. Holick, director of the Vitamin D, Skin and Bone

Research Laboratory and Professor of Medicine, Dermatology, Physiology

and Biophysics at Boston University Medical Center. Dr. Holick's book,

The UV Advantage, will be published by iBooks and distributed by Simon

and Schuster in May.

Many people get too little Vit D, because few foods contain it, and

most people do not get enough sun exposure to make enough.

The skin makes Vit D when UVB penetrates the skin and converts a

precursor into Vit D.

If you live north of Los Angeles on the West Coast or Atlanta in the

East, you won't get enough UVB in the winter to make enough Vit D.

Vit D deficiency increases the risk of bone fracture. Vit D increases

the efficiency of the intestines to absorb calcium and phosphorus from

food, and increases the activity of bone cells that make and lay down

bone matrix.

If an adult is deficient in Vit D and not getting enough calcium,

calcium is drawn out of the bones (to keep your heart beating and

muscles contracting), which causes osteoporosis.

Research shows that by giving nursing home residents 800 IU of Vit D

and 800 mg of calcium a day, they markedly reduce the risk of

fractures.

If you are deficient in Vit D, you only absorb 10-15% of the calcium

you consume.

Vit D deficiency may cause other problems: almost every tissue in the

body, including the brain, breasts, bone, colon, intestine, heart,

kidneys and prostate—has a receptor for Vit D. The active form of Vit

D is one of the most potent hormones to inhibit cell proliferation. If

a cancer cell is proliferating out of control, activated Vit D could

inhibit its growth.

If you use a sunscreen rated SPF-8 properly, it reduces the ability to

make Vit D by more than 90%.

Sensible sun exposure would be 5-10 minutes on the arms and legs or

face and arms, two to three times a week. Your skin makes the most Vit

D between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Five to ten minutes is for a light-

skinned Caucasian in Boston in June, between 11-2 p.m. In Florida, it

may be only two to three minutes.

North of 35 degrees latitude you cannot make any vitamin D in the

winter, even at noon. Canadians cannot make Vit D in their skin for

four to seven months of the year.

You need 1,000 IU per day of Vit D if you are not exposed to the

sunlight.

If you are 70 years old, your skin can make only 25% of the Vit D that

a 20-year-old can make when exposed to the same amount of sun. But a

70-year-old can make enough. If elders are out in the sunlight for 15-

20 minutes a couple times a week, they will maintain their Vit D

levels.

The National Academy of Sciences says that people should not exceed

2,000 IU of Vit D per day, the upper safe limit. This was determined

from published studies. However, other studies suggest that at least

5,000 IU and maybe 10,000 IU a day is safe.

You cannot get Vit D toxicity due to too much sun---any excess from the

sun is destroyed.

If you consume too much Vit D from supplements or food, you absorb too

much calcium, so you can get high blood calcium, kidney stones, kidney

calcification, kidney failure, soft-tissue calcification, and

calcification of blood vessels that can lead to death.

People who are deficient in Vit D can be given 50,000 IU once a week

for eight weeks to replete their stores of Vit D, and then 50,000 IU

once or twice a month. Dr. Holick has never seen any Vit D toxicity

with this regimen.

People should get their Vitamin D levels checked at least once a year.

The best time is around November, because if you are deficient then,

you will be severely deficient at the end of winter. The test to order

is 25-hydroxy-vitamin D, NOT 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D, which is the

active form; testing the active form is useless. Blood levels of

25-hydroxyvitamin D should be between 30 and 50 nanograms per

milliliter.

You store Vit D in your body fat. If you get enough sun in the summer

and fall, your stores will carry you through the winter.

Bob Bessen