Posted on 01/04/2011 6:27:35 AM PST by decimon
CINCINNATI—A new study shows that vitamin D deficiency could be linked to the development and severity of certain autoimmune lung diseases.
These findings are being reported in the Jan. 4 edition of the journal Chest.
Brent Kinder, MD, UC Health pulmonologist, director of the Interstitial Lung Disease Center at the University of Cincinnati and lead investigator on the study, says vitamin D deficiencies have been found to affect the development of other autoimmune diseases, like lupus and type 1 diabetes.
"We wanted to see if lack of sufficient vitamin D would also be seen in patients who are diagnosed with an autoimmune interstitial lung disease (ILD) and whether it was associated with reduced lung function," he says.
Some ILD patients first discover they have an undifferentiated connective tissue disease, a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease that affects multiple organ systems but is not developed enough for physicians to easily recognize and categorize.
Autoimmune diseases occur when the body produces abnormal cells that turn on the body and attack major organs and tissues. Connective tissue diseases include lupus, scleroderma, polymyositis, vasculitis, rheumatoid arthritis and Sjogren's syndrome.
"ILD is a group of diseases that mainly affect the tissues of the lungs instead of the airways, like asthma and emphysema do," says Kinder. "It causes scarring of the lungs, is more difficult to diagnosis and treat than other kinds of lung diseases and is often fatal.
"Since vitamin D deficiency has implications for other manifestations of autoimmune illnesses, we wanted to see it had an effect on the lungs of this patient population."
Researchers evaluated 118 patients from the UC ILD Center database—67 with connective tissue disease-related ILD and 51 with other causes of lung fibrosis—for serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels, which indicate levels of vitamin D in the body. Then, they evaluated associations between these serum levels and the patients' conditions.
Overall, those with connective tissue disease-related ILD were more likely to have vitamin D deficiency—52 percent versus 20 percent—and insufficiency—79 percent versus 31 percent—than other forms of ILD.
Among this same group of patients, reduced serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were strongly associated with reduced lung function.
"These findings suggest that there is a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in patients with ILD, particularly those with connective tissue disease," Kinder says. "Therefore, vitamin D may have a role in the development of connective tissue disease-related ILD and patients' worsening lung function.
"One of the next steps is to see if supplementation will improve lung function for these patients."
He adds that if these findings are confirmed and vitamin D supplementation is shown to be effective in clinical trials, this may also provide a more natural, inexpensive treatment for the illness.
"Vitamin D is known to be a critical dietary factor for bone and skin health," he says. "Now, we're learning that it could potentially be modified as a treatment to improve ILD as opposed to other, more toxic therapies."
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This study was funded by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Research Loan Repayment Grant and a K23 award from the NIH.
Yeah, Holick may be the original vitamin D evangelist. But I’m in the D flock of my own accord. ;-)
Yep, that’s right. UVB is required and it’s filtered out by the atmosphere when the sun is low in the sky. I have read you need at least 40 percent of your body exposed for “optimal” Vitamin D production though, and stay out just long enough for your skin to just start turning pink; approx. 15 minutes depending on your skin tone.
...actually, Whales are loaded with vitamin D.
Probably from krill.
Or for whales that eat fish, that means whole fish, and that means fish livers, which are full of the stuff.
Cod liver oil! I can’t believe my 4 year old son likes it. It does have orange flavoring, though,not like the stuff my dad would give us when we were kids.
Yup.
But I have to say that out of ALL the supplements you can take, fish liver oil is probably one you want to be careful with. In fact almost any liver type substances.
There are stories of explorers, etc. in the arctic who run out of food, then after a while catch a polar bear or whatever and eat the liver.
Then they keel over dead from Vitamin A poisoning or Vit D overdose.
So it can happen!! And fish livers are loaded with the stuff, so be careful!
Then they keel over dead from Vitamin A poisoning or Vit D overdose.
No offense but I don't believe that has happened. The vitamin A overdose is possible but that would require a whole lotta liver.
Old news - that's what Jonah said among other things.
Great - can you provide a reference to this? As far as energy is concerned - the shorter the wavelength usually the more penetrating power. I'm not so sure there is a proportionate difference between UVA and UVB exposure as the sun agle changes. As the angle increases TOTAL UV exposure drops as the light has to go through more atmosphere but i'm interested in seeing your citation that UVB halts sooner than UVA. Thanks
There is disagreement about the conclusions.
But two facts are known: They ate the livers, and they did die.
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/183_11_051205/car10291_fm.html
Actually Vit D along with a couple others are cumulative- however like anything else it should be taken sensibly and there is no problem. Mega-doses are the reason people can get into trouble.
The medical literature suggests most older people do not have/ get enough- a google check will bring up some reliable data.
“Sun exposure Most people meet their vitamin D needs through exposure to sunlight [5,31]. Ultraviolet (UV) B radiation with a wavelength of 290-315 nanometers penetrates uncovered skin and converts cutaneous 7-dehydrocholesterol to previtamin D3, which in turn becomes vitamin D3 [9,32,33]. Season, geographic latitude, time of day, cloud cover, smog, skin melanin content, and sunscreen are among the factors that affect UV radiation exposure and vitamin D synthesis [33]. The UV energy above 42 degrees north latitude (a line approximately between the northern border of California and Boston) is insufficient for cutaneous vitamin D synthesis from November through February [5]; in far northern latitudes, this reduced intensity lasts for up to 6 months. In the United States, latitudes below 34 degrees north (a line between Los Angeles and Columbia, South Carolina) allow for cutaneous production of vitamin D throughout the year [27].”
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp
Yeah, but dog liver?
I believe I can vouch for this.
Over the summer, I was taking dairy products and outside a LOT for hypocalcemia, getting plenty of vitamin D in. In the last few month, I had some symptoms that were puzzling: my hair was falling out, I had a growing problem with insomnia, and was having breathing issues. Just couldn’t get deep breaths in the way I was.
On Christmas night, I wound up in ER thinking I was having a stroke or heart attack. Turns out the calcium in my blood dropped off and the phosphorus levels were high (turned out to be hypoparathyroidism). So started taking Oscal and calcitriol, a prescrip vitamin D, which I’ll be doing for the rest of my life.
All my odd symptoms had reversed, including my breathing issues. I can breathe in nice and deep again and no longer am having problems with it at night.
You forgot that Vitamin D is in Milk and many other food products. So don't forget that when adding it all up.
People. To understand anything about an overdose of d, you’d have to know what is actually in your bloodstream. It’s not about your dosage. Everyone has a certain therapeutic dose to get you over 60 in your blood, the best amount to have in terms of health. For fighting disease or cancer you’d probably be better off with over 80 on your test results.
I was taking 2000 units all summer, plus some sun, and got tested. My levels were only 24, very low. No wonder I got the flu last year!
I upped my dose of D3 to 10,000 units, and after a few months, got tested again. Only 49, still too low! Now I am on 15,000 units. I hope I’m getting closer to the necessary therapeutic dose. Everyone is different, and you have to all stop bitching about overdose because it cannot happen if you don’t have the therapeutic amount of 60+ in your blood yet. Get tested. It’s not about dose alone.
This is speculation, but...
Vitamin D in hard tablet form may not dissolve quickly enough. I use gel caps.
It's supposed to be taken with a meal and I do that but I also take some that is in caps of 1,000 mg of fish oil and 1,000 IU of vitamin D. Maybe that helps but I don't know.
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