http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq1t9WqOD-0
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.
I took 40,000 units a week for two months to get back to normal levels. That was a year ago, and I seem to be holding steady now.
"Getting too much calcium from dietary supplements has been associated with kidney stones, while excessive vitamin D can damage the kidneys and heart."
Those were truly the good old days...our idea of doing drugs was trying to slip cigarettes from our dads.
All those beached whale people are going to be overdosing on the stuff ~" <<<<
I'm not entirely clear if I'm familiar with that specific symptom, but I'd presume that they are meaning some type of ANOREXIA, known to be due to D-toxicity.
I suppose LOSING A KIDNEY could also be a similar form of "weight loss."
I am curious though, if I may have had that very reaction decades ago when I tried out... I think it was the Air Force Diet, and if it wasn't that one, then it was the Quick Weight Loss Diet -- I was relying upon canned red sockeye salmon for the daily protein, and within a month I'd not only lost weight but entirely lost my appetite for food.
LOL
Is it possible that a HIGH-FATTY-FISH diet might be responsible for so-called Will Power?
Also, I'm positive that one would need a teen's high burning metabolism to see such impact so fast. AND I do not recall the horrendous aches, the muscles, the joints, the nerves acting like they've been plugged into an electrical outlet.
Luckily my symptoms recede within weeks of quitting Vitamin D supplementation. I must be REALLY REALLY REALLY healthy since I obviously have such high D-Levels. [/s] [[lol]]
VERY interesting stuff sometimes.
Do you have pernicious anaemia? Or any kind of anemia?
Pernicious anemia is a permanent and persistent shortage of B-12.
You let that go on too long you go gnuts ~
There are some interesting medical pieces in Scandinavian medical research journals regarding hereditary B-12 deficiency. It’s pretty common there ~ particularly in the FAR NORTH and we know who lives there.
I don’t see them pointing to the Kven people on that one though. I think they’re recognized as being undifferentiated from non-Sa’ami Finns.
BTW, there’s no information that shows that folks who eat red beets regularly, or take B-12 sublingual pills ever develop Alzheimers.
B-12 sublingual is packed in dried red beet juice BTW.
Take no chances.
Well, then, since so many millions of Americans have an ancestor from early New Sweden which was populated by Saami foresters -- there must be an epidemic of B-12 Deficiency in this country.
Are you saying that NOBODY who takes Vit.B-12 *ever* develops Alzheimer's Disease, or are you making some kind of joke that I'm too dense to catch?
So, yeah, people with an ancestor or two, or a hundred, or a thousand in and among the original New Sweden or York PA settlements probably have an hereditary B-12deficiency.
The B-12 and beet notes have been discussed earlier. The most recent one using "beet" in the title is at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2619626/posts
You'll also want to go to http://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/news/20101018/vitamin-b12-linked-to-lower-alzheimers-risk to get started.
Simultaneously with the US and British reports on the topic the Scandinavian researchers put out their own stuff showing a negative correlation of Alzheimers in folks on what amounts to a strictly seafood and meat diet ~
Beets darned near disappeared from grocery store shelves. I went to the local Safeway and took their last two cans! (BTW, that was my first trip outside the house except to the doctor in months ~ the eye thing).
VERY interesting!!
I’ll particularly keep an eye out for the Scandinavian research, I’ll bet that warmed the hearts of the Atkins Diet folks.
Beets?
No thanks.
I’ve been taking 5000ui of D with my multi vitiamin for over 2 months now. I feel great and haven’t caught any of the illnesses that have proliferated at work and home. My husband (yes we sleep in the same bed) has not given me 3 different cold and or flu bugs he has faught with in the same time frame. Usually I get sick along with the rest of my household. And I’ve never had a flu shot....
Hmmm....
I try to get everyone to take a vitamin and extra D, and they do sometimes. But I’m the only one that does it daily....
I also just added a OMEGA 3/6/9 gel pill to my daily.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq1t9WqOD-0
During flu season I try, make that mostly haphazardly, to get on a vitamin regime including vitamin D3 (has to be the “3”). The recomendation was 3000-5000 during the H1N1 scare. I checked the medicine cabinet last month when there were outbreaks in Europe and Asia and we’re good to go. Knock on wood, it’s not hit here yet but if/when it does I’ll probably bump it up to 3000 and start filling up the little dosage containers for everyone again.
Thanks for the PING!
Thanks hennie pennie.
FReeper darnright pointed me to a blog that includes some good general info on vitamin D. Getting vitamin D right. Don't recall seeing before that the vitamin D in milk is often D2, not D3. Would expect that years ago but not today.
FReeper LucyT pointed me to this: H11N1 strain isolated in one Eurasian Spoonbill: Report (flu types). I thought it had some good basic info on flu types, especially avian flu.
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