#vitamin d study

[thoughtlessarse]

Irish scientists record levels of Vitamin D so low they thought their equipment was broken

75% of people in Donegal had severely deficient levels of the 'sunshine' vitamin.

Anyone who’s ever lived in Ireland—or even spent a few days on the island—will be able to tell you that we don’t get enough sunshine. Ireland already has an abnormally high level of depression—the highest in Europe, in fact-- and many blame the notoriously bad weather as a contributing factor. 

 Now a study performed by Letterkenny University has shown that our rainy climate could actually be making us physically as well as mentally unwell. Donegal-based GP Doctor Martin Coyne studied 10,000 samples of Vitamin D results from people in Donegal and found that over 75% of people had detrimentally low levels of ‘the sunshine vitamin’ in their blood. A further 12% were also deficient in the vitamin, though not as severely low as the 75%.

Vitamin D deficiency leads to bone pain and muscle weakness, including muscles in the heart, as well as cognitive impairment in older adults. It can cause diseases such as osteoporosis, a condition which an estimated 300,000 people in Ireland suffer from.

I can guarantee the results would be similar on the west coast of Scotland.

[metabolic-balance]

More about Vitamin D from Dr. Funfack

In addition to yesterday's Flu Preventing Facts, Dr. Funfack shared another interesting piece of information in his German Newsletter: Instead of compensating it's employees for flu shots, one European company opted to pay for the Vitamin D substitute instead! Not only is this approach cheaper, it might also be more effective. Dr. Funfack announced that he will summarize the results of this trial next spring.

According to Dr. Funfack, such a Vitamin D flu prevention therapy will typically be administered in 2 phases (the Vitamin D doses below refer to therapy guidelines published in Mayo Clin Proc. 2010 August; 85(8): 752–758):

After determining the extend of the Vitamin D deficiency by screening the 25(OH)D blood level, a commonly applied strategy is to prescribe a loading dose that depends on the extend of the deficiency (eg, 50,000 IU of vitamin D orally once weekly for 2-3 months, or 3 times weekly for 1 month). 

Assuming no change in lifestyle or diet, a daily maintenance/prevention dose averaging 2,000 IU/d, which meets the current safe upper limit guidelines. According to recommendations from the Endocrine Society, obese patients, patients with malabsorption syndromes, and patients on medications affecting vitamin D metabolism, may require a dose, which is two to three times higher.

The following inforgraphic published by InformationIsBeautiful.Net not only provides a great visual about Vitamin D Deficiency but also extensive background references for the visualized data.

[metabolic-balance]

British Study Finds a Link between BMI and Vitamin D

According to a recent study, Vitamin D loss has been attributed to Obesity. Here is the article which states that the study does not prove a cause and effect relationship.  Do you think people who are obese are just not getting enough sun to get the right amount of Vitamin D? Do you think if they ventured out and took a walk, things might be a little different?  Let us know your opinion on our Facebook page.

[photo used with cc permission from Andreas Krappweis]