Should there be worldwide policy changes regarding everyone’s intake of vitamin D, particularly, vitamin D3? Anthony Norman is a distinguished professor emeritus of biochemistry and biomedical sciences at the University of California, Riverside and a leading international expert in vitamin D
He proposes worldwide policy changes regarding people’s vitamin D daily intake amount in order to maximize the vitamin’s contribution to reducing the frequency of many diseases, including childhood rickets, adult osteomalacia, cancer, autoimmune type-1 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, obesity and muscle weakness, according to an August 9, 2010 news release, “Biochemist proposes worldwide policy change to step up daily vitamin D intake.”
“A reduction in the frequency of these diseases would increase the quality and longevity of life and significantly reduce the cost of medical care worldwide,” Norman explained in the news release. He added, “It is high time that worldwide vitamin D nutritional policy, now at a crossroads, reflects current scientific knowledge about the vitamin’s many benefits and develops a sound vision for the future.”
Currently, the recommended daily intake of vitamin D in the United States is 200 international units (IU) for people up to 50 years old; 400 IU for people 51 to 70 years old; and 600 IU for people over 70 years old. Today there is a wide consensus among scientists that the relative daily intake of vitamin D should be increased to 2,000 to 4,000 IU for most adults.
“Worldwide public health is best served by a recommendation of higher daily intakes of vitamin D,” Norman said in the news release. “Currently, more than half the world’s population gets insufficient amounts of this vitamin. At present about half of elderly North Americans and Western Europeans and probably also of the rest of the world are not receiving enough vitamin D to maintain healthy bone.”
Reporting in a review paper in the July 28, 2010, issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine, Norman and Roger Bouillon of the Laboratory of Experimental Medicine and Endocrinology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, warn that if the current nutritional guidelines for vitamin D remain unchanged, rickets and osteomalacia, which could be easily prevented, will continue to occur.
They add that if the present guidelines for vitamin D intake are strictly implemented and applied worldwide to pregnant or lactating women, newborns and children, the occurrence of rickets in infants could be effectively eradicated.
Norman, the first author of the review paper, and Bouillon note that if the daily dietary intake of vitamin D is increased by 600-1000 IU in all adults above their present supply, it would bring beneficial effects on bone health in the elderly and on all major human diseases (for example, cancer, cardiovascular, metabolic and immune diseases).
The researchers add, however, that if the vitamin D dietary intake were increased to 2000 IU per day and even more for subgroups of the world population with the poorest vitamin D status, it could favorably impact multiple sclerosis, type-1 diabetes, tuberculosis, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular risk factors and most cancers. Interestingly, there are theories (not related to this study) that multiple sclerosis is somehow related to a type of herpes virus. More research needs to be done on this topic.
About vitamin D:
Also known as the “sunshine vitamin,” vitamin D was discovered 90 years ago as a dietary agent that prevented the bone disease rickets. Exposure to the sun is the body’s natural way of producing the vitamin. Skin exposed to solar UVB radiation can produce significant quantities of vitamin D. But this vitamin D synthesis is reliably available year-round only at latitudes between 40 degrees north and 40 degrees south. A combination of sunshine, food, supplements, and possibly even limited tanning exposure can raise the daily intake of the vitamin to 2000 IU.
Vitamin D is itself biologically inert. Its biological effects result only after it is metabolized first in the liver and then in the kidney – a process that converts the vitamin into a steroid hormone. The best sources of unfortified foods naturally containing vitamin D are animal products and fatty fish and liver extracts like salmon or sardines and cod liver oil. Vitamin D-fortified food sources in the United States (the fortification levels aim at about 400 IU per day) include milk and milk products, orange juice, breakfast cereals and bars, grain products, pastas, infant formulas and margarines.
Watch Out for Vitamin D Excess
Vitamin D excess can cause health problems such as hypercalcemia, vomiting, thirst and tissue damage. The precise upper limit for daily vitamin D intake is not well defined. Just who is researching vitamin D excess or genetic problems of some people who don’t do well on too much vitamin D?
The University of California, Riverside campus is planning a medical school. Locally, in the Sacramento-Davis regional area, UC Davis also is researching the effects of vitamin D on humans.
UC Davis Researches the Effects of Vitamin D on Humans
University of California, Davis studies the effects of vitamin K-2 on human health. Check out the research of Dr. Paul Davis, a nutritionist in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science, UC Davis, and a researcher with the UC Davis Cancer Center. Dr. Davis´ research focuses on the interaction of dietary constituents (macronutrients and nonnutritional components) with processes/risk factors for chronic human diseases (i.e. coronary vascular disease and cancer). He also studies the effects of dietary fiber and other components (dietary lipids particularly) on control of food intake and processes of nutrient absorption and packaging/secretion in the gastrointestinal tract.
Many current reports in nutrition-oriented literature refer to nutrient retentions for processing, storage and cooking that were compiled more than 25 years ago. So it’s necessary for scientists to keep doing current studies.
Walnut Consumption Slows Prostrate Cancer Growth in Mice
A few months ago in March, 2010, a study at UC Davis reported that walnut consumption slows the growth of prostate cancer in mice and has beneficial effects on multiple genes related to the control of tumor growth and metabolism, according to researchers at UC Davis and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Western Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif. have found.
The study, by Paul Davis announced the findings March 22, 2010 at the annual national meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Francisco. Davis explained at the conference that the research findings provide additional evidence that walnuts, although high in fat, are healthful.
“This study shows that when mice with prostate tumors consume an amount of walnuts that could easily be eaten by a man, tumor growth is controlled,” he reported to Science Daily, published online March 23, 2010 in the article, Walnuts Slow Prostate Tumors in Mice, Study Finds. “This leaves me very hopeful that it could be beneficial in patients,” Dr. Davis explained to Science Daily.
Vitamin D Health Benefits Study
Also see the study, Effects Of Vitamin D Deficiency Amplified By Shortage Of Estrogen,17 November 2009. Researchers at Johns Hopkins reported what is believed to be the first conclusive evidence in men that the long-term ill effects of vitamin D deficiency are amplified by lower levels of the key sex hormone estrogen, but not testosterone.
How Does Vitamin D work in the human body?
What does vitamin D actually do? It plays an important role in calcium balance so you get normal bone strength. The major function of vitamin D is to improve the efficiency of calcium absorption from the small intestine, according to Dr. Ray Sahelian’s newsletter and nutrition information sites. Can taking too much vitamin D calcify your aorta? What are the risks? And do you have to inherit a specific gene variation for vitamin D to calify your coronary arteries? What does the research show?
What happens to the way your body handles, absorbs, or builds up vitamin D after menopause when the estrogen level plummets? And were you born with or without the gene variation that takes the vitamin D3 you eat along with the calcium and calcifies your arteries with it instead of putting it into your bones where it belongs? How do you find a genetics/DNA test to tell you whether you have inherited that genetic mutation or variation?
Epidemiological data show low levels of vitamin D lead to a higher incidence of breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, as well as multiple myeloma, according to Dr.Sahelian’s site. Patients with Crohn’s disease are known to have low levels. Vitamin D supplementation may even improve mood during the winter months, according to Dr. Sahelian. But you’d be better off taking less than more until you know how much you’ll really need of vitamin D.
Scientists repeatedly warn vitamin consumers of the danger regarding excessive intake. Vitamin D taken in high amounts can cause excessive calcification of bone, calcification of soft tissue, kidney stones, headaches, weakness, nausea, and vomiting.
There answer right now is that no one knows exactly the long-term effects of high dose daily use of vitamin D. Find out whether or not you need to supplement at all. Research is ongoing. In the meantime, are you taking a teaspoon full of cod liver oil that already has 400 units of vitamin D in it along with some vitamin A? Look at the label and see whether it tell you the vitamin content of the oil. How do you compare the different answers given by your various heathcare professionals?
When you take all those vitamin D3 supplements that are recommended in so many articles in the media, how do you know whether your body will use it to protect your organs against bone loss or use it to send calcium deposits into your organs, heart valves, and arteries?
Find out from your doctor whether or not your blood test tell you that you may or may not need to supplement. Does your diet have plenty of vitamin D? Do you get enough sun exposure?
Most people may benefit from taking 400 units a day either as part of a multivitamin product and a balanced diet. A few people without much sun exposure and a poorer diet, or if you live in latitudes where there’s not much sun, might benefit from 600-800 units of vitamin D3.
The only questions scientists have is that over a long term, we don’t know what the risks are. You’re doctor should talk with you if you have chronic medical conditions whether you need up to 1,000 units daily. But the question is for how long without posing a risk of calcifying your arteries from too high a dose for too long a time of taking supplements of vitamin D.
When you do take a supplement, be sure it’s natural vitamin D3, not synthetic vitamin D2. The conclusion is the final word is not yet in on the danger of calcifying your brain and arteries with too much vitamin D supplementation.
Why take the risk when you can keep your supplementation, if any, to a dose related to what your body needs. You can find out what vitamin deficiencies you have by taking a test to see what’s actually absorbed into your cells and what’s just floating in your bloodstream.
What needs to be evaluated right now is whether other genes that control calcium homeostasis are involved in the pathogenesis of this disorder. In plain language, how many gene variations control the way calcium and vitamin D3 are processed in your own body? And how can you find out? Are there genetic tests that show you how your body handles vitamin D3?
The media is full of articles saying that the 400 mg of vitamin D3 is too little to protect you against cardiovascular problems, that you probably need 1,000 mg. But what happens if you have a genetic variation or mutation that communicates to your body in a different way, where when you take vitamin D3 and calcium in supplements or at high food intakes, that the calcium doesn’t go into your bones, but into the arteries and valves around your heart? Will vitamin K2 in the MK-7 form protect you from calcification if you have this genetic variation? And where can you find out if it will?
Another article at BioMed Experts, Osteoporosis and calcification of the aorta, Bone and Mineral, 1992;19(2):185-94,1992: Frye M A; Melton L J; Bryant S C; Fitzpatrick L A; Wahner H W; Schwartz R S; Riggs B L, notes, “Aortic calcification was not associated with any measures of calcium metabolism, after adjusting for age, except for a slight negative association between linear aortic calcifications and 25(OH) vitamin D levels (P < 0.05).”
Another abstract of a 2003 article, “Influence of sex and estrogen on vitamin D-induced arterial calcification in rats” notes, “It is known that the process of arteriosclerosis is affected by sex and estrogen. The present study was thus undertaken to examine the effects of these factors on arterial calcification, a form of arteriosclerosis, using a rat model of vitamin D toxicity.
The article concludes with, “These results suggest that sex and estrogen can modify the process of arterial calcification. The mechanisms remain to be determined, although the effects were independent of serum calcium level.”
Food for Bones
What other vitamin works along with vitamin D3? An extract of natto, a fermented soy food from Japan, is particularly rich in the highly bioavailable form of vitamin K2 called menaquinone-7 (MK-7), linked to greater bone health and reduction in risk factors. PL Thomas & Co. Inc. (PLT) announced the launch of Natural Vitamin K2 as a newly available proprietary extract under the trademark MenaQ7™.
Natural Vitamin K2 helps keep calcium in the bones and out of the arteries, providing significant potential health benefits. Natural Vitamin K2 also may provide significant benefit to cardiovascular health due to its roles in calcium utilization. Also see the UC Davis study, Temporary reversal of anticoagulation using oral vitamin K.
Scientists also study vitamin K-2 along with vitamin D. For further information, see page 253 in the book titled, The Cholesterol Hoax, by Sherry Rogers, M.D. where the physician explains the potent protection of vitamin K2. She reports that, “Folks who have higher levels of vitamin K2 have a 57% reduction in heart disease (Geleijnse).” The reason is that Vitamin K2 controls calcium regulation and “specifically inhibits arterial vascular calcifications” (Vermeer, Shearer, Schugers.).” The physician also notes that “Vitamin K decreases circulating cholesterol. (Kawashima).”
Of course you need vitamin D3 to absorb calcium as well, and you also need magnesium in balance. So check out these references to research studies. There’s an excellent article on what vitamin K2 does for the body, especially an aging one, in the July 2008 issues of the Total Wellness newsletter. And in the January 2009 issue, it’s packed with information on vitamin D3 and what it does for bones and arteries along with vitamin K2. Don’t exceed a daily dose of 100 mgs. of K2 in the MK-7 form with natto.
