Vitamin D is very important vitamin and has many therapeutic benefits:
- Helps for musculoskeletal pain
- Also has neurotransmitter and neurologic function
- It also affects the immune system by having anti-inflammatory affects
Vitamin D has therapeutic benefit in
- Cardiovascular disease
- Hypertension
- Diabetes
- Osteoarthritis
- MS
- Depression
- Epilepsy
- Migraine headaches
- Polycystic ovaries
- Autoimmune Inflammatory conditions
- Musculoskeletal pain
- Cancer prevention and treatment
- Fibromyalgia
Dose of Vitamin D
- Doses of vitamin D should be in the range of 3,000-10,000 IU
- Recommend 4,000 IU per day for adults
- Full body exposure to UV light can produce 10,000-25,000 IU of vitamin D3 per day
- Supplementation should be with D3 not D2
Vitamin D absorption is decreased by
- Sunscreen-topical sunscreen block vitamin D production by 97-100%
- Skin pigmentation
- Body fat
- Age: 70 y/o produces 4x less than 20y/o
- Drugs
- Clothing
- Latitude > 37 in winter, Early and late hours
- Anticonvulsants, corticosteroids, rifampin
Foods Contain Vitamin D
- One whole egg, 20 IU
- Fortified Milk 1 cup 100 IU
- Cod liver oil, 1 Tbs (15 mL) 1,360 IU
- Fatty fish species,:
– Herring 85g (3 oz) 1383 units
– Cat fish, 85g (3 oz) 425 IU
– Salmon, cooked, 3.5 oz 360 IU
Vitamin D deficiency can cause
- Increased bone loss
- Osteoporosis & Decreased BMD
- Increased fragility and fracture risk
- Muscle weakness & Childhood bone health
- Secondary hyperparathyroidism
- Periodontal disease
- Infectious disease and more
Cardiovascular Disease: Deaths from heart disease are more common in the winter months and the risk of MI is twice as high if 25(O)D are low
Diabetes: Low vitamin D is associated with IR and beta-cell dysfunction. Metformin improves insulin sensitivity by 13%, higher vitamin D correlates with a 60% improvement in insulin sensitivity
Osteoarthritis: The progression of osteoarthritis is lessened by adequate vitamin D.
Multiple Sclerosis: The progression of osteoarthritis is lessened by adequate vitamin D.
Depression: Patient who supplemented with 400 or 800 IU of vitamin D qd had significant improvement of mood.
Migraine headache: Study showed a reduction in frequency, duration, and severity of menstrual migraines, in women with vitamin D deficiency, with daily supplementation with 1,200 mg of calcium and 1,200-1,600 IU of vitamin D
Musculoskeletal pain: Many patients with non-traumatic, chronic, musculoskeletal pain have a high frequency of vitamin D deficiency.
Study found vitamin D deficiency in 83% of 299 patients with low back pain. Supplementation with 5,000-10,000 IU of vitamin D per day decreased pain in almost 100% of these patients in 3 months
- Autoimmune conditions: Besides MS, the following diseases are also associated with vitamin D deficiency like Grave’s disease, Ankylosing spondylitis, SLE,RA
Anti-inflammatory conditions: Study of vitamin D supplementation showed the anti-inflammatory effect of vitamin D evidenced by reduction in IL-6 and CRP
Cancer Prevention and Treatment
Inadequate exposure to sunlight is associated with the following cancers:- Breast, Lung, Pancreas, Esophagus, Stomach, Colon, Rectum, Uterus, Ovary, Bladder, Kidney, Prostate, Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma,
Fibromyalgia:50% of patients with fibromyalgia are vitamin D deficient.
Vitamin D deficiency is common in women with PCOS.
