During the Industrial Revolution, as more children started growing up in cities, physicians noticed a new disease, which weakened children’s bones so they were no stronger than cartilage. Researchers eventually linked a vitamin D deficiency to the disease and recommended sunbathing to cure the condition, called rickets.
Vitamin D remains somewhat of a mystery. Half of Americans and Western Europeans suffer from deficiencies of vitamin D, which aids the body’s ability to absorb calcium. Most people don’t realize that they experience a deficiency. Vitamin D is hard to find—few foods are rich in vitamin D and the best way to absorb it is through sun exposure. A recent study sheds new light on vitamin D’s importance; people with vitamin D deficiencies experience significant cognitive decline.
David J. Llewellyn of the University of Exeter in England published a paper in the Archives of Internal Medicine examining the relationship between vitamin D levels and brain function. Starting in 1998, he sampled the blood of 858 adults, aged 65 or older, to test their vitamin D levels. The subjects also took a trio of tests, measuring brainpower—one test evaluated general cognition, one examined attention, and one measured executive functions, which includes skills such as cognitive flexibility, abstracting thinking, planning, and organizing. Llewellyn took blood samples and asked the subjects to complete tasks again three and six years later. He found that people with dangerously low levels of vitamin D were 60 percent more likely to show a significant decline in overall cognition. Those with lower vitamin D levels were also 31 percent more likely to show insufficient executive functioning.
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where does sun screen fit in this equation ?
posted by dirk alan on 7-19-2010 at 4:25 pm
So it’s bad to get sun exposure because of the risk of skin cancer, but it’s also bad to NOT get sun exposure because then we don’t get enough vitamin D… *sigh*
posted by Laura on 7-19-2010 at 4:26 pm
Uhh, ignore the link in my name… For some reason this automatically filled in a news story I wanted to share last week on another article.
posted by Laura on 7-19-2010 at 4:28 pm
I’ve read that only about 15 minutes a week of sun exposure can fill the Vitamin D requirement, thus avoiding too much sun exposure which can cause skin cancer. Though it seems such a short amount of time that anyone should be able to get that, many northern states lack enough sunlight during the year to reach this.
posted by ashley.paige on 7-19-2010 at 4:46 pm
To get your best dose of sun without damage, you need to be halfway unclothed and bathe just until you are barely pink (with me it is usually within 10 minutes), then slather on the sunscreen (preferably all natural zinc oxide, but…)
more info at http://www.mercola.com
(No affiliation-just like his work)
posted by Michelle Shepherd on 7-19-2010 at 4:50 pm
I once read that Vitamin D can technically be classified as a hormone, since our bodies can manufacture it. Unfortunately I don’t recall where I learned this from.
posted by taylor on 7-19-2010 at 5:04 pm
Two years ago, my blood work came back with hardly any vitamin D (6 or 7, I don’t recall what unit measurment). Now, I take two or three 2,000 I.U. vitamin D3 gelcaps a day. Last spring, I had my vitamin D checked again, vitamin D is in the 60s, which is good.
FYI, I’m an active 35 year old male, but I always use sunblock, which blocks out the vitamin D.
posted by Jimmy on 7-19-2010 at 5:05 pm
I am from Texas (mega Vit D exposure)but during college, lived in Stockholm, Sweden during the winter semester. The drastic change in Vit D (basically, lack of sunlight–sometimes there was only sun 4 hours of the day and i was in class for all 4 hours) made me very ill. I had to join a tanning salon to get my exposure corrected. The first time I went, I burned and had to walk around Stockholm in January with a bright red sunburn.
posted by Megan on 7-19-2010 at 5:46 pm
I once heard that we absorb most Vitamin D from the sun through our eyes.
Anyone know if there is any validity to this?
posted by Katie Rose on 7-20-2010 at 10:13 am
Um, but is it possible that brighter people go to the dr., get blood tested, & heed instructions about D deficiency? And more organized people remember to take their pills/sun? I’m just wondering about the cause-effect question.
posted by Bailey on 7-20-2010 at 12:06 pm
I take daily vitamin D supplements, because I suffer from PMLE (polymorphic light eruption)… or in layman’s terms – I’m allergic to the sun. Even with full spectrum sunblock on, I start to break out in tiny little blisters and develop flu-like symptoms.
posted by Notavampire on 7-20-2010 at 1:58 pm
The functions of Vitamin D3 are more complex than what were previously thought by the medical community. Vitamain D3 receptors are found in almost all cells in the body.
Aside from the functions that are already known, they stimulate the production of cell specific carbonic anhydrase enzyme II which are found in almost all organs but mainly the brain, bones and kidney.
The hydrogen ions they produce are acted upon by the cytochrome system and are utilized as:
1.fuel for the ion pump that maintains the integrity of the cell wall membrane.
2. Fuel for all other metabolic activities(1/2) and cell division(1/2)
H+(hydrogen) + ADP(adenosine diphosphate)——-ATP(adenosine triphosphate)
3. Neutralizes all reactive species including reactive oxygen.
H+(hydrogen) + (O2)-2 (reactive oxygen)
——–H2O (water final product)
Hence Vitamin D3 is good for treatment of aging and treatment for diseases associtaed with oxidative stress.
Too much of it cause cancer too.
For further information kindly visit
http://www.uspto.gov
then search patents and applications using my name.
posted by Victorio C Rodriguez M.D. on 7-23-2010 at 6:10 am
Yes that sounds plausible – but it’s wrong. The huge state of the art July 2010 study Common genetic determinants of vitamin D insufficiency: a genome-wide association study found that none of the genes they identified are linked with skin pigmentation.
Confirmation of that interpretation in an article Here :- †the accompanying (Lancet) editorial points out, it is somewhat surprising that none of the genes identified are linked with skin pigmentationâ€
.
A systematic review of the association between common single nucleotide polymorphisms and 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations
“We speculate that recently identified U-shaped relationships between 25OHD concentrations and disease outcomes (i.e. increased risk at both high and low concentrations) may reflect a mixture of genotype-defined subgroups.”
‘Genetics to Blame for Vitamin D Deficiency?’
“Researchers conducted a genome-wide association study (Common genetic determinants of vitamin D insufficiency: a genome-wide association study) that involved almost 34,000 people of European descent from 15 different studies. They used radioimmunoassay and mass spectrometry to determine vitamin D concentrations and found that variants at three genetic sites, or “loci,” were significantly associated with vitamin D concentrations. The presence of harmful alleles at three “loci” more than doubled the risk of Vitamin D insufficiency.”
Maybe non-whites are the ones who benefit from doubling their vitamin D levels ? Nope – Vitamin D, Adiposity, and Calcified Atherosclerotic Plaque in African-Americans “positive associations exist between 25-hydroxyvitamin D and aorta and carotid artery CP in African-Americans”
Many people are naturally low in vitamin D, forcing vitamin D levels up by taking supplements can only do harm. If you think you can improve yor health by conforming to the advice of Holick or – God forbid – that of Hollis, Cannel & Co at the vitamin D ‘Council’ who recommend (>50ng/ml) then you are in for an unpleasant surprise.
Vitamin D and homeostasis
Mad dogs and ….
posted by Lere on 7-30-2010 at 1:19 pm
Video gamers your cognitive powers are getting lower, must recharge with sun power like Superman.
posted by ray on 8-16-2010 at 3:25 pm