Vitamin D - For Everything From Gum To Muscle Health

It's vitamin D time again.

I've already sent you three e-alerts this year (and several last year as well) regarding the remarkable health benefits we get through vitamin D intake. And that list of benefits just got a little longer.

Today I'll tell you about two recent studies that illustrate again just how vital vitamin D is to our overall health.

Muscle up
Both of the new studies come from US researchers at Tufts University (USDA Human Nutrition Research Centre). For the first study - reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition - researchers designed a trial to expand on previous research that indicated a possible association between vitamin D deficiency and periodontal disease.

The Tufts team analysed blood tests and dental data on more than 11,000 subjects enrolled in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Specifically, they were looking for blood serum concentrations of vitamin D and the incidence of periodontal attachment loss.

Results showed a significant association between low levels of vitamin D and an elevated risk of tooth loss due to periodontal disease.

In the second Tufts study - reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition this month - researchers note that a specific nuclear receptor in muscle tissue may facilitate improved muscle cell growth and muscle strength when vitamin D levels are high.

About 4,100 subjects, aged 60 to 90, were recruited to compare levels of vitamin D to lower-extremity function. After taking into account variables, such as age and individual activity levels, researchers found that both active and inactive subjects with the highest levels of vitamin D had better musculoskeletal function in the lower extremities, compared to subjects with the lowest vitamin D levels.

Both of these studies help confirm previous reports that adequate vitamin D intake may be an essential element in keeping muscles strong and gums healthy as we age.

D's lengthy checklist
As I mentioned above, we've seen quite a run of impressive studies about vitamin D over the past couple of years. Here are some of the other vitamin D benefits discussed in previous e-alerts:

• Depression during winter months was significantly reduced among study subjects who took high daily doses of vitamin D (4,000 IU) for a period of one year.
• In a study that analysed the relation of vitamin D levels to insulin sensitivity in a group of adults with normal glucose-tolerance, those with the lowest levels of D were more prone to develop symptoms of type 2 diabetes, including weaker pancreatic function and greater insulin resistance.
• Sufficient levels of vitamin D may cut the risk of heart disease in older women by as much as one-third, due to the ability of vitamin D to help prevent the build up of calcium deposits in the arteries.
• When a group of 54 congestive heart failure (CHF) patients was compared to a group of 34 healthy subjects without CHF, researchers found that the CHF patients had vitamin D levels significantly lower than the healthy group, and those with the lowest vitamin D levels tended to have the most severe symptoms of CHF.
• US physician Dr Jonathan V. Wright says, 'It's very likely that if you're over 40 and supplement your diet with a generous amount of vitamin D, you can lower your risk of prostate, breast, and bowel cancer, along with your risk of 'essential' hypertension, osteoporosis, and tuberculosis.'

Sunshine daydream
To address the questions of vitamin D sources and dosage, we'll turn again to Dr. Wright who recommends between 1,600 and 2,000 IU daily, and as much as 4,000 IU for those over 40.

As I've noted before, the best source of vitamin D is a moderate amount of sun exposure each day. But according to Dr. Wright, it's impossible for most people to get enough vitamin D from the sun alone. In fact, for many elderly people the vitamin D deficiency problem is compounded because our skin becomes less effective at producing vitamin D as we age.

Contrary to what the milk moustache ads would have us believe, homogenised and pasteurised dairy products are not good alternative sources of vitamin D because of the many other health concerns those products raise. Instead, Dr. Wright suggests food sources like salmon and sardines, or cod liver oil, which provides more than 1,300 IU of vitamin D per tablespoon.

So get on the D train and improve your health - from muscles, to gums, to brain, to heart, to pancreas, and many points in between.