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Defining Adequate Vitamin D Intake : Cross-sectional and Intervention Studies
Defining Adequate Vitamin D Intake : Cross-sectional and Intervention Studies
Viljakainen, Heli Tuulikki
University of Helsinki
2008-05-23
Doctoral dissertation (article-based)
In summary, vitamin D intake remains inadequate among the target groups of this thesis, as reflected by seasonal variation in calcitropic hormones and bone metabolism. Dietary intake of vitamin D should be increased to achieve at least an adequate vitamin D status (S-25-OHD>50 nmol/l) and possibly an optimal vitamin D status (S-25-OHD>80 nmol/l) throughout the year. This could be accomplished by introducing new vitamin D-fortified foods to the market.
Coeliac bone loss link uncovered - BBC NEWS | Health
"People with coeliac disease may be more susceptible to osteoporosis because their own immune system attacks their bone tissue, a study suggests.
Osteoporosis is a known risk of coeliac disease and has been explained by a failure to absorb calcium or vitamin D. "
African Americans, 25-hydroxyvitamin D, and osteoporosis: a paradox -- Aloia 88 (2): 545S -- American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
African Americans, 25-hydroxyvitamin D, and osteoporosis: a paradox.
Aloia JF.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Aug;88(2):545S-550S. Review.
PMID: 18689399
African Americans have lower serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations and a lower risk of fragility fractures than do other populations. I review the evidence on factors other than vitamin D that might explain this paradox and the calcium economy in different life stages.
The Top 10 Health Breakthroughs of 2008 | Health and Wellness News
"The following is a list of the Top 10 health breakthroughs of 2008. I know there are many other possible candidates for this Top 10 list. This is my version of the highlights that made 2008 special."
Aggressive Vitamin D Treatment for Osteoporosis
"May 19, 2008 (Orlando, Florida) — A new study shows that a proactive vitamin D treatment plan should be considered when caring for all osteoporosis patients, and that such treatment might help decrease the likelihood of developing vitamin D deficiency.
Vitamin D deficiency is widespread among patients being treated for osteoporosis, and such deficiency should be treated aggressively, according to the findings presented here at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists 17th Annual Meeting and Clinical Congress."
Optimal Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Levels for Multiple Health Outcomes - SpringerLink - Book Chapter
Optimal serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels for multiple health outcomes.
Bischoff-Ferrari HA.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2008;624:55-71. Review.
PMID: 18348447
DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-77574-6_5
Recent evidence suggests that higher vitamin D intakes beyond current recommendations may be associated with better health outcomes. In this chapter, evidence is summarized from different studies that evaluate threshold levels for serum 25(OH)D levels in relation to bone mineral density (BMD), lower extremity function, dental health, risk of falls, admission to nursing home, fractures, cancer prevention and incident hypertension. For all endpoints, the most advantageous serum levels for 25(OH)D appeared to be at least 75 nmol/l (30 ng/ml) and for cancer prevention, desirable 25(OH)D levels are between 90–120 nmol/l (36–48 ng/ml). An intake of no less than 1000IU (25 meg) of vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) per day for all adults may bring at least 50% of the population up to 75 nmol/l. Thus, higher doses of vitamin D are needed to bring most individuals into the desired range. While estimates suggest that 2000 IU vitamin D3 per day may successfully and safely achieve this goal, the implications of 2000 IU or higher doses for the total adult population need to be addressed in future studies.
Whole Health Source: Preventing Tooth Decay
Meet Sir Edward Mellanby, the discoverer of vitamin D. Along with his wife, Dr. May Mellanby, he identified dietary factors that control the formation and repair of teeth and bones. He also identified the cause of rickets (vitamin D deficiency) and the effect of phytic acid on mineral absorption. Truly a great man! This research began in the 1910s and continued through the 1940s.
What he discovered about tooth and bone formation is profound, disarmingly simple and largely forgotten. I remember going to the dentist as a child. He told me I had good teeth. I informed him that I tried to eat well and stay away from sweets. He explained to me that I had good teeth because of genetics, not my diet. I was skeptical at the time, but now I realize just how ignorant that man was.
Whole Health Source: Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture
In April of 1982, archaeologists from around the globe converged on Plattsburgh, New York for a research symposium. Their goal:
...[to use] data from human skeletal analysis and paleopathology [the study of ancient diseases] to measure the impact on human health of the Neolithic Revolution and antecedent changes in prehistoric hunter-gatherer food economies. The symposium developed out of our perception that many widely debated theories about the origins of agriculture had testable but untested implications concerning human health and nutrition and our belief that recent advances in techniques of skeletal analysis, and the recent explosive increase in data available in this field, permitted valid tests of many of these propositions.
In other words, they got together to see what happened to human health as populations adopted agriculture. They were kind enough to publish the data presented at the symposium in the book Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture, edited by the erudite Drs. Mark Nathan Cohen and George J. Armelagos. It appears to be out of print, but luckily I have access to an excellent university library.
Whole Health Source: Composition of the Hunter-Gatherer Diet
I bumped into a fascinating paper today by Dr. Loren Cordain titled "Plant-Animal Subsistence Ratios and Macronutrient Estimations in Worldwide Hunter-Gatherer Diets." Published in 2000 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the paper estimates the food sources and macronutrient intakes of historical hunter-gatherers based on data from 229 different groups. Based on the available data, these groups did not suffer from the diseases of civilization. This is typical of hunter-gatherers.
Initial data came from the massive Ethnographic Atlas by Dr. George P. Murdock, and was analyzed further by Cordain and his collaborators. Cordain is a professor at Colorado State University, and a longtime proponent of paleolithic diets for health. He has written extensively about the detrimental effects of grains and other modern foods. Here's his website.
The Worst Mistake In The History Of The Human Race" by Jared Diamond, Prof. UCLA School of Medicine - Discover-May 1987, pp. 64-66
"The Worst Mistake In The History Of The Human Race"
by Jared Diamond, Prof. UCLA School of Medicine
Discover-May 1987, pp. 64-66
Nutrition and health in agriculturalists and hunter-gatherers | The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D.
When I wrote the Overcoming the Curse of the Mummies chapter in Protein Power, I wrote mainly about the evidence of disease found in the mummies of ancient Egyptians and correlated this disease with their high-carbohydrate diet. Along with all the material on mummies, which is the part everyone seems to remember, I wrote about a study done in the United States in the 1970s that persuasively demonstrated the superiority of the hunter diet as compared to an agricultural diet, which no one seems to remember. I came across that study a couple of days ago and decided to present it in a little more detail than I was able to in Protein Power.
The anthropological record of early man clearly shows health took a nosedive when populations made the switch from hunting and gathering to agriculture. It takes a physical anthropologist about two seconds to look at a skeleton unearthed from an archeological site to tell if the owner of that skeleton was a hunter-gatherer or an agriculturist.
Whole Health Source: paleolithic diet
Dr. Staffan Lindeberg has published a new study using the "paleolithic diet" to treat type II diabetics (free full text). Type II diabetes, formerly known as late-onset diabetes until it began appearing in children, is typically thought to develop as a result of insulin resistance (a lowered tissue response to the glucose-clearing function of insulin). This is often followed by a decrease in insulin secretion due to degeneration of the insulin-secreting pancreatic beta cells.
After Dr. Lindeberg's wild success treating patients with type II diabetes or glucose intolerance, in which he normalized the glucose tolerance of all 14 of his volunteers in 12 weeks, he set out to replicate the experiment. This time, he began with 13 men and women who had been diagnosed with type II diabetes for an average of 9 years.
Whole Health Source: What Can Evolution Teach us About the Human Diet?
Vegetarians deserve our respect. They're usually thoughtful, conscientious people who make sacrifices for environmental and ethical reasons. I was vegetarian for a while myself, until I decided I could find ethical meat.
Vegetarianism and especially veganism can get pretty ideological sometimes. People who have strong beliefs like to think that their belief system is best for all aspects of their lives and the world, not just bits and pieces. Many vegetarians believe their way of eating is healthier than omnivory or carnivory. It's easy to believe, since mainstream nutrition research has a distinctly pro-vegetarian slant. One of the classic arguments for vegetarianism goes something like this: our closest living relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, are mostly vegetarian, therefore that's the diet to which we're adapted as well. Here's the problem with that argument:
Mutagens in coffee and other beverages. - Environ Health Perspect. 1986 Aug;67:89-91.
Mutagens in coffee and other beverages.
Nagao M, Fujita Y, Wakabayashi K, Nukaya H, Kosuge T, Sugimura T.
Environ Health Perspect. 1986 Aug;67:89-91.
PMID: 3757962
Whole Health Source: Ischemic Heart Attacks: Disease of Civilization
The scientific literature contains examples of cultures that don't suffer from the chronic non-communicable diseases that are so common in modern societies. Much of what I've read indicates that heart attacks are practically unique to cultures that have adopted industrial foodways and a modern lifestyle, being infrequent or entirely absent in those that have not.
I recently came across an incredible paper from 1964 in the American Journal of Cardiology, titled "Geographic Pathology of Myocardial Infarction", by lead author Dr. Kyu Taik Lee (Am. J. Cardiol. 13:30. 1964). This was published during a period of intense research into the cardiovascular health of non-industrial cultures, including Dr. George V. Mann's famous study of the Masai.
Whole Health Source: Cancer in Other Non-Industrialized Cultures
In Cancer, Disease of Civilization (1960), Wilhjalmur Stefansson mentions a few cultures besides the Inuit in which large-scale searches never turned up cancer. Dr. Albert Schweitzer examined over 10,000 traditionally-living natives in Gabon (West Africa) in 1913 and did not find cancer. Later, it became common in the same population as they began "living more and more after the manner of the whites."
In Cancer, its Nature, Cause and Cure (1957), Dr. Alexander Berglas describes the search for cancer among natives in Brazil and Ecuador by Dr. Eugene Payne. He examined approximately 60,000 people over 25 years and found no evidence of cancer.
Whole Health Source: Cancer Among the Inuit
Here's the critical fact that modern medicine seems to have forgotten: hunter-gatherers and numerous non-industrial populations throughout the world have vanishingly small cancer rates. This fact was widely accepted in the 19th century and the early 20th, but has somehow managed to fade into obscurity. I know it sounds unbelievable, but allow me to explain.
Whole Health Source: Vitamin K2 in Marrow
I'm always on the lookout for foods rich in vitamin K2 MK-4, because it's so important and so rare in the modern food system. I heard some internet rumors that marrow might be rich in fat-soluble vitamins. Google let me down, so I decided to look through the rat studies on K2 MK-4 in which they looked at its tissue distribution.
I found one that looked at the K2 MK-4 content in different tissues of rats fed vitamin K1. Marrow was rich in K2, along with testes. It contains 10-20 times more MK-4 than liver by weight, and more than any of the other organs they tested (serum, liver, spleen, kidney, heart, testes, marrow, brain) except testes. They didn't include values for salivary gland and pancreas, the two richest sources.
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