Vitamin Information Center

A lack of vitamin D has been found in some studies to play an unrecognized role in death among people suffering from a variety of medical problems, including heart disease and cancer.

Now researchers say they have evidence that even in the general population, having too little of the vitamin appears to be associated with a higher risk of death.

Writing in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers say they looked at the vitamin D levels and death rates of more than 13,000 people during a period of more than six years.

Those who fell in the lowest quarter of vitamin D levels had a 26 percent higher risk of death from all causes than those in the top quarter, according to the study, which was led by Michal L. Melamed of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

About 41 percent of men and 53 percent of women in the U.S. have levels of the vitamin that are considered too low.

Breakthrough likely to help people with Type 2 diabetes

Two groups of researchers in Japan have identified a gene that is directly linked to the occurrence of diabetes, a discovery likely to help in the early identification of people who may be susceptible to the disease.

A group of researchers from the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research and another from the International Medical Center of Japan separately studied individual diabetic cases involving Japanese patients.

Their findings were published in the online edition of the U.S. medical journal Nature Genetics. The researchers found a link between a gene known as KCNQ1 and the onset of Type 2 diabetes — the variant affecting 90 percent of Japan’s 8.2 million diabetic patients.

The prevalence of Type 2 diabetes is attributed to a lack of physical exercise, excessive eating and genetics.

CHRONIC pain in women may be related to low levels of vitamin D, the nutrient made by the skin when exposed to sunlight.

Researchers who studied nearly 7000 British 45-year-olds found that almost 15 per cent of women with the lowest levels of the vitamin reported experiencing chronic pain - nearly twice the 8.2 per cent prevalence reported among women with higher readings.

However, vitamin D levels appeared to make no difference to the number of men who reported pain symptoms - leaving the study’s authors perplexed as to whether lack of vitamin D in women was the cause.

The authors noted that a disease caused by extreme vitamin D deficiency, osteomalacia, was known to cause bone pain.

The research concluded that further studies were required to establish whether pain would be lessened if patients increased their vitamin D intake.

For the study, published yesterday in the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, the authors included medical data from 6824 Britons who were examined between 2002 and 2004, when they were aged 45. Information was collected on their smoking and alcohol habits, time spent outdoors, time spent watching television or at a computer and dietary supplements, including vitamin D.

Samples of their blood werealso analysed for

levels of 25-hydroxy-vitaminD (25(OH)D), which is a metabolised form of the vitamin and a marker for vitamin D levels.

The lowest prevalence of chronic widespread pain (8.2per cent) was reported in women with 75 to 99 nanomoles of 25(OH)D per litre of blood.

The rate was 14.4 per cent for women with less than 25nmol/l, and 14.8per cent for women with 25-49nmol/l.

John Eisman, director of the bone and mineral research program at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, said the study was interesting but by its design could not “unravel” whether lower vitamin D was causing the pain, or vice-versa.

Professor Eisman, who is also an endocrinologist at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital, agreed that more studies were required.

In the meantime, if doctors were faced with patients battling chronic pain, “it might be worth giving them vitamin D, to see if it makes a difference”, he said.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Softening of the skull bones in normal-appearing newborns is tied to a vitamin D deficiency in the womb, according to Japanese researchers.

They suggest that breast-fed infants with this condition may need vitamin D supplements.

Soft skull bones, also known as craniotabes, in normal newborns is usually regarded as no cause for alarm, but Dr. Tohru Yorifuji at Kyoto University Hospital and colleagues dispute this in their report in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. They point to evidence that the condition is associated with type 1 diabetes, reduced bone mass during childhood, and lowered immunity.

In their study, the researchers screened 1120 normal infants at 5 to 7 days of age. Craniotabes was considered present when “the skull bones reversibly bended by application of pressure by the examiner’s fingers.”

They found that 246 babies, or 22 percent, had craniotabes. The highest rate occurred among infants born in April and May, and the lowest in those born in November.

Vitamin D production in the body is triggered by sunlight, and Yorifuji’s team points out that the rate of craniotabes “was influenced by the daylight hours approximately 4 months prior to delivery.” They say this strongly suggests that “the condition is associated with vitamin D deficiency in utero.”

Low vitamin D levels and other abnormalities at 1 month of age were more common in babies who were breast-fed than in those who were fed formula at least part of the time, the investigators found.

They therefore recommend “treating breast-fed infants with craniotabes with vitamin D, or preferably, treating all pregnant women with vitamin D.”

SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, online February 12, 2008.

BABIES are healthier if their mothers are pregnant with them over summer, according to research.

Researchers said babies with softer skulls were more likely to have been in the womb over winter - because their mothers lacked enough vitamin D, which is absorbed from sunlight.

Dr Tohru Yorifuji from the Kyoto University Hospital said his team’s study of more than 1100 newborns in Japanese hospitals revealed that pregnancies over winter could lead to problems in babies.

“Craniotabes, the softening of skull bones, in otherwise normal newborns has largely been regarded as a physiological condition without the need for treatment,” Dr Yorifuji said.

“Our findings, however, show that this untreated condition may be the result of a potentially dangerous vitamin D deficiency.”

In an article to be published in the May edition of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, the researchers said 22 per cent of babies studied had craniotabes.

“The incidence was highest in (babies) born in April-May and lowest in those born in November,” the researchers said.

“Otherwise, the incidence of craniotabes was not significantly related with the maternal age, number of pregnancies, birth weight, or weeks of pregnancies.”

Dr Yorifuji said mothers should also be concerned about how much vitamin D their baby needed while feeding.

“Until more research is done on the effects of perinatal vitamin D deficiency, we suggest treating breast-fed infants with craniotabes with vitamin D, or preferably, treating all pregnant women with vitamin D.”

A lack of vitamin D in adults has previously been linked to increased risks of multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes and other diseases.