Vitamin Information Center

Vitamin D is known as the “sunshine vitamin” because the human body naturally produces vitamin D when exposed to sunlight. A report in the Archives of General Psychiatry gives new meaning to the term. New research has shown that your risk for depression could be high if your blood is low in vitamin D and high in serum parathyroid hormones, says a report in . (Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2008;65[5]:508-512.)

More specifically, poor vitamin D consumption can cause an increase in serum parathyroid levels, which are frequently accompanied by symptoms of depression. And considering that nearly 15% of older individuals suffer from the blues this could be the relief that they’ve been seeking.

The findings may be important to patients because both low blood vitamin D levels and high parathyroid hormone levels can be treated with higher dietary intake of vitamin D or calcium and increased sunlight exposure. “Moreover, the clinical relevance of the present study is underscored by our finding that 38.8% of men and 56.9% of women in our community-based cohort had an insufficient vitamin D status,” researchers conclude. Additional studies are needed to determine whether changes in levels of vitamin D and parathyroid hormone precede depression or follow it.

The Anti-Aging Bottom Line: Almost 15% of older Americans suffer from depression, which can substantially decrease your quality of life. if you feel like you may be depressed, get your vitamin D levels checked. Recent research has found that vitamin D deficiency is much more common that was previously thought, and that most people need higher amounts of D than the current government mandated recommendations. Vitamin D supplementation has been proven very effective at correcting deficiency. Make sure you are getting at least 1,000 IU of supplemental vitamin D daily.

HURSDAY March 13, 2008 (Foodconsumer.org) — Vitamin D is more than more important than thought and it can prevent a range of diseases including cancers.  But a new study cautions that just because you live in a Southern state like Arizona does not mean you would get enough vitamin D through exposure to the sun. This is particularly true in blacks and Hispanics.

For the study, Elizabeth T Jacobs from University of Arizona and the Medical University of South Carolina and colleagues tested Arizonian participants of a colorectal adenoma prevention study for their serum vitamin D known as 25 hydroxyvitamin D or 25(OH)D.

They found 55.5 percent of blacks and 37.6 percent of Hispanics were more likely to have deficient 25(OH)D concentrations (<20 ng per mL) in their blood compared to 22.7 percent in non-Hispanic whites.  Sun exposure had a greater effort on 25(OH)D in whites than in blacks and Hispanics.

The researchers concluded that “Despite residing in a region with high chronic sun exposure, adults in southern Arizona are commonly deficient in vitamin D deficiency, particularly blacks and Hispanics.”

The study was published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 87, No. 3, 608-613, March 2008.

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BEIRUT, Lebanon, May 27 — High weekly doses of vitamin D₃ for a year raise serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels safely in adolescents, a randomized study showed. Hypovitaminosis D is prevalent in youth worldwide, but recommended doses of 200 IU/day are insufficient to raise levels of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels to optimum. At the same time, the safety of vitamin D at doses exceeding 200 IU/day has been unknown for adolescents.

Seeking to ascertain the optimal serum vitamin D level for them, Ghada El-Hajj Fuleihan, M.D., M.P.H., of American University of Beirut, and colleagues found that vitamin D₃ at a dose 10 times the recommended intake was well tolerated by those ages 10 to 17.

The vitamin D levels achieved with the highest dose by the end of the yearlong study were within the optimal range for adults — over 30 ng/mL — but the low dose, which matched recommendations of the Institute of Medicine and American Academy of Pediatrics, failed to meet the goal.

In 115 children ages 10 to 17, mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels increased significantly from 15 ± 7 to 36 ± 22 ng/mL after one year of weekly treatment with 14,000 IU of vitamin D₃ (P<0.0001), Dr. El-Hajj Fuleihan and colleagues reported online in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. The study will be published in the July print issue.

Both the Institute of Medicine and the pediatrics academy recommend a weekly intake of 1,400 IU, which, in the current study, was associated with a smaller increase in mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in 114 children after one year (15 ± 8 to 19 ± 7 ng/mL, P<0.0001).

None of the participants developed vitamin D intoxication, the researchers said.

The findings are “particularly relevant in view of the increasingly recognized musculoskeletal benefits of vitamin D not only in the adult but also in the pediatric age group, and the pleiotropic effects of vitamin D on multiple physiologic and pathologic processes,” they said.

“The high prevalence of hypovitaminosis D worldwide across all age groups, the fact that many diseases of adulthood are rooted in the pediatric age group, and the safety data available to-date render it quite compelling to modify the current recommendations regarding adequate vitamin D intake not only for adults but also for children,” they concluded.

The safety of vitamin D doses as high as 10,000 IU per day had been established in adults, the researchers said, but pediatric data were lacking.

To explore the issue, Dr. Fuleihan and colleagues undertook a 16-week pilot study that randomized 26 children ages 10 to 17 (mean age 13.7) to a weekly vitamin D₃ dose of 14,000 IU (17) or placebo (nine) for eight weeks followed by eight weeks without treatment.

Mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels increased significantly in the treatment group from 44 ± 11 ng/mL at baseline to 54 ± 19 ng/mL at eight weeks (P=0.033) but dropped back down within two weeks of stopping therapy. There was a steady decrease in the levels with placebo (P<0.01) through 16 weeks.

After establishing the safety of the high dose, the researchers randomized 340 children (mean age 13.1, 51% male) to weekly vitamin D₃ doses of 1,400 IU (114) or 14,000 IU (115) or placebo (111) for one year.

Among girls, mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels increased significantly from baseline with placebo (P=0.041), the low dose of vitamin D₃ (P=0.011), and the high dose (P<0.0001). The level in the high-dose group was significantly higher than those in the other two groups (P<0.0001) at one year.

Among boys, serum vitamin D levels increased with both doses of vitamin D₃ (P=0.0034 with the low dose and P<0.0001 with the high dose). As with girls, the level in the high-dose group was significantly higher than those in the other two groups (P<0.001) at one year.

Mean serum calcium and 1,25-hydroxyvitamin D levels did not change significantly from baseline in any group in either the pilot or long-term study.

One major adverse event — glomerulonephritis — occurred in the low-dose group, and the participant dropped out at seven months.

The researchers previously reported that participants in the high-dose group had “substantial increments in lean mass, bone area, and bone mass.” This confirmed that the serum vitamin D levels achieved in the study were beneficial, as well as safe, they said.

They acknowledged some limitations, including the lack of data on urinary calcium excretion and the fact that they did not screen the children with ultrasonography for kidney stones which represented a potential significant adverse affect. They pointed out that urinary calcium would have been an earlier safety marker, as it likely increases to maintain serum calcium normal with increased calcium absorption associated with increased vitamin D intake.

Also, they said that the results might not apply to different age groups or to children with different calcium and vitamin D intake.

Finally, the mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in the study might not be reproducible because of inter-assay variations between kits, they said.

The study was supported by an educational grant from the Nestle Foundation and a grant from Merck KGaA, which provided some of the vitamin D₃ used in the study.

Primary source: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism
Source reference:
Maalouf J, et al “Short term and long term safety of weekly high dose vitamin D₃ supplementation in school children” J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2008; DOI: 10.1210/jc.2007-2530.