Vitamin D

 

UPDATE March 12, 2008

Please check out this presentation by Dr Michael Holick. (You may need to download Flip4mac to view it.) It is very informative and thought provoking. Thanks to Deb for sharing it with us.

The Vitamin D Pandemic and its Health Consequences

Presented by Michael Holick, PhD, MD, Professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics

and director of the General Clinical Research Center at Boston University Medical Center

Keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 34th European Symposium on Calcified Tissues, Copenhagen 5 May, 2007 

END UPDATE 

I was checking out the latest blog on Great Mastications (I love that name) and came across a link to an recent article on Vitamin D. I have been taking Vitamin D for awhile now, after doing some reading on it in the past. Because I am also Iron and B12 deficient, I take several different supplements daily. I really had no idea that Vitamin D might play a role in cancer; most of the articles I read previously were directly related to the issues of Multiple Sclerosis.

I was even more shocked to read about the role it is suspected in playing in Type I Diabetes. If you have read my blogs before than you already know that my children and I have several different Auto Immune Diseases; MS, Lupus, Asthma, Type I Diabetes, Eczema, etc. Autism Spectrum Disorders have recently been suspected as possibly being an auto immune disease as well by some people and who knows if Narcolepsy could also fall into that category someday. (It involves the bodies failure to use/produce the hormone Hypocretin.)  

Knowing that incidences of auto immune disorders like Type I Diabetes has been on the rise, as well as Autism; I have actively sought out message boards, and other families who are affected by more than one auto immune disease to try and find some answers. You can read an article on my son at Kristen Crow’s Blog. I had found her thread Do You Have BOTH Juvenile Diabetes and Autism in Your Family?  It explores the possible connection between Autism & Diabetes. (It definitely seems to be more common than I first imagined.)  

So here are a few highlighted points that I found very interesting in the article. If you want to read the whole 4 pages, just click below on the title and have fun!   

The vitamin D miracle: Is it for real? 

An article by Martin Mittelstaedt 

“While there is a risk of skin cancer from overexposure to ultraviolet light, researchers say, the benefits of modest sun exposure in preventing serious, hard-to-treat cancers outweighs that risk. Furthermore, they say, skin cancer is relatively easy to treat.”

“A 2001 Finnish study found that children given 2,000 IU daily cut their risk of getting juvenile diabetes by 80 per cent.” 

“The strong correlation between latitude and the incidence of multiple sclerosis has led researchers to suspect the trend is related to vitamin D status. In the U.S., for example, MS rates are four times higher in northern states, along the Canadian border, than in the southern parts of the country. Similarly, Australian research shows the incidence of MS increases the farther people live from the equator. The highest incidence rates in the world are found in Northern Europe and Canada.”  

“The simple answer may be that Vitamin D interacts with an unusually large number of our genes, working like a master switch to turn them on or off. Researchers believe a deficiency of the vitamin leads to a deficiency of the proteins manufactured under the direction of these genes, which then undermines key defences against seemingly unrelated diseases such as cancer, diabetes and multiple sclerosis.” 

“One important function of vitamin D at the gene level that may explain its anti-cancer properties is that it helps to regulate the production of E-Cadherin, a type of biological glue that holds cells together. When this glue is in short supply, it allows epithelial cells to lose adhesion to one another, permitting some to escape from the tissue they are supposed to be embedded in. Unconstrained, these cells start to multiply at a greater rate than they otherwise would and begin forming the lesions that ultimately turn into cancers.” 

“Vitamin D plays a role in telling cells when to die, thus helping to prevent uncontrolled proliferation and curbing the growth of new blood vessels that nourish growing tumours.”

“Scientists speculate that when low vitamin D status weakens epithelial cells, the barrier function is compromised, exposing tissues to attack from disease-causing agents - in diabetes, for example, by weakening islet cells; in multiple sclerosis, by weakening glial cells in the nervous system; and in tuberculosis, by reducing the ability of the lung lining to repulse bacteria, according to Dr. Garland.”

“Vitamin D plays a role in telling cells when to die, thus helping to prevent uncontrolled proliferation and curbing the growth of new blood vessels that nourish growing tumours.”

“Scientists speculate that when low vitamin D status weakens epithelial cells, the barrier function is compromised, exposing tissues to attack from disease-causing agents - in diabetes, for example, by weakening islet cells; in multiple sclerosis, by weakening glial cells in the nervous system; and in tuberculosis, by reducing the ability of the lung lining to repulse bacteria, according to Dr. Garland.”