Category Archives: Vitamin D

Severely Malnourished Children May Benefit From Vitamin D Supplement

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr Javeria Saleem PhD
Department of Public Health, Institute of Social and Cultural Studies, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
Centre for Primary Care and Public Health, Blizard Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry
Queen Mary University of London
London, United Kingdom

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Severe acute malnutrition is the most extreme and visible form of undernutrition. Affected children have very low weight for their height and severe muscle wasting; they may also have swollen feet, face and limbs. Around 20 million children suffer from severe acute malnutrition worldwide of whom an estimated 1.4 million live in Pakistan. The condition is a major cause of death in children under 5 in Asia and Africa. The standard treatment is to give a high-energy, micronutrient enhanced paste called ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF).

Vitamin D deficiency has been reported to be a risk factor for severe wasting in children with severe acute malnutrition Ready-to-use therapeutic food contains relatively modest amounts of vitamin D. However, the effects of adding high-dose vitamin D to this standard treatment have not previously been evaluated.

We therefore did a clinical trial to assess whether high-dose vitamin D hastened recovery in 185 children aged 6-58 months who were receiving standard treatment for severe acute malnutrition in Southern Punjab, Pakistan. The 93 children in the active arm of the study received two doses of 5 mg vitamin D by mouth, while the 92 children in the control arm received placebo (a dummy medicine containing no vitamin D).

Our findings were very striking: after 2 months of treatment, the children who received high-dose vitamin D in addition to standard therapy had significantly better weight gain, and significantly better motor and language development, than those who received standard treatment alone.

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How To Prevent the Elderly From Falling?

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Alex Krist

Dr. Krist

Dr. Alex Krist, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Krist is is a professor of family medicine and population health at Virginia Commonwealth University and active clinician and teacher at the Fairfax Family Practice residency.

What is the background for these recommendation statements? What are the main findings?

Response: Falls are the leading cause of injuries in adults age 65 and older and can lead to serious disability and even death. Bone fractures—which may result from a fall—can also cause serious disability and death in older adults.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force looked into the most recent evidence on the best ways to prevent falls and fractures in older adults. We found that clinicians should recommend exercise or physical therapy to help prevent falls by older adults who live at home and are at higher risk for falling.

Additionally, we concluded that taking a low dose of vitamin D and calcium does not help prevent fractures due to osteoporosis, but we don’t know if taking a higher dose is effective or not, so we are calling for more research.

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Older, Frail and Physically Inactive Adults At Risk of Multivitamin Deficiency

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
“vitamins” by Colin Mutchler is licensed under CC BY 2.0Priv.-Doz. Dr. Barbara Thorand 
Helmholtz Zentrum München
German Research Center for Environmental Health
Institute of Epidemiology II
Neuherberg, Germany 

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Micronutrients, which include vitamins, minerals (e.g. calcium) and trace elements (e.g. iron), are essential nutrients that are required in minute amounts by the organism for proper growth and good health. Results from the last German National Nutrition Survey (NVS II)* uncovered a high prevalence of insufficient dietary intake of micronutrients in older adults aged 65 years and over in Germany. By means of blood analyses, our study has confirmed these critical results. This is a highly relevant issue, particularly in light of our growing aging population and the high societal relevance of successful healthy aging.

*Max Rubner-Institut: Nationale Verzehrsstudie II, Ergebnisbericht Teil 2 (2008). Die Bundesweite Befragung zur Ernährung von Jugendlichen und Erwachsenen.

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Vitamin D May Have a Role In Reducing Risk of Severe Asthma Attacks

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

David Jolliffe, PhD Centre for Primary Care and Public Health Blizard Institute Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry London

Dr. Jolliffe

David Jolliffe, PhD
Centre for Primary Care and Public Health
Blizard Institute
Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry
London

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Asthma affects more than 300 million people worldwide and is estimated to cause almost 400,000 deaths annually. Asthma deaths arise primarily during episodes of acute worsening of symptoms, known as attacks or ‘exacerbations’, which are commonly triggered by viral upper respiratory infections. Vitamin D is thought to protect against such attacks by boosting immune responses to respiratory viruses and dampening down harmful airway inflammation.

Several clinical trials have tested whether vitamin D supplementation might protect against asthma attacks, but individually their results are inconclusive. In the current study, we pooled raw data from 955 asthma patients who took part in 7 separate trials, which allowed us to answer two questions:

1, Does vitamin D protects against asthma attacks overall, when data from all trials are pooled?

2, Do people who have lower vitamin D levels to start with particularly benefit from supplementation?

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High Dose Vitamin D No Advantage In Preventing Pediatric Viral Infections

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Jonathon Maguire MD MSc FRCPC Scientist, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute

Dr. Maguire

Jonathon Maguire MD MSc FRCPC
Scientist, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute
Staff Pediatrician, Department of Pediatrics, St. Michael’s Hospital

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Vitamin D has been hypothesized as being protective of seasonal viral upper respiratory tract infections.  In this randomized clinical trial, high dose wintertime vitamin D supplementation (2000 IU/day) was compared with standard-dose vitamin D supplementation (400 IU/day) among 703 children.  The number of laboratory confirmed viral upper respiratory tract infections was not statistically different between groups.

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Vitamin D Supplements Will Probably Not Help Asthma or Atopic Dermatitis

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Brent Richards, MD, MSc</strong> Associate Professor of Medicine William Dawson Scholar / FRQS Clinical Research Scholar Departments of Medicine, Human Genetics, Epidemiology and Biostatistics McGill University Senior Lecturer, King's College London (Honorary)

Dr. Brent Richards

Brent Richards, MD, MSc
Associate Professor of Medicine
William Dawson Scholar / FRQS Clinical Research Scholar
Departments of Medicine, Human Genetics, Epidemiology and Biostatistics McGill University
Senior Lecturer, King’s College London (Honorary)

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Some previous epidemiological studies have suggested that low vitamin D levels are associated with increased rates of asthma, atopic dermatitis—an itchy inflammation of the skin—and elevated levels of IgE, an immune molecule linked to atopic disease (allergies). In our study, we looked at genetic and health data on more than 100,000 individuals from previous large studies to determine whether genetic alterations that are associated with vitamin D levels predispose people to the aforementioned conditions.

We found no statistically significant difference between rates of asthma (including childhood-onset asthma), atopic dermatitis, or IgE levels in people with and without any of the four genetic changes associated with lower levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, the form of vitamin D routinely measured in the blood.

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Monthly Doses of Vitamin D Do Not Prevent Cardiovascular Disease

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Robert Scragg, MBBS, PhD
School of Population Health
The University of Auckland
Auckland New Zealand

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Interest in a possible role for vitamin D deficiency as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease was stimulated by studies showing a seasonal variation in cardiovascular disease, which is much higher in winter, when body levels of vitamin D are low, than in summer.

Main findings are that bolus monthly doses of vitamin D supplementation do not prevent against cardiovascular disease, even in people with low levels of vitamin D.

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Vitamin D Deficiency Highly Prevalent in Pediatric Irritable Bowel Syndrome

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Benjamin Udoka Nwosu, MD, FAAP Associate Professor of Pediatrics Division of Endocrinology University of Massachusetts Medical School Worcester, Massachusetts

Dr. Nwosu

Benjamin Udoka Nwosu, MD, FAAP
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Division of Endocrinology
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Worcester, Massachusetts

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Vitamin D deficiency has been reported in various gastrointestinal disorders but the vitamin D status of children and adolescents with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) has not been previously characterized.

Secondly, the vitamin D status in IBS has not been compared to those of other malabsorption syndromes such as irritable bowel syndrome, lactose intolerance, and celiac disease.

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Effect of Vitamin D and Calcium Supplementation on Cancer Incidence in Older Women

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Joan M. Lappe, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N. Associate Dean for Research, College of Nursing Criss/Beirne Professor of Nursing Professor of Medicine Creighton University Omaha NE 68131

Dr. Lappe

Joan M. Lappe, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N.
Associate Dean for Research, College of Nursing
Criss/Beirne Professor of Nursing
Professor of Medicine
Creighton University
Omaha NE 68131

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

  • Numerous observational studies show that higher vitamin D intake and serum 25, hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D], the functional indicator of vitamin D status, are associated with lower incidence of cancer.
  • However, the scientific fields consider randomized clinical trials (RCT) as a gold standard for testing new interventions for prevention and treatment of disease. In the only RCT of cancer and vitamin D to date with cancer as a primary outcome, the Women’s Health Initiative, postmenopausal women randomly assigned to vitamin D3400 IU/day and calcium 1000 mg/day showed no difference from those assigned to placebo in colorectal cancer incidence. One criticism of that study was that the vitamin D intervention was low, only 400 international units (IU) per day.
  • In our study we found that, in healthy women ages 55 and older with a mean baseline serum 25(OH)D of 33 ng/mL, supplementation with 2000 IU/day of vitamin D3and 1500 mg/day of calcium for four years, compared with placebo, decreased all-type cancer incidence by about 30%, but this did not reach statistical significance. (p value =0.057 and for statistical significance, the p value would need to be less than 0.05.)
  • In a secondary analysis, we re-analyzed the data excluding cancers that developed during the first year of study and were likely present but not diagnosed upon study enrollment. The findings here were that vitamin D and calcium did significantly decrease cancer risk by about 35%.
  • In another secondary analyses, we combined all of the serum 25(OH)D values to determine if higher levels were associated with lower cancer incidence. Here, higher serum 25(OH)D was significantly associated with lower cancer incidence. Persons with serum 25(OH)D of 55 ng/mL had a 35% lower risk of cancer than persons with serum 25(OH)D of 30 ng/mL.  This is especially interesting since current recommendations for sufficient serum 25(OH)D levels are 20 ng/mL (the National Academy of Medicine) and 30 ng/mL (the Endocrine Society).
  • Note that serum 25(OH)D is a better predictor of cancer development than assigning persons to supplement groups. Serum 25(OH)D takes into account poor compliance of the active supplement group with taking supplements, personal use of supplements by the placebo group, dietary vitamin D intake, sunlight exposure, and the variation among persons in absorption and metabolism of the vitamin D supplement.

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Despite Guidelines, Low Proportion of Elderly Hip Fracture Patients Are Consistently Taking Vitamin D

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Sheila Sprague, PhD Assistant Professor, Research Methodologist McMaster University

Dr. Sheila Sprague

Dr. Sheila Sprague, PhD
Assistant Professor, Research Methodologist
McMaster University

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Previous research has found that daily administration of vitamin D is important for maintaining bone homeostasis. There has been an increased interest among the orthopaedic community regarding vitamin D supplementation and patient outcomes following fractures. Using data from the FAITH trial (NCT01908751), a multicenter randomized controlled trial that compared cancellous screws versus sliding hip screws in patients over the age of 50 with femoral neck fractures, we:

1) determined the proportion of patients consistently taking vitamin D following hip fracture surgery and
2) determined if supplementation was associated with improved health related quality of life and reduced re-operation.

Patients enrolled in the FAITH trial were recruited from 81 clinical sites in 8 countries over a 6-year span. We asked a subset of them about vitamin D supplementation and categorized them as consistent users, inconsistent users, or non-users.

The final analysis included 573 patients and we found that a surprisingly low proportion of elderly hip fracture patients are consistently taking vitamin D (18.7% of patients reported never taking vitamin D, 35.6% reported inconsistent use, and 45.7% reported consistent use). We also found that vitamin D was associated with a statistically (p=0.033), but not clinically, significant improvement in health-related quality of life following a hip fracture. Lastly, supplementation was discovered to not be associated with reduced re-operation (p=0.386).

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