Vitamin D and Healthy Living

Calcium is the most plentiful mineral found in the human body, accounting for 1.5% to 2% of an adult's total body weight. The teeth and the bones contain the majority of the body's calcium (about 99%).

    Covering up, sun block and staying out of the sun curtails
    natural production of this needed vitamin,
    as does our geographical location.

   Healthier eating habits involve attention to Vitamin D
       in the foods that you are consuming, if we are limiting
       Vitamin D produce from the sunlight.
Vitamin D & Calcium are closely linked in the body
   (Also see Vitamin D)
        Elderly & Calcium

'Elderly persons are at increased risk for calcium and vitamin D insufficiency. There are also several alterations in body functions that can contribute to calcium loss from bone, and hence increased risk of osteoporosis.

With ageing there is:
A decrease in dietary calcium intake, usually as a result of decreased overall dietary energy intake (e.g. poorer appetite, illnesses, social and economic factors)
A decrease in the intestinal absorption of calcium (exacerbated if vitamin D status is low)
A decrease in the capacity of the intestinal cells to adapt to a low calcium intake, and increase their absorptive capacity
Less frequent exposure to sunlight (e.g. elderly who are housebound, or institutionalized, or have reduced mobility), hence poorer vitamin D status
A decrease in the capacity of the skin to synthesize vitamin D
A decrease in the efficiency with which the kidneys can retain calcium, leading to increased calcium loss in the urine
A decrease in the capacity of the kidneys to convert vitamin D into the most active form, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D'

(Source: International Osteoporosis Foundation)

      Vitamin D contributes to several things

           - helps to prevent chronic diseases
              including type 2 diabetes, heart disease,
              hypertension, osteoporosis, breast cancer,
              colon cancer, and ovarian cancer
              by promoting the immune system
              and mineralization

           - regulates the calcium and phosphorus levels
              in the blood by promoting their absorption
              from food

            - slows aging

            ... and it makes you feel better .

The need for vitamin D increases after the age of 50.

Recommended Vitamin D Intake¹

Age (Male and Female)

0-1 year	400 IU/day
1-50 years	200 IU/day
51-70 years	400 IU/day
Over 70 years	600 IU/day

¹ People with osteoporosis may need more calcium and vitamin D.
Check with your doctor.

In addition to following Canada’s Food Guide, everyone over the age of 50 should take a daily vitamin D supplement of 10 µg (400 IU).

Good sources of vitamin D are fortified foods and beverages like milk, soy drinks, and margarine. Check the labels on these foods. Fish, liver, and egg yolk are the only foods that naturally contain vitamin D.

Additional Food Sources

Source: BC HealthGuide.org

Food Sources of Vitamin D

Food

Serving

Vitamin D (IU)

Milk	1 cup	100
Fortified rice or soy beverage	1 cup	80
Fortified orange juice	1/2 cup	45
Fortified margarine	2 tsp	51
Egg yolk	1	25
Herring or trout, cooked	75 g	156
Mackerel, cooked	75 g	80
Salmon, Atlantic, cooked	75 g	225
Salmon, canned or cooked*	75 g	608
Sardines, Atlantic, canned	75 g	70
Sardines, Pacific, canned	75 g	360
Tuna, canned, light or white	75 g	41
Tuna, canned, yellowfin (albacore, ahi)	75 g	105
Tuna, skipjack, cooked	75 g	381
Tuna, bluefin, cooked	75 g	690

* includes Chinook, Coho, Humpback (pink), Sockeye

Vitamin D toxicity induces abnormally high serum calcium levels (hypercalcemia), which could result in bone loss, kidney stones, and calcification of organs like the heart and kidneys if untreated over a long period of time. Don not overdose on Supplements.

Vitamin D deficiency linked to increased heart risk

Source: http://www.50plus.com

Article By: Cynthia Ross Cravit

Too little vitamin D could double the risk of heart attack or stroke.

The 'sunshine' vitamin is once again in the news.

Recent studies have indicated that vitamin D may help to prevent cancer, strengthen bones, slow aging and ward off Tuberculosis. And now, according to a study at Harvard Medical school, people with a vitamin D deficiency could face up to twice the risk of a heart attack or stroke than those with higher levels of the vitamin.

The study, published in the journal Circulation, suggests that people with moderate to severe vitamin D deficiency have a risk "above and beyond" other well known cardiovascular risk factors such as high cholesterol and diabetes.

And for people with both high blood pressure and vitamin D deficiency, the risk appears especially high. When researchers isolated 688 study participants who had blood pressure, they found that this group had twice the risk of cardiovascular problems as other participants.

"Vitamin D deficiency is associated with increased cardiovascular risk, above and beyond established cardiovascular risk factors," said lead author Dr. Thomas J. Wang, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. "The higher risk associated with vitamin D deficiency was particularly evident among individuals with high blood pressure."

The study, which involved 1,739 people with an average age of 59, was conducted between 1996 and 2001. After high cholesterol, diabetes and other risk factors were taken into account, people with lower vitamin D levels (below 15 nanograms per millilitre) had a 62 per cent increased risk of developing cardiovascular problems such as a heart attack, heart failure or stroke in the five years following than those with higher blood levels of the vitamin.

"We found that people with low vitamin D levels had a higher rate of cardiovascular events over the five-year follow-up period," Dr. Wang said. "These results are intriguing and suggestive but need to be followed up with further study."

More study needed
What hasn't been proven yet is that vitamin D deficiency actually causes increased risk of cardiovascular disease, according to Wang. Previous smaller studies have suggested people with heart disease are more likely to have vitamin D deficiencies, though Wang says it's hard to tell from the studies what came first, the heart trouble or the vitamin deficiency.

What is needed is "a large randomized trial to show whether correcting the vitamin D deficiency would result in a reduction in cardiovascular risk," he said.

During the past decade, researchers have studied several other vitamins that initially showed promise in reducing heart disease. But the vitamins didn't reduce heart disease in subsequent large randomized trials.

"On the flip side, just because other vitamins haven't succeeded doesn't preclude the possibility of finding vitamins that might prevent cardiovascular disease," Wang said. "This is always an area of great interest. Vitamins are easy to administer and in general have few toxic effects."

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Canadian Cancer Society

Recommended adult Canadians lower their cancer risk by taking 1,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D daily -- five times the current recommended amounts for people under age 50

READ More on their Site.