Vitamin D Fends Off Disease

A growing body of evidence suggests the importance of Vitamin D in maintaining bone health, to the health of the cardiovascular and immune systems.  Arash Hossein-nezhad, from Boston University School of Medicine (Massachusetts, USA), and colleagues completed a randomized trial involving 8 healthy men and women, average age 27 years, all of whom were vitamin D deficient/insufficient at the study’s start.  Three subjects received 400 IUs of Vitamin D daily, and five participants received 2,000 IUs daily, for a two-month period. Samples of immune cells were collected at the study start and end; gene expression analysis was conducted to identify if activity increased or decreased as a result of the vitamin supplementation.  The team observed that the group receiving 2,000 IUs achieved a sufficient Vitamin D status; whereas the 400 IU group remained at insufficient Vitamin D status.   Reporting that: “Our data suggest that any improvement in vitamin D status will significantly affect expression of genes that have a wide variety of biologic functions of more than 160 pathways linked to cancer, autoimmune disorders and cardiovascular disease with have been associated with vitamin D deficiency,” the study investigators submit that: “This study reveals for the first time molecular finger prints that help explain the nonskeletal health benefits of vitamin D.”