“On the Bright Side”
From Experience Life, June 2004
The National Institutes of Health cite osteoporosis among the most serious dangers of not getting enough vitamin D. In one study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (April 28, 1999), one-half of women with osteoporosis who were hospitalized for hip fracture at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston also happened to be deficient in vitamin D. Another study in Australia came upon a similar finding: Of 1,500 elderly women, the higher the vitamin-D levels, the less likely they were to suffer a bone-breaking fall.
Meanwhile, rickets, a vitamin-D-deficiency disease that prevents proper bone formation in childhood, has recently resurfaced as a public-health issue – possibly, some speculate, because of decreased exposure to sunlight.
But the benefits of this nutrient are more than bone deep. “Low vitamin-D states are also associated with diabetes, hypertension, weak immune systems and autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis,” says Gregory Plotnikoff, MD, MTS, FACC, associate professor of clinical medicine and pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. “In many cases, vitamin D regulates the genes associated with key functions. When not enough vitamin D is present, disease may be present.”
Read more about the links between vitamin-D deficiency and other things such as pain, muscle pain and cancer http://www.experiencelifemag.com/issues/june-2004/health-wellness/on-the-bright-side.html?ht
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