Higher Vitamin D Amounts Linked to Stronger Lungs
Source: Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter, Mar2006, Vol. 24 Issue 1, p8-8, 1/2p
RESEARCHERS KEEP DISCOVERING new benefits from getting enough vitamin D, which has been linked to everything from stronger bones to preventing prostate cancer (see the December and May 2005 Healthletter). Now a study, recently published in Chest, has found that the higher the level of vitamin D in your blood, the better your lungs seem to function.
Researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand analyzed data on 14,091 American adults collected from 1988-1994 as part of the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). They broke the subjects into five groups, based on serum concentrations of vitamin D, then compared how much air they could exhale in one second (forced expiratory volume, or FEV) as well as forced vital capacity, FVC, the amount a person can blow after a deep breath when exhaling as rapidly as possible.
Even after adjusting for factors such as smoking and exercise, the group with the highest vitamin D levels had substantially stronger FEV scores and better FVC rates. The difference based on vitamin D was greater even than that between subjects who'd never smoked and ex-smokers. The strongest correlation between lung function and vitamin D was found in those who were over the age of 60 and in smokers.
Study lead author Peter N. Black, ChB, cautioned, "Although there is a definite relationship between lung function and vitamin D, it is unclear if increases in vitamin D through supplements or dietary intake will actually improve lung function in patients with chronic respiratory diseases" such as CDPD, asthma and emphysema. The researchers speculated that vitamin D may help in the remodeling of tissues in the lung.
In an accompanying editorial. Harvard Medical School professor Rosalind Wright, MD, MPH, expressed hope that vitamin D will eventually be proven to be a "simple, low-cost intervention that would likely have high compliance to prevent of slow loss of lung function in susceptible subgroups."
The study also found more vitamin D naturally in men than in women and less vitamin D the older and more obese a person becomes. Although the body naturally produces vitamin D from sunlight, that capacity declines with age, and it's difficult to get enough from natural sources alone, especially during the winter in northern latitudes. The recommended daily dose of vitamin D is 400 international units (IU), though many experts believe older adults need twice that amount, or even 1,000 IU.
TO LEARN MORE: Chest, December 2005; free abstract online at <
http://www.chestjournal.org/cgi/cont...ct/128/6/3792>.
Did you know… The average person consumes 160 bowls of cereal in a year, or about 10 pounds of cereal; 95% of us say that we "love" breakfast cereal.
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