Researchers found that adding the mineral to the diets of middle schoolers led to improvements in their memories and attention spans. They reported the results on April 4 at the Experimental Biology 2005 meeting in San Diego.

Seventh graders given 20 milligrams of zinc five days a week for 10 to 12 weeks performed better on memory tasks and had longer attention spans than did those who did not receive zinc supplements, said James G. Penland, a research psychologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center, in North Dakota.

Zinc has been studied in relation to motor function, thinking and social skills in very young children and in adults, Penland said, but “this is the first study to look at that relationship in adolescence.” These older children may be at risk for zinc deficiency, especially while undergoing rapid growth during puberty, he added.

The current daily requirement for zinc is 11 milligrams for boys aged 14 to 18; 9 milligrams for girls aged 14 to 18, and 8 milligrams for kids aged 9 to 13, Penland said.

His team studied 209 seventh grade boys and girls who consumed 4 ounces of fruit juice that came one of three ways: with no zinc, 10 milligrams of the supplement, or 20 milligrams of the mineral every weekday for 10 weeks. The kids didn’t know if they got the juice with zinc or without.

They were then given a battery of tests to measure attention, perception, memory and reasoning. Those given 20 milligrams of zinc answered questions on a visual memory task test 12 percent more accurately and quickly, compared to 6 percent for those not given extra zinc. The group given 20 milligrams of zinc increased the number of questions answered correctly on a word recognition task by 9 percent, compared to 3 percent for the no-zinc group. The group that got just 10 milligrams a day of zinc did not show improved performance.

Some of the tasks involved tapping a key on a keyboard as quickly as possible, using a mouse to follow an object moving across the computer screen, learning, and remembering lists of word and categorizing objects.

Exactly how zinc improved performance isn’t known, Penland said. “Deficiencies of zinc alter the function of the hippocampus, which is associated with memory functioning,” he noted.

Zinc also helps regulate cell growth, helps wounds heal, and boosts the immune system.

Another expert calls the study “out-of-the-box” thinking. “This is news to me,” said Dr. Ken Fujioka, director of nutrition and metabolic research at Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, Calif. “I have not seen this type of study done particularly in this age group.”

But he cautions parents not to supplement their children with zinc without checking first with the pediatrician or family doctor. “If you take too much zinc for too long, you can also run into problems,” he said.

Added Penland: “My advice to parents would be to look at their kids’ diet and make sure it provides the recommended amount of zinc and other nutrients.”

Good sources of zinc include meat, seafood, eggs and milk, according to the American Dietetic Association.

Penland hopes more research will be done focusing on older children’s dietary needs “because the dietary guidelines that are out there are simply not based on data collected directly from children, by and large. The recommendations [for children] are based on the best data available, but not the best data possible.”

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 22 (HealthDay News) — Zinc plays an important role in the transmission of signals between nerve cells (neurons) in the brain and spinal cord, a new European study says.

Researchers bred mice with a mutation that affected a zinc receptor in neurons and found that the mice had tremors, altered transmission of visual signals, and were slower to right themselves when turned over than normal mice. The mutated mice also had an enhanced startle response to sudden noise.

Further investigation revealed that the mice had significant zinc-related abnormalities in the transmission of signals at the synapses (connections) among neurons, the study said.

For about 50 years, scientists have been trying to prove that zinc plays a role in neuronal signaling. The study, published in the Nov. 22 issue of the journal Neuron, appears to provide evidence of the importance of zinc in that process.

“The data presented in our paper disclose a pivotal role of ambient synaptic (zinc ion) for glycinergic neurotransmission in the context of normal animal behavior,” the study authors wrote.

by Mike Adams
February 10, 2009

(NaturalNews) A new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine claims that multivitamins are useless at preventing cancer and cardiovascular disease in women. The mainstream media has predictably picked up on this story, gleefully running it as “proof” that nutrition is worthless and only pharmaceuticals can enhance your health.

What they’re not telling you, though, might shock you. Here’s the truth about this so-called “scientific” study on multivitamins:

• No multivitamins were even used in the study! The women followed in this study weren’t actually given any multivitamins at all. They were simply asked if they take multivitamins!

• There was no quality control in the study. Since no multivitamins were given to women, there was no quality control at all. Did these women take cheap, synthetic vitamins bought at Costco? Or did they take quality supplements from better sources? Nobody knows because it wasn’t tracked!

• Most people SAY they take multivitamins, but don’t. If you ask most people, they will TELL you they eat healthy, and that they take multivitamins. But in reality they don’t. Most people greatly exaggerate the description of their own health habits.

• Multivitamin consumption FREQUENCY was not accurately measured. There was no ability of this study to reliably measure how often consumers actually took their multivitamins. Did they take them once a week? Once a month? Once a year? Even taking them once a year would have counted in this study as “taking multivitamins.” Gee, no wonder the results showed no improvement…

In effect, this study did not measure the effects of multivitamins on cancer and heart disease. What it really measured was the degree to which people exaggerate their own claims of health habits, and the degree to which the mainstream media so easily falls for junk science.

The MSM remains utterly clueless about nutrition, and it simply reprints practically any study published in a medical journal, even when that study is obviously based on deceptive science and a pro-Pharma agenda.

All these attacks on vitamin C, vitamin E, antioxidants and multivitamins have the same source: The Big Pharma-funded mainstream media and its effort to try to discredit nutritional supplements in order to please advertisers.

The very idea that nutrition is bad for you but Big Pharma’s chemicals are good for you is insane to begin with. But that’s what they want you to believe: Nutrition isn’t required in the human body, they claim. But pharmaceutical chemicals are essential!

What they want you to do is shut up, eat your (processed) food, take your (chemical) medications, get your (fraudulent) disease screening, pay your taxes, watch television ads, make more (sheeple) babies and stop questioning the status quo. And multivitamins? Stop wasting your money on them. You’ll need that money to buy more monopoly-priced pharmaceuticals, after all.Buzz up!1 vote

(NaturalNews) Extracts from two Eurasian wildflowers are highly effective at killing the superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), according to a study conducted by researchers at the Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) in Ireland.

Researchers found that extracts from Inula helenium (commonly known as elecampane, horse-heal or marchalan) eliminated 100 percent of MRSA colonies upon exposure.

I. helenium and another wildflower, known as Pulsatilla vulgaris or pasque flower, were tested against 300 different varieties of staphylococci bacteria, including MRSA. P. vulgaris also proved “highly effective” against MRSA, according to an article in the “Irish Examiner.”

MRSA is resistant to all first-line antibiotics, making it more likely that staph infections caused by the bug will proceed for longer without treatment and spread from the skin to other parts of the body. This makes MRSA correspondingly more lethal than other staph infections. The increasing prevalence and lethality of MRSA in hospitals, schools, prisons and other institutional settings across the United States has made the superbug an issue of increasing concern for health officials.

A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that MRSA infected nearly 100,000 people in the United States in 2005 and killed 18,650 people. Roughly 16,000 people died from AIDS in the same year.

I. helenium is a bright yellow, tall perennial wildflower that grows throughout central and southern Europe and throughout western and central Asia as far east as the Himalayas. It blossoms in the late summer. P. vulgaris, a member of the buttercup family, produces bell-shaped flowers in early spring. The wildflower is found throughout western, central and southern Europe. Both flowers grow wild in Ireland and Great Britain.

The research on the wildflower extracts was carried out by a postgraduate student under the supervision of a CIT professor and a senior medical scientist from the microbiology department of Cork University Hospital.

New research from Queen Mary, University of London and Harvard Medical School has revealed precisely why taking fish oils can help with conditions like rheumatoid arthritis.

In a paper published in Nature today, researchers describe how the body converts an ingredient found in fish oils into another chemical called Resolvin D2 and how this chemical reduces the inflammation that leads to a variety of diseases.

The research also suggests that Resolvin D2 could be the basis for a new treatment for diseases including sepsis, stroke and arthritis. Unlike other anti-inflammatory drugs, this chemical does not seem to suppress the immune system.

The researchers, who were funded by the Arthritis Research Campaign, the Wellcome Trust and the National Institutes of Health, looked at a particular ingredient of fish oils called DHA. They were able to show how the body converts DHA into Resolvin D2 and discover its exact chemical structure.

Mauro Perretti, Professor of Immunopharmacology at Queen Mary, University of London, led the UK team. He said: “We have known for some time that fish oils can help with conditions like arthritis which are linked to inflammation. What we’ve shown here is how the body processes a particular ingredient of fish oils into Resolvin D2. We’ve also looked in detail at this chemical, determining at least some of the ways it relieves inflammation. It seems to be a very powerful chemical and a small amount can have a large effect.”

“This research is important because it explains at least one way in which fish oils can help in different types of arthritis. We can also work on this chemical and see if it can be used not only to treat or even prevent arthritis, but also as a possible treatment for a variety of other diseases associated with inflammation.”

Arthritis, and many other diseases, are caused by inflammation. This means that the body’s natural defences against infections are mistakenly directed at healthy tissue.

Previous research has shown that a crucial step in this process occurs when white blood cells, called leukocytes, stick to the inner lining of the blood vessels, called the endothelium.

Researchers studied these blood cells and how they interact with the endothelium in the lab. When they added Resolvin D2 they found that the endothelial cells produced small amounts of nitric oxide, which acts as a chemical signal discouraging the white blood cells from sticking to the endothelial cells and preventing inflammation.

“This peer-reviewed expert analysis should help reassure consumers about the safety of vitamin E for a healthy population at the most common daily doses on the market — 400 IU and 200 IU — for vitamin E single supplements,” said John Hathcock, Ph.D., vice president, scientific and international affairs, Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), and the lead author on the article. However, Dr. Hathcock pointed out that consumers should not view the study’s conclusions as a license to exceed recommended doses on product labels, noting that the UL (“Tolerable Upper Intake Level”) is a dose at which “there is no known harm but it is not a recommendation or suggestion for daily use.”

In reviewing the available scientific literature on vitamins E and C, the scientists reviewed clinical trials as well as epidemiological studies in humans, determining there was sufficient information from human data to support a conclusion on safety. This is in contrast to the approach taken by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), a scientific advisory body, which established its UL for vitamin E based on an extrapolation from animal data. The IOM set a UL at 1000 mg for vitamin E (which is equivalent to 1000 IU synthetic; 1500 IU natural).

With regard to vitamin C, the authors noted that “Numerous studies of vitamin C supplementation have provided no pattern of evidence to support concerns about safety other than occasional gastrointestinal upset or mild diarrhea…” The authors came to the same conclusion as the IOM in establishing the UL at 2000 mg for vitamin C.

The review of the scientific literature encompassed 95 references, including the recent, controversial meta-analysis on vitamin E from Johns Hopkins University.

Vitamins E and C are among the most popular dietary supplements. Many studies suggest that these antioxidant supplements, either alone or in combination with other supplements, can help promote overall good health and be helpful in lowering the risk of specific chronic diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, age-related macular degeneration, cataracts, some types of cancer, and ischemic heart disease.

Age-related cataract is the world’s leading cause of blindness but surgical correction is currently the only known option for intervention. The researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University sought to determine if prevention is possible.

In one study, lead scientist Paul Jacques, director of the center’s Nutritional Epidemiology Program, and his colleagues analyzed the diets and examined the eyes of a group of Boston-area women during a five-year period. Those reporting supplementing their diets with vitamin E for 10 years or more had significantly less progression of cataract development.

Similar findings were seen among those reporting higher intakes of two B vitamins, riboflavin and thiamin.

“Our results,” said Jacques, “suggest vitamin supplementation, particularly long-term use of vitamin E, may slow cataract development.”

An earlier study indicated similar results for vitamin C.

The study’s complete findings appear in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Good news for those who take vitamin supplements: People who take a multivitamin and vitamin E nearly every day for 10 years seem to have a slightly lower risk of death from heart disease, study findings hint.

Those who take vitamin E and C supplements may also have a lower risk of death overall in a five-year period, while those who take vitamin C may have a lower risk of death from cancer, note study authors Dr. Gaia Pocobelli, at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, and colleagues.

Vitamins E and C are antioxidants that are thought to protect against damage the body’s cells, but scientists have “no clear evidence” that their use staves off death.

While the findings of the current study back earlier studies, many of the decreased risks are small, and may have more to do with other healthy behaviors in which people who take vitamins are likely to take part, the authors are quick to add in their report in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

The team surveyed 77,719 men and women in Washington State who were between 50 and 76 years old. Overall 67, 47, and 48 percent of the study group had ever used multivitamins, vitamin C, and vitamin E supplements, respectively.

Overall, there were 3,577 deaths in the group over five years. Among those who did not use vitamins, there were 350 deaths from heart disease, while there were 519 deaths among those who used vitamins between a few days and seven days per week.

After adjusting for gender and age, lifestyle, diet, and medical conditions, the researchers saw no differences between non-users and those who used multivitamins for zero to 2 days, 3 to 5 days, or 6 to 7 days per week on average over 10 years.

By contrast, they saw slightly decreased risk for death from heart disease among those reporting the most frequent multivitamin use.

When the researchers looked at vitamin C use, those who took more than 322 milligrams per day had a slightly decreased overall and cancer-related risk of death within five years, compared with non-users. Those with a history of heart disease who took this level of vitamin C had slightly decreased risk for death from heart disease.

Compared with non-users, men and women reporting more than 215 milligrams per day of vitamin E per day – roughly the amount found in a typical supplement — had slightly decreased total and heart disease-related risk of death. The investigators saw no association between cancer death risk and vitamin E intake.

Even though the study took lifestyle into account, the authors that many of the findings “should be interpreted cautiously because healthy behaviors” – some of which may not have been measured – “tend to be more common in supplement users than in nonusers.”

FRIDAY, Sept. 10 (HealthDayNews) — Four common supplements — chromium, vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12 and multivitamins — may help slow weight gain in middle-age adults, claims a study by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

Researchers reviewed questionnaire responses from about 15,000 people, average age 55, in Washington state. They provided information about their vitamin, mineral and herbal supplement use over the previous 10 years, along with details about diet, physical activity and medical history.

The researchers focused on 14 supplements.

The study concluded that the people who had taken multivitamins, vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12 and chromium had less weight gain over the previous 10 years than other respondents. That slowed weight gain was most evident among people who’d been categorized as overweight or obese at the start of the 10-year period.

The findings were to be presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians in Seattle.

TUESDAY, Sept. 19 (HealthDay News) — Multiple sclerosis patients may benefit from a form of vitamin B3, a new study finds.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) results in damage to nerve fibers, causing fatigue, difficulty walking, pain and other problems. Most people with MS eventually enter a chronic progressive phase of the disease for which there is currently no good treatment.

New research published in the Sept. 20 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience studied the effects of injecting nicotinamide — a form of vitamin B3 — under the skin of mice that had an MS-like disease.

The researchers, from the Neurobiology Program in Children’s Hospital Boston, found the injections protected nerve fibers in the mice from degeneration — even in the nerve cells that had already been damaged.

The higher the dose of nicotinamide, the more protective the effect, the study found.

On a scale of one to five, with one indicating the least nerve damage and five indicating the most, the mice receiving the highest doses of nicotinamide had neurologic scores of one to two, and those receiving no nicotinamide had scores between three and four.

Even the mice in which treatment was delayed until 10 days after the onset of their disease benefited.

“The earlier therapy was started, the better the effect, but we hope nicotinamide can help patients who are already in the chronic state,” Shinjiro Kaneko, a research fellow at Children’s, said in a prepared statement.

Researchers believe nicotinamide works by increasing the levels of a compound known as nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), which has been shown to directly prevent nerve degeneration.

October 13, 2008

Saturday October 11, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) — A new study published online ahead of print in the journal Diabetes Care suggests that taking vitamin K1 supplements may help reduce risk of diabetes in older men.

The study led by Sarah Booth from the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center at Tufts University and colleagues   showed those who took vitamin k1 supplements reduced their risk of developing insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance is the condition in which normal amounts of insulin are produced but insulin does not respond adequately from fat, muscle and liver cells.

For the study researchers followed 355 non-diabetic men and women ages 60 to 80 with 60 percent women.   Participants were given vitamin k1 supplement at a dose of 500 micrograms per day of phylloquinone or placebo for 36 months.

Among men, but not women, those who took vitamin k1 supplement experienced a significant reduction in insulin resistance compared to the placebo group.

Posted Aug 12, 2009

Vitamin K may slow the progression of coronary artery calcification, which raises the risk of heart disease. Vitamin K could protect the arteries that feed the heart muscle because matrix GLa protein which keeps arteries from getting calcified – needs vitamin K to work.

Researchers gave nearly 400 healthy men and postmenopausal women aged 60 to 80 either a daily multivitamin with vitamin K (500 micrograms) or without K for three years. Among those who took their multi at least 85 percent of the time, calcification progressed more slowly in the vitamin K takers than in those whose multi had no K.

What to do: Until other studies confirm the results, it’s too early to recommend vitamin K to help slow calcification in arteries. In the meantime, shoot for the recommended levels (90 micrograms a day for women and 120 meg for men). The best source: leafy green vegetables.

Dr. Alberto Ascherio, of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and colleagues compared the risk of ALS in individuals who regularly took the antioxidant vitamins E and C with people who did not take these vitamins regularly.

Included in the analysis were 957,740 subjects at least 30 years of age who participated in the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Prevention Study II. Data on vitamin use were collected in 1982, and ALS death rates between 1989 and 1998 were obtained from the National Death Index.

A total of 525 participants died of ALS during the study period.

Mortality rates due to ALS were 62 percent lower among long-term users of vitamin E than non-vitamin-users, the investigators report in the Annals of Neurology.

No significant associations were observed for vitamin C or multivitamin supplement use. Also, occasional use of vitamin E had not effect on ALS risk.

“Oxidative stress appears to act in concert with other mechanisms that have been implicated in the pathogenesis of motor neuron degeneration in ALS,” Ascherio’s group writes.

The researchers suggest that “vitamin E, by reducing oxidative stress, therefore could influence several downstream events that result in the death of motor neurons.”

A review of eight studies that looked into whether vitamins C and E and beta carotene had an impact on the odds of developing the progressive brain disease showed that a moderate intake of vitamin E lowered the risk.

“Our data suggest that diets rich in vitamin E protect against the development of Parkinson’s disease,” said Dr. Mayhar Etminan, of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Quebec, Canada, in a report in The Lancet Neurology journal.

Neither vitamin C nor beta carotene seemed to have a protective effect against the illness.

The researchers said they did not know whether vitamin E supplements would have any benefits.

Parkinson’s is a chronic, irreversible neurodegenerative disease that affects 1 percent of people over the age of 65 worldwide. In the United States alone at least 500,000 people suffer from the illness. Actor Michael J Fox and boxing legend Mohammed Ali are sufferers.

The illness occurs when brain cells that produce a chemical called dopamine malfunction and die. Symptoms include tremors, stiffness, slow movement and poor coordination and balance.

The scientists, who looked at relevant studies from 1966 to March 2005, said more research is needed to confirm their findings.

Vitamin E is an antioxidant that protects cells from damage. Foods rich in the vitamin include nuts, seeds, wheat germ, spinach and other green leafy vegetables.

The study, of teenage girls in Iran, found that those who took vitamin E starting two days before their periods suffered far less cramping than their peers who used only standard pain medication.

After four months, the girls who took vitamin E had cramps for less than two hours, on average, during their periods. That compared with 17 hours for those who did not take the vitamin.

Dr. Saeideh Ziaei and her colleagues at Tarbiat Modarres University in Tehran report the findings in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Common menstrual cramps, or primary dysmenorrhea, are thought to result from the release of hormone-like substances called prostaglandins. Prostaglandins cause the uterus to contract in order to expel the uterine lining, resulting in menstrual blood flow. Vitamin E, by acting on two enzymes in the body, can inhibit the formation of prostaglandins — and, potentially, menstrual cramps, according to Ziaei and her colleagues.

To investigate, the researchers randomly assigned 278 girls, 15 to 17 years old, with primary dysmenorrhea to take either vitamin E or an inactive placebo pill. Girls in the vitamin E group took 200 milligrams (mg) of the vitamin twice a day, starting two days before they expected their periods and continuing through the third day of menstruation.>

Both groups were allowed to take ibuprofen if they needed to.

After four months, girls in the vitamin E group showed a sharp reduction in the number of hours they suffered cramps each month. Few — 4 percent — reported using ibuprofen, compared with 89 percent of girls in the placebo group.

Girls in both groups tended to say their periods got lighter during the study period, but the change was greater in the vitamin group, according to Ziaei’s team.

The dose of vitamin E used in the study — 200 mg twice a day — is significantly higher than the recommended daily intake of 20 mg, but still well within the range that experts consider unlikely to cause adverse effects. U.S. health officials set the “upper tolerable intake level” for vitamin E at 1,000 mg per day.

“The use of vitamin E for dysmenorrhea in adolescent women is attractive,” Ziaei’s team writes, “because of the marked effect we have demonstrated, coupled with the absence of significant side effects from vitamin E at therapeutic doses.”

In fact, people taking high doses of vitamin E may in some cases be more likely to die earlier, although the reasons are not clear, said Dr. Edgar Miller of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who led the study.

“I think people take vitamin E because they think it is going to make you live longer, but this (study) doesn’t support that,” Miller told reporters.

Miller and colleagues re-analyzed 19 studies of vitamin E and health between 1993 and 2004. The trials involved more than 136,000 mostly elderly patients in North America, Europe and China.

People who took 200 international units of vitamin E a day or more died at a higher rate during the study, which lasted three years, than people who did not take supplements, they told a meeting of the American Heart Association (news – web sites).

“It’s about a 5 percent increased risk at 45 years in the trials pooled together,” Miller said.

“That doesn’t sound like a lot but if you apply it to 25 percent of the (U.S.) adult population taking vitamin E, that is significant.”

Miller, whose findings are also being published online by the Annals of Internal Medicine, said two-thirds of people who take vitamin E supplements take 400 IU or more.

“We don’t think that people need to take vitamin E supplements, that they get enough from the diet,” he said. Nuts, oils, whole grains and green leafy vegetables are all rich in vitamin E.

MUCH MORE THAN NEEDED

The average U.S. diet supplies six to 10 IU of E, Miller said. The Institute of Medicine, which sets recommended doses of vitamins and minerals, gives 1,500 IU of E as a daily upper limit.

“I would say it is too high,” Miller said. The U.S. government’s Food and Drug Administration is barred by law from regulating dietary supplements so the limits are voluntary.

People take large doses of vitamin E in the belief that it helps counter oxidation by unstable “free radical” molecules, which damages cells and can accelerate aging and lead to heart disease and cancer.

Miller, who was surprised by the findings of the study, said there could be several ways the vitamin supplementation is damaging the body.

While vitamin E in low doses is a powerful antioxidant, in higher doses its effects may promote oxidative damage, and may also overwhelm the body’s natural antioxidants, he said.

Dr. Raymond Gibbons of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said the evidence has been building against vitamin E supplements.

“Despite this … I see many, many patients still taking vitamin E and I have to convince them not to,” he told a separate news conference.

But the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade group for supplement makers, criticized the report.

“This is an unfortunate misdirection of science in an attempt to make something out of nothing for the sake of headlines,” said the group’s John Hathcock.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A large new study suggests vitamin E may help prevent death from cancer and heart disease in middle-aged men who smoke, contradicting the findings of some previous studies on the subject.

In a study of 29,092 Finnish men in their 50s and 60s who were smokers, those with the highest concentrations of the vitamin E in their blood at the study’s outset were the least likely to die during the follow-up period, which lasted up to 19 years, Dr. Margaret E. Wright of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland and colleagues report.

There are a number of mechanisms by which vitamin E, also known as alpha-tocopherol, might promote health, Wright and her team note in the current issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. For example, vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant, while it also boosts immune system function and prevents tumor blood vessel growth.

But studies investigating blood levels of vitamin E and mortality, as well as the effects of taking supplements of the vitamin, have had conflicting results.

In the current study, Wright and her colleagues compared men’s levels of alpha tocopherol at the beginning of the study, before they had begun taking the supplements, with their mortality over the course of the study’s follow-up period.

Men with the highest levels of vitamin E in their blood were 18 percent less likely to die than those with the lowest levels, the researchers found. They also had a 21-percent lower risk of death from cancer, a 19-percent lower risk of dying from heart disease, and a 30-percent lower risk of death from other causes.

The optimum concentration appeared to be 13 to 14 milligrams vitamin E per liter of blood, with higher concentrations offering no additional benefit.

Because trials of vitamin E supplements have shown no effect on mortality, the findings don’t suggest that they would be beneficial, but do suggest that people can benefit from getting more vitamin E in their diet through foods such as “nuts, seeds, whole grains, and dark-green leafy vegetables,” the researchers conclude.

SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, November 2006.

About two thirds of patients with ISHL recover without treatment within days, most in the first two weeks after onset. The prognosis is worse if the patient has severe hearing loss with downward-sloping audiograms and vertigo, and does not begin recovery within two weeks. Many treatment regimens have been proposed for ISHL, but none has been consistently supported.

Previous research has shown that superoxide anion radicals (O2-) appear in the inner ear of experimental animals after damage caused by noise-induced trauma, administration of ototoxic drugs, and inflammatory disease. Other studies have shown that antioxidants could prevent the ototoxicity of cisplatin, a common chemotherapy drug. These findings leading this research team from Israel to believe that antioxidants such as vitamin E may have a restorative or protective role in the inner ear.

With this evidence, they assumed a similar mechanism may be involved in idiopathic sudden hearing loss and, in that event, antioxidants could reduce the damage and enhance recovery. The authors of “Antioxidants in Treatment of Idiopathic Hearing Loss,” are Arie Gordin MD, Avishay Golz MD, Aviram Netzer MD, David Goldenberg MD, Henry Z. Joachims MD, all from the Department of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery, Rambam Medical Center and Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. Their findings are being presented at the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO, being held September 19-22, 2004, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York City, NY.

Methodology: From 1998 to 2001, 92 patients were hospitalized with sudden hearing loss. After exclusions (known cause of the disorder, recovery), 66 patients were enrolled in the study and divided randomly into two groups (study group, S; control group, C) of 33 patients each, ranging in age from 17 to 68 (mean age, 41 years). The mean age in Group S was 42.2; in Group C, it was 38.

Fourteen patients had vertigo (eight in Group S, six in Group C), and 34 had tinnitus (19 in Group S, 15 in Group C). Only patients admitted within eight days from onset of hearing loss were included in the study. Hearing evaluation (pure tone audiometry, speech reception threshold, and speech discrimination) was performed after complete histories had been taken and physical examinations had been done. Severity of the disease was based on the mean hearing loss in frequencies of 250 to 4,000 Hz. Up to 40 dB loss was defined as mild, 41 to 70 dB loss was defined as moderate, and 71 dB loss or more was defined as severe. Hearing gain and recovery rate were used as parameters for hearing recovery. The recovery rate was defined as a result of the hearing gain after treatment divided by the difference in initial hearing level between the affected and unaffected ear, multiplied by 100.

Treatment of idiopathic sudden hearing loss consisted of bed rest, steroids (prednisone at a dosage of 1 mg/kg/day), intravenous magnesium sulfate 4 g/day, and carbogen (95 percen + 5 percent CO2) by mask, 30 minutes four times a day. This treatment was given to both groups. In addition, Group S received oral vitamin E (d-[alpha]-tocopherol acetate), 400 mg twice daily.

Results: This study divided 66 patients with diagnoses of ISHL into two groups. The basic treatment of both groups was identical except for the addition of vitamin E 800 mg/day administered to the study (S) group. The severity of hearing loss was only marginally significant in the rate of recovery, whereas age and sex difference, incidence of tinnitus, and vertigo were nonsignificant in the rate of recovery.

Although the difference in complete recovery in both groups was statistically insignificant, the success of treatment, defined as improvement of 75 percent or more at the time of discharge, was significantly better in the study group (78.78 vs. 45.45 percent), as was the case on follow-up (76.42 vs. 55.79 percent).

Conclusions: With the suggestion that antioxidants might prevent cisplatin-induced ototoxicity, reduce the incidence of deafness after bacterial meningitis, and protect against noise-induced hearing loss, this research team sought to determine whether the use of antioxidants in ISHL could improve the outcome of the disease.

Vitamin E was selected for this effort. The antioxidant properties of vitamin E have been known for many years. Since its discovery, vitamin E has been recognized as an essential factor in neurologic function, preventing destruction of red blood cells, and some genetic disorders. Its role in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, reduction of risk of cancer, and functioning of the immune system has also been cited.

The recovery rate was better for the patients in the group treated with vitamin E. The researchers believe that the exact pathologic changes inflicted by superoxide anion radicals should be further studied, as should the possible role of antioxidants in the prevention of cochlear damage.

Note: The American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) represents the nation´s 11,000 otolaryngologist-head and neck surgeons. These specialists diagnose and treat disorders of the ear, nose, and throat and related structures of the head and neck. Learn more about the specialty and otolaryngic disorders at the AAO-HNS Internet web site, http://www.entnet.org.

A targeted newswire featuring breaking medical news stories from over 200 leading academic and research institutions including: Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Harvard, and the Mayo Clinic.

Vitamin E’s possible heart benefits are described in a letter published in the November issue of the journal Diabetes Care. The letter was written by researchers, including Andrew Levy, MD, PhD, of Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel.

Levy and colleagues reviewed data from the Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation trial, which was conducted in 2000. That study included more than 3,000 participants, about a third of whom had diabetes.

The HOPE trial tested the benefits of taking 400 international units of vitamin E daily for 4.5 years. It found that vitamin E supplements had no significant benefit against heart attack, stroke, and death from cardiovascular disease, regardless of diabetes status.

However, the trial might have missed a key piece of information.

Participants with a particular form of a blood protein called haptoglobin who took vitamin E cut their risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by 55% and decreased their risk of nonfatal heart attack by 43%, say Levy and colleagues.

Haptoglobin comes in three forms: “2-2,” “1-1,” and “2-1.” Haptoglobin’s 2-2 form is the worst of the three at fighting disease-causing free radicals. People with diabetes who have haptoglobin’s 2-2 form of the protein have a higher risk of cardiovascular “events,” such as heart attacks, write the researchers.

About 40% of people with diabetes have the 2-2 form of haptoglobin, according to a news release.

Levy’s team noted the possible vitamin E-haptoglobin connection after examining the original trial for haptoglobin subtype. However, vitamin E didn’t show the same protective trend against stroke.

A larger five-year study of people with diabetes with haptoglobin 2-2 subtype is underway in Israel, according to a news release.

“If this larger study confirms our findings, the public health implications would be huge,” says Levy in the release.

Levy is the author of a patent that claims to predict diabetic vascular disease based on type of haptoglobin.

TUESDAY, May 29 (HealthDay News) — Premenopausal women who get a lot of vitamin D and calcium may cut their risk of breast cancer by almost a third, Harvard Medical School researchers report.

“Adequate intakes of calcium and vitamin D are necessary for women in keeping up their health, and additionally, these two nutrients may help prevent breast cancer development, especially among premenopausal women,” said lead author Jennifer Lin, an assistant professor of medicine.

Her team’s report appears in the May 28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

In the study, Lin’s team collected data on more than 10,500 premenopausal and almost 21,000 postmenopausal women age 45 and older who were part of the Women’s Health Study. The data included information on what they ate and the dietary supplements they took.

Over an average of 10 years, 276 premenopausal women and 743 postmenopausal women went on to develop breast cancer.

The researchers found that premenopausal women whose intake of vitamin D and calcium was high had about a 30 percent lower risk of developing breast cancer. However, they didn’t find this association for postmenopausal women.

Animal studies have also found an association between calcium and vitamin D intake and breast cancer prevention, Lin’s group noted.

“Calcium and vitamin D may confer protection against breast tumorigenesis,” Lin said. “However, more studies are necessary to investigate the potential utility of these two nutrients in breast cancer development,” she added.

One expert stressed that the evidence for a protective effect of vitamin D and calcium is still not clear.

“I really don’t think that one can say from this study that the effect is only in premenopausal women, because there are a number of factors in the study that may have limited the ability to see the effect,” said Victoria Stevens, an epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society. “This is particularly true for vitamin D, because most vitamin D comes from exposure to sunlight, which they did not take into account.”

At this point in time, a recommendation that women take vitamin D or calcium to decrease their breast cancer risk is not warranted, she said.

“I don’t think we should go that far,” Stevens said. “The society doesn’t recommend the use of any vitamin supplements” to prevent breast cancer.

“I don’t think this study says that we should change that,” Stevens said. “At this point, the evidence doesn’t support anything more than getting a good diet and maintaining good levels of physical activity,” she said.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – In elderly women, adding vitamin D to regular calcium supplements produces long-term improvements in hip bone density, researchers report.

To evaluate the relative benefits of calcium with or without vitamin D on bone health, Dr. Richard Prince, at the University of Western Australia, Perth, assigned 120 women to take 1200 milligrams of calcium daily along with an inactive placebo pill or a vitamin D tablet, or two placebo tablets.

The women were between 70 and 80 years old. After 1 year, bone mineral density at the hip was preserved in the calcium group and the calcium+vitamin D group, but not in the double-placebo “control” group.

However, at 3 and 5 years, only the group that got calcium plus vitamin D group maintained hip bone density, the investigators report in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

They conclude that adequate levels of vitamin D are necessary for calcium to do its job in keeping bones healthy.

MONDAY, Sept. 10 (HealthDay News) — Vitamin D supplements could prolong your life, a new European study suggests.

“The intake of usual doses of vitamin D seems to decrease mortality from any cause of death,” said lead researcher Dr. Philippe Autier, from the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France.

The new finding, published in the Sept. 10 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, is a bit of an anomaly, because the benefits of vitamin supplements remains uncertain at best. While they are often touted as a means of reducing risks for cancer and heart disease, some studies have found supplements have no effect on these conditions.

For example, other studies have shown that vitamin E has no effect on cancer, Autier said. And prior research suggests that multivitamin supplements do nothing to reduce cancer risk, he added.

But vitamin D may be the exception, according to the results of this new study.

“This is the first study that shows that taking one vitamin has an impact on mortality,” Autier said. “If you want to increase your vitamin D intake by taking supplements, it looks like a great idea.”

In the study, Autier, and his colleague Sara Gandini, from the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, Italy, looked at data from 18 trials involving more than 57,000 people. Doses of vitamin D in the trials varied from 300 to 2,000 international units (IUs), with an average dose of 528 IUs.

Over a follow-up of almost 6 years, 4,777 of the people in the studies died.

Those who took vitamin D supplements had a 7 percent lower risk of death compared with those who didn’t take the supplement, Autier and Gandini found.

Nine of the trials had collected blood samples. Those subjects who took the supplements had a 1.4- to 5.2-fold higher level of vitamin D in their blood compared to those who did not, the researchers note.

This finding could lead to new drugs to fight cancer and other diseases, Autier said. “Vitamin D can reduce the proliferation of cells; the proliferation of cells is something you see in cancer,” he said.

Autier believes people should take vitamin D supplements in the range of between 400 and 600 IUs daily. “There is no need to take more — that’s crazy,” he said. “You have to be careful not to take a dose that’s too high,” he added.

And there’s another way to make sure you get vitamin D, which is important to the uptake of calcium needed for healthy bones. That’s to get a moderate amount of sun exposure each day, since the skin uses sunlight to produce its own vitamin D.

According to an analysis published in 2004 and based on the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), over 70% of women ages 51-70 and nearly 90% of women over 70 are not getting the recommended adequate intake of vitamin D. For this reason, AMWA recently convened a panel of experts to discuss the importance of vitamin D for overall bone health, the challenges of ensuring adequate vitamin D intake and how to best communicate this information to primary care physicians, specialists and patients.

Vitamin D, an essential component in bone health, helps ensure that the body absorbs and retains calcium, which is critical for building strong, healthy bones. Vitamin D deficiency has often been linked to osteoporosis, a condition that affects more than 10 million Americans and threatens 34 million others.

The panel outlined action points regarding vitamin D and its role in bone health for physicians treating women and men over 50. They included the recommendation that optimum treatment for bone health be individualized and may include a combination of exercise, healthy diet, vitamin D and calcium supplements, and potentially, prescription medications. Also, women and men over 50 receiving treatment for osteoporosis need to receive adequate vitamin D. Supplements are recommended as one of the best sources of vitamin D.

Current daily vitamin D intake requirements for women and men over 50 should be increased to 800-1,000 International Units (IU). Current recommendations from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) for vitamin D intake are 400 IU for women and men ages 51-70 and 600 IU for women and men over 70. The roundtable panelists expressed concern that current recommendations do not provide for optimal bone health and recommended that intake levels be increased to 800-1,000 IU per day for patients over age 50.

In addition to the government data that found 70-90% of postmenopausal women are not taking the recommended adequate intake of vitamin D, an additional study found that over half of postmenopausal women already being treated for osteoporosis have inadequate levels of vitamin D, underscoring the need for more aggressive treatment guidelines and greater overall awareness of the role of vitamin D in bone health.

Vitamin D is produced in the body after exposure to UVB rays. Indeed, individuals can obtain over 90% of vitamin D through sun exposure, but the panel agreed that this is becoming increasingly difficult as a result of the wide use of sunscreen and protective clothing, due to concerns about skin cancer and other skin diseases, aging and geographic limitations. Vitamin D is also found naturally in a limited number of foods, such as fatty fish, and in certain fortified foods such as milk, orange juice and ready-to-eat cereal. However, many of these foods are not part of most people’s diets or must be consumed in large volumes to meet the requirement. Therefore, supplements were recommended as one of the best sources of vitamin D for many older Americans.

In using supplements, the panel advised that physicians should help their patients choose the supplement that is right for them by explaining the medical terms associated with the different forms of vitamin D. This article was prepared by Biotech Law Weekly editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2005, Biotech Law Weekly via LawRx.com.

“The PSA levels seemed to reflect the seasonal variation in vitamin D levels,” Dr. Lawrence Klotz, a urologist at Canada’s Sunnybrook and Women’s College Health Sciences Center.

Researchers followed 190 men for the study. They found that overall, their PSA levels were flat during the summer, but rose during the fall and winter at the rate of about one percent each month.

The doctors then gave the men 2,000 International Units of vitamin D during the fall and winter months to see what would happen.

Interestingly, the vitamin D seemed to cut the rise in PSA rates by more than half. Without vitamin D, PSA rates rose by about five percent. With vitamin D, PSA rates only rose by two percent.

“As far as I know, there is no other nutrient studied that has shown a slowdown in the rate of rise of a PSA.” said Reinhold Veith, a professor at the University of Toronto and a leading researcher in the field of vitamin D research.

The finding also helps explain why blacks are more vulnerable than whites to tuberculosis and why they develop more severe cases when infected, according to a study in the Feb. 23 online issue of Science.

The story starts about a decade ago, when research revealed that the immune system of fruit flies produces a protein that attacks bacteria and fungi, explained study author Dr. Robert L. Modlin, chief of dermatology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“In 1999, it became clear that there were equivalents in humans, a family of proteins,” Modlin said. “Each recognizes a defined biochemical from a bacterium or virus.”

Studies showed that in mice, the defense involved production of nitric oxide to fight infection. However, that was not found to happen in human cells, Modlin said.

Four years of work led to the finding that the human defense mechanism involves vitamin D, he said. White blood cells are stimulated to convert ordinary vitamin D — which is produced, in large part, by exposure to sunlight — into an active form that is used to make a protein that kills the tuberculosis bacteria.

“Our other main finding was that African-Americans, who are known to be more susceptible to tuberculosis, have lower levels of vitamin D in their blood,” Modlin said. Melanin, the pigment that darkens skin, absorbs the ultraviolet rays of sunlight, reducing vitamin D production in blacks, he explained.

Cells grown in blood serum from black individuals produced 63 percent less of the bacteria-fighting protein than those grown in blood serum from white people. Adding vitamin D to the cultures increased production of the protein, Modlin said.

One question raised by the discovery is whether giving vitamin D to humans can do the same thing, he said, adding, “Were hoping this paper will raise interest in that.”

If the vitamin does have a protective effect, “a vitamin D supplement I think is the way to go,” Modlin said. As a dermatologist, he noted, he is acutely aware of the damage that can be done by overexposure to sunlight.

However, “I can’t recommend that people take vitamin D supplements yet,” Modlin said. “We need to do more studies.” His group is doing studies along that line, looking at “what effects vitamin D might have on the immune system.”

There’s a possibility that the work might have implications beyond tuberculosis, Modlin said. “Our results indicate we have much yet to learn about human immune responses to infections,” he said.

WEDNESDAY, April 23 (HealthScoutNews) — The addition of a vitamin D analog to radiation therapy is more effective in killing breast cancer cells than radiation alone, a new study suggests.

About 200,000 American women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year and about 40,000 die. Radiation therapy is often used before surgery to reduce the size of tumors and after surgery to reduce recurrence of tumors.

Other studies have shown vitamin D interferes with tumor growth in both cell cultures and animals, study co-author David A. Gewirtz says. This has been shown for both breast and prostate cancer, he notes.

Because high doses of vitamin D can be toxic, Gewirtz and his colleagues are experimenting with vitamin D analogs, modified forms of natural vitamin D that are less toxic. Their goal is to see if these analogs can enhance the response to radiation therapy.

In this study, Gewirtz, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Virginia Commonwealth University, and his colleagues found that when they treated breast cancer cells in a laboratory setting with normal doses of a vitamin D analog (ILX 23-7553) before radiation, the response to radiation was enhanced.

Lower doses of radiation were needed and there was an increase in tumor cell death, Gewirtz says. In fact, vitamin D helped reduce the number of cancer cells by almost 30 percent more than radiation alone.

The study appears in the May issue of Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology.

After treatment with the vitamin D analog and radiation, tumor cells continued to die for seven days, while cells treated with radiation alone did not. Treatment with the vitamin D analog was three times more effective in preventing new tumor growth, compared with radiation therapy alone, the study says.

“In addition, this combination was not toxic to normal cells,” Gewirtz says.

He cautions these results were produced in cell cultures, and one should be careful before applying them to treating breast cancer in women. Currently, the vitamin D analog is not being tested in humans in the United States. However, it is being tested in humans in Europe, he says.

In a forthcoming paper, Gewirtz says he and his colleagues show the same effect is found when breast tumors are grown in mice.

“There is also evidence that using a vitamin D analog and radiation prevents cancer cells from growing back,” Gewirtz says. Based on these findings, combined treatment with a vitamin D analog and radiation may contribute to preventing recurrence of cancer, he adds.

“We think that this treatment may also have implications for treating radiation-resistant brain tumors and prostate cancer,” Gewirtz says. “That’s the direction of our work.”

Dr. Lamar McGinnis, a medical consultant for the American Cancer Society, says that although the effect was only seen in cultured cells, “it appears that this vitamin D compound is a radio sensitizer for cancer cells and results in a greater kill rate with a sustained effect.”

With radiation therapy, there is always a balance in killing cancer cells and protecting normal cells, he adds. If these findings pan out in human trials, controlling cell growth within tumors could be enhanced, he notes.

“It is an interesting observation and I await the results of clinical trials, particularly since this compound seems to have no significant side effects,” McGinnis says. “If it works out, it could offer a significant benefit to cancer patients.”

In the study, Australian researchers examined the effect of vitamin D supplementation in 625 residents of 149 residential care facilities. The subjects were not vitamin D deficient.

The participants were randomly assigned to receive vitamin D supplements or inactive “placebo” for 2 years. All of the residents were prescribed 600 mg of calcium daily. Care staff recorded falls and fractures in diaries. At the start of the study, patient characteristics were similar in both groups.

The researchers report that vitamin D use cut the risk of falls by 27 percent to 37 percent compared with placebo.

“This study supports the use of vitamin D supplements in older people in residential care,” lead author Dr. Leon Flicker, of the University of Western Australia, and colleagues note. “The demonstrated benefits in this study on the rates of falls for individuals with marginal vitamin D levels, even without…vitamin D deficiency, highlights the potential benefits of vitamin D supplementation in this population.”

SOURCE: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, November 2005.

Robert U. Simpson Ph.D. and colleagues found treated with activated vitamin D, heart muscle cells were less likely to grow bigger.

Hear muscle cells growing can lead to enlargement of the heart, a condition known as hypertrophy that prompts the heart to overwork, leading to heart failure.

Heart failure affects an estimated 5.3 million Americans. Many people with heart disease or poorly controlled blood pressure experience a form of heart failure called congestive heart failure in which the heart can’t pump blood around the body and cause weakness and fluid build-up in lungs and limbs.

The current study was meant to examine the effect of (1, 25 dihydroxyvitamin D3, a form called calcitriol) on heart failure in rats fed with a normal diet or high salt diets, comparable to high salt diets that humans use.

The rats used in the study were predisposed to develop human-like heart failure. Rats fed high salt diets are more likely to have heart failure.

At the end of the 13-week study, the researchers found the heart failure-prone rats on the high salt diet, treated with calcitriol had significantly lower levels of several key predictors of heart failure than rats on a high sale diet, but untreated with vitamin D.

Those treated with vitamin D had lower heart weight and the left ventricles of their hearts were smaller, meaning they were less likely to have enlarged heart. Also these rats worked less for each beat while blood pressure was maintained.

Lower hear weight was also observed in rats fed a normal diet.

LONDON (Reuters) – High levels of vitamin D may help slow the progression of breast cancer, researchers suggested on Tuesday.

In a small study of women with the illness they found that patients with early breast cancer had higher levels of the vitamin than those with more advanced disease.

“Vitamin D levels are lower in women with advanced breast cancer than in early breast cancer,” said Dr Carlo Palmieri, of Imperial College London.

“It lends support to the idea that vitamin D has a role in the progression of breast cancer,” he told Reuters.

The researchers measured the amount of vitamin D in blood samples from 279 women with breast cancer. In 204 women, the disease was in its early stages. It was more advanced in the other 75.

“We know from previous studies that breast cancer incidence is higher in women who live in higher latitudes and have less sun exposure,” said Palmieri.

Vitamin D, the so-called sunshine vitamin, is found in fortified milk and dairy products, cod liver oil and some fatty fish.

The body produces vitamin D in the skin when it is exposed to sunlight. Laboratory tests have also shown that vitamin D can stop cancer cells from dividing.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, with more than a million cases detected worldwide each year, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France. The earlier the cancer is detected and treated, the greater the chances of survival.

Although the scientists do not know whether the low levels of vitamin D are a cause or a consequence of the cancer, their findings and the results of other studies suggest that low levels of vitamin D may be involved in the progression of early breast cancer to more advanced stages.

“The next thing in this research is to try and understand the potential causes and mechanisms underlying these differences and the precise consequences at a molecular level,” said Palmieri, who reported the finding in the Journal of Clinical Pathology.

“We also need to look at the potential clinical implications of monitoring and maintaining high circulating vitamin D levels in breast cancer patients,” he added in a statement.

Breast cancer is treated with surgery and radiotherapy, chemotherapy and hormone treatment, or a combination of them, depending on the cancer and stage of the illness.

Factors which can increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer include having a mother or close relative with the disease, inherited mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, an early puberty, late menopause and not having any children.

At the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in San Antonio, Dr. David Felson of Boston University presented his team’s findings from 221 subjects recruited from the Boston VA Medical Center. All had knee arthritis and reported knee pain on most days in the month before they joined the study.

The investigators measured blood levels of vitamin D at the start and again after 15 and 30 months. They compared change in vitamin D levels with changes in knee pain, physical function and muscle strength during the 30-month study period.

“We found a relationship between serum levels of vitamin D and knee function,” lead investigator Dr. Kristin Baker told Reuters Health. Low levels were associated with higher levels of pain and disability and to a lesser extent muscle weakness.

“We also found that about 50 percent of the population were deficient in vitamin D,” Baker commented.

In previous studies conducted in Minnesota, “almost 100 percent of the subjects with muscle pain were vitamin D deficient,” she added. “It may be that vitamin D increases muscle strength or decreases postural sway, we don’t really know.”

Baker pointed out that this was not a study of vitamin D as a treatment for osteoarthritis, but she speculated that “we may need higher serum levels of vitamin D than we originally thought…This is one more piece of evidence that vitamin D intake should be increased.”