Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Depression, Pain, Inflammatory Bowel
Disease, and Breast Cancer
January 02, 2014
Story at-a-glance
Vitamin D influences over 10 percent of your genes. Vitamin D
deficiency is epidemic across the world and could be
contributing to hundreds of common health problems
There are 33,800 medical papers on vitamin D, and this veritable
mountain of research shows that vitamin D has far-reaching
benefits to your physical and mental health
Recent research found significant interaction between vitamin D
levels and inflammatory bowel disease
Vitamin D supplementation has also been found to reduce both
depression and pain in diabetic women
Studies show that vitamin D has tremendous protective effects
against a variety of different cancers, including pancreatic,
lung, ovarian, breast, prostate, and skin cancers
By Dr. Mercola
Vitamin D research continues to impress upon us the importance of
appropriate sun exposure as the ideal way to optimize your
vitamin D levels.
Winter limits sun exposure for many up to six months of the year.
During those times, your next best bet would be artificial UVB
light, as UV ray exposure also appears to have health benefits above
and beyond the production of vitamin D.
One of the most damaging elements of standard tanning beds are
the magnetic ballasts (which make that loud buzzing noise you hear
in many tanning salons). If an electronic ballast is used, there are
far less damaging EMFs, which provide most of the danger from
tanning beds.
The other concern is related to the bulbs used, as some may contain
only UVA light which is primarily responsible for the tan, but
doesn't increase vitamin D levels. For much of the northern
hemisphere, vitamin D production is not possible from the sun during
the winter months. You must use artificial UVB light or obtain
vitamin D from your diet during this time.
The benefits of UVB exposure from the sun or artificial
light include but are not limited to the production of
nitric oxide—a compound that lowers your blood pressure. Despite
its name, vitamin D is not a vitamin. It’s actually a potent
neuroregulatory steroidal hormone, which helps explain some of its
health impacts.
It has become abundantly clear that vitamin D deficiency is a
growing epidemic across the world and could be contributing to
hundreds of common health problems. In fact, correcting your
vitamin D deficiency may
cut your risk of dying from any cause by 50 percent,
according to one analysis.
If this sounds too incredible to be true, consider that vitamin D
influences nearly 3,000 of your 24,000 genes. This occurs
via vitamin D receptors, which can be found throughout your body,
and should come as no great surprise given that humans evolved in
the sun.
Vitamin D Beneficially Affects Gene Activity
Just one example of an important gene that vitamin D up-regulates
is your ability to fight infections and chronic inflammation. It
also produces over 200 anti-microbial peptides, the most important
of which is cathelicidin, a naturally-occurring broad-spectrum
antibiotic.
This is one of the explanations for why vitamin D is so effective
against colds and influenza.
According to a January 2013 press release by Orthomolecular
Medicine,1
there are now 33,800 medical papers with vitamin D in the title or
abstract, and this veritable mountain of research shows that vitamin
D has far-reaching benefits to your physical and mental health. Such
research has shown that vitamin D can improve:
Pregnancy outcomes (reduced risk of Cesarean section and
pre-eclampsia)
Some of the most recently published studies, which I’ll review
here, demonstrate how boosting your vitamin D levels can improve
depression and pain in diabetics, Crohn’s disease, and breast
cancer.
Relevance of Vitamin D in Crohn’s Disease
While previous research has associated low vitamin D levels with
an increased risk of
Crohn's disease and shown that correcting your vitamin D
deficiency can improve symptoms of the disease,2
one of the most recent studies3
found a "significant interaction between vitamin D levels and
Crohn's disease susceptibility, as well as a significant association
between vitamin D levels and genotype."
Serum vitamin D levels were found to be significantly lower in
patients with Crohn’s disease. Of the seven DNA sequence variations
examined for effects, two variants showed a significant association
with vitamin D levels in those with Crohn’s, and four variants were
associated with vitamin D levels among controls.
In short, it shows that vitamin D can affect genetic expression
associated with Crohn’s disease, and make matters either better or
worse, depending on whether you have enough of it or not.
Vitamin D May Reduce Depression and Pain
In related news, vitamin D supplementation has been found to
reduce both depression and pain in diabetic women. As reported by
PsychCentral:4
“The investigators set out to determine how vitamin D
supplementation might affect women with type 2 diabetes who were
also suffering from depression.
At the beginning of the study, 61 percent of women
reported neuropathic pain, such as shooting or burning pain in
their legs and feet, and 74 percent had sensory pain, such as
numbness and tingling in their hands, fingers and legs.
During the course of the study, the participants took a
50,000 IU vitamin D2 supplement every week for 6 months. By the
end of the study, the women’s depression levels had
significantly improved following the supplementation.
Furthermore, participants who suffered from neuropathic
and/or sensory pain at the beginning of the study reported that
these symptoms decreased at 3 and 6 months following vitamin D2
supplementation.”
According to lead researcher Todd Doyle, Ph.D., vitamin D
supplementation “is a promising treatment for both pain and
depression in type 2 diabetes.” However, I would note that you’d
probably get even better results using vitamin D3 rather than
prescription D2. In fact, previous research suggests
vitamin D2 might do more harm than good in the long term...
Why I Recommend Vitamin D3 Over D2
Drisdol is a synthetic form of vitamin D2—made by irradiating
fungus and plant matter—and is the form of vitamin D typically
prescribed by doctors. This is not the type produced by
your body in response to sun or safe tanning bed exposure, which is
vitamin D3.
According to a 2012 meta-analysis by the Cochrane Database,5
which assessed mortality rates for people who supplemented their
diets with D2 versus those who did so with D3, there are significant
differences in outcome between the two. The analysis of 50
randomized controlled trials, which included a total of 94,000
participants, showed:
A six percent relative risk reduction among those who used
vitamin D3
A two percent relative risk increase among those
who used D2
That said, the featured research certainly sheds light on the
role vitamin D can play in the management of type 2 diabetes and
associated side effects. And when you consider that an estimated 60
percent of type 2 diabetics are vitamin D deficient,6
there’s certainly plenty of room for improvement.
Additional support for the theory that vitamin D can be
beneficial in the fight against type 2 diabetes was published in
last year.7
Here, the researchers found “a strong additive interaction between
abdominal obesity and insufficient 25(OH)D in regard to insulin
resistance.” They also claim 47 percent of the increased odds of
insulin resistance can be explained by the interaction between
insufficient vitamin D levels and a high body mass index (BMI).
Yet another study
8 published in Diabetes Care also suggests
vitamin D supplements may help prevent type 2 diabetes mellitus in
people with pre-diabetes. While the study is only an observational
one and cannot establish causality, the researchers report that the
participants who had the highest vitamin D levels were 30 percent
less likely to develop diabetes during the three-year evaluation
period, compared to those with the lowest levels.
Cut Your Breast Cancer Risk with Vitamin D, Cancer Surgeon Suggests
Meanwhile, a recent Science World Report9
highlighted the recommendation by British breast cancer surgeon,
Professor Kefah Mokbel, who urges women to take daily vitamin D
supplements to cut their risk of breast cancer. According to the
featured article:
“Prof. Mokbel has also requested Jeremy Hunt, the Health
Secretary, to make [vitamin D] pills freely available as this
would result in saving about a 1,000 lives annually. ‘I am
calling for all women from the age of 20 to be given free
vitamin D supplements on the NHS because it is effective in
protecting against breast cancer,’ Prof. Mokbel said.
...[R]esearch10,
11 conducted by the Creighton University School of
Medicine in Omaha, Neb, which analyzed menopausal women from
rural eastern Nebraska for over four years, revealed that taking
vitamin D supplements along with calcium cut about 60 percent
risk of cancer, including breast, lung and colon cancer...’It's
inexpensive, it's safe, and it's easy to take. It's something
that should be considered by a lot of people,’ says Joan Lappe,
professor of nursing and medicine at Creighton University School
of Medicine in Omaha, Neb. ‘It's low-risk with maybe a high
pay-off.’"
Vitamin D Is Critical for Cancer Prevention
Indeed, an ever growing number of studies show that vitamin D has
tremendous protective effects against a variety of different
cancers, including pancreatic, lung, ovarian, breast,
prostate, and skin cancers. Theories linking vitamin D
deficiency to cancer have been tested and confirmed in more than 200
epidemiological studies, and understanding of its physiological
basis stems from more than 2,500 laboratory trials.
For example, a 2007 study published in the American Journal
of Preventive Medicine12
concluded that a serum 25(OH)D level of more than 33 ng/mL was
associated with a 50 percent lower risk of colorectal cancer. And
research published in the International Journal of Cancer
two years ago13
found that a mere 10 ng/ml increase in serum vitamin D levels was
associated with a 15 percent reduction in colorectal cancer
incidence and 11 percent reduction in breast cancer incidence.
Another 2007 study published in the American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition14
found that after four years of follow up, cancer-free survival was
77 percent higher in women who received 1,100 IU vitamin D and 1,450
mg calcium per day, compared to those who received either a placebo
or calcium by itself. According to Carole Baggerly, founder of
GrassrootsHealth, as much as 90 percent of ordinary breast
cancer may in fact be related to vitamin D deficiency. Breast cancer
has even been described as a “vitamin D deficiency syndrome,” much
like the commoncold
and seasonal flu.
Most Important—Maintaining Optimal Vitamin D Serum Levels
Of utmost importance is the maintenance of a therapeutically
beneficial serum level year-round. Here, studies indicate that the
bare minimum for cancer prevention is around 40 ng/ml.
Research suggests an ideal level might be around 60-80 ng/ml. A 2009
review article15
titled: “Vitamin D for Cancer Prevention: Global Perspective,”
published in Annals of Epidemiology states that:
“Higher serum levels of the main circulating form of
vitamin D, 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), are associated with
substantially lower incidence rates of colon, breast, ovarian,
renal, pancreatic, aggressive prostate and other cancers. Epidemiological findings combined
with newly discovered mechanisms suggest a new model of cancer
etiology that accounts for these actions of 25(OH)D and calcium.
Its seven phases are disjunction, initiation, natural selection,
overgrowth, metastasis, involution, and transition (abbreviated
DINOMIT). Vitamin D metabolites prevent disjunction of cells and
are beneficial in other phases.
It is projected that raising the minimum
year-around serum 25(OH)D level to 40 to 60 ng/mL (100–150
nmol/L) would prevent approximately 58,000 new cases of breast
cancer and 49,000 new cases of colorectal cancer each year,
and three fourths of deaths from these diseases in the United
States and Canada, based on observational studies combined with
a randomized trial.
Such intakes also are expected to reduce
case-fatality rates of patients who have breast, colorectal, or
prostate cancer by half... The time
has arrived for nationally coordinated action to substantially
increase intake of vitamin D and calcium.”
[Emphasis mine]
As a general guideline, research by GrassrootsHealth suggests
that adults need about 8,000 IUs per day to achieve a serum level of
40 ng/ml. That said, I strongly recommend boosting your vitamin D
levels through appropriate sun exposure whenever possible. If you do
opt for a vitamin D supplement, please remember that you also need
to boost your intake of
vitamin K2 through food and/or a supplement. If you’re getting
your vitamin D from the sun, this is not as critical, although you’d
be wise to make sure you’re getting sufficient amounts of vitamin K2
from your diet either way.
How do you know if your vitamin D level is in the right range?
The most important factor is having your
vitamin D serum level tested every six months, as people vary
widely in their response to ultraviolet exposure or oral D3
supplementation. Your goal is to reach a clinically relevant serum
level of 50-70 ng/ml, and to maintain that level year-round.
You should test at your highest point, which is typically August and
again at your lowest point, which is usually February.
Knowing your vitamin D levels is one of the most important tests you
can take, so please, if you haven't checked your levels before do it
now - I cannot stress the importance of this enough.
How Vitamin D Performance Testing Can Help Optimize Your Health
Additionally, a robust and growing body of research clearly shows
that vitamin D is absolutely critical for good health and disease
prevention. Vitamin D affects your DNA through vitamin D receptors
(VDRs), which bind to specific locations of the human genome.
Scientists have identified nearly 3,000 genes that are
influenced by vitamin D levels, and vitamin D receptors have been
found throughout the human body.
Is it any wonder then that no matter what disease or condition is
investigated, vitamin D appears to play a crucial role? This is why
I am so excited about the
D*Action Project by GrassrootsHealth. It is showing how you can
take action today on known science with a consensus of experts
without waiting for institutional lethargy. It has shown how by
combining the science of measurement (of vitamin D levels) with the
personal choice of taking action and, the value of education about
individual measures that one can truly be in charge of their own
health.
In order to spread this health movement to more communities, the
project needs your involvement. This was an ongoing campaign during
the month of February, and will become an annual event.
To participate, simply purchase the
D*Action Measurement Kit and follow the registration
instructions included. (Please note that 100 percent of the proceeds
from the kits go to fund the research project. I do not charge a
single dime as a distributor of the test kits.)
As a participant, you agree to test your vitamin D levels twice a
year during a five-year study, and share your health status to
demonstrate the public health impact of this nutrient. There is a
$65 fee every six months for your sponsorship of this research
project, which includes a test kit to be used at home,
and electronic reports on your ongoing progress. You will get a
follow up email every six months reminding you "it's time for your
next test and health survey."