What would happen if we double our blood vitamin D levels?

Background: This study is based on the published literature relating to the effects of vitamin D in reducing the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease and respiratory infections (please note MS was not included in the overall analysis). These vitamin D-sensitive diseases account for more than half of global deaths due to cancer, respiratory infections and diseases, tuberculosis and diabetes.

Additional vitamin D-sensitive diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, falls, meningitis, Parkinson's disease, maternal sepsis, maternal hypertension (pre-eclampsia) and multiple sclerosis only account for 2-3% of global death. 

Results: Increasing blood vitamin D levels from 54 to 110 nmol/l would reduce the vitamin D-sensitive disease death rate by an estimated 20%.

Conclusions: Increasing blood vitamin D levels is the most cost-effective way to reduce global death rates, as the cost of vitamin D is very low and there are few side effects from oral intake and/or frequent moderate sun exposure with sufficient body surface area exposed.

"Wow, this is an important piece of work or modeling. Now you see why I don't stop banging the vitamin D drum; it is not only important for MS but a large number of other diseases."

"How do we get our vitamin D levels to 110nmol/L? Live in a country with a lot of sun and take-up an outdoor job and stop using sun block. Or you could simply take vitamin D supplements at a dose of 5,000U per day."

"George Eber's in Oxford estimates that we may be able to reduce the worldwide incidence of MS by up to 85% if we could make the world population vitamin D replete. Other feels this figure is on the high side and quote estimates of 40% to 60%. What do you think? I think we need a national vitamin D prevention study to convince public health officials to take up the baton."

Epub ahead of printGrant WB. An estimate of the global reduction in mortality rates through doubling vitamin D levels. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2011 Jul 6. doi: 10.1038/ejcn.2011.68. 

Extra reading: Vitamin D

Please see other postings on this blog about vitamin D:

05 Jul 2011
Vitamin D - some facts. Vitamin D is a misnomer; it was incorrectly classified as a vitamin. Vitamins: are nutrients that are required in tiny amounts; cannot be synthesised in sufficient quantities by our bodies ...
05 Jul 2011
Vitamin D and multiple sclerosis hospital admissions in Scotland. In this study there is a link between hospital admissions due to MS in Scotland and the average vitamin D levels in the previous 4 months. ...
05 Jul 2011
Vitamin D websites. You may find these websites helpful: Vitamin D Council & Vitamin D3 World CoI: Nil. Posted by Gavin Giovannoni at 09:38 · Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Google Buzz ...

20 Jun 2011
Previous studies have shown that serum vitamin D levels are genetically influenced. Therefore variations or polymorphisms in vitamin D pathway genes are candidates for association with MS susceptibility. ...
01 Jun 2011
Efficacy of vitamin D(3) as add-on therapy in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis receiving subcutaneous interferon beta-1a: A Phase II, multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. ...
07 Jul 2011
Sunlight, Vitamin D and EBV. More about the environmental risk factors that increase susceptibility to MS. "What we now need is a study to integrate these risk factors. Would you be interested in participating?" ...
03 May 2011
Vitamin D Supplement Doses and Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D in the Range Associated with Cancer Prevention. How safe are high dose Vitamin D3 (vD3) supplements? In this study on over 3600 study participants ~25% of the ...
28 Jun 2011
The active metabolite of vitamin D is a potent modulator of immune cells. In this study the investigators' determined whether vitamin D, a sun-dependent nutrient can affect the cells athat are associated with the immune ...

Etc.  There are lot more posts on this subject (please use the search engine above to get to them)