Vitamin D deficiency may compromise immune function

Vitamin-deficient seniors more likely to have biomarkers for heart disease, inflammation

2014-02-25

(Press-News.org) Washington, DC—Older individuals who are vitamin D deficient also tend to have compromised immune function, according to new research accepted for publication in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

Vitamin D plays an important role in helping the body absorb calcium needed for healthy bones. The skin naturally produces vitamin D when it is exposed to sunlight. People also obtain smaller amounts of the vitamin through foods, such as milk fortified with vitamin D. More than 1 billion people worldwide are estimated to have deficient levels of vitamin D due to limited sunshine exposure.

"Our data suggest vitamin D may be involved in maintaining the health of the immune system as well as the skeletal system," said one of the study's authors, Mary Ward, PhD, of the University of Ulster in Coleraine, U.K. "This study is the first to find a connection between vitamin D levels and inflammation in a large sample of older individuals."

The observational study of 957 Irish adults who were at least 60 years old examined vitamin D levels as well as biomarkers of inflammation. Participants who were vitamin D deficient were more likely to have high levels of these biomarkers, which are linked to cardiovascular disease and inflammatory conditions such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

"The results indicate immune function may be compromised in older individuals with vitamin D deficiency," Ward said. "Ensuring older individuals have optimal vitamin D levels may be a way to boost immune function in this population, but this needs to be confirmed through additional studies."

INFORMATION: Other authors of the study include: E. Laird and A.M. Molloy of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland; H. McNulty, L. Hoey, E. McSorley, J.M.W. Wallace, E. Carson and J.J. Strain of the University of Ulster; and M. Healy, M. Casey and C. Cunningham of St. James's Hospital in Dublin.

The study, "Vitamin D Deficiency is Associated with Inflammation in Older Irish Adults," was published online, ahead of print.

Founded in 1916, the Endocrine Society is the world's oldest, largest and most active organization devoted to research on hormones and the clinical practice of endocrinology. Today, the Endocrine Society's membership consists of over 17,000 scientists, physicians, educators, nurses and students in more than 100 countries. Society members represent all basic, applied and clinical interests in endocrinology. The Endocrine Society is based in Washington, DC. To learn more about the Society and the field of endocrinology, visit our site at http://www.endocrine.org. Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/EndoMedia.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Tissue repair drug helps heal diabetic foot ulcers

2014-02-25

Washington, DC—Patients were twice as likely to have a diabetic foot ulcer heal within eight weeks when they were treated with a tissue repair drug versus a placebo, according to new research accepted for publication in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). Foot ulcers are a common complication from diabetes than can lead to hospitalization and lower limb amputation. In 2006, about 65,700 non-traumatic lower-limb amputations were performed in people with diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Up ...

New study presents evidence that blood pressure should be measured in both arms

2014-02-25

Philadelphia, PA, February 25, 2014 – As heart disease continues to be one of the leading causes of death in the United States, practitioners and patients alike are looking for ways to cut risk factors and identify new clues to assist with early detection. New research published in the March issue of The American Journal of Medicine suggests that there is an association between a difference in interarm systolic blood pressure and a significant increased risk for future cardiovascular events, leading researchers to recommend expanded clinical use of interarm blood pressure ...

Ecotoxicity: All clear for silver nanoparticles?

2014-02-25

It has long been known that, in the form of free ions, silver particles can be highly toxic to aquatic organisms. Yet to this day, there is a lack of detailed knowledge about the doses required to trigger a response and how the organisms deal with this kind of stress. To learn more about the cellular processes that occur in the cells, scientists from the Aquatic Research Institute, Eawag, subjected algae to a range of silver concentrations. In the past, silver mostly found its way into the environment in the vicinity of silver mines or via wastewater emanating from the ...

Georgia Tech project ensures 'what you see is what you send'

2014-02-25

Imagine a user who intends to send $2 to a friend through PayPal. Embedded malware in the user's laptop, however, converts the $2 transaction into a $2,000 transfer to the account of the malware author instead. Researchers at Georgia Tech have created a prototype software, Gyrus, that takes extra steps to prevent malware from sending spam emails and instant messages, and blocking unauthorized commands such as money transfers. Current protection programs might recognize the original user's intent to send email, transfer money or engage in other transactions, but cannot ...

Unhealthy attachments

2014-02-25

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Using the surface forces apparatus and an atomic force microscope, researchers at UC Santa Barbara have taken a molecular approach to myelin membrane interactions, leading to insights into demyelinating diseases, such as multiple sclerosis. Their research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences. For a healthy nervous system, axons — the long projections of our nerve cells that run throughout our bodies — must be properly insulated. Much like conventional power cords need electrical insulators around the conducting ...

Penn researchers show nuclear stiffness keeps stem cells and cancer cells in place

2014-02-25

Adult stem cells and cancer cells have many things in common, including an ability to migrate through tiny gaps in tissue. Both types of cells also experience a trade-off when it comes to this ability; having a flexible nucleus makes migration easier but is worse at protecting the nucleus' DNA compared to a stiffer nucleus. Nuclear proteins that regulate nuclear stiffness are therefore thought to control processes as diverse as tissue repair and tumor growth. In a study published in the Journal of Cell Biology, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have shown ...

Climate engineering: Minor potential, major side effects

2014-02-25

Despite international agreements on climate protection and political declarations of intent, global greenhouse gas emissions have not decreased. On the contrary, they continue to increase. With a growing world population and significant industrialization in emerging markets such as India and China the emission trend reversal necessary to limit global warming seems to be unlikely. Therefore, large-scale methods to artificially slow down global warming are increasingly being discussed. They include proposals to fertilize the oceans, so that stimulated plankton can remove ...

Breast-feeding benefits appear to be overstated, according to study of siblings

2014-02-25

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study comparing siblings who were fed differently during infancy suggests that breast-feeding might be no more beneficial than bottle-feeding for 10 of 11 long-term health and well-being outcomes in children age 4 to 14. The outlier was asthma, which was associated more with breast-feeding than with bottle-feeding. The study also included an analysis of outcomes across families of different races and socioeconomic circumstances for comparison purposes, and those results matched other studies suggesting that breast-feeding's benefits to children ...

Smartphone-based voting technology may lead to fewer user errors

2014-02-25

Many U.S. counties have incorporated electronic voting technology, largely in response to well-publicized challenges related to older mechanical and punch-card models. Although these updated systems have solved some usability problems, they present a new set of issues for voters unfamiliar with the technology. A new study published in Human Factors examines how smartphone-based voting systems can be incorporated into the current large-scale election process. "Current electronic voting systems have numerous issues - from usability and accessibility to security to the ...

New approach to chip design could yield light speed computing

2014-02-25

Every second, your computer must process billions of computational steps to produce even the simplest outputs. Imagine if every one of those steps could be made just a tiny bit more efficient. "It would save precious nanoseconds," explained Northeastern University assistant professor of physics Swastik Kar. Kar and his colleague Yung Joon Jung, an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, have developed a series of novel devices that do just that. Their work was published recently in the journal Nature Photonics. Last year, the ...

Scientists improve robotic visual–inertial trajectory localization accuracy using cross-modal interaction and selection techniques

Biomedical functions and applications of nanomaterials in tumor diagnosis and treatment: perspectives from ophthalmic oncology

3D imaging unveils how passivation improves perovskite solar cell performance

Enriching framework Al sites in 8-membered rings of Cu-SSZ-39 zeolite to enhance low-temperature ammonia selective catalytic reduction performance

AI-powered RNA drug development: a new frontier in therapeutics

[Press-News.org] Vitamin D deficiency may compromise immune function
Vitamin-deficient seniors more likely to have biomarkers for heart disease, inflammation

Vitamin D deficiency may compromise immune function

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: