(Press-News.org) Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found that persons with lower blood levels of vitamin D were twice as likely to die prematurely as people with higher blood levels of vitamin D.
The finding, published in the June 12 issue of American Journal of Public Health, was based on a systematic review of 32 previous studies that included analyses of vitamin D, blood levels and human mortality rates. The specific variant of vitamin D assessed was 25-hydroxyvitamin D, the primary form found in blood.
"Three years ago, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) concluded that having a too-low blood level of vitamin D was hazardous," said Cedric Garland, DrPH, professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at UC San Diego and lead author of the study. "This study supports that conclusion, but goes one step further. The 20 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) blood level cutoff assumed from the IOM report was based solely on the association of low vitamin D with risk of bone disease. This new finding is based on the association of low vitamin D with risk of premature death from all causes, not just bone diseases. "
Garland said the blood level amount of vitamin D associated with about half of the death rate was 30 ng/ml. He noted that two-thirds of the U.S. population has an estimated blood vitamin D level below 30 ng/ml.
"This study should give the medical community and public substantial reassurance that vitamin D is safe when used in appropriate doses up to 4,000 International Units (IU) per day," said Heather Hofflich, DO, professor in the UC San Diego School of Medicine's Department of Medicine.
"However, it's always wise to consult your physician when changing your intake of vitamin D and to have your blood level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D checked annually. Daily intakes above 4,000 IU per day may be appropriate for some patients under medical supervision."
The average age when the blood was drawn in this study was 55 years; the average length of follow-up was nine years. The study included residents of 14 countries, including the United States, and data from 566,583 participants.
INFORMATION:
Co-authors include June Kim, Sharif B. Mohr, Edward D. Gorham and Kenneth Zeng, UCSD Department of Family and Preventive Medicine; Joe Ramsdell, UCSD Department of Medicine; William B. Grant, Sunlight and Nutrition Research Center; Edward L. Giovannucci, Harvard School of Public Health; Leo Baggerly, GrassrootsHealth; and Robert P. Heaney, Creighton University School of Medicine.
This study was funded by the UC San Diego Department of Family and Preventive Medicine.
Lower vitamin D level in blood linked to higher premature death rate
2014-06-12
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Study examines religious affiliation and social class
2014-06-12
Lincoln, Neb. — Younger generations are closing the social class gap between evangelical Protestants and mainline denominations, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln sociologist of religion has found.
And in what appears to be an important shift in the U.S. religious landscape, a growing number of younger-generation working-class Americans are not affiliated with any particular religious denomination.
"When lower-class Americans aren't choosing to be evangelical, they're increasingly choosing to be nothing," said Philip Schwadel, associate professor ...
New computer program aims to teach itself everything about anything
2014-06-12
In today's digitally driven world, access to information appears limitless.
But when you have something specific in mind that you don't know, like the name of that niche kitchen tool you saw at a friend's house, it can be surprisingly hard to sift through the volume of information online and know how to search for it. Or, the opposite problem can occur – we can look up anything on the Internet, but how can we be sure we are finding everything about the topic without spending hours in front of the computer?
Computer scientists from the University of Washington and the ...
Grit better than GRE at predicting success in STEM fields
2014-06-12
Selecting graduate students in the fields of science and engineering based on an assessment of their character instead of relying almost entirely on their scores on a standardized test would significantly improve the quality of the students that are admitted and, at the same time, boost the participation of women and minorities in these key disciplines.
That is the argument made in the essay "A test that fails" published in the June 12 issue of the journal Nature. The authors are Associate Professor of Physics Casey Miller of the University of South Florida and Keivan ...
Researchers uncover new insights into developing rapid-acting antidepressant for treatment-resistant depression
2014-06-12
DALLAS – June 12, 2014 – UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have generated fresh insights that could aid in the development of rapid-acting antidepressants for treatment-resistant depression.
The researchers found that by blocking NMDA receptors with the drug ketamine, they could elicit rapid antidepressant effects in patients with treatment-resistant depression. Ketamine was developed as an anesthetic, but is better known publicly for its abuse as the party drug Special K. Researchers are now seeking alternatives because ketamine can produce side effects that ...
Good bacteria armed with antibiotic resistance protect gut microbiome
2014-06-12
Researchers from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland have discovered that populating the gastrointestinal (GI) tracts of mice with Bacteroides species producing a specific enzyme helps protect the good commensal bacteria from the harmful effects of antibiotics. Their research is published ahead of print in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
Antibiotics are powerful weapons against pathogens, but most are relatively indiscriminate, killing the good bacteria, along with the bad. Thus, they may render patients vulnerable to invasion, particularly by virulent, ...
Neural reward response may demonstrate why quitting smoking is harder for some
2014-06-12
For some cigarette smokers, strategies to aid quitting work well, while for many others no method seems to work. Researchers have now identified an aspect of brain activity that helps to predict the effectiveness of a reward-based strategy as motivation to quit smoking.
The researchers observed the brains of nicotine-deprived smokers with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and found that those who exhibited the weakest response to rewards were also the least willing to refrain from smoking, even when offered money to do so.
"We believe that our findings may ...
Proteins causing daytime sleepiness tied to bone formation, target for osteoporosis
2014-06-12
DALLAS – June 12, 2014 – Orexin proteins, which are blamed for spontaneous daytime sleepiness, also play a crucial role in bone formation, according to findings by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers. The findings could potentially give rise to new treatments for osteoporosis, the researchers say.
Orexins are a type of protein used by nerve cells to communicate with each other. Since their discovery at UT Southwestern more than 15 years ago, they have been found to regulate a number of behaviors, including arousal, appetite, reward, energy expenditure, and wakefulness. ...
Long-range tunneling of quantum particles
2014-06-12
This news release is available in German. One of the most remarkable consequences of the rules in quantum mechanics is the capability of a quantum particle to penetrate through a potential barrier even though its energy would not allow for the corresponding classical trajectory. This is known as the quantum tunnel effect and manifests itself in a multitude of well-known phenomena. For example, it explains nuclear radioactive decay, fusion reactions in the interior of stars, and electron transport through quantum dots. Tunneling also is at the heart of many technical ...
Vast genetic diversity among Mexicans found in large-scale study
2014-06-12
The first large-scale, comprehensive analysis of the genomic diversity of Mexico — led by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, the University of California-San Francisco and the Mexican National Institute of Genomic Medicine — has identified a dazzling mosaic of genotypes and population substructures across the country.
Some groups are as genetically different from one another as Europeans are from East Asians.
The study, which will be published June 13 in Science, soundly refutes the current practice of lumping together Mexicans or Latinos as ...
Broad Institute, MGH researchers chart cellular complexity of brain tumors
2014-06-12
Scientists from the Broad Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have conducted a first-of-its-kind study that characterizes the cellular diversity within glioblastoma tumors from patients. The study, which looked at the expression of thousands of genes in individual cells from patient tumors, revealed that the cellular makeup of each tumor is more heterogeneous than previously suspected. The findings, which appear online in Science Express, will help guide future investigations into potential treatments for this devastating disease.
This is the first time ...