Moms, babies found deficient in vitamin D

http://www.healthsentinel.com/news.p..._item&id=3D686

ANDR=C9 PICARD, "Moms, babies found deficient in vitamin D", Globe and
Mail, March 15, 2005,
Link:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl.../20050315/HVI=
TAMIND15/TPHealth/

Almost half of new mothers and one-third of their babies suffer from
vitamin D deficiency, according to new Canadian research.

Vitamin D is essential for proper bone growth and mineralization.
Inadequate levels can cause rickets, and may increase the risk of
osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis and some forms of cancer, including
breast and colorectal cancers.

"There's a lot of vitamin D deficiency out there," said Dr. Hope
Weiler, an associate professor of human nutritional sciences at the
University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

"These numbers suggest that adults are not maintaining good bone health
and that children are not building bone as well as they could," she
said.

The new study, published in today's edition of the Canadian Medical
Association Journal, found that children with inadequate levels of
vitamin D had low bone mass.

None of the children developed rickets -- a painful and once common
bone-wrenching condition -- because they were all provided with vitamin
D supplements, Dr. Weiler said.

"When you get to the point where you see rickets, the vitamin D
deficiency is quite severe and devastating," she said.

What is unclear, Dr. Weiler said, is the health impact of long-term
vitamin D deficiency and, in particular, how it may affect the growth
of children and rates of osteoporosis and other diseases in adults.

A study released last year by the Canadian Paediatric Society warned
that rickets is making an alarming comeback due to chronic vitamin D
deficiency in Canadian children.

Vitamin D comes principally from the ultraviolet rays in sunlight and
from foods such as fatty fish, for example, salmon. Some foods are also
fortified with vitamin D, including cow's milk, soy and rice beverages,
and margarine.

A daily intake of at least 200 international units of vitamin D is
recommended as part of a healthy diet; pregnant women should get double
that level, 400 IU.

But the new study, conducted among mothers giving birth at the Winnipeg
Health Sciences Centre, found that 46 per cent did not attain the
minimal level of 200 IU.

This occurred despite the fact that two in three moms were taking a
maternal supplement that was supposed to provide adequate levels of
vitamin D.

More than 70 per cent of the women who were deficient in vitamin D gave
birth to a child who was also deficient.

In a commentary also published in the CMAJ, Dr. Leanne Ward, a
pediatric endocrinologist at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario
in Ottawa, said the data underscore an "important care gap in this
country: Vitamin D deficiency among Canadian mother-infant pairs is a
persistent problem, despite existing recommendations for its prevention
and despite ready access to vitamin D supplementation."

She said newborns who are being breastfed should receive a daily
supplement of 400 IU of vitamin D, and if they live above the 55th
parallel, that dose should increase to 800 IU in the winter months.

Dr. Ward said that while breast milk is undeniably the best fluid for
babies, it tends not to be rich in vitamin D. Vitamin D supplements for
babies are sold in liquid form, and administered with a dropper.

Vitamin D deficiency, as well as rickets, is seen principally in
dark-skinned children, particularly black and aboriginal children who
live in the Far North. Dark skin blocks the absorption of vitamin D
from the ultraviolet rays of the sun.

The tendency to keep children out of the sun is also limiting their
vitamin D.

While the title is true enough the substance
of the article is more disappointing both
in the lack of specifics and in the
resulting final suggestions.
My comments are interspersed below.

"Roman Bystrianyk" wrote
in message oups.com..
. http://www.healthsentinel.com/news.p...st_item&id=686
. ANDRÉ PICARD, "Moms, babies found deficient in vitamin D", Globe and
Mail, March 15, 2005,
Link:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/
TPStory/LAC/20050315/HVITAMIND15/TPHealth/

Almost half of new mothers and one-third of their
babies suffer from vitamin D deficiency,
according to new Canadian research.

That is if one chooses a criteria in which the measured value of
25 (OH) vitamin D is set very low. If the value is raised toward one
found in people dwelling in sunnier latitudes the deficicncy in
nearly universal among Canadian City dwellers with the exception
of perhaps a small proportion of supplement users.
The serum 25(OH)D value that has been used by
some is 27.5 nmol/L, however a value at or
below 37.5 nmol/L (15 ng/mL) if one look the elevation of
PTH used by the body to maintain serum calcium
levels with absence of fully adequate activated
vitamin D levels. Indeed, some have set the value
cut off level even higher at 70 to 80 nmol/L
PMID 15585802

I suggest the author should have Googled the
"Vitamin D Expert Panel Meeting" of
October 12-12, 2001
Atlanta, Georgia
"Final Report"

This reports call the 45 mcg limit for infants a MYTH.
The fear of this mythic limit in normal infants and
small children condemns many short blighted
lives. Even at 100 mcgs of D2 per day it is only the
phenotypic abnormal such as Williams syndrome
sufferers that showed signs of hypervitaminous.
(Bransby et al, 1964)

The British enrichment/fortification program of the
1950's at higher than current levels of D2 did
lead to problems in the hypersensitive. This
is the great failing of such one size fits all
programs, as the true level optimal for
the normal is toxic for the hypersensitive.
Concern for one group condemns some of the other
to illness and early death as it currently stands.
D3 supplements are the superior mode of admistration
as they can be personalized, IMO.

Research admit the fortification programs fail
to achieve their goals.

PMID 15595792 fortification not effective

Vitamin D is essential for proper bone growth
and mineralization. Inadequate levels can cause
rickets, and may increase the risk of osteoporosis,
multiple sclerosis and some forms of cancer, including
breast and colorectal cancers.

Don't forget the preventing and slowing prostate cancer by
vitamin D in males and the preventing of autoimmune disorders to
which females are especially prone. Other diseases in which a
vitamin D shortage has role are inflammatory bowel disease,
asthma, tuberculosis, and asthma.

PMID 15585793 Vit D and immune status

"There's a lot of vitamin D deficiency out there," said Dr. Hope
Weiler, an associate professor of human nutritional sciences at the
University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

"These numbers suggest that adults are not maintaining good bone health
and that children are not building bone as well as they could," she
said.

"Suggest"? Talk about a lack of backbone!! The time is
past for for such language, Doc.

The new study, published in today's edition of the Canadian
Medical Association Journal, found that children with
inadequate levels of vitamin D had low bone mass.

This more than a suggestion. Many must have chronic
low levels of vitamin D year round given modern lifestyles
of indoors living combined with poor diets and
the pitifully fortification programs. Consider also Lehtonen-Veromann,
Muttonen, Nuotio, Irjala, Leiino, Viikari in Osteoporosis Int.
2002, 13:S5


None of the children developed rickets -- a painful and
once common bone-wrenching condition -- because
they were all provided with vitamin D
supplements, Dr. Weiler said.

Rickets is a set of symptoms and malformations at the extreme
of deficiency. There are other adverse results of less
extreme deficiencies.

"When you get to the point where you see
rickets, the vitamin D deficiency is quite
severe and devastating," she said.

What is unclear, Dr. Weiler said, is the health
impact of long-term vitamin D deficiency
and, in particular, how it may affect the
growth of children and rates of osteoporosis
and other diseases in adults.

What rubbish. Unclear?? Early childhood deficiency
condemns many to multiple sclerosis, severe celiac, and
type1 diabetes mellitus.

PMID 15585788

The press writer needs to quit
quoting the "experts" and look at the research and
press the "experts" with some slightly hostile questions.
It would good to follow some who
suffered from rickets or lower vitamin
D levels as infants and small children. The Finns
have in fact done the latter though they didn't examine
bone health but rather the increased in autoimmune
disorders.

A study released last year by the Canadian Paediatric
Society warned that rickets is making an alarming
comeback due to chronic vitamin D deficiency
in Canadian children.

It is easy to do nothing or too little.


Vitamin D comes principally from the ultraviolet rays
in sunlight and from foods such as fatty fish, for example,
salmon. Some foods are also fortified with vitamin D,
including cow's milk, soy and rice beverages,
and margarine.

The fortified foods contain only low levels of vitamin D.
And some of it is vitamin D2 not vitamin D3 which is not
so good. AS vitamin D2 has a shorter biological half
life. It binds less tightly to the binding protein than D3.
The use of a (100 mcg) 4000 IU (not 400) supplement in
nursing mothers during the darker months of the year
will increase their breast milk vitamin D
levels to ones that will keep the infant vitamin
D replete.

What moron would fortify margarine with anything?
This is a "food" that should be eliminated from
the diet with exception of perhaps Smart Balance
and a few other better designed of the products.

A daily intake of at least 200 international units
of vitamin D is recommended as part of a healthy
diet; pregnant women should get double
that level, 400 IU.

This is utter bunk. The value being suggested is too low in the
context of higher than 40 degrees latitude effective sunlight availablility
during late fall and winter or in the case of those living
indoors. People in Boston (42 degrees) dependent
solely on dietary vitamin D3 from November to February.
Reports of rickets in infants in the USA extend
to Texas the southern most state. A vitamin D levels
are low in Queensland, Australia even as skin cancer
rates are rather high.

PMID 2839537 Boston sunlight in Nov to Feb is not strong enough
for previtamin D3 synthesis on clear days.

PMID 15225824 8 % deficient and 23 % insufficient of
vitamin D in population of Queensland

But the new study, conducted among mothers
giving birth at the Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre,
found that 46 per cent did not attain the
minimal level of 200 IU.

This occurred despite the fact that two in three
moms were taking a maternal supplement that
was supposed to provide adequate levels of
vitamin D.

Most maternal supplements contain 400 IUs of vitamin D
which is too little. Hollis has shown even 2000 IU
in the mother isn't quite enough and the "4000 IU/d
could achieve substantial progress toward improving
both maternal and neonatal nutritional vitamin D status."
..

More than 70 per cent of the women who were
deficient in vitamin D gave
birth to a child who was also deficient.

In a commentary also published in the CMAJ,
Dr. Leanne Ward, a pediatric endocrinologist
at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario
in Ottawa, said the data underscore an
"important care gap in this country: Vitamin
D deficiency among Canadian mother-infant
pairs is a persistent problem, despite
existing recommendations for its prevention
and despite ready access to vitamin
D supplementation."

She said newborns who are being breastfed should
receive a daily
supplement of 400 IU of vitamin D, and if they
live above the 55th parallel, that dose
should increase to 800 IU in the winter months.

This suggestion is as suitable to
the 40th parallel as it is to the 55th.

Dr. Ward said that while breast milk is
undeniably the best fluid for babies, it
tends not to be rich in vitamin D.
Vitamin D supplements for babies
are sold in liquid form, and administered
with a dropper.

This is because the physicians and bureaucrats don't give
the mothers the needed dose of vitamin D3 which is
ten times larger than what they suggest to, enforce on,
and prescribe to their patients or subjects.

Vitamin D deficiency, as well as rickets, is
seen principally in dark-skinned children,
particularly black and aboriginal children who
live in the Far North. Dark skin blocks
the absorption of vitamin D
from the ultraviolet rays of the sun.

True and False.
Yes, heavily pigemented skin is slower to convert
cholesterol into the calciferol (vitamin D3)
No, it is the pigment that blocks the UV from
altering the cholesterol into the previtamin .
I'll add as an aside that among the elderly the conversion of
cholesterol to vitamin D is cut in half.

The tendency to keep children out of the sun
is also limiting their vitamin D.

In part.

Now I leave the review to add a comment on
another related point.

And it will another couple of generations before these
"experts", realise that supplementing with vitamin K is
good idea. The authorities in Canada have even banned
vitamin K in supplements. Likely using the coumadin takers
as an excuse for the ban with the view that clot prone
people are too infantile to avoid vitamin K supplements
when taking the antivitamin. Or perhaps they lamely
imagine the vitamin K causes hypercoagulative state which
it doesn't. Thus they are damning even more
of their subjects to weak bones and ectopic calcifications such
hardening of the arteries. Vitamin D supplement given to
the mothers should in my opinion contain a reasonable dose
of vitamin K at the level of = 0.5 milligrams of
both K1 and K2.

PMID 11846334 MK-4 form of K-2

PMID 12361778 10 mgs of Konakion in Euromir mission

PMID 11374034 Vascular calcification due to undercarbo-
ylation of MGP due lack of vitamin
K
especially K-2

PMID 7756045 K2 has additional bone preserving properties
beyond those of K1

I wonder if any Canadian physician bothers to prescribe there Crohn's
patients both vitamin K and D supplements.Or celiac patients for that
matter.

PMID 15555000 Crohn's patients deficient in both D and K

John Que wrote:
While the title is true enough the substance
of the article is more disappointing both
in the lack of specifics and in the
resulting final suggestions.
My comments are interspersed below.

"Roman Bystrianyk" wrote
in message
oups.com..
.
http://www.healthsentinel.com/news.p..._item&id=3D686
. ANDR=C9 PICARD, "Moms, babies found deficient in vitamin D", Globe
and
Mail, March 15, 2005,
Link:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/
TPStory/LAC/20050315/HVITAMIND15/TPHealth/

Almost half of new mothers and one-third of their
babies suffer from vitamin D deficiency,
according to new Canadian research.

That is if one chooses a criteria in which the measured value of
25 (OH) vitamin D is set very low. If the value is raised toward one
found in people dwelling in sunnier latitudes the deficicncy in
nearly universal among Canadian City dwellers with the exception
of perhaps a small proportion of supplement users.
The serum 25(OH)D value that has been used by
some is 27.5 nmol/L, however a value at or
below 37.5 nmol/L (15 ng/mL) if one look the elevation of
PTH used by the body to maintain serum calcium
levels with absence of fully adequate activated
vitamin D levels. Indeed, some have set the value
cut off level even higher at 70 to 80 nmol/L
PMID 15585802

I suggest the author should have Googled the
"Vitamin D Expert Panel Meeting" of
October 12-12, 2001
Atlanta, Georgia
"Final Report"

This reports call the 45 mcg limit for infants a MYTH.
The fear of this mythic limit in normal infants and
small children condemns many short blighted
lives. Even at 100 mcgs of D2 per day it is only the
phenotypic abnormal such as Williams syndrome
sufferers that showed signs of hypervitaminous.
(Bransby et al, 1964)

The British enrichment/fortification program of the
1950's at higher than current levels of D2 did
lead to problems in the hypersensitive. This
is the great failing of such one size fits all
programs, as the true level optimal for
the normal is toxic for the hypersensitive.
Concern for one group condemns some of the other
to illness and early death as it currently stands.
D3 supplements are the superior mode of admistration
as they can be personalized, IMO.

Research admit the fortification programs fail
to achieve their goals.

PMID 15595792 fortification not effective

Vitamin D is essential for proper bone growth
and mineralization. Inadequate levels can cause
rickets, and may increase the risk of osteoporosis,
multiple sclerosis and some forms of cancer, including
breast and colorectal cancers.

Don't forget the preventing and slowing prostate cancer by
vitamin D in males and the preventing of autoimmune disorders to
which females are especially prone. Other diseases in which a
vitamin D shortage has role are inflammatory bowel disease,
asthma, tuberculosis, and asthma.

PMID 15585793 Vit D and immune status

"There's a lot of vitamin D deficiency out there," said Dr. Hope
Weiler, an associate professor of human nutritional sciences at the
University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

"These numbers suggest that adults are not maintaining good bone
health
and that children are not building bone as well as they could," she
said.

"Suggest"? Talk about a lack of backbone!! The time is
past for for such language, Doc.

The new study, published in today's edition of the Canadian
Medical Association Journal, found that children with
inadequate levels of vitamin D had low bone mass.

This more than a suggestion. Many must have chronic
low levels of vitamin D year round given modern lifestyles
of indoors living combined with poor diets and
the pitifully fortification programs. Consider also
Lehtonen-Veromann,
Muttonen, Nuotio, Irjala, Leiino, Viikari in Osteoporosis Int.
2002, 13:S5


None of the children developed rickets -- a painful and
once common bone-wrenching condition -- because
they were all provided with vitamin D
supplements, Dr. Weiler said.

Rickets is a set of symptoms and malformations at the extreme
of deficiency. There are other adverse results of less
extreme deficiencies.

"When you get to the point where you see
rickets, the vitamin D deficiency is quite
severe and devastating," she said.

What is unclear, Dr. Weiler said, is the health
impact of long-term vitamin D deficiency
and, in particular, how it may affect the
growth of children and rates of osteoporosis
and other diseases in adults.

What rubbish. Unclear?? Early childhood deficiency
condemns many to multiple sclerosis, severe celiac, and
type1 diabetes mellitus.

PMID 15585788

The press writer needs to quit
quoting the "experts" and look at the research and
press the "experts" with some slightly hostile questions.
It would good to follow some who
suffered from rickets or lower vitamin
D levels as infants and small children. The Finns
have in fact done the latter though they didn't examine
bone health but rather the increased in autoimmune
disorders.

A study released last year by the Canadian Paediatric
Society warned that rickets is making an alarming
comeback due to chronic vitamin D deficiency
in Canadian children.

It is easy to do nothing or too little.


Vitamin D comes principally from the ultraviolet rays
in sunlight and from foods such as fatty fish, for example,
salmon. Some foods are also fortified with vitamin D,
including cow's milk, soy and rice beverages,
and margarine.

The fortified foods contain only low levels of vitamin D.
And some of it is vitamin D2 not vitamin D3 which is not
so good. AS vitamin D2 has a shorter biological half
life. It binds less tightly to the binding protein than D3.
The use of a (100 mcg) 4000 IU (not 400) supplement in
nursing mothers during the darker months of the year
will increase their breast milk vitamin D
levels to ones that will keep the infant vitamin
D replete.

What moron would fortify margarine with anything?
This is a "food" that should be eliminated from
the diet with exception of perhaps Smart Balance
and a few other better designed of the products.

A daily intake of at least 200 international units
of vitamin D is recommended as part of a healthy
diet; pregnant women should get double
that level, 400 IU.

This is utter bunk. The value being suggested is too low in the
context of higher than 40 degrees latitude effective sunlight
availablility
during late fall and winter or in the case of those living
indoors. People in Boston (42 degrees) dependent
solely on dietary vitamin D3 from November to February.
Reports of rickets in infants in the USA extend
to Texas the southern most state. A vitamin D levels
are low in Queensland, Australia even as skin cancer
rates are rather high.

PMID 2839537 Boston sunlight in Nov to Feb is not strong
enough
for previtamin D3 synthesis on clear
days.

PMID 15225824 8 % deficient and 23 % insufficient of
vitamin D in population of
Queensland

But the new study, conducted among mothers
giving birth at the Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre,
found that 46 per cent did not attain the
minimal level of 200 IU.

This occurred despite the fact that two in three
moms were taking a maternal supplement that
was supposed to provide adequate levels of
vitamin D.

Most maternal supplements contain 400 IUs of vitamin D
which is too little. Hollis has shown even 2000 IU
in the mother isn't quite enough and the "4000 IU/d
could achieve substantial progress toward improving
both maternal and neonatal nutritional vitamin D status."
.

More than 70 per cent of the women who were
deficient in vitamin D gave
birth to a child who was also deficient.

In a commentary also published in the CMAJ,
Dr. Leanne Ward, a pediatric endocrinologist
at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario
in Ottawa, said the data underscore an
"important care gap in this country: Vitamin
D deficiency among Canadian mother-infant
pairs is a persistent problem, despite
existing recommendations for its prevention
and despite ready access to vitamin
D supplementation."

She said newborns who are being breastfed should
receive a daily
supplement of 400 IU of vitamin D, and if they
live above the 55th parallel, that dose
should increase to 800 IU in the winter months.

This suggestion is as suitable to
the 40th parallel as it is to the 55th.

Dr. Ward said that while breast milk is
undeniably the best fluid for babies, it
tends not to be rich in vitamin D.
Vitamin D supplements for babies
are sold in liquid form, and administered
with a dropper.

This is because the physicians and bureaucrats don't give
the mothers the needed dose of vitamin D3 which is
ten times larger than what they suggest to, enforce on,
and prescribe to their patients or subjects.

Vitamin D deficiency, as well as rickets, is
seen principally in dark-skinned children,
particularly black and aboriginal children who
live in the Far North. Dark skin blocks
the absorption of vitamin D
from the ultraviolet rays of the sun.

True and False.
Yes, heavily pigemented skin is slower to convert
cholesterol into the calciferol (vitamin D3)
No, it is the pigment that blocks the UV from
altering the cholesterol into the previtamin .
I'll add as an aside that among the elderly the conversion of
cholesterol to vitamin D is cut in half.

The tendency to keep children out of the sun
is also limiting their vitamin D.

In part.

Now I leave the review to add a comment on
another related point.

And it will another couple of generations before these
"experts", realise that supplementing with vitamin K is
good idea. The authorities in Canada have even banned
vitamin K in supplements. Likely using the coumadin takers
as an excuse for the ban with the view that clot prone
people are too infantile to avoid vitamin K supplements
when taking the antivitamin. Or perhaps they lamely
imagine the vitamin K causes hypercoagulative state which
it doesn't. Thus they are damning even more
of their subjects to weak bones and ectopic calcifications such
hardening of the arteries. Vitamin D supplement given to
the mothers should in my opinion contain a reasonable dose
of vitamin K at the level of =3D 0.5 milligrams of
both K1 and K2.

PMID 11846334 MK-4 form of K-2

PMID 12361778 10 mgs of Konakion in Euromir mission

PMID 11374034 Vascular calcification due to undercarbo-
ylation of MGP due lack of
vitamin
K
especially K-2

PMID 7756045 K2 has additional bone preserving
properties
beyond those of K1

I wonder if any Canadian physician bothers to prescribe there Crohn's
patients both vitamin K and D supplements.Or celiac patients for that
matter.

PMID 15555000 Crohn's patients deficient in both D and K


I was having a discussion with a friend of mine regarding the Kyoto
controls, and he mentioned that the increasing haze of air pollution
was responsible in part for the increasing lack of vitamin D. (It's a
damned if you do/don't kind of thing -- the haze does protect against
excessive UV, and although the atmosphere has thinned due to pollution
we're (better) protected from excessive UV now...although it's more
likely that we're experiencing higher temps, resulting in increased
electricity usage, resulting in increased coal usage, resulting in
increased haze, and so forth...).

Deficiencies don't worry me as much as excessive Hg found in songbirds
-- that, well, that bums me out.

Caledonia