Download Vitamin D Presentation Notes

Vitamin D Presentation
March 12, 2009
Natasha’s Notes
These are the notes I took during the Vitamin D Seminar presented by Justine Emerson.
Justine is a nurse at Valley Medical Care. If you have any questions about the notes,
please contact me. I am typing them up as I took them. If you have any questions about
Vitamin D, I strongly encourage you to get your Vitamin D levels tested and speak to
your physician about what supplement might be best for you.
 Vitamin D is usually associated with rickets (softening of bones in children)
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o Did you know animals can get rickets?—check for vitamin D in your pet’s
food
o There have been cases of rickets in Juneau
 If a mother is vitamin D deficient, her child is more prone to
rickets because they aren’t getting vitamin D through their
mother’s breast milk
Low vitamin D increases your risk of these cancers:
o Breast cancer
o Colon cancer
o Prostate cancer
o Lung cancer
o Pancreatic cancer
o Ovarian cancer
o Esophageal cancer
o Hodgkin’s
o Bladder cancer
o Uterine cancer
Vitamin D helps cells develop & differentiate normally
Vitamin D can help kill off some cancer cells
Autoimmune Diseases—there is a higher risk for these diseases with low vitamin D
o Graves disease
o Psoriasis
o Type 1 diabetes (juvenile-insulin dependant)
o Rheumatoid arthritis
o Multiple Sclerosis
o Scleroderma
o Inflammatory Bowel Disease
o Lupus
Vitamin D helps prevent:
o Hypertension
o Tuberculosis
o Osteoporosis
o Weakness
o Heart disease
o Type 2 diabetes
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o Benign prostatic hypertrophy
o Parkinson’s Disease
Adequate vitamin D helps:
o Depression
o Seasonal affective disorder
o Resistance to pneumonia
o Progression of arthritis
o Calcium absorption
o Prevents colds & flu
o Immune system
o Wounds heal
With adequate levels of vitamin D, you absorb about 30-35% of calcium, if you’re
levels are low, you absorb about 10%
Vitamin D may help suppress spontaneous food intake and burn fat
Did you know…vitamin D isn’t a vitamin! It’s a hormone and it can be made in your
body with sun exposure.
Ultraviolet light
o UVB—these are the rays that produce vitamin D; they also cause burning,
topical skin cancers (squamous and basal cell), skin aging and cataracts
o UVA—causes aging, malignant melanoma (often in areas not exposed to
sun)
What affects vitamin D production
o Time of year—in Juneau, summer solstice is the best, 11 am-4 pm, AprilSeptember
o Time of day—mid-day is best
o Latitude—the further you are from the equator, the less vitamin D you
make
o Clothing—blocks UVB rays
o Sunscreen—blocks UVB rays
o Aging—as you age, you can’t make vitamin D as well through your skin
o Skin color—people with darker skin are more protected from the sun and
therefore can’t make vitamin D as well
o Glass & plexiglass
o Sun exposure
 A healthy adult in a swimsuit exposed to sunlight for 24 hours will
produce about 10,000-20,000 iu of vitamin D
Food Sources
o Fatty fish—Alaska Salmon has about 700 iu/serving
o Eggs—have about 20 iu per egg
o Milk has about 100iu per cup of milk
Adequate intake
o Infants (0-12 months)—1000 iu/day
o Everyone else—2,000 iu/day
o Be sure to know your levels and talk to your physician about the right
amount of vitamin D for you
Vitamin D levels of 32-100 are considered sufficient; less than that is not good
 Supplements
o Look for vitamin D3
o You only actually absorb about 75%
o Vitamin D produced through sun exposure lasts about 2-3 months;
supplements are not as long
o Vitamin D is stored in your body fat and slowly released into your blood
o You can absorb vitamin D without having a lot of fat to absorb it
o You need to saturate your vitamin D receptors before it begins to be
released into your blood stream. Once your receptors are saturated and the
vitamin D levels in your blood are sufficient, taking 2000 iu/day is
recommended to keep level up. THIS IS WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO
KNOW YOUR LEVELS AND TALK TO YOUR PHYSICIAN!
 Resources:
o http://ods.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp
o www.vitamindhealth.org
o www.vitamindcouncil.org