News
Vitamin D may prevent depressive symptoms
16 January 2012
According to a new US study, higher vitamin D levels are linked with a significantly decreased risk of depression, especially among those with a history of depression.
13 January 2012
Increased blood levels of vitamin D may reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, says a new Spanish study.
In the observational study, serum vitamin D concentration measurement and diabetes diagnosis (oral glucose tolerance test) were performed in 961 adults at the beginning, during, and at the end of the nine-year study (1). The study results showed that incidence of diabetes was less than 5% in people with 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels greater than 18.5 ng/mL, compared with an incidence of 12.4% in people with blood levels lower than this. In addition, the risk of developing diabetes was significantly lower in people with the higher vitamin D levels, with no diabetes recorded in people with blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D higher than 30 ng/mL.
The researchers commented that although the results show correlation and not causation, it is biologically plausible that vitamin D may reduce the incidence of diabetes, including influencing the function of beta-cells in the pancreas that control insulin production. The vitamin may also affect sensitivity to insulin. In addition, an anti-inflammatory role of vitamin D may also affect diabetes risk. Already, US researchers have recently reported on the vitamin’s potential anti- diabetic activity: a daily 2,000 international units ( IU) dose of vitamin D3 boosted the functioning of beta cells by 25% (2).
16 January 2012
According to a new US study, higher vitamin D levels are linked with a significantly decreased risk of depression, especially among those with a history of depression.
6 June 2014
A new US study says that increased intakes of vitamin C by women who smoke during pregnancy seem to improve measures of lung function for their newborns and decrease the incidence of wheezing for their infants through one year.
1 July 2014
It has long been known that vitamin K, which is involved as a coenzyme in the production of coagulation factors, is essential to the regulation of blood coagulation. But vitamin K also fulfils an important role in the activation of certain enzymes which, together with vitamin D, regulate metabolism and can combat the hardening of soft tissues such as blood vessels and help slow bone demineralization. In recent years interest in this vitamin has grown considerably following the discovery of other potentially health-promoting properties. Attention centers on research into the function of vitamin-K-dependent enzymes (Gla proteins), which are found in bones and teeth as well as in blood vessel linings, the brain and other soft tissues, where they appear to regulate cell division and cell differentiation, among other things. Studies indicate that a sufficient intake of vitamin K could help prevent the occurrence of atherosclerosis, osteoporosis, insulin resistance and inflammation of the joints, and above all could protect against the age-related loss of cognitive abilities.