Expert opinion
Genes may affect vitamin E needs
1 September 2011
Vitamin E supplementation to reduce prostate cancer risk has been controversial, especially among smokers.
16 December 2011
According to a new US study, vitamin D supplementation may be associated with an increased survival rate, specifically in cardiovascular patients with documented deficiency.
In the observational cohort study, blood vitamin D concentrations, vitamin D supplement use and survival rate were analyzed in 10,899 cardiovascular patients (mean age 58 years) for five years and eight months (1). The study results showed that about 70% of the patients were vitamin D deficient (levels below
30 ng/ml). Vitamin D deficiency was associated with several cardiovascular-related diseases, including hypertension, coronary artery disease and diabetes. In addition, vitamin D deficiency was a strong independent predictor of all-cause mortality after adjusting for multiple clinical variables. Vitamin D supplementation improved survival overall, but only to a significant degree in deficient patients. The dose and duration of vitamin D supplementation were not analyzed.
The researchers concluded that vitamin D deficiency may be associated with a significant risk of cardiovas-cular disease and reduced survival. Vitamin D supplementation seems to be significantly associated with better survival, and particularly in patients with deficiency.
A growing body of evidence has identified vitamin D deficiency as a potential widespread risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Recent evidence supports an association of vitamin D deficiency with hypertension, peripheral vascular disease, diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, coronary artery disease, and heart failure (2, 3). Although epidemiologic evidence for an association between vitamin D deficiency and several cardiovascular diseases is strong, studies investigating the effect of vitamin D supplementation on patient survival have had inconsistent results (4, 5).
1 September 2011
Vitamin E supplementation to reduce prostate cancer risk has been controversial, especially among smokers.
1 April 2016
Professor Cashman is the joint coordinator of the EU-funded ODIN project. He is lead author of a new paper that the authors say provides “firm evidence” of the significant risk that vitamin D deficiency poses to public health in the EU. They found that 13% of the cohort of 55,844 individuals drawn from across Europe had serum vitamin D levels below 30 nmol/L.
18 November 2013
A new US study reduces concern that vitamin D supplementation may be associated with an increased risk of developing kidney stones.