Health Benefits from Vitamin D?

By,Sophie Biber, Jennie Nadel, and Zoe

Lee-McDermott

What is Vitamin D?

• Vitamin D is a vitamin that is believed to help lower the risks of diabetes, heart and kidney disease, high blood pressure, and cancer

• Vitamin D is found in many different things: • Sunlight, salmon, fortified milk, fatty omega 3

acids, and fish oil

What is Vitamin D used for?

• Vitamin D is used in the body as a mechanism to turn cells on and off

How do you know how much vitamin D you have?

• The amount of Vitamin D is influenced by your skin color

• Where you live• How much time you spend outdoors• And fish and mil consumption

How to raise the amount of Vitamin D you have

• Increase the time you stay out in the sun• If you are older and have diabetes, kidney

disease, or spend most of your time indoors you have a larger chance of vitamin D deficiency

Recommended Consumption

• The recommended amount of Vitamin D is about 400 international units a day

• Many scientists believe that this isn’t enough• But it varies from person to person

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

• The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2008 did a poll

• It said that 10% of children are severely deficient of Vitamin D

Doctors and Vitamin D

• Many doctors check their patients to make sure they are getting enough vitamin D

• If not, they prescribe medicine and help make suggestions

Testing Vitamin D

• Some scientists are skeptical about using vitamin D

• Every person varies in how much vitamin D their body needs

• Scientists would need humans to test how vitamin D should be consumed but they are afraid this could be morally wrong since vitamin D could possible bad side effects

Dr. Manson’s Studies

• Dr. Manson is a scientist who believes that people can have a healthier way of achieving higher levels of vitamin D by exercising, eating healthy, and not smoking

Doctor Manson’s Experiment

• He is taking 2,000 older adults• Men over the age of 60• Women over the age of 65• He is testing to see if high doses and amounts

of vitamin D and omega 3 fatty acids can help lower the probability of heart diseases and cancer

• He is taking the participants and dividing them into four categories

• 1 will take vitamin D and fish oil pills• 1 will take just vitamin D• 1 will take just fish oil pills• 1 will take placebo pills• The vitamin D they will be taking is D3 and they will

use one-gram supplements of omega 3 fish oil• They will take 5-10 times of the average daily intake

Women’s Health Initiative Study

• Tracked 400 women taking 400 units of Vitamin D and 100 units of calcium

• Not many benefits except a lower risk of hip fracture

• Scientists believe 400 units isn’t enough

More Studies

• Took 1,200 women • Women took 1,500 milligrams of calcium and

1,000 units of vitamin D • They showed a lower risk for breast cancer

Vitamin D health risks?

• Scientists believe that although vitamin D might be beneficial it can also cause severe problems

• Heart problems• Diabetes and cancer• Scientists say that every person is different so

it would be hard to tell the outcome for a particular person

Acknowledgements

• We got all of our information from:• http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/th

e-miracle-of-vitamin-d-sound-science-or-hype/?pagemode=print

• And www.wilsonsbiologylab.com • Also the picture came from

http://www.healingtherapies.info/VitDmetabolism.jpg