Audio interview with Dr. Soran Khalsa on Vitamin D
For those of you interested in Vitamin D, there is an interview with a physician, Dr. Soran, who specializes in Integrative Medicine, and recently wrote a book called the Vitamin D Revolution. You can listen to the interview on http://blog.VitaminDRevolution.com. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the audio buttons. The first few minutes of the show consists of another physician discussing the Influenza vaccine, then Dr. Soran (as he prefers to be called) begins. He discusses the risks of Vitamin D deficiency beyond osteoporosis (cancer, infections) but he also discusses how he supplements his deficient patients. It is well worth the time to listen.
Along those same lines, a scientific study* that looked at once-a-year high dose Vitamin D supplementation in older women was recently published. The intervention group of the study received 500,000 international units of cholecalciferol (D3) once a year, and actually experienced more falls and fractures than the placebo group that received no supplementation. The lesson to be learned is Vitamin D is important, but don’t take it all at once, once a year.
* Sanders, K. M., A.L. Stuart, E.J. Williamson, J. A. Simpson, M. A. Kotowicz, D. Young, G. C. Nicholson “Annual High-Dose Oral Vitamin D and Falls and Fractures in Older Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial” JAMA 2010;303(18):1815-1822
After graduating from NYU School of Medicine in 1987, and completing my Internal Medicine residency at Lenox Hill Hospital in 1990, I went to work at the AIDS clinic at Bellevue.
……….TUESDAY May 11 HealthDay News — A large once-a-year dose of vitamin D while convenient doesnt offer the same protection against falls and fractures in older women that smaller more frequent doses may a new study has found.Whats more the research suggests that when older women take a high annual dose of vitamin D it actually increases the risk of falls by 15 percent and the risk of fractures by 26 percent compared to women taking a placebo. Until further evidence to the contrary is obtained high-dose vitamin D should be avoided at least in older women who are not vitamin D deficient said the studys senior author Geoffrey Nicholson a professor of medicine and head of the department of clinical and biomedical sciences at the University of Melbourne in Australia.Both vitamin D and calcium are vital to the production of new bone according to the U.S. Vitamin D is found in some foods and the body naturally produces vitamin D when exposed to sufficient sunlight.Previous studies have found mixed results on the role of vitamin D supplements in protecting against falls and fractures in older adults. Some studies have reported that taking a daily dose of 700 to 800 international units IUs of vitamin D reduces risk by up to 26 percent according to background information in the study.