• Home
  • About
    • About me
    • About Nutritionists
    • About this Site
    • Disclaimer
  • Your Kitchen Guide
    • Choosing Fruit & Veg
    • Kitchen Cupboard
    • Knife Skills
    • Cooking Measurements
  • Topics
    • Lifestyle & Dieting
    • Men’s Health
    • Nutrition & Mental Health
    • Sports & Exercise Nutrition
    • Nutrition & Physical Health
    • Vitamins, Minerals & Nutrients
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • RSS Feed

Search

it's about nutrition

Evidence-Based Look at Diets & Nutrition

New evidence for vitamin D supplementation
Reviews

New evidence for vitamin D supplementation

February 17, 2017
Share

Vitamin D is big news just now, and two studies published only this week suggest potential benefits for supplementing. The first study looked at the association of vitamin D status with muscle strength and the other looked at lung infections.

Muscle strength and vitamin link

We already know that vitamin D helps the absorption of calcium into our bodies, and calcium is important for bone and teeth health. But British researchers at the University of Birmingham have found that low levels of inactive vitamin D in our blood and higher levels of active vitamin D may also be linked to higher levels of lean muscle mass – at least in women! More studies are required to see if the same would be true in men, although current evidence suggests that there was no link.

What this means is, women with greater levels of muscle compared to fat had better vitamin D status, suggesting that people who have good muscle strength are better equipped to convert inactive vitamin D to active. It is not completely understood why this is the case or what the exact biological differences are between men and women. Women therefore should be encouraged to engage in strength training to get the most out of their vitamin D supplementation.

Coughs, colds and vitamin D

The other study looking at vitamin D was a large US meta analysis, a type of study that pools together the results of many studies to see what the combined effect would be on a given test. In this case, they looked at the effect of supplementing vitamin D and protection against coughs and colds on over 11,000 people. What they found was, even supplementing vitamin D on a weekly rather than daily basis, appeared to have a protective effect in people who showed to have a deficiency in vitamin D.

The only way to determine whether you are vitamin D deficient or not is to have a blood test. However, it is estimated that 20% of the UK population (higher in the aged population) are probably deficient, particularly during the winter months when we see so little sunlight. This might also be because, despite living on an island, most of us don’t eat much fish – one of the richest sources of vitamin D in our diet.

Therefore, supplementing on vitamin D during the winter months of October through to March could be beneficial for many of us, particularly those of us who are have recurrent respiratory infections like coughs and colds, who do not eat much fish and who are light-skinned. If you are on any form of medication or have a medical condition that causes excess calcium in the blood (hypercalcaemia), discuss with your GP before supplementing.

For more information on vitamin D and health, visit the NHS site.

Images

Cold? By Alan Foster

References

Hassan-Smith et al. (2017) 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 exert distinct effects on human skeletal muscle function and gene expression. PLoS One.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0170665

Massachusetts General Hospital News Release (2017) Study confirms vitamin D protection against cold and flu. http://www.massgeneral.org/about/pressrelease.aspx?id=2060

Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (2016) Vitamin D and Health. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/537616/SACN_Vitamin_D_and_Health_report.pdf

Seb Bowden
Seb Bowden

Seb is a writer and blogger of food and nutrition. He holds a bachelors and a masters degree in nutrition science, and has studied sports and exercise nutrition at postgraduate level. He specialises in plant-based nutrition and believes passionately that we can all live with a little less meat.

Share this:

  • Print
  • Facebook
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Reddit
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Tags:

  • colds
  • ,
  • coughs
  • ,
  • muscle strength
  • ,
  • vitamin D

Post navigation

Health Benefits of Kefir
Gluten-free – good, bad or indifferent?

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Your details will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Advertisement

Most Read

  • Can Diet Cause Man-Boobs?Can Diet Cause Man-Boobs?
  • Caponata your way!Caponata your way!
  • MelonsMelons
  • Should Men Avoid Flax and Soya?Should Men Avoid Flax and Soya?
  • Vegetable PaellaVegetable Paella

Translate

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Google

So what do you think? Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Creative Commons Licence
It's About Nutrition by Seb Bowden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Cressida by LyraThemes.com
Share
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Reject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT
%d bloggers like this: