An Appraisal to Address Health Consequences of Vitamin D Deficiency With Food Fortification and Supplements: Time to Act!
Anticancer Res . 2022 Oct;42(10):5009-5015. doi: 10.21873/anticanres.16008.
Jörg Reichrath 1 2 , Winfried März 3 4 5 , Frank R DE Gruijl 6 , Reinhold Vieth 7 8 , William B Grant 9 , Andrzej T Slominski 10 , Michael F Holick 11 , Thomas Vogt 12 2 , Stefan Pilz 13
A symposium entitled "Vitamin D in Prevention and Therapy" was held on May 4-5, 2022, in Homburg, Germany to discuss important new advances in the field, including identification of new vitamin D signaling pathways, of new biologic effects of vitamin D-compounds (e.g., on the microbiome), and convincing proof of the relevance of vitamin D deficiency for the risk and outcome of many chronic diseases, including cancer, cardio-vascular, auto-immune, metabolic, and infectious diseases. Concerning the COVID-19-pandemic, an inverse association between 25(OH)D serum concentrations and SARS-CoV-2-infections, morbidity, and mortality was shown.
In relation to cancer, several meta-analyses recently demonstrated an association of vitamin D-supplementation with significantly decreased mortality rates, which presumably would reduce health care costs. Considering the impressive body of evidence and the high safety of oral supplementation and food fortification with vitamin D, it was concluded that there is now an urgent need to act. In many countries worldwide, health care authorities need to increase efforts to address vitamin D deficiency, e.g., via food fortification and/or supplementation with vitamin D, and/or promoting moderate UV-exposure. It was estimated that in many countries, vitamin D intakes of the order of appr. 1,000 IE (25 μg)/day would be needed to bring and/or keep the vast majority of people over a serum 25(OH)D threshold of 20 ng/ml (50 nmol/l), which would be difficult to obtain alone from food fortification. New developments in personalized medicine may represent helpful tools to identify populations at risk for vitamin D deficiency and their responsiveness to vitamin D treatment.
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CALL FOR ACTION in VitaminDWiki title (11 as of Oct 2022)
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FREE vitamin D is cost-effective
- Turkey gave 400 IU vitamin D to all infants and reduced Rickets by 60X - 2011
- Rickets almost eradicated in counties giving free Vitamin D, perhaps the world can learn – Dec 2019
- Romania joins Turkey in giving free Vitamin D to all infants – 2018
- US children not getting enough vitamin D, recommends free milks and perhaps 3X increased fortification – Sept 2022
- Free 1,600 IU Vitamin D daily during pregnancy helps a lot (natives in Alaska) – Sept 2022
- Employers should give night shift workers free vitamin D – GMB Union June 2019
- Health Insurance company still giving free Vitamin D to members who are deficient – Oct 2023
- Biology of Vitamin D – 30ng min., 50ng preferred, 1000X lower cost than health problem – Feb 2019
- UK would save as least 636 million dollars annually by giving 800 IU vitamin D free to all seniors – June 2014
VitaminDWiki - Fortification works - when enough is given
Fortification works, even if food is cooked, but govts rarely fortifiy with enough
Govts, food producers, and families can fortify:
milk, yogurt, beer, bread, cereals, cooking oil, soups, jams, jellys, honey, snack bars, etc.
Some interesting fortification articles
- Biofortification with Vitamin D - several studies
- Vitamin D fortification in Europe preventing 27,000 Cancer deaths, could prevent 129,000 – May 2022
- Vitamin D fortification could eliminate 1 in 10 Cancer deaths in the EU – May 2022
- After years of adding vitamin D, Finland now has 38 ng levels - March 2022
- Fortification with Vitamin D works – 16 studies of Danish experience – July 2021
- Vitamin D fortification of beverages – Review March 2022
- Bread fortified with Vitamin D - many studies 13+ studies
- International Conference of Vitamin D Fortification of Food (India) – Sept 2018
- 2400 IU of vitamin D needed to get most Northern adults above 20 ng – June 2020
- Vitamin D home fortification- don't wait 100 years for your govt
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