High vitamin D status is associated with common health complaints in a group of healthy Kuwaiti women
Alyahya KO
Science Department, College of Basic Education, Public Authority for Applied Education and Training, Kuwait.
Background: The public continues to receive the advice that sustaining a high level of serum vitamin D is important in maintaining good health, regardless of the presence of an illness. Many studies have shown an inverse association between 250HD levels and a wide range of disorders, thus vitamin D supplementation has been promoted to support good health. Continuous studies in the Middle East, especially in the GCC countries, show extremely low 250HD levels compared to the rest of the world. This is expected to have a negative impact on the health of the population. Thus, the aim was to assess the association between 250HD levels and common health complaints in a group of clinically healthy Kuwaiti women.
Methods: The study was conducted between December 2011 and March 2012 and was granted ethical approval. Mothers of students whom were a part of a previous study, and undergraduate female students were invited to participate. Excluded were post-menopausal, younger than 19 and older than 48 yrs, non-Kuwaitis, pregnant, and breast-feeding women, those with a medical diagnosis, and taking medication or vitamin/mineral supplements/injection for the past 6 months. On the day of examination, consent forms were signed prior to a 20 minutes interview to collect data including common health complaints. A15 ml blood sample was collected. Serum samples was separated and shipped to The Doctors Lab (TDL, London) on dry ice to measure 250HD by radio-immunoassay. Binary logistic regression was used to assess the most common predictors of a low 250HD (i.e. <50 nmol/L). Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS, version 17.
Results: A total of 118 healthy Kuwaiti premenopausal women, aged 19-47 years old, were recruited. Median 250HD was 16.5 nmol/L. Levels >50 nmol/L were obtained by 18.6%, among which 72% had taken a vitamin D injection between 6-48 months prior to the examination. The logistic regression model was able to explain 50% of the variation in 250HD. The significant predictors were food allergy, neck 8 shoulder — ache, and female infection. Interestingly, women with 250HD >50 nmol/L were more likely to complain of food allergies (0R:15, 95% CI:3.5-67), neck and shoulder ache (0R:9.3,95% CL2-44), and female infection (0R:6,95% CI17-21) than women who had levels <50 nmol/L.
Conclusions: Common health complaints were found associated with higher 250HD levels not with lower levels in a group of Kuwaiti women. This could be due to:
• Middle-eastern women may have a lower upper limit for 250HD.
• vitamin D injection in a dose of 600 thousand IU / dose might have adverse effects.
Poster presented at Vitamin D conference in England - April 23-25 2014
Comment by VitaminDWiki
It is amazing that some doctors continue to give vitamin D doses infrequently.
Infrequent dosing was found to be a major problem over 5 years ago
The peaks/valleys unbalance the body's chemistry
See also VitaminDWiki
- Large single dose of more than 300,000 IU of vitamin D works well for 3 months – Review Nov 2013
- Review of Vitamin D (including free, frequency, injection, how much.) – Sept 2013
- Quarterly vitamin D3 is too infrequent – it increases the occurrence of pneumonia – June 2012
- Take vitamin D3 daily or weekly which has the following graphic
Notional of Vitamin D benefit vs dosing frequency of < 30 nanograms