Overview Alcohol and Vitamin D

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VitaminDWiki references

• Addictions to smoking, alcohol, opiates, etc. may be reduced by Vitamin D (dopamine etc. 28 studies) – Nov 2024
• Alchoholics have low Calcium and low Vitamin D, increasing Vit D might help – Nov 2016
• Hypothesis lack of vitamin D leads to depression leads to alcohol use
• Alcoholics with low vitamin D get more bone fractures -Jan 2011
• Alcoholics have osteoporosis – Nov 2010
  • Perhaps: too much alcohol ==> liver failure ==>less vitamin D ==> poor bones
• Overview Fractures and Falls and Vitamin D
• Overview Liver and vitamin D

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13+ VitaminDWiki pages have ALCOHOL but not non-alcoholic in the title

This list is automatically updated

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Alcohol increases the risk of some Cancers

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Alcohol increases the risk of 7 Cancers - Mercola Feb 2025

PDF    67 minute YouTube interview

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US Surgeon General warns that Alcohol increases the risk of cancer - Jan 2025

New York Times

• "... alcohol directly contributes to 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 related deaths each year, "
• "Overall, one of every six breast cancer cases is attributable to alcohol consumption, "
  • wonder how much of that is due to alcohol reducing vitamin D levels, which protect against breast cancer?

 Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki

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Seniors drinking 1 alcoholic beverage daily increased their risk of Cancer death by 11% - Aug 2024

MDEdge based on 135,000 people in the UK 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.24495

• "65% of young adults (ages 18-34) saying that drinking can have negative health effects. But just 39% of adults age 55 or older agreed that drinking is bad for a person’s health. "
  • The gap in perspectives between younger and older adults about drinking is the largest on record, Gallup reported."

 Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki

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Chronic Alcohol Consumption causes about half of alcohol-related Cancers - Oct 2023

The sobering facts about alcohol and cancer- MDEdge
According to IARC data,

• heavy drinking – defined as more than 60 g/day or about six daily drinks – accounts for 47% of the alcohol-attributable cancers.
• Risky drinking – between 20 and 60 g/day – 29%,
• moderate drinking – less than 20 g/day or about two daily drinks 14%.

Globally, alcohol intake accounted for 4% of all cancers diagnosed in 2020

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4,470,000 studies concern Alcohol and Cancer (Jan 2025)

Google Scholar

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Overview of 3 recent reports on Alcohol and Health (nothing about Vitamin D - Dr. Topol April 2025

A Ground Truth on Alcohol Intake

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Chronic Alcohol Consumption reduces Vitamins, such as Vitamin D - March 2022

Vitamin Supplements as a Nutritional Strategy against Chronic Alcohol Consumption? An Updated Review
"Alcohol use disorder affects about 7.2% of people older than 12 years old"
 Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki

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Low Calcium associated with alcohol craving - Nov 2016 (note: low Ca may be due to low Vitamin D)

Association of plasma calcium concentrations with alcohol craving: New data on potential pathways
 Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki

Seems like there are 2 simple solutions: increase Calcium intake and increase Calcium absorption (vitamin D)
Wonder if they have been tried?

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Adding Calcium reduced alcohol craving - RCT Feb 2021

850 mg of Caclium DOI: 10.1159/000512763

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Vitamin D and alcohol: A review of the current literature - Feb 2017

Psychiatry Research Volume 248, February 2017, Pages 83-86 a potion of the PDF is free

Highlights
Association between Alcohol Use Disorders and Vitamin D serum levels is reviewed.

• Results found by different articles are heterogeneous and controversial.
• Studies with larges samples showed positive associations between Vitamin D serum levels and alcohol intake.
• However, papers that evaluated this association as a primary outcome found negative association.
• Further studies are needed to better elucidate this question.

Vitamin D is associated with bone mineral density, and its deficiency is a global health problem. In psychiatry, low vitamin D levels have been associated with schizophrenia, depression, psychotic symptoms, and, more recently, alcohol use disorders. Alcohol use disorders are among the most prevalent mental disorders worldwide. Therefore, our aim was to evaluate the association between alcohol use and vitamin D serum levels. The PubMed, SCIELO, and Lilacs databases were searched for this systematic review. We assessed all articles published from 1976 to December 2015, and we examined the associated reference lists to retrieve articles that appeared to fulfill our criteria. Of 932 articles, 49 met our inclusion criteria. The majority of the papers (71.4%) were cross-sectional studies.
Alcohol intake was found to be positively associated with vitamin D status in 15 articles and negatively associated with vitamin D in 18 articles; no association was found in 16 articles.
Heterogeneous results were found in our review, with a similar number of papers indicating a positive association, a negative association or the absence of any association between alcohol use and vitamin D levels. Nevertheless, it is important to note that the studies in which a positive association was found were more recent papers that involved considerably larger sample sizes than those in other studies. The older studies compared vitamin D levels in alcoholic and non-alcoholic patients, in contrast to more recent studies, which focused on more specific populations. In addition, most of the selected papers were from high latitude countries, where exposure to sunlight tends to be lower than in tropical countries. The data concerning vitamin D levels in patients with alcohol use disorders remain controversial. Additional research using a standardized methodology is necessary to demonstrate the real impact of alcohol consumption on vitamin D serum levels as well as on the health status of alcohol users.

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STUDY ON VITAMIN D AND ALCOHOL RELATED PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS - May 2024

Angel Abraham, Sajitha Krishna, Nimisha V Subhakumari K N, Geomy G Chakkalakkudy
Obstetrics and Gynaecology Forum, 34(2s), 760–766.FREE PDF

Background
Deficiencies in vitamin D, which is linked to increased bone mineral density, are a worldwide epidemic. Psychiatrists have shown that low vitamin D levels are linked to psychotic symptoms, depression, schizophrenia, and, more recently, alcohol-related mental disorders. Among the most common mental illnesses globally, alcohol-related disorders rank high. That is why we decided to check for a link between low vitamin D blood levels and mental health issues after drinking. The reason for this examination was to look at vitamin D levels in two gatherings: one consisting of fifty patients with alcohol-related mental disorders and another consisting of fifty healthy controls.

Materials and methods: Taking place over the course of two years, from 2012 to 2014, this case control research was carried out at a tertiary care teaching hospital in Kochi, Kerala. Fifty individuals were evaluated for vitamin D levels; fifty were considered controls and fifty were classified with alcohol-related mental disorders as indicated by the Worldwide Arrangement of Illnesses, tenth rendition, Analytic Standards for Exploration. From the venous blood tests, the vitamin D levels were surveyed using Abbot Architect.

Results: Vitamin D insufficiency was found in 0% of the cases (30 people) and 26% of the controls (13 people). A p-value less than 0.001 indicates a statistically significant difference.

Conclusion: Compared to the control group, the patients in this research had substantially decreased blood vitamin D levels. A lack of sunlight, an unhealthy food, malabsorption, ethanol-induced liver damage, and an unhealthy lifestyle are all factors that contribute to low 25(OH)D levels in those who drink too much. Please validate the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and alcohol-related mental problems by conducting further case-control studies using bigger random samples.

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Putative role of vitamin D in the mechanism of alcoholism and other addictions - a hypothesis Nov 2020

Acta Neuropsychiatrica, 12 Nov 2020, :1-27, DOI: 10.1017/neu.2020.41
Galyuk TM1, Loonen AJM2

OBJECTIVE:Vitamin D deficiency may be a clinical problem in patients with addictions. The authors systematically searched for studies addressing vitamin D and addiction and develop a hypothesis which can direct future research of the possible mechanistic role of vitamin D in the process of addiction.

METHODS:Systematic review of the literature found in PubMed and EMBASE followed by narrative review combined with clinical experiences leading to hypotheses for future research.

RESULTS:Only five articles were identified about a role of vitamin D in the pathophysiology of addiction. Their results are in line with a possible influence of vitamin D in dopaminergic transmission. The cerebral vitamin D status depends upon the functionality of genetic variants of Vitamin D Receptor (VDR) and other involved genes. Routine serum calcidiol levels may not adequately reflect cerebral vitamin D status. Uncertainty exists regarding appropriate calcidiol blood levels and proper dosages for affecting the central nervous system (CNS).

CONCLUSIONS:The putative pathophysiological role of vitamin D in substance abuse has been insufficiently studied which calls to more studies how to measure cerebral vitamin D status in clinical practice. Research is indicated whether vitamin D supplementation should use higher dosages and aim to reach higher calcidiol serum levels. Measuring dopaminergic functioning within the prefrontal cortex as reflected by neuropsychological tests selected as suitable could be a suitable proxy for the cerebral vitamin D status when studying the pharmacogenomics of this functionality in patients.

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Drinkers of alcohol 2X more likely to have pain if low vitamin D – Nov 2020

Association Between Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Concentrations and Chronic Pain: Effects of Drinking Habits
J Pain Res. 2020 Nov 19;13:2987-2996. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S277979. eCollection 2020.
Keita Suzuki 1, Hiromasa Tsujiguchi 1 2 3, Sakae Miyagi 3 4, Thao Thi Thu Nguyen 2, Akinori Hara 1 2 3, Haruki Nakamura 2, Yukari Shimizu 5, Koichiro Hayashi 1, Yohei Yamada 1, Phat Minh Nguyen 2, Yuichi Tao 2, Takayuki Kannon 3 6, Atsushi Tajima 3 6, Hiroyuki Nakamura 1 2 3
 Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki

Purpose: Although the explanation for inconsistencies in the reported association between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D 25(OH)D levels and chronic pain (CP) has not yet been determined, understanding this discrepancy is necessary for the development of vitamin D supplementation as an effective treatment for CP. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine the relationship between 25(OH)D concentrations and CP according to drinking habits in Japanese subjects.

Patients and methods: We distributed invitation letters to 2314 individuals older than 40 years in Shika town, a rural area in Japan, and 724 subjects (386 females; mean age: 63.9 ± 10.4 years) were recruited. CP was defined as persistent pain lasting at least 3 months in any part of the body. Serum concentrations of 25(OH)D, a biomarker of the vitamin D status, were measured using a radioimmunoassay. A serum 25(OH)D level <20 ng/mL was defined as serum 25(OH)D deficiency. Drinking habits were assessed using a self-administered questionnaire. There were three choices, "rarely drink", "sometimes" and "everyday". Respondents who answered "rarely drink" were labelled as non-drinkers and the others as drinkers.

Results: The prevalence of CP was 40.6%. A significant interaction between CP and drinking habits on 25(OH)D concentrations was observed (p = 0.098). A one-way analysis of covariance was performed to compare 25(OH)D concentrations between the subjects with and without CP in each drinking group, and the serum 25(OH)D levels of subjects with CP were significantly lower than those without CP among drinkers (p = 0.007).
Alcohol A logistic regression analysis revealed a correlation between serum 25(OH)D deficiency and CP in drinkers after adjustments for several confounding factors (odds ratio: 0.499; 95% confidence interval: 0.268 - 0.927; p = 0.028).

Conclusion: The present results suggest that low serum 25(OH)D concentrations are associated with the development of CP in drinkers.

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Google Scholar allintitle:(alcohol "vitamin d") -alcoholic 91 entries as of Feb 2025

Google Scholar

• Vitamin D and alcohol: A review of the current literature - 2017 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2016.10.051
  • Not a consistant association
• Association between Fok I vitamin D receptor gene (VDR) polymorphism and impulsivity in alcohol-dependent patients - 2014

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Nutrient deficiencies due to Alcohol - Sept 2021

GrassrootsHealth Sept 2021

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Alcohol Use Disorder massively upsets the gut microbiome - Feb 2024

New York Times - free link

• Preliminary research suggests that an unhealthy gut might even contribute to alcohol cravings, said Dr. Jasmohan Bajaj, a hepatologist at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Richmond V.A. Medical Center.
• "But we do know that alcohol can cause acid reflux, stomach lining inflammation and gastrointestinal bleeding, he added, and can increase your risk of several types cancer, including those of the esophagus, colon and rectum."
•  NYT PDF

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Foetal alcohol spectrum disorders in 11% of infants in South Africa’s Western Cape - March 2024

• "Symptoms range from learning and behavioural problems, including low intelligence, lack of impulse control, and poor reasoning skills, to a more severe condition known as foetal alcohol syndrome, which leads to facial deformities, vision and hearing impairments, and severe organ damage. "
• "Those with the worst forms of FASD have a considerably shorter lifespan than the rest of the population, rarely living beyond their mid-30s."

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Web

• Alcohol and Native Americans Wikipedia
  • 4X higher death rate for directly related alcohol problems: traffic collisions,liver disease. homicide, suicide, and falls
  • also hearing and vision problems, kidney and bladder problems, pneumonia, tuberculosis, dental problems, and pancreatitis
  • among American Indians and Alaska Natives, the rate of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is 5.6 per 1,000 live births.
    • ~25X higher than typical

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Asked AI : How might Alcoholics Anonymous be helped by Vitamin D - Feb 2024

Perplexity Feb 2024

• Correction of Nutritional Deficiencies
• Mood Regulation
• Cognitive Function and Brain Health:
• Reduction in Drug Use and Addiction Severity

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