Overview Seniors and Vitamin D

Just 22 cents for a 50K IU capsule once a week

just 2 cents for vitamin D powder which give 50K once a week for 25 weeks

• reduces falling and fractures,
• improves cognition,
• decreases chance of Alz and Parkinson’s,
• increases chance of surviving hospital,
• Improves balance,
• reduces muscle loss,
• reduces flu,
• reduces need for antibiotics,

From 10 reasons why seniors have low levels of vitamin D

1. Senior skin produces 3X less Vitamin D for the same sun intensity
2. Seniors have fewer vitamin D receptors as they age
3. Seniors are indoors more than than when they were younger
   • not as agile, weaker muscles; frail, no longer enjoy hot temperatures
   • (if outside, stay in the shade), however, seniors might start outdoor activities like gardening, biking, etc.
4. Seniors wear more clothing outdoors than when younger
   • Seniors also are told to fear skin cancer/wrinkles
5. Seniors often take various drugs which reduce vitamin D
   • Some reductions would not show up on vitamin D test
   • statins, chemotherapy, anti-depressants, blood pressure, beta-blockers, etc
6. Seniors often have one or more diseases which consume vitamin D
   • osteoporosis, diabetes, MS, ...
7. Seniors generally put on weight at they age - and a heavier body requires more vitamin D
8. Seniors often (40%) have fatty livers – which do not process vitamin D as well
9. Reduced stomach acid ==>less Magnesium needed to utilize vitamin D
   (would not show up on vitamin D test)
10. Seniors with poorly functioning kidneys do not process vitamin D as well
    (would not show up on vitamin D test) 2009 full text online  Also PDF 2009
11. Vitamin D is not as bioavailable in senior digestive systems (Stomach acid or intestines?)

• Category Seniors and Vitamin D 393 items

In addition, some seniors are low because they are:

- Living in Northern latitudes and do take a winter trip to a sunny area in the winter
- Overweight
- Dark skinned
- Had recent surgery/trauma

CLICK HERE for an Vitamin D Workshop for Seniors which was held Aug 2011

By Henry Lahore - the admin of VitaminDWiki

Falls and Fractures
Many studies have proven that increasing vitamin D decreases falls and fractures.
By several mechanisms

• 1) improve reaction time
• 2) Improve muscle,
• 3) increase bone density

There are not just association of low vitamin D and falling/fractures, but scores of actual random controlled trials – from all around the world

• Overview Reduce Falling
• More vitamin D needed to prevent osteoporosis in seniors – May 2010
• 4000 IU helped after hip fracture (file)
• Muscle cells differentiate into fat cells if there is low vitamin D in petrie dish – April 2013
• 1000 IU minimum to decrease falls and fractures Swiss - 2009
• Meta-analysis of RCT – vitamin D might increase senior muscle function – Sept 2010
• Hip fractures in India - editorial with recommendation Sept 2010
• Vitamin D3 loading dose of 500,000 IU for elderly – Aug 2009
• 600,000 IU vitamin D normalized virtually all seniors in 3 months – May 2012
• Cochrane review finds that Vitamin D prevents FALLS – Feb 2010
• Cochrane review finds that Vitamin D helps prevent FRACTURES – Feb 2010
• Cochrane review finds that Vitamin D prevents falls in nursing homes – Feb 2010
• Only vitamin D helped prevent falls after stroke – July 2010
• Vitamin D 2nd most recommended way to prevent hip fracture - Nov 2010.PDF Canada
• Fraser Health giving 20000 IU vitamin D weekly to reduce falls – Nov 2011
• Those who were 80 had better cognition and standing if higher level of vitamin D – Sept 2012

Seniors and Fraility

• Muscle increased 17 percent in vitamin D insufficient elderly getting 4,000 IU for 4 months – RCT Oct 2013
• Frailty Call to Action: Vitamin D is one of the action items – June 2013
• CLICK HERE to use Google to search this site - 152 items as of Jan 2015
• Frailty and Vitamin D – with influence diagram Miller Oct 2010
• Elderly with less than 15 ng were 3.7X more frail – May 2010
• 80 percent of the characteristics of frailty associated with low vitamin D – May 2013
• Physical performance of seniors increases with vitamin D up to 30 ng – Jan 2013
• Seniors with higher vitamin D levels have better physical performance – Sept 2012
• Vertigo treated by Vitamin D - many studies
• Seniors with less than 12 ng of vitamin D were not stable – March 2012
• 4.7X less likely to feed self in nursing home if vitamin D deficient – Oct 2013
• Elderly lost extra half pound of leg and arm muscle mass if low vitamin D (6 years) – Oct 2014

Seniors and Cognition

• Overview: Cognitive decline and vitamin D includes Dementia and Alzheimer's
• Influence diagram for vitamin D and cognition - 2008
• Vitamin D less than 10ng associated with cognitive decline – July 2010
• Do Vitamin D Deficiency and Cognitive Decline Go Hand-in-Hand? – Jan 2010
• Low Vitamin D Levels Associated With Increased Risk for Cognitive Impairment - July 2010
• Elderly with more than 257 IU vitamin D daily had less cognitive impairment – Nov 2010
• Cognitive impairment 4X more likely when vitamin D less than 10 ng – Nov 2010

Seniors and Depression

• Senior women with less than 20 ng vitamin D were 2X more likely to become depressed May 2010
• Seniors with less than 10 ng of vitamin D had depressive symptoms – July 2010
• Elderly men lacking vitamin D tend to be depressed – Sept 2010
• Hypothesis lack of vitamin D leads to depression leads to alcohol use

Breathing
Also many papers showing that Vitamin D greatly decreases winter flu and colds
– which occur at the time that vitamin D blood levels are lowest. (4+ months away from time in the sun)
Dosing CLICK HERE for Overview How much D__
Some Doctors are starting with very high single doses to stop being deficient as soon as possible
Try a small dose first. I am concerned that this does not allow for possible reactions to vitamin D which can be tested by taking a much smaller amount for a week or so. Only a tiny fraction of the population is allergic to vitamin D3, but I feel that it is better to check first before plunging in.
Consider using vitamin D before surgery.
A variety of studies show D3 does not work much below 1200 IU / day, perhaps even less for D2
Some studies show that vitamin D thwarted by vitamin A

• Diagnosis and management of vitamin D deficiency (10,000 IU) - BMJ Jan 2010 (file)
• Increase vit D 50% in blood when take with largest meal
• Dr Oz: recommends 50ng/ml
• Vitamin D level from primates thru 4000 IU (file)
• Vitamin D repletion 5000 IU daily for seniors May 2010
• Scientists call for vitamin D action 2000 IU and more than 40 ng – 2008
• Vitamin D and health status in elderly - June 2010.pdf

Loading Dose = how much to start with to recharge = Stoss Therapy

• Loading dose of 5000 IU for elderly - Whiting 2010.pdf
• 600,000 IU vitamin D normalized virtually all seniors in 3 months – May 2012
• Formula for vitamin D loading dose – April 2010
• Vitamin D Dosing and loading- Pizzorno ND Feb 2010.pdf
• Variety of vitamin D loading dose recommendations in the UK

Supplements
Should take bone supplement along with Vitamin D – but only 500 to 750 milligrams of Calcium– see supplements section and graph
Category Supplementing D    Calcium    Magnesium
Cancer
OK to take vitamin D when have Cancers – seems to even help prevent some cancers. Might treat a few.– see Cancer file gallery

• Is vitamin D the only supplement which consistently helps cancer survivors – Aug 2010
• Vitamin D use with chemotherapy – July 2010

Some other files of interest

• All items in category Seniors and Vitamin D 393 items
• 4700 IU of vitamin D needed by most seniors – an equation -July 2014
• Essential nutrient requirements of the elderly (vitamin D, etc.) – June 2014
• Intestines need more vitamin D as you age – June 2012
• Seniors, like everyone else, need vitamin D but should avoid sunburns – 2011
• Half of the seniors needed more than 50,000 IU vitamin D3 monthly – April 2011
• Elderly often trapped in vitamin D vicious circles
• Drugs which create a vitamin D deficiency
• Table of outcomes for seniors vs vitamin D level
• Vitamin D might reduce having to go to pee in the middle of the night
• Elderly sunbathe less - 2009
• Elderly and vitamin D interactions
• Why is the world experiencing a vitamin D epidemic
• Ways to reduce muscle loss by elderly include increasing vitamin D - 2010.pdf
• How elderly can remember to take vitamin D weekly
• Overview Vitamin D3 better than D2 some multivitamins still use D2
• Very few people have an allergic reaction to Vitamin D start slowly so as to check for allergies

Diabetes

• Overview Diabetes and D
• Diabetes category 523 items
• Diabetes - video and books
• Diabetics are 2X more likely to die if severely vitamin D deficient
• Diabetes Statistics (file)
• 4000 IU for 10 years - safe and resulted in less diabetes (file)
• Chart of diabetes vs latitude
• Diabetes 2X less likely for those with median 34 ng of vitamin D – Sept 2010
• You Can Reverse PreDiabetes – Nov 2009
• To reduce diabetes probably need vitamin D - Review July 2010.pdf
• Review Diabetes and vitamin D - Sept 2010.pdf
• Single dose 100000 or 20000 IU and diabetes - June 2010.pdf

Mortality and D

• Vit D deficiency best prediction of death in hospital
• US Mortality and vit D (file)
• All Cause Mortality big improvement from 15 to 27 ng - Heaney chart 2010 (file)
• Higher vit D associated with 5 year longer teleomere (file)
• Recommend 2500-4000 IU per day to reduce all-cause mortality by 18%– Grant Netherlands April 2010
• Swedish elderly with more than 40 ng had higher death rates – Aug 2010 - perhaps cod liver oil
• Women very low on vitamin D 56 percent more likely to die in nursing home – Feb 2012

Far less likely to die when vitamin D blood level is greater than 27 ng/ml - Heaney May 2010

Upper Limit and Toxicity
Overview Toxicity

• Can You Overdose on Vitamin D - It's Harder Than You Think
• Toxicity of vitamin D 300 ng but selected 100 ng to be prudent – Aug 2008

Clinical trials as of Sept 2010 - shows the dose size being tested now

Potential Elderly interactions with vitamin D

CLICK HERE for the Vitamin D Deficiencies page - which has a more complete chart for all people

Half of seniors did not respond to 1600 IU of vitamin D daily for a year

RED square = reduction in serum level

from slide presentation: https://www.vitamindwiki.com/tiki-index.php?page_id=2269

See also Web

• Search the Journal Age and Ageing for Vitamin D 358 items as of May 2012
  Why do geriatric outpatients have so many moderate and severe vertebral fractures? Exploring prevalence and risk factors - 2012
  Editor's Choice: Frailty in the older surgical patient: a review - 2012
  Seasonal variation of serum vitamin D and the effect of vitamin D supplementation in Irish community-dwelling older people - 2011
  Prevention and treatment of vitamin D deficiency in Dutch psychogeriatric nursing home residents by weekly half-body UVB exposure after showering: a pilot study - 2011
  Here comes the sun: good news for bone health! - 2011
  Diabetes, falls and fractures - 2010
  Declining hip fracture rates in the United States - 2010
• 1700 IU daily average did not help seniors Phd dissertation 2012
• Billions of people over age 60 Kurzweilai July 2014
  
• Everything You Need To Know About Senior Isolation 2022
• Social isolation increases the risk of premature death.
• The risk of heart disease increases by 29 percent among seniors that experience social isolation.
• Socially isolated seniors are 32 percent more likely to experience a stroke.
• The proportion of people above the age of 50 who indicated they often or sometimes feel isolated grew from 27 percent in 2018 to 56 percent at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

See also Metaformin

• Big pharma is trying to get the FDA to approve ageing as a disease which can be treated by Metaformin - May 2017
  "The TAME Study (Targeting Aging With Metformin) began in 2016, aiming to enroll 3,000 seniors, ages 70 - 80, and study them for 5 - 7 years at 15 centers across the U.S. Study subjects can have or be at risk for any or all of 3 common aging conditions: cancer, heart disease, and dementia."
• There is no Vitamin D industry to pay for the tests and lobbying needed to show that Vitamin D is far better than Metaformin
• {https://www.vitamindwiki.com/Search+Results?hl=en&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&btnG=Google+Search&googles.x=0&googles.y=0&q=metaformin&domains=vitamindwiki.com&sitesearch=vitamindwiki.com|Search VitaminDWiki for Metaformin] 80 hits as of May 2017 - which include
  ‘Cracking the Aging Code' with vitamin D, Metformin, etc. Book June 2016

short URL = http://tinyurl.com/SeniorD