Vitamin D & Aging Bones - Health and Fitness | AuthorArticle

Unfortunately, this comes at the expense of the rest of their bodies.

Exercise is very important to the health of your vital organs and your immune system, among other things. Many women find themselves stuck in a vicious circle of wanting to ?keep safe? and needing exercise for good health.

Well, a study out of Perth, Australia, suggests that there?s help for women who find themselves in this predicament. According to the study, elderly women can significantly reduce their risk of falling by supplementing with vitamin D2.

The study involved 302 women aged 70 to 90. All of the women had a previous history of falling. The researchers specifically selected women who had blood-vitamin-D levels that were below average for the area. The women were divided into two groups, with half receiving 1,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D2 daily, while the other half acted as a control group.

After 12 months, 53% of the women in the vitamin-D2 group fell at least once compared to 63% in the control group. Vitamin-D supplementation lowered the risk of at least one fall by 19%.

The same amount of vitamin D plus calcium was associated with a 23% reduction of the risk of falling in winter or spring.1

The researchers added that although vitamin D2 reduced the risk of experiencing one fall, it did not appear to have the same beneficial effect when it came to multiple falls. Lead researcher Dr. Richard L. Prince suggested that this may be because elderly people who fall frequently are likely to have more risk factors for falling, such as a disability or poor physical health.

Could Reduce Risk of MS

Vitamin D isn?t just good for preventing falls?it may help protect against Multiple Sclerosis (MS), too. MS is a disorder of the central nervous system. When you have the condition, your brain and spinal cord are affected.

Normally, nerve cells are surrounded by an insulating layer called ?myelin.? Myelin is a fatty substance that helps transmit nerve impulses. When you have MS, the myelin sheath is inflamed or damaged. This slows or completely disrupts the transmission of nerve impulses, leaving areas of scarring called ?sclerosis.?

When the nerve signals are disrupted, you could experience a number of symptoms, the most common of which are blurred or double vision, tingling in the limbs, loss of balance and coordination and tremors. MS attacks typically come and go in episodes, with relapses alternating with remissions.

Diet is thought to play a key role in the development of MS. Medical researchers point to the fact that MS is fairly common in the U.S. and Europe and almost unheard of in countries such as Japan, Korea and China. The average U.S. diet is high in saturated fats, cholesterol and alcohol. According to the researchers, these and other nutritional ?bad guys? lead to the production of something called ?prostaglandin 2? (PG2), which is a hormone-like substance that promotes an inflammatory response. In turn, inflammation worsens the symptoms of MS.

By contrast, in Asian countries, people typically consume much less fat than their American counterparts. Their diets tend to be high in foods that contain omega-3s and other essential fatty acids. Omega-3s are known to prevent inflammation.

Deficiency Linked to MS

Vitamin-D deficiency has also been linked to an increased risk for the symptoms of MS. In a clinical trial that was performed at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, researchers examined whether levels of vitamin D were associated with the risk of contracting MS.

The researchers did a massive data review of more than 7.0 million U.S. military personnel who had blood samples stored in the Department of Defense Serum Repository. MS cases were identified through Army and Navy databases from the years 1992 through 2004. The researchers matched each of the 257 cases to two controls. Vitamin-D status was then evaluated by reviewing serum samples that were collected before the date of initial MS symptoms.

The research group found that among whites, the risk of MS significantly decreased with increasing levels of vitamin D. The researchers concluded that higher levels of vitamin D were associated with a lower risk of MS.2

Many people with MS have been statistically found to have poor diets prior to the onset of the disease. Allergies to gluten and dairy have been suspected of playing a role in the progression of MS too.

Whatever the real cause of MS is, it is obviously important to eat a healthy, balanced diet and to avoid harmful chemicals and pollutants as much as possible. This is especially true if you have a family member who is already suffering from the condition.

Get Vitamin D from the Sun

Sunlight helps your body produce vitamin D. Vitamin D helps you maintain normal blood levels of calcium and phosphorus. Without good levels of vitamin D, you can?t absorb calcium, which is needed to form and maintain strong bones.

Benefits Sun Greater Than Risks

Scientists at the Institute for Cancer Research in Oslo, Norway, have found that the health benefits from sun exposure are far greater than the risks. According to a new study, modest sun exposure gives enormous vitamin-D benefits.

Researchers looked at sun exposure and vitamin-D levels in peoples from different latitudes. They calculated that given the same amount of time spent outside, those living near the equator in Australia produced 3.4 times more vitamin D than people in Britain did. They produced 4.8 times more than those in Scandinavia.

The researchers used these percentages to determine that people in sunnier latitudes were less likely to die from cancer?even though cancer rates actually climb from north to south.3

To cite an example of how the numbers work, lead researcher Johan Moan put it this way: In Norway, it is estimated that doubling the sun exposure for the general population would also double the number of annual skin-cancer deaths to about 300. However?and here?s the important part?3,000 fewer people would die from other cancers. ?The benefits could be significant for people in other countries as well,? Moan said. In fact, he would be quite surprised if they were different.

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