已知增补维生素Ｄ有利于预防佝偻病和骨质疏松，但近年来的研究进一步证明“维生素Ｄ缺乏（Vitamin D deficiency）者易患高血压、糖尿病、冠心病，甚至某些癌症”。因此，有学者建议应常规监测人们之血清维生素Ｄ水平，若其水平低于30毫微克/毫升（30　nanograms per milliliter），即应通过膳食（鱼、蛋和牛奶等）或保健品增补，以达到正常水平。另外，亦有专家建议“血清维生素Ｄ水平较低的成人每天应增补1000～2000国际单位（international units）的维生素Ｄ”，以利于降低因维生素Ｄ缺乏导致的各种疾病而延年益寿。最后，需要说明的是“曾经被广泛推荐为增补维生素Ｄ的方法，即日光浴，并不能够有效地保障人们的血清维生素Ｄ水平处于正常水平，因为需要达到这一效果之先决条件是“每人每天必须全裸日光浴至少20分钟”，显然这一条件对绝大多数人而言“是难以满足的”，更何况并非每天都是艳阳天，加之过度的日光浴不仅老化皮肤，亦可增加皮肤癌和白内障的发生率，故以日光浴的方法增补维生素Ｄ即不可行，也不安全。更多资讯，请参阅原文。

Low vitamin D linked to heart disease, death

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In people with low blood levels of vitamin D, boosting them with supplements more than halved a person's risk of dying from any cause compared to someone who remained deficient, in a large new study.

Analyzing data on more than 10,000 patients, University of Kansas researchers found that 70 percent were deficient in vitamin D and they were at significantly higher risk for a variety of heart diseases.

D-deficiency also nearly doubled a person's likelihood of dying, whereas correcting the deficiency with supplements lowered their risk of death by 60 percent.

"We expected to see that there was a relationship between heart disease and vitamin D deficiency; we were surprised at how strong it was," Dr. James L. Vacek, a professor of cardiology at the University of Kansas Hospital and Medical Center, told Reuters Health.

"It was so much more profound than we expected."

Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to a range of illnesses, but few studies have demonstrated the reverse -- that supplements could prevent those outcomes.

Vacek and his team reviewed data from 10,899 adults whose vitamin D serum levels had been tested at the University of Kansas Hospital, and found that more than 70 percent of the patients were below 30 nanograms per milliliter, the level many experts consider sufficient for good health.

After taking into account the patients' medical history, medications and other factors, the cardiologists found that people with deficient levels of vitamin D were more than twice as likely to have diabetes, 40 percent more likely to have high blood pressure and about 30 percent more likely to suffer from cardiomyopathy -- a diseased heart muscle -- as people without D deficiency.

Overall, those who were deficient in D had a three-fold higher likelihood of dying from any cause than those who weren't deficient, the researchers reported in the American Journal of Cardiology. Moreover, when the team looked at people who took vitamin D supplements, their risk of death from any cause was about 60 percent lower than the rest of the patients, although the effect was strongest among those who were vitamin D deficient at the time they were tested.

The study does not prove that vitamin D is the cause of the effects seen -- other factors, like disease, could be responsible both for the differences in health and the differences in vitamin D levels, for instance.

Previous research has indicated that many Americans don't have sufficient levels of vitamin D, however. The latest National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey estimated that 25 percent to 57 percent of adults have insufficient levels of D, and other studies have suggested the number is as high as 70 percent.

Vacek said he believes so many people are deficient because we should get about 90 percent of our Vitamin D from the sun and only about 10 percent from our food. The human body makes vitamin D in response to skin exposure to sunlight.

Certain foods, like oily fish, eggs and enriched milk products are also good sources of D. A sufficient amount of Vitamin D absorption from the sun would require at least 20 minutes of full-body exposure each day in warmer seasons, and most people aren't outside enough, Vacek said.

In the northern United States and throughout Canada, experts say the sun isn't strong enough during the winter months to make sufficient vitamin D, even if the weather was warm enough to expose the skin for a long time.

It means that adults should consider getting their Vitamin D levels checked through a simple blood test, Vacek said, and take vitamin D supplements. Generally, Vacek recommends that adults take between 1,000 to 2,000 international units (IU) of Vitamin D each day.

"If you're not deficient, Vitamin D is not a magic pill that will make you live longer," Vacek said.

"Its benefit is in people who are deficient. If you're low, it makes sense to be put on replacement therapy and have a follow-up a couple months later to make sure your levels come up."

SOURCE: http://1.usa.gov/v61Owu