Vitamin D News – August  2010

Dear All,

Following the positive responses to the first Vitamin D Newsletter in June 2010, we would like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who provided input and suggestions, we welcome these and please continue. To continue our effort to provide information on Vitamin D deficiency activities and research, please find herewith an update on a number of developments in the field. In this issue we highlight: recent comments on the importance of Vitamin D by the new WHO Regional Director for Europe, upcoming events in The Netherlands and Germany relating to Vitamin D and nutrition, the latest academic research on Vitamin D intake and deficiency as well as an interesting radio programme on food fortification broadcast on the BBC .

Call for Action Developments
The host of our Brussels conference, Hungarian MEP Janos  Áder, has taken contact on the issue of Vitamin D deficiency with the World Health Organisation’s Regional Director for Europe, Ms. Zsuzsanna Jakab. In a response to the MEP she stated that the WHO considers that Vitamin D deficiency is “an important health issue” and one to which the WHO is pleased to lend its support. She was particularly pleased to hear about the CALL TO ACTION event in the European Parliament in March (2010).  On behalf of Mr. Áder we will follow-up with Ms. Jakab and her colleagues in the coming months and will keep you up to date on developments in this regard.

We are also pleased to announce the establishment of a Vitamin D Newsblog (http://vitdnews.wordpress.com/), which will work in tandem with our website (http://www.pa-international.org/Vitamin-D.htm) to provide a platform for dissemination of information and news regarding the latest developments on Vitamin D deficiency. It is our desire that this resource will become an additional information hub for the Vitamin D community in the future – if you would like your blog or website linked to the blog please let us know.

Upcoming Events
On 3-4 September this year, the fifth meeting on Advanced Clinical Nutrition is due to take place in The Hague, The Netherlands, organised by the European Laboratory of Nutrients. Vitamin D and micronutrient deficiency will feature prominently on the agenda. If you wish to know more about this event, please see the organiser’s website for the conference programme and for registration: http://www.europeanlaboratory.com/.

Prof. Dr. Jörg Spitz of the German Institute for Medicinal Information and Prevention is currently organising a Vitamin D conference in Berlin in spring of next year (2011) for medical practitioners – which will be presided over by Prof. Reichrath from the University of Homburg/Saar, one of the leading experts on Vitamin D in Germany. In tandem with this conference, Prof. Dr. Spitz intends to host an event for non-experts, where a number of the speakers from the scientific conference will present their latest views and findings.

Listen to the BBC Food Programme
Broadcast on Sunday 1st August, BBC Radio 4’s Food Programme discussed whether in view of the mounting evidence, we should be consuming more Vitamin D. The programme is available on their website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t66nr. The programme has contributions from a number of renowned Vitamin D experts including Professor Reinhold Vieth, Professor Sue Lanham-New and Dr. Oliver Gillie. Dr. Ann Prentice, the newly appointed Chair of the UK’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) also contributes and talks about the forthcoming review of Vitamin D that her Committee will be undertaking. The programme challenges the current fortification policy in the UK and elsewhere and suggests that industry is “missing a trick” by not voluntarily fortifying more foods with Vitamin D, especially since they can make health claims if they do.

Current Research
A group of 23 Polish experts led by Prof. Anna  Dobrzańska have recently released their recommendations for Vitamin D intake. The publication is targeted at doctors and for that purpose is currently being distributed to the relevant Polish medical journals. These experts recommend the following supplementation levels: for healthy children, the daily intake should be 400 International Units (IU) and for children suffering from obesity 800-1000 IU; adults are recommended to take 800-1000 IU daily. The indicator organism in the supply of Vitamin D is the concentration 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels (25-OHD). Optimal concentration in children is 20-60 ng/ml (50-150 nmol/l) and in adults from 30 to 80 ng/ml (75-200 nmol /l). If you would like more information on this publication please contact us at vitaminD@pa-international.org.

On a related note, the first issue of the newly re-established scientific journal Public Health Reviews contains a number of articles that are of interest as they deal with nutrient deficiencies, including Vitamin D. We would in particular recommend an article on Vitamin D deficiency entitled “The Vitamin D Deficiency Pandemic: a Forgotten Hormone Important for Health” by Michael F. Holick,  Professor of Medicine at Tufts University in Boston. The articles are freely available to download at the journal’s website: http://www.publichealthreviews.eu/.

If you have a Vitamin D story that you would like to share, let us know and we will circulate it through our dedicated “D” network – 1000+ concerned scientists, doctors, politicians, patients, industry and media which is constantly expanding.

Best regards,
The Vitamin D Team
Public Advice International Foundation