VITAMIN D – IN THE LIMELIGHT AGAIN

Lat­est re­search in­di­cates that vi­t­a­min D is not only im­por­tant in the de­vel­op­ment and pro­tec­tion of bones and teeth – it can also have a role to play in pre­vent­ing cer­tain types of can­cer and other chronic dis­eases.

Health ex­perts now even go as far as to rec­om­mend the re-in­tro­duc­tion of ad­di­tional vi­t­a­min D sup­ple­ments for cer­tain risk groups. This in­cludes in­fants that are nour­ished by breast­feed­ing alone, as breast milk often lacks suf­fi­cient vi­t­a­min D.

A new study from Switzer­land* is mak­ing waves. It re­veals that, even in the sum­mer­time, 90% of Swiss GP pa­tients have too lit­tle vi­t­a­min D in their sys­tem to pro­vide the ideal pro­tec­tion against frac­tures and in­juries from falls.

Vi­t­a­min D is formed in the skin with the help of UV solar ra­di­a­tion. Be­cause these rays can cause can­cer the best pro­tec­tion is to apply a good sun pro­tec­tor. Un­for­tu­nately sun creams with a pro­tec­tion fac­tor greater than 8 con­sid­er­ably re­duce the nat­ural vi­t­a­min D for­ma­tion. The Swiss Fed­eral Of­fice of Pub­lic Health (FOPH) there­fore speaks in terms of a bal­anc­ing act be­tween en­sur­ing that the skin is not ex­posed to too much sun whilst avoid­ing a de­fi­ciency in vi­t­a­min D**.

The re­search team, com­pris­ing four gen­eral prac­ti­tion­ers, re­ceived the Col­lege of Pri­mary Care Med­i­cine re­search prize for 2013 for its work. For more in­for­ma­tion on this award-win­ning re­search study, see: www.khm-kongress.ch/khm2013/presse.

The WHO is still un­de­cided about the pre­cise ideal daily dosage of vi­t­a­min D and has yet to make any in­ter­na­tion­ally-ap­plic­a­ble rec­om­men­da­tions. These there­fore vary from coun­try to coun­try.

*Christoph Merlo, Constance Ross, Michael Trummler, Andreas Zeller. Prävalenz und Symptomatik des Vitamin-D-Mangels in der Hausartzpraxis (Prevalence and symptoms of vitamin D deficiency in primary care medicine.) College of Primary Care Medicine research price for primary care medicine 2013, College of Primary Care Medicine.

**Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) Vitamin D und Sonnenstrahlung (Vitamin D and solar radiation). www.bag.admin.ch/uv_strahlung/