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[Michaelangelica]

Vitamin D on the news last night.
Minister for Health talking about it
Good Grief The world has gone Vitamin D mad
Finally catching up with me!

Last Update: Sunday, June 17, 2007. 10:45pm (AEST)
Aussies issued vitamin D guidelines

The Cancer Council has issued new guidelines to tell Australians how much sunlight they need to avoid vitamin D deficiency without increasing their risk of skin cancer.

New data shows many Australians are deliberately seeking sun exposure without protection because they are worried about vitamin D.

The Cancer Council says fair-skinned people can maintain adequate vitamin D levels in summer from a few minutes of exposure to sunlight on their hands, arms and face on either side of the peak UV index periods.

In winter, when UV radiation levels are less intense, people need about two or three hours of sunlight to the hands, arms or face over a week.

Those most at risk of a vitamin D deficiency are naturally dark-skinned people, who need more UV exposure.

People who cover their skin for cultural reasons and those who are housebound or in institutional care also face a high risk of deficiency.

Low vitamin D linked to increased CV risk factors

June 15, 2007 Shelley Wood

Los Angeles, CA - Adults with low serum levels of vitamin D are more likely to have hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and high triglycerides than are adults with higher vitamin-D levels, an analysis of the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) shows[1]. Authors of the new analysis say their findings add to growing evidence suggesting it may be time to revisit public-health recommendations for vitamin-D intake.

"There's been more and more evidence that vitamin D is involved in a variety of bodily functions, including heart health," senior author on the study, Dr Keith Norris (Charles R Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA), told heartwire. Current recommendations—ranging from 400 to 800 units in healthy adults to 1200 units in women with osteoporosis—are based on the relationship between vitamin D and parathyroid function for calcium regulation, he explained. "The recommended level of serum vitamin D is the level at which the parathyroid level does not become hyperactive, but we now know that vitamin D affects not only the parathyroid gland, but all these other systems in the body, and it appears we need even higher levels to have a positive effect on these other systems," he said.

The study appears in the June 14, 2007 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Vitamin and Supplements > Health Benefits Of Vitamin D
Run on vitamin D after study

Run on vitamin D after study
Andy Riga, CanWest News Service; Montreal Gazette
Published: Monday, June 18, 2007

MONTREAL - The Jean Coutu pharmacy in Montreal is a long way from the bucolic cornfields of Nebraska. A simple little pill is what they have in common.

The drugstore's vitamin D supply ran dry after the release of a small but groundbreaking study last week involving 1,179 white, older Nebraskan women. It found the vitamin can dramatically cut the risk of cancer.

The run on vitamin D reported in Canadian pharmacies - after the Canadian Cancer Society, reacting to the study, recommended all adults consider taking the supplement - is just the first ramification of a report that may profoundly affect efforts to prevent cancer.

In the wake of the Nebraska study, researchers are scrambling to organize an international meeting later this year to make a plan on how to best exploit recent vitamin D discoveries.

Modified mushrooms may yield human drugs
Mushrooms might serve as bio-factories for the production of various beneficial human drugs, according to plant pathologists who have inserted new genes into mushrooms.
Modified mushrooms may yield human drugs