Vitamin D deficiency could be a cause of autism

(NaturalNews) A new Danish study published in the journal Pediatrics has identified a link between neonatal jaundice and autism. Babies born with jaundice have a significantly increased risk of developing both general psychological problems and autism, and researchers believe a vitamin D deficiency is to blame. Formed from data on over 733,000 Danish children born between 1994 and 2004, the study revealed that jaundiced newborns are 87 percent more likely to develop a psychological disorder than newborns without jaundice. Jaundiced babies are also 56 percent more likely to develop autism than their otherwise healthy counterparts. Part of the reason why experts believe vitamin D deficiency might relate to autism is the fact that babies born between October and March were about twice as likely to develop autism than children born during other parts of the year. The months between October and March are during the wintertime in Denmark, when sunlight exposure is at a minimum. And besides producing vitamin D in the body, sunlight exposure also breaks down bilirubin, a substance implicated in causing jaundice. Bilirubin is a natural metabolite that the liver normally processes and eliminates, but newborns are incapable of breaking it down, which leads to jaundice. And excess amount of bilirubin are known to cause serious brain injury when left untreated, lending credence to the hypothesis that the chemical may be somehow involved in causing autism. According to Dr. John Cannell, vitamin D expert and director of the Vitamin D Council, prenatal vitamin D deficiency is strongly linked to autism. Vitamin D not only naturally eliminates bilirubin, but it cures neonatal jaundice as well. Dr. Cannell suggests that women take 5,000 IU of vitamin D a day during pregnancy. He also suggests that babies born with jaundice be exposed to natural sunlight as an effective treatment, and in order to avoid brain injuries. You can read more about Dr. Cannell’s research on vitamin D and autism by visiting the following page: http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health/autism/ To learn more about autism, check out the NaturalNews.com autism page: http://www.naturalnews.com/autism.html Sources for this story include: http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Non-food/Disease/neonatal_jaundice_linked_to_autism_1210100720.html

Light treatment clears psoriasis as it boosts vitamin D levels

(NaturalNews) According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) about 7.5 million Americans suffer from the chronic, autoimmune skin disease called psoriasis that causes irritated, flaky and thick patches of red skin; some forms of psoriasis are also associated with joint pain. Most medical treatment for the often painful and quality-of-life robbing disease center around controlling symptoms with medications like cortisone. But now research just published in the August issue of the Archives of Dermatology indicates there’s a non-drug way to clear and maybe cure the disease naturally — exposure to vitamin D boosting UV-B light. Comprising the “tanning rays” from the sun that are blocked by sunscreen and long feared for supposedly causing wrinkles and “age spots”, UV-B light, it turns out, actually promotes health by increasing levels of vitamin D. Now a team of scientists from St. Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, have found that treatment with narrow-band UV-B rays greatly increases serum levels of vitamin D in the wintertime. And they’ve shown how adequate exposure to UV-B light therapy can clear psoriasis. In fact, the new finding is powerful evidence that a lack of the “sunshine” vitamin is involved in the development and worsening of this skin condition. The researchers studied 30 consecutive patients with psoriasis who were treated with narrow-band UV-B light three times per week between October 2008 and February 2009. The research subjects’ psoriasis cleared and their serum vitamin D levels (which were measured before the study, after four weeks of treatment and after the treatment was finished) were compared with those of 30 control patients who also had psoriasis but did not have any UV-B therapy. The researchers also assessed the severity of the patients’ psoriasis symptoms and their skin disease-related quality of life before and after treatment. The results showed that levels of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, which is considered the most accurate measurement of vitamin D levels in the body, had increased significantly among individuals receiving UV-B therapy — rising from about 23 nanograms per milliliter to 59 nanograms per milliliter at the end of treatment. However, there was no change in the control group. “At the end of the study, all patients in the treatment group were vitamin D sufficient, but 75 percent of the control group had vitamin D insufficiency,” the authors wrote in their paper. What’s more, the control group’s skin condition didn’t improve at all. And in the group treated with UV-B light exposure, their psoriasis severity scores decreased dramatically — from 7.1 at the beginning of the study to only 0.5 after light therapy. For more information: http://www.naturalnews.com/Vitamin_D.html www.psoriasis.org

UV-B treatment may improve psoriasis and vitamin D levels

Treatment with narrow-band UV-B rays may increase serum levels of vitamin D in the wintertime while clearing psoriasis, according to a new study.

Dark-skinned immigrants to Canada urged to take vitamin D supplements

(NaturalNews) Canadian doctors and nutritionists are urging dark-skinned immigrants coming to Canada to supplement with vitamin D in order to stay healthy. Many Canadian immigrants have relocated from countries with warmer, sunnier climates, and are exposed to far less natural sunshine in Canada than in their native lands. As a result, many of them have become deficient in vitamin D. Immigrants come to Canada to work, to go to school, and simply to live, but few realize that the change in climate conditions could have devastating effects on their health. Darker-skinned people who come from places that receive more sunlight and are warmer for more months out of the year often have trouble maintaining healthy vitamin D levels in places like Canada that are colder and get less overall sunlight. According to Dr. Kevin Pottie, nearly all of the immigrant and refugee patients he tests have low vitamin D levels, especially during the wintertime when the angle of the sun is at its lowest and the fewest ultraviolet-B (UVB) rays make their way to people’s skin. Reinhold Vieth, a researcher from the University of Toronto, explained in a CBC News interview that the color of a person’s skin actually plays a role in how much vitamin D that person produces when exposed to sunlight. People with lighter skin tend to produce far more vitamin D when exposed to natural sunlight than do those with darker skin. People from countries with lots of natural sunlight and warm climates generally have dark skin, a trait that Vieth believes has developed throughout their ancestries in order to protect them from sun damage. As a result, dark-skinned people must be exposed to far more sunlight than light-skinned people in order to produce the same amount of vitamin D. “Basically, what we’re doing is transplanting people from an area for which their skin is optimized in terms of its color to an area where their skin is often too dark to be healthy,” he explained in an interview. A University of Toronto study co-authored by Vieth found that those of South Asian descent are six times more likely to have vitamin D deficiency than those from European descent. Researchers believe this is due, in part, to a diet that is low in foods containing vitamin D. Many women from these cultures also wear traditional clothing that covers nearly all their skin, limiting their exposure to the sun. Immigrants who generally spent a lot of time outside in their native lands tend to stay indoors in Canada due to the colder weather and harsh winters. As a result, they are more prone to vitamin D deficiency diseases like bone density loss, arthritis, diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis, and even mental illness. The Canadian Cancer Society is recommending that people take 1,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D every day throughout the year in order to maintain good health. Sources for this story include: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/02/12/ottawa-immigrants-vitamin-d.html