Vitamin D deficiency linked to yet another disease: Rheumatoid arthritis

Sunday, February 24, 2013 by: PF Louis
Tags: vitamin D deficiency, rheumatoid arthritis, bones

(NaturalNews) It appears that vitamin D3 undergoes more testing than any other vitamin, even though it isn't a vitamin. It's a hormonal precursor that activates several different metabolic functions throughout the body.

Bonding calcium into bone is only one of many others. It's always mentioned in mainstream medicine's explanations because they tend to be conservative about vitamin D3's wonders, or they don't want too many benefits revealed.

Nevertheless, clinical trials and tests are carried out often internationally to determine what health issues result from vitamin D3 deficiency or what diseases may be prevented with sufficient vitamin D3.

Rickets, a weakening of bone matter that is on the rise again, has been traditionally recognized as a major result of vitamin D deficiency. That's why it was added to milk products with vitamin D2 years ago. And D2 isn't too good.

Holistic MDs, naturopaths, and chiropractors in the U.S. have come to recognize many more negative health outcomes of vitamin D3 deficiency as well as determining the vitamin D3 blood levels needed to help protect people's health from disease.

A recent Danish trial has looked into what levels of vitamin D3 are associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a debilitating inflammatory autoimmune disease that plagues many throughout the world.

The Danish D3 arthritis trial summary

The recent Danish trial simply examined the serum (blood) D3 levels of 302 existing RA patients. However, what was considered normal serum levels using the standard 25(OH)D3 test was low to begin with.

The researchers chose 50 nmol/l (nanomols per liter) as normal. That converts to 20 ng/ml (nanograms per milliliter). This is an antiquated medical normal level, which has been upgraded to 30 ng/ml among many even in mainstream medicine.

Independent, iconoclastic MDs, other holistic practitioners, and up to date vitamin D3 researchers consider at least 30 ng/ml to be normal. Many insist 50 to 80 ng/ml is optimum for resisting disease while 80 to 100 ng/ml is appropriate short-term for reversing disease symptoms. Beyond 100 ng/ml for some time flirts with toxicity.

Of the 302 RA Danish patients, 101 had below their established normal range, which by more recently established standards is actually already low. Those whose 25(OH)D3 serum levels were even lower at 15 nmol/liter or six ng/ml (yikes!) exhibited the worst levels of RA markers with three or more RA medications.

This trial was published and recorded in PubMed.org in January 2013 as "Severe deficiency of 25-hydroxyvitamin D(3) (25-OH-D (3)) is associated with high disease activity of rheumatoid arthritis."

A humble health writer's opinion

The study text parses with markers in RA patients that question the overall association with vitamin D3 deficiency to moderate RA, forcing them to conclude that only massive D3 deficiency causes rheumatoid arthritis.

But all 302 subjects had some level of RA. And the chosen D3 serum normal standard of 50 nmol/l equals a mere 20 ng/ml. This is significantly below most others' normal of 30 ng/ml, and much lower than the optimum level of 50 ng/ml chosen for resisting disease.

In other words, most or all the renaming 200 patients who had normal or close to normal D3 blood levels by their standards were actually below normal. Their study incorrectly implies that you'll suffer from RA even with normal D3 blood levels.

According to vitamin D3 experts, many health issues can be prevented by keeping your serum D3 level closer to 50 ng/ml.

This can be accomplished with lots of sunlight or UVB tanning bed skin exposure and/or supplementing high doses of D3 cholecalciferol capsules while monitoring with 25(OH)D3 testing from a health practitioner or from a local or online lab. A high range involves 4,000-10,000 IU (international units) or more daily.

Adopting a healthy lifestyle and diet is also necessary. Find out more using Natural News search window at the top right of the main page.

Sources for this article include:

PubMed report http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Updated USA medical vitamin D3 standards http://www.onlinemedinfo.com/test_for_vitamin_d.html