Vitamin D intake and status in Irish postmenopausal women

Abstract

Suboptimal vitamin D status is common in postmenopausal Irish women during winter. Vitamin D supplementation is associated with improved vitamin D status, even during summertime.

Determinants of vitamin D status in adult Crohn's disease patients, with particular emphasis on supplemental vitamin D use

“…In comparison to other healthy Irish population subgroups, which had winter-time serum 25 (OH) D levels assessed the same year and by the same analytical technique for serum 25 (OH) D, the CD patients had relatively similar mean serum 25 (OH) D levels compared to those of 50-to 70-year-old women (mean (s.d. ): 68.6 (34.9), n ¼ 47; Hill et al, 2005a) and 39-to 64-year-old men (mean (s.d. ); 58.8 (22.4), n ¼ 36; Doyle et al, 2005).…”

“…However, in addition to these pathophysiologic factors, other physiological and behavioural factors, which have been shown to be determinants of serum 25 (OH) D levels in healthy adults, may also influence vitamin D status in CD patients. These include age, gender, race, body mass index (BMI), smoking, sunshine habits, Ca intake and vitamin D supplementation (Holick, 1995;Hill et al, 2005b). No previous study has considered the relative importance of pathophysiologic and nonpathophysiologic factors as determinants of vitamin D status in CD patients and how their relative importance may be modulated by season.…”

“…Poor vitamin D status is common in healthy Irish adults as well as in adults from several other European countries, especially during winter-time (Doyle et al, 2005;Hill et al, 2005a, for a review, see Ovesen et al, 2003). Vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency is also common in patients with Crohn's disease (CD) (Driscoll et al, 1982;Harries et al, 1985;Haderslev et al, 2003), with some suggesting it as one of the commonest nutritional complications in CD patients (Tajika et al, 2004).…”

Seasonal variation of serum vitamin D and the effect of vitamin D supplementation in Irish community-dwelling older people

“…Previous small Irish studies reported winter as a significant negative predictor of serum 25(OH)D [17,18]. Studies by Hill et al [16,19] in free-living postmenopausal women showed significantly higher values of serum 25(OH)D during summer than winter.…”

“…The intake of vitamin D supplements has been associated with decreases in total mortality rates [12], and in line with international recommendations [13], the Irish public health authorities encourage the uptake by older people of regular vitamin D (and calcium) supplementation [14]. Previous Irish studies suggested that exogenous vitamin D supplementation plays an important role in the prevention of vitamin D deficiency in older people [15,16].…”