PRESS RELEASE
PROFESSOR HOLICK WARNS OF WIDESPREAD DEATH FROM VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY
February 9, 2004
The Vitamin D Council
9100 San
Gregorio Road
Atascadero, CA 93422
805 462-8129
http://www.cholecalciferol-council.com
jjcannell@xxxxxxxxxxx
PROFESSOR MICHAEL HOLICK'S DIRE WARNING
If you pick up Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine to refresh your knowledge of vitamin D, chances are Michael F. Holick will be the author you'll read. He has written the relevant chapters in Harrison's for the last 20 years. What will he be saying in the 16th edition, due out next year? One way to find out is to read what Professor Holick is writing now.
Michael Holick, MD, PhD, a full Professor of Medicine, Dermatology, Biophysics and Physiology at Boston University, is one of the world's foremost authorities on vitamin D, especially its clinical uses. Dr. Holick is on numerous editorial boards, has published more than 400 articles, reviews or chapters; including chapters in the last six editions of Harrison's . Now he has written the first book about vitamin D for the general reader, The UV Advantage .
In The UV Advantage , Holick issues some dire warnings. He warns repeatedly that inadequate vitamin D levels, caused by an irrational fear of sunlight, is causing tens of thousands of Americans to die preventable deaths every year. For example, Holick cites epidemiological studies showing about 27,500 American women die prematurely every year from breast cancer caused by vitamin D deficiency, many more than the 500 women who die every year from non-melanoma skin cancer. He then calculates that 55 American women die prematurely every year from breast cancer caused by underexposure to sunlight for every one woman who dies prematurely from overexposure to sunlight (non-melanoma skin cancer).
The statistics on prostate cancer and vitamin D deficiency are even worse. Holick writes, "37,000 men die prematurely each year from prostate cancer. It's possible to conclude that 55 to 60 men die prematurely from underexposure to sunlight for every one that dies prematurely due to overexposure." Similar studies show you are three times less likely to die of colon cancer if you have healthy levels of 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (20 ng/ml or more).
However, the lists of disease associated with vitamin D deficiency include
more than just 13 varieties of internal cancers. Hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular
disease, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic pain and inflammatory bowel disease
are also on the list, not just osteoporosis. Vitamin D in preventive medicine: are we ignoring the
evidence?
Again, it is important to remember that association is not the same as causation. Cure-alls of the month come with a bang but fade with a whimper. We urgently need more grants to fund basic vitamin D research. Physicians need good science, but how long can clinicians wait before they start diagnosing and treating vitamin D deficiency?
A sea change is just beginning among scientists and clinicians concerning vitamin D and the diseases associated with its deficiency. Remember, Reinhold Vieth's seminal 1999 paper started this revolution. It was Vieth who first pointed out the truth about the physiology and pharmacology of vitamin D, especially the hysteria surrounding its toxicity. Vitamin D supplementation, 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations, and safety.
Without adequate safe sun-exposure, the only way to measure vitamin D adequacy (and prevent toxicity when prescribing vitamin D) is to measure 25-hydroxy-vitamin D levels. In 2003, Professor Holick wrote, "it is truly amazing that in the 21st century with all of the advances of modern medicine, that vitamin D deficiency has made resurgence not only in breast fed infants, but also in young, middle aged, and older adults. Vitamin D deficiency and its consequences are extremely subtle, but have enormous implications for human health and disease. It is for this reason that vitamin D deficiency continues to go unrecognized by a majority of health care professionals. There needs to be a program to educate the public at large that not only should they be caring about their cholesterol levels, but they should also be aware of their vitamin D status." Vitamin D: A millenium perspective.
Should physicians start diagnosing and treating vitamin D deficiency now or should we wait? Should we wait until we can read about it in the 16th edition of Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine ? How long will the American Trial Lawyers Association wait?
THE VITAMIN D SCIENTISTS LISTED BELOW ARE WRITING AND SPEAKING OUT ABOUT THE PROBLEM OF VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY. ALL ARE WILLING TO SPEAK WITH THE PRESS. NONE ARE MEMBERS OF THE VITAMIN D COUNCIL.
William Grant, PhD
(Epidemiology)
12 Sir Francis Wyatt Place
Newport News, VA
23606-3660
Phone: (757) 599-9811
Email: wbgrant@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Robert Heaney,
MD
Osteoporosis Research Center
Department of Medicine
Creighton University Medical
Center
Omaha, NE 68131
Phone: (402) 280-4029
Email: rheaney@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Michael Holick, PhD,
MD
Vitamin D Laboratory
Department of Medicine
Boston University Medical Center
715
Albany St. M-1022
Boston, MA 02118
Phone (617) 638-4545
Fax 617-638-8882
Email: mfholick@xxxxxx
Bruce Hollis, PhD
Departments of
Pediatrics
Medical University of South Carolina
171 Ashley Ave.
Charleston, SC
29425
Phone (843) 792-6854
Fax (843)792-8801
Email: Hollisb@xxxxxxxx
Christel Lamberg-Allardt,
PhD
University of Helsinki,
Department of Applied Chemistry and Microbiology
P.O.Box 27,
FIN-00014
University of Helsinki
Finland
Phone: (358) 9-1-915-8266
Fax: (358)
9-1-915-8475
Email: christel.lamberg-allardt@xxxxxxxxxxx
Tony Norman, PhD
Department of Biochemistry
Room 5456 Boyce Hall
University of
California
Riverside, CA 92521
Phone: (909) 787-4777
Fax: (909)
787-4784
Email: anthony.norman@xxxxxxx
Reinhold Vieth,
PhD
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Mount Sinai Hospital
600 University
Ave.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5G 1X5
Phone (416) 586-5920
Fax (416) 586-8628
Email:
rvieth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx