Elderly often lack Vitamin D: some kids get too much

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Multi-vitamin supplements for kids? They're cute, they're chewable and they're parental insurance against the nagging guilt of three visits to a fast food place for dinner in the last five nights.
But if a child between the ages of 2 and 17 is healthy and eating a balanced diet, they're probably not needed.
A new study out this week from researchers at the University of California, Davis, looked at data from nearly 11,000 children and found that about a third of them had taken at least one multiple supplement in the past month.
Use was higher among children rated the most healthy, while those rated in fair or poor health were less likely to take vitamins. The results appear in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.
Ulfat Shaikh, an assistant professor of pediatrics at UC Davis, said the study found that a large number of underweight children took vitamins, but, "we also found that between 30 and 40 percent of children who regularly eat vegetables and drink milk are taking supplements," which she termed "medically unnecessary."
She noted that giving the vitamins needlessly to 2 to 4-year olds, in particular, boosts a risk of overdose in children who think the tablets are candy. Taken in large enough quantities, the supplements can have adverse effects ranging from vomiting to kidney damage.
At the same time, some children with medical conditions who might benefit from supplements are not getting them. The researchers want to do a follow-up study with parents to find out why they do or don't give their kids vitamins.
If many healthy kids are taking supplements they don't need, one vitamin that may be in short supply for a lot of babies -- and older kids too -- is vitamin D.
Pediatricians have, in the past decade, been seeing an increase in the number of babies diagnosed with rickets, a bone-softening disease, mostly in those who are exclusively breast-fed.
Noting this deficiency, as well as evidence that older children may not be getting adequate amounts of the vitamin from food and exposure to sunshine, the American Academy of Pediatrics last fall doubled the recommended daily allowance for the vitamin to 400 units for all youngsters from shortly after birth through adolescence.
Doctors have long known that vitamin D is important to maintain bone health, aid the absorption of calcium and phosphorus, and sustain the immune system.
Usually, people can get the vitamin D they need from certain foods, like oily fish, fortified milk and cereals and exposure to sunshine (20 minutes a day is enough in all but the highest latitudes).
But for a variety of reasons, children aren't getting enough sunshine year-round, nor enough dietary D vitamins.
The shortages also are seen among their grandparents, putting them at increased risk for bone weakness, heart disease and dementia, according to two recent studies.
One review by researchers at Loyola University found a number of studies that collectively show chronic vitamin D deficiency may be a culprit in heart disease, high blood pressure and related illnesses. The research suggests that the odds of disease or death are 30 percent to 50 percent higher among sun-deprived individuals with heart disease.
A second study of more than 2,000 senior citizens in England found that as levels of vitamin D went down, the extent of cognitive impairment rose.
Elders with the lowest levels of vitamin D in their bloodstream were twice as likely to be cognitively impaired as those with optimal levels of the vitamin.
As people age, their skin loses capacity to absorb and convert vitamin D from sunlight, making them more likely to need a supplement. In addition, older people are less likely to spend time outdoors in the colder months, and more likely to be wrapped up when they do venture out.
Dr. Iain Lang, a researcher at the Peninsula Medical School in southwest England, said the study is the first large-scale review to link vitamin D deficiency and dementia, and that it might be possible to prevent or at least delay cognitive impairment in many elderly people by ensuring they take supplements of the vitamin.

(Reach Lee Bowman at bowmanl(at)shns.com)