Vitamin D and the Athlete: Current Perspectives and New Challenges.
Sports Med. 2018 Jan 24. doi: 10.1007/s40279-017-0841-9. [Epub ahead of print]
Owens DJ1, Allison R1,2,3, Close GL4.
A few of the problems with this study
- Does not consider topical or spray forms of Vitamin D
- Does not mention the importance of co-factors such as Magnesium and Vitamin K
- Does not mention the importance of time of day nor season in the amount of time in the sun
- Considers 30 ng of vitamin D to be enough for sports – many others consider 50 ng
- Says that >72 ng can be toxic,.Vitamin D Life is unaware of a single toxicity case <150 ng
- Appears to be unaware of Vitamin D genes in the body (outside of liver and kidney)
- Considers 12 week intervention trials to be adequate – when in reality the benefits might start to until 10 or even 20 weeks – depending on the individual.
Overview Sports and vitamin D has the following summary
Athletes are helped by vitamin D by:
- Faster reaction time
- Far fewer colds/flus during the winter
- Less sore/tired after a workout
- Fewer micro-cracks and broken bones
- Bones which do break heal much more quickly
- Increased VO2 and exercise endurance Feb 2011
- Indoor athletes especially need vitamin D
- Professional indoor athletes are starting to take vitamin D and/or use UV beds
- Olympic athletes have used UV/vitamin D since the 1930's
- The biggest gain from the use of vitamin D is by those who exercise less than 2 hours per day.
- Reduced muscle fatigue with 10,000 IU vitamin D daily
- Muscle strength improved when vitamin D added: 3 Meta-analysis
- Reduced Concussions
See also: Sports and Vitamin D category231 items Download the PDF from Vitamin D Life
The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in general interest in and research into vitamin D, with many athletes now taking vitamin D supplements as part of their everyday dietary regimen. The most recognized role of vitamin D is its regulation of calcium homeostasis; there is a strong relationship between vitamin D and bone health in non-athletic individuals. In contrast, data have consistently failed to demonstrate any relationship between serum 25[OH]D and bone health, which may in part be due to the osteogenic stimulus of exercise. Vitamin D may interact with extra-skeletal tissues such as muscle and the immune system to modulate recovery from damaging exercise and infection risk. Given that many athletes now engage in supplementation, often consuming extreme doses of vitamin D, it is important to assess whether excessive vitamin D can be detrimental to health. It has been argued that toxic effects only occur when serum 25[OH]D concentrations are greater than 180 nmol·l-1, but data from our laboratory have suggested high-dose supplementation could be problematic. Finally, there is a paradoxical relationship between serum 25[OH]D concentration, ethnicity, and markers of bone health: Black athletes often present with low serum 25[OH]D without physiological consequences. One explanation for this could be genetic differences in vitamin D binding protein due to ethnicity, resulting in greater concentrations of bioavailable (or free) vitamin D in some ethnic groups. In the absence of any pathology, screening may be unnecessary and could result in incorrect supplementation. Data must now be re-examined, taking into consideration bioavailable or "free" vitamin D in ethnically diverse groups to enable new thresholds and target concentrations to be established; perhaps, for now, it is time to "set vitamin D free".
PMID: 29368183 DOI: 10.1007/s40279-017-0841-9Sports and Vitamin D – a review which has many problems – Jan 2018Printer Friendly PDF this page! Follow this page for updates1731 visitors, last modified 26 Jan, 2018,