Low Vitamin D shown to raise death risk

Adults with a vitamin D deficiency are more likely to die than those with high levels, another indication of the nutrient’s vital role in guarding against ailments from heart disease to cancer, a US research suggests. The report follows several recent studies that have shown vitamin D may protect against ailments including heart disease, cancers of the colon and breast, diabetes and tuberculosis. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore studied 13,331 adults for an average of 8.7 years. Of the 1,806 people who died, 777 died of heart disease. Vitamin D deficiency was also linked to a higher risk of death from cancer, diabetes and other diseases. Scientists have evidence that Vitamin D helps lower blood pressure, reduce inflammation and boost the immune system. Those with the lowest levels of the “sunshine vitamin” had a 26 per cent increased risk of death over eight years compared to those with the highest levels, the researchers reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Want to live a long life? Run.
People who want to live a long and healthy life might want to take up running. A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows middle-aged members of a runner’s club were half as likely to die over a 20-year period as people who did not run. The team surveyed 284 members of a nationwide running club and 156 similar, healthy people as controls. They all came from the university’s faculty and staff and had similar social and economic backgrounds, and all were 50 or older. Starting in 1984, each volunteer filled out an annual survey on exercise frequency, weight and disability for eight activities—rising, dressing and grooming, hygiene, eating, walking, reach, hand grip and routine physical activities. Most of the volunteers did some exercise, but runners exercised as much as 200 minutes a week, compared to 20 minutes for the non-runners. Running reduced the risk not only of heart disease, but also of cancer and neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s, researchers at Stanford University in California found.

Gene raises risk of lifetime smoking habit
For most people, the first experimental drags on a cigarette bring on nausea, coughing and other signals from the brain that say, “Turn back. This is a bad idea.” But for some, they bring a wave of pleasure. Those in the second group likely bear a gene type that not only increases their addiction risk, but has also been implicated in the development of lung cancer, researchers said. A team of scientists in the US, reported earlier this year that smokers who had certain changes in three nicotine receptor genes —which control entry of nicotine into brain cells—were more likely to develop lung cancer than other smokers.