Vitamin D and Pregnancy

Another paper on the significance of vitamin D has recently been published.  In it, the authors report,

"low maternal levels of 25 hydroxyvitamin D are associated with adverse outcomes for both mother and fetus in pregnancy as well as the neonate and child."

Further, low vitamin D seems to be linked with "infertility, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and an increased rate of caesarean section."

Clearly, it is very important for pregnant women to maintain healthy vitamin D levels.  The general recommendation for most people is to maintain serum 25-OH D levels above 55 ng/mL.  The absolute bottom threshold seems to be around 33ng/mL but greater than 55 is generally believed to be a more optimal range.  

The authors of this study admit that whether low vitamin D causes problems during pregnancy or is simply associated with them is unclear.  However, they also acknowledge that there are plausible physiological mechanisms that could explain how low vitamin D would cause the issues.

With 3/4 of American deficient in vitamin D, it appears that we need to pay special attention to pregnant mothers.

Economic burden of diabetes

A new report published indicates that 23% of hospital stays involve a patient with diabetes.   Diabetics racked up a total of $83 billion dollars in hospital fees.  These patients were in the hospital for longer periods than individuals without diabetes, costing nearly $2,200 more per stay.  

If $83 billion dollars in hospital bills seems high, consider this; the total cost of diabetes related care is over $218 billion dollars per year.  Couple this with the knowledge that the vast majority of diabetes is preventable.  It is a result of poor diet and lifestyle.

More on AGEs

You may have heard of many people taking a baby aspirin daily to "thin the blood."  This "thinning" effect is accomplished by shutting down the function of platelets; cell fragments involved in blood clotting.  The AGEs mentioned in the previous post negatively affect platelets.

This study shows that when albumin is glycated, it can activate platelets.  These activated platelets can then go on to promote heart disease.

Additionally, AGEs have also been implicated in degenerative joint disease.  AGEs may collect in joint cartilage to promote the wear and tear typical of osteoarthritis.  By now, you can see that diabetes can wreak quite a bit of havoc through the production of AGEs alone.