Vitamin D and Menopause and Children by: Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen!
Hi Priya,
As usual, your questions stretch the breadth of my knowledge of Vitamin d. Vitamin D is actually not a hormone, but a 'prohormone' as it cholesterol. It is more of a 'building block' of hormones and so would likely have less effects on the hormones than you might think- other than giving the body what it needs to make hormones.
As far as delaying menopause, there is just no information on that that I know of. Since no one knows exactly when they would have started menopause, you would have to do double blind studies to find out this information- and there is just not enough interest in this to spend money on since the priority of most researchers is disease treatment. So, I'm afraid that question will likely go unanswered.
There has been SOME research on fertility, however. Early studies on the toxicity of vitamin d2 vs Vitamin D3. Toxic doses of Vitamin D2 killed the rats in the experiment, but the same dosage of D3 found the female rats all pregnant with healthy pups.
A more recent study showed that women who took 4000 IU's of Vitamin D per day had HALF the pregnancy complications of those who took only 400 per day. But other than anecdotal reports, I'm afraid that there is just not much more information on fertility and Vitamin d.
(having healthy children continued below...)
Vitamin D and Healthy Children... by: Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen!
As far as vitamin d for healthy children, I've written a blog post on the importance of Vitamin D During Pregnancy and how that can influence a child's health throughout their lifetime.
So, it is definitely important in the in utero formation of children. Maybe in much more subtle ways that something like Down's Syndrome though.
But as far as nutrition and healthy children, the only person that I know of to broach this touchy and emotionally charged subject is Weston A. Price. His book called Nutrition and Physical Degeneration is a treatise on the foods of different cultures and how most 'primitive cultures' were extraordinarily healthy until they come into contact with processed western foods.
He goes into detail about the great lengths that all cultures went to in order to provide pregnant, breastfeeding and childbearing age women particularly rich foods- such as fish roe and organ meats- in order to sustain healthy pregnancies.
And indeed, the extensive photographs show the ravages of processed foods on even the first generation of children to be exposed to processed foods. You will be amazed if you've never read it.
Also be sure to read my page on Vitamin D and Breastfeeding to see the amazing studies that have been done on the vitamin d content of breastmilk at escalating vitamin d dosages.
Hope that this is what you were looking for.
Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune System Queen Functional Medicine Practitioner Immune System
PS. I've also created a new Fact Sheet on Vitamin D in a printable format that you can download. It gives much of the most important information on vitamin d all in one pamphlet at a glance. Hope you enjoy it.
thanks by: Priya Nath Mehta
Dear Kerri,
Thank you for your exhaustive discussion and enlightening information which are a tremendous help and hope for Vitamin D intake. I am going to read in depth the sources you have detailed, the most important being your book. I am sure what you have written is the last word on this subject till as you rightly point out more research is done on the subject. I am sure Down's Syndrome would also be kept at bay or minimized following your guidance in your book.
Thank you ever so much for being such a tremendous source of help, and replying so very promptly, with your valuable time. Yours, Priya
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