View clinical trials related to Vitamin D Deficiency.
Filter by:Science News (October 2004) called vitamin D deficiency a "silent epidemic" in America, with no group unaffected. Using new guidelines of optimal vitamin D levels, more than 90% of African American women now suffer from vitamin D deficiency. Deficiency during pregnancy has profound effects on the developing fetus. Other systems besides bones are affected by vitamin D deficiency, including an increased risk of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, type I diabetes, and certain cancers. This study proposes to examine and manage vitamin D levels in more than one thousand women in an underserved population in South Carolina. The women will be from the patient population seeking OB/GYN and Pediatric services through Eau Claire Cooperative Health Centers, Inc. (ECCHC), a network of ten clinics in three counties in the center of the state approximately 70 miles from Charleston, SC. ECCHC is one of approximately 1000 community health centers supported through Health and Human Services' (HHS) Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA), Bureau of Primary Health Care. The research objectives for this project will be managed through the Pediatric Nutritional Sciences Research Center of the Children's Research Institute at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, in collaboration with ECCHC. The research aims will evaluate vitamin D levels and possible contributing factors to the levels in 1,000 women. Women who present to ECCHC within the first trimester of pregnancy will be randomized to one of two doses of vitamin D supplementation shown to be effective in other groups. Each pregnant mother will begin supplementation during the 12th week of pregnancy and will be followed closely throughout pregnancy for one year to determine the effectiveness of supplementation on vitamin D status, overall health of mother, and of her infant following delivery. We expect to observe severe vitamin D deficiency in a considerable percentage of the mothers and their infants who receive care at ECCHC, especially those individuals with darker pigmentation. When the extent of vitamin D deficiency within each racial/ethnic group is better defined and their supplementation requirements identified, we will be better able to establish guidelines for supplementation and health maintenance, and set policy recommendations for the dietary recommended intake of vitamin D. Those women and their infants identified as deficient in vitamin D will be important in establishing community health care policies for vitamin D surveillance and supplementation strategies. The results will allow us to implement specific dietary and/or medical interventions aimed at correcting hypovitaminosis D in the population in this study and other similar populations being served by the more than 1000 community health centers nationally.
The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness and safety of maternal and infant vitamin D supplementation as a function of ethnicity and latitude in the prevention of vitamin D deficiency in the breastfeeding mother-infant pair. The findings of this study will generate important new information for health care professionals and policy makers with regard to vitamin D requirements and the potential benefit to both mother and infant
The research team is comprised of an expert nutrition scientist and a pediatrician with expertise in endocrinology. Both have world-class experience in assessing bone mass in infancy. Together they have designed a study to determine how much dietary vitamin D is needed to optimize health in infants. This is important since many infants are born with vitamin D deficiency. At present the dosage of vitamin D that is optimal for infant health is unclear and recent research suggests that vitamin D status very early in life has long lasting effects on bone mass and other health issues. Therefore, in a group of healthy infants, this research team will test which dosage of vitamin D is needed to achieve optimal vitamin D status. Optimal vitamin D status will be based on growth, biomarkers of vitamin D and bone status in blood and also general health. The infants will all be breastfed and begin the study at about 2 weeks of age. At 3 months intervals over the first year of life, each infant will be measured for growth, duration of breastfeeding and supplement use plus have a bone density scan to determine changes in bone growth. The data will be helpful to guide health care professionals in providing the best care possible for their infants. It will also be important to the health of populations since dietary recommendations for vitamin D are used to guide fortification of foods and development of evidence based policy around nutrient recommendations and their implementation.
Hypothesis: Nontraditional risk factors, such as inflammation, vitamin D deficiency, elevated PTH, insulin resistance, homocysteine, or uric acid, contribute to cardiovascular disease progression after kidney transplant. The purpose of this study is to evaluate which traditional and nontraditional cardiovascular disease risk factors best predict progression of cardiovascular disease (CVD) using carotid intima media thickness performed by ultrasound, in kidney transplant patients.
The purpose of this study is to determine the average dosage of oral vitamin D supplementation to maintain optimal vitamin D levels in the body and to see if there are differences in the response to oral vitamin D supplementation between African-American and Caucasian subjects.
The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of normalization of vitamin D levels on bone density, immune and adipocyte function in HIV1-seropositive patients.
The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy starting at the beginning of the second trimester. Mothers will be randomized to one of three vitamin D dosing groups: 400, 2,000 or 4,000 international units per day. It is hypothesized that the highest dosing regimen will result in a better vitamin D status of women regardless of their ethnicity or race.
Obese persons are known to have elevated levels of parathyroid hormone (PTH) and low levels of vitamin D. These hormones are important in regulation of the body's calcium stores and bone health. We would like to investigate these abnormalities and the accuracy of our current diagnostic tests by comparing results of standard assays for vitamin D and PTH to more specific tests, in obese subjects at baseline and as vitamin D is replaced. We will also compare two standard vitamin D replacement regimens to determine if one is more effective. This is a pilot study with two parts: Part 1 will compare levels of PTH and vitamin D using two different assays in obese subjects who have normal vitamin D and those who do not. We plan to enroll 20 subjects who have normal vitamin D levels and 40 subjects who have vitamin D insufficiency. All subjects will fill out questionnaires about the amount of calcium and vitamin D in their diet, and their recent sunlight exposure. We will ask for blood samples so that we can measure levels of calcium, vitamin D, albumin, creatinine, glucose, insulin and the different forms of PTH. Subjects who have vitamin D insufficiency will then be randomized to receive Vitamin D2 or Vitamin D3 in standard doses for eight weeks, in an open label trial. At four and eight weeks, these subjects will fill out the above questionnaires and have the blood tests repeated. For safety purposes, urine calcium will also be monitored.
Recent studies have demonstrated that subjects with low blood levels of vitamin D are at a higher risk of developing autoimmune diseases such as Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). We are pursuing these studies to test the hypothesis that restoration of vitamin D levels ameliorates the manifestations of RA. We will test this hypothesis by inviting patients with RA to participate in a trial that examines the effects of oral vitamin D administration on the clinical expression of this disease. For this purpose, the participants of this trial will be asked to take an oral dose of 2,000 units of vitamin D daily for 6 months. We will examine the participant's joints, assess disease activity measures, and determine his/her blood levels of vitamin D before starting this treatment and periodically thereafter.
Vitamin D is important to maintain good health. Although it is found in foods and vitamins, many people still have low vitamin D levels. One purpose of this study is to describe vitamin D levels from patients at the University of Colorado Seniors Clinic. Another goal of the study is to find out if education by a pharmacist can increase vitamin D levels in patients who have low vitamin D levels.