Oregon lack of sunlight might be shortening the lives of its residents, according to a recent study from Oregon State University linking KOBE 9 low vitamin D levels with early death.

In a study published last week in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, OSU nutritional epidemiologist Ellen Smit pinpointed an association between low levels of vitamin D and earlier deaths among older adults. According to the report, the association was especially strong for frail seniors who have muscle weakness, exhaustion, low levels of physical activity, unintentional weight loss and walk very slowly.

Smit and colleagues examined data from more than 4,300 adults older than 60. They discovered that the most frail seniors also had the lowest blood levels of vitamin D. Those who were most frail tended to die earliest, as were those with the lowest vitamin D levels.

can establish cause and effect with death rates, Smit said. know frailty and the (low) vitamin D levels came before the deaths.

What Smits said she doesn Nike Air Foamposite One know yet is whether the vulnerable seniors had low vitamin D levels before they became frail, or were frail before their vitamin D levels dropped. Vitamin D is necessary for muscle function and bone development, so Smits said it makes sense that seniors not Air Jordan Spizike getting enough vitamin D would turn frail. But frail seniors may not be getting the outdoor sunlight and physical activity needed for the body to produce vitamin D.

Nationally, about seven in 10 Americans are thought Jordan Retro 1 to have insufficient vitamin D levels, and those numbers are Air Jordan 23s largely believed to be higher in the Pacific Northwest, where the low angle of the sun makes it nearly impossible for people to produce enough vitamin D on their own through the fall and winter months.

Full spectrum lights and vitamin D supplements have become more common in recent years, but Smit says there is a lack of research determining whether vitamin D taken in pill form or gained through artificial lights is as useful to the body as vitamin D produced through sun exposure. Some foods such as fatty fish also provide a natural form of vitamin D.