Vitamin D
[back]
Nutritional Medicine
Good sources of vitamin D are butter, margarine, cheese cream, yogurt, milk eggs and sunlight.
[2009 Oct] Vitamin D3 an under-reported resource in preventing cancers
Butter, Vitamin E and the ‘X‘ Factor of Dr. Price by Royal Lee
The Healing Power of Sunlight and Vitamin D: an exclusive interview with Dr.
Michael Holick
What’s really remarkable is that vitamin D deficiency is epidemic throughout the
entire United States, through all age groups. And I’ll
give you some examples. It’s well known that elders throughout
the United States are at high risk. And upwards of 40-60% are at risk for
vitamin D deficiency. But we also now realize that
even younger adults that are otherwise active and who may be always wearing
sunscreen before they go outdoors, or they never see
the light of day because they’re working all the time. When we
did a study in Boston, we found that students and doctors 18-29 years of
age, at the end of the winter, 32% were vitamin D
deficient. More shocking, though, was that we
also looked at young girls (working with Dr Sullivan and
Dr Rosen in Maine) -- and these are Caucasian girls ages 9-11 - and we
found that 48% were vitamin D deficient at the end of
the winter. And 17% remained vitamin D deficient at the end of the summer
because of wearing all the sun protection.
So we did a study at our hospital, and we
looked at women coming in and giving birth, and we measured their vitamin D
levels -- their 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels, and the infants’ 25-hydroxy vitamin
D levels at birth. 49 infant-mother pairs were looked at, mostly
African-American and Hispanic but some Caucasian as well. 76% of mothers were
severely vitamin D deficient. 81% of infants were severely vitamin D deficient.
.............Even though I was unfortunately fired from my position in
dermatology because my views on some sensible sun exposure were counter to the
American Academy of Dermatology and some of the so-called leaders in the
dermatology field, .....I think that there’s no question that the American
Academy of Dermatology is well-funded
by the sunscreen industry, and I’m sure that that plays a role in this (the idea
that sun should be avoided.)
..............There was a study done in Minnesota by Dr Plotnikoff and what he
showed was that, he looked at over 150 individuals. And we’re talking about
children ages 10+ and adults up to the age of 65, presenting at a Minnesota
hospital in the wintertime, complaining of muscle aches and pains and bone pain.
Many of these, especially young women in their 20s, were given Motrin or some
type of over the counter drug, or even a prescription strength anti-inflammatory
drug (NSAIDs) because the doctors couldn’t figure out what was going on. 93% of
that entire group of children and adults complaining of bone pain or muscle pain
were vitamin D deficient.
[Letter BMJ 2006] Can influenza vaccine overcome vitamin D deficiency? If flu shots are effective - and if more older Americans have been getting them - why have more older Americans been dying of the flu?.....Perhaps the elderly, virtually all of whom are vitamin D deficient, would be better off getting an injection of vitamin D in the fall, rather than a flu shot?
Re: Lack of Vitamin D - The Real Reason Flu Hits In Winter
[Vitamin D] How You Can Successfully Treat and Prevent TB Without Drugs
[Media Nov 2006] Theory suggests that a shortage of vitamin D triggers outbreaks of flu
Epidemic Influenza And Vitamin D By J. J. Cannell
Epidemic Influenza and Vitamin D, In 1981, R. Edgar Hope-Simpson proposed that a ‘seasonal stimulus’ intimately associated with solar radiation explained the remarkable seasonality of epidemic influenza. Solar radiation triggers robust seasonal vitamin D production in the skin; vitamin D deficiency is common in the winter, and activated vitamin D, 1,25(OH)2D, a steroid hormone, has profound effects on human immunity. 1,25(OH)2D acts as an immune system modulator, preventing excessive expression of inflammatory cytokines and increasing the ‘oxidative burst’ potential of macrophages. Perhaps most importantly, it dramatically stimulates the expression of potent anti-microbial peptides, which exist in neutrophils, monocytes, natural killer cells, and in epithelial cells lining the respiratory tract where they play a major role in protecting the lung from infection. Volunteers inoculated with live attenuated influenza virus are more likely to develop fever and serological evidence of an immune response in the winter. Vitamin D deficiency predisposes children to respiratory infections. Ultraviolet radiation (either from artificial sources or from sunlight) reduces the incidence of viral respiratory infections, as does cod liver oil (which contains vitamin D). An interventional study showed that vitamin D reduces the incidence of respiratory infections in children. We conclude that vitamin D, or lack of it, may be Hope-Simpson's ‘seasonal stimulus’. (Accepted August 5 2006)
We proposed that annual fluctuations in vitamin D levels explain the seasonality of influenza........which cause recurrent and predictable wintertime vitamin D deficiency, predispose human populations to influenza epidemics. We raised the possibility that influenza is a symptom of vitamin D deficiency in the same way that an unusual form of pneumonia (pneumocystis carinii) is a symptom of AIDS. That is, we theorized that George Bernard Shaw was right when he said, "the characteristic microbe of a disease might be a symptom instead of a cause." Epidemic Influenza And Vitamin D By J. J. Cannell
[The
Vitamin D Newsletter December, 2007]
Does vitamin D prevent cancer?
Both Canadians and
Americans are shocked to think their doctors care about money, are in
the illness business. In some ways people think of their doctors like
they do their local public schools. They know medicine is a business
and know doctors do things for money but they don't think their own
doctors do.
The fact is that doctors, hospitals, regional cancer centers, and the
cancer drug manufacturers are all in business to make money and all of
these businesses make money off the sick, not off the well. Just a
fact, but, as Aldous Huxley once observed, "Facts do not cease to exist
because they are ignored."
Vitamin D will save the Canadian government enormous amounts of
money but will cause widespread economic disruption in the USA. Do the
physicians leading the American Cancer Society have strong economic ties
to the cancer industry in the form of patents, stock options, and
consulting fees? If so, what do you expect them to do? What would you
do? It's simple. You would believe what you have to believe, what you
need to believe, that is, anything with the word "vitamin" in it is
simply the latest Laetrile.
Look to Canada, not the USA, to lead the
way.
Dr. Lichtenfeld, implied the Canadian Cancer Society has acted
precipitously in recommending that all Canadians take 1,000 IU of
vitamin D daily. He implied that Americans should placidly wait
until more randomized controlled trials, such as Lappe JM, et al
(above), accumulate before they address their vitamin D deficiency.
That is, nothing should be done until more randomized controlled
trials prove vitamin D prevents cancer, one randomized controlled
trial is not enough; epidemiological studies are not enough, animal
studies are not enough, multiple anti-cancer mechanisms of action
are not enough? If that is his position, I challenge him to point
to one human randomized controlled trial that proves smoking is
dangerous?
If he cannot, then he must admit that the American Cancer Society's
position on smoking is entirely derived from epidemiological
studies, animal studies, and a demonstrable mechanism of action, not
on human randomized controlled trials? Vitamin D not only has
hundreds of epidemiological studies, thousand of animal studies, and
at least four anti-cancer mechanisms of action, vitamin D
deficiency has something smoking does not have, it has a high
quality randomized controlled trial. If future randomized
controlled trials fail to show vitamin D prevents cancer - and Dr.
Lichtenfeld better hope they do - he can have the satisfaction of
saying "I told you so." If future randomized controlled trials
confirm vitamin D prevents cancer, then he needs to look at his
hands, the red he sees is the blood of needless cancer deaths.
1. Vitamin D is produced by your skin in response to exposure to ultraviolet
radiation from natural sunlight.
2. The healing rays of natural sunlight (that generate vitamin D in your skin)
cannot penetrate glass. So you don’t generate vitamin
D when sitting in your car or home.
3. It is nearly impossible to get adequate amounts of vitamin D from your diet.
Sunlight exposure is the only reliable way to generate
vitamin D in your own body.
4. A person would have to drink ten tall glasses of vitamin D fortified milk
each day just to get minimum levels of vitamin D into
their diet.
5. The further you live from the equator, the longer exposure you need to the
sun in order to generate vitamin D. Canada, the UK and
most U.S. states are far from the equator.
6. People with dark skin pigmentation may need 20 - 30 times as much exposure to
sunlight as fairskinned people to generate the same
amount of vitamin D. That’s why prostate cancer is epidemic
among black men -- it’s a simple, but widespread, sunlight deficiency.
7. Sufficient levels of vitamin D are crucial for calcium absorption in your
intestines. Without sufficient vitamin D, your body
cannot absorb calcium, rendering calcium supplements useless.
8. Chronic vitamin D deficiency cannot be reversed overnight: it takes months of
vitamin D supplementation and sunlight exposure to
rebuild the body’s bones and nervous system.
9. Even weak sunscreens (SPF=8) block your body’s ability to generate vitamin D
by 95%. This is how sunscreen products actually cause
disease -- by creating a critical vitamin deficiency in the body.
10. It is impossible to generate too much vitamin D in your body from sunlight
exposure: your body will self-regulate and only
generate what it needs.
11. If it hurts to press firmly on your sternum, you may be suffering from
chronic vitamin D deficiency right now.
12. Vitamin D is “activated” in your body by your kidneys and liver before it
can be used.
13. Having kidney disease or liver damage can greatly impair your body’s ability
to activate circulating vitamin D.
14. The sunscreen industry doesn’t want you to know that your body actually
needs sunlight exposure because that realization would
mean lower sales of sunscreen products.
15. Even though vitamin D is one of the most powerful healing chemicals in your
body, your body makes it absolutely free. No
prescription required.
The
Healing Power of Sunlight and Vitamin D: an exclusive interview with Dr. Michael
Holick
Get vitamin D not the flu shot.
Dr. John Cannell, a cardiac surgeon and
Professor of Surgery at the University of Washington, recommends avoiding the
flu shot and taking vitamin D instead.