Vitamin D changes everything

[motorway]

Thank you for the info. The reason i asked the question is we live on the east coast and my wife recently had a blood test and was for the first time diagnosed with low vitamin D
She has worked in a large shopping centre for 4 years now, previously a lot more time was spent outdoors.
In this time she has experienced more colds and gets fatigued much more easily and has just come down with a bad dose of broncitis, symptoms we atributed to being in air condiyioning and getting older, interesting to read this info.
Thank you

great to hear feedback



But when your tank is full, the left over calcidiol goes to the many cells in the body that are able to make their own calcitriol (for example )to fight cancer””and they do so with gusto!

Editor, New York Times:

We have closely followed the stories in the Times about the mammography controversy. The coverage has been thorough and superb.

The controversy is about a procedure that, at best, reduces mortality by 15% and does nothing toward primary prevention.

It is not widely realized that most breast cancer is preventable. While the scientific literature reveals many strategies for prevention of breast cancer, the simplest is elimination of the vitamin D deficiency. This is the main known cause of breast cancer. Raising the serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level to 40-60 ng/ml could prevent 75-80% of breast cancer incidence (and deaths, of course).

While deciding on the issue of mammography, action can be taken today to raise the serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D to appropriate levels.

Sincerely yours,
Cedric F. Garland, Dr. P.H., F.A.C.E.
Professor
Department of Family and Preventive Medicine
University of California San Diego

multiply by 2.5 to get our units nmol/L

So 100nmol/L to 150nmol/L

motorway

 

[Gringotts Bank]

Every second person I talk to is telling me that their GP is recommending higher vit D. The research must b fairly solid. either that or the recommended dose has increased - think it might be the latter. Melbourne weather not really helping!

 

[roland]

What's a Vitamin D deficiency?

Here is a presentation I found interesting:

 

[roland]

Thanks Motoway for bringing the Vitamin D issues to our attention.

The more I research Vitamin D deficiencies the more profound the problem the problem appears to be. The further you are away from the equator the less D we have in our bodies and this directly correlates to mortality rates from Cancer. In fact you can overlay maps of Cancer death rates over a map of the world to see the astounding correlation.

A study in Japan showed the same, even within the boundaries of their own country - they could map higher cancer rates in areas of lesser UV-B

 

[tech/a]

I really am sceptical.

But Ive bought my Vitamin D
Now what dosage do you recommend?
Says 1000IU a day.
I live on the coast get a fair amount of sun but cover up.

 

[motorway]

I really am sceptical.

But Ive bought my Vitamin D
Now what dosage do you recommend?
Says 1000IU a day.
I live on the coast get a fair amount of sun but cover up.

It is harder to get sufficient from the sun than many think
some for interesting reasons ( I will post later )

Heaney and all the D scientists keep raising the level of Optimum
And also the level needed to produce toxicity ( some interesting studies here )

I take 7000 iu a day atm
Also I enjoy the sun

I no longer get sunburn ( post why later )
My resting pulse is twenty beats lower ( sub 50 ) ( The heart is a muscle after all )
At fifty I find I am Physically stronger than I ever have been
I am leaner more Muscular , My recovery from exercise is much improved

My Joints feel great and loose
My eyesight Sharp
Sleep deeper and better
No morning stiffness

And I just feel great

Nothing has ever done this
I have taken Vit C , E Co enzymeQ10 etc

Did they do me good I COULD NOT TELL.. felt no difference
Fish oil made measurable improvements in blood chemistry ( still take )
But did not feel different

Vit D... I feel Different
Feel a million dollars

Also see measurable benefits
in blood chemistry and how people feel --real improvements in real long standing conditions.. In number of others

Just the mood enhancing is tremendous

how much to take
I have gone with

This from http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

take 5,000 IU per day for 2–3 months, then obtain a 25-hydroxyvitamin D test. Adjust your dosage so that blood levels are between 50–80 ng/mL (or 125–200 nM/L) year-round.

here is a good series from Reinhold Vieth for the general public













Many people are on
medication for blood pressure. Cholesterol and Diabetes

How many Doctors check Vitamin D first ?
If they did how many would need those medications ?

I have seen what happens when D is optimized

and I have FELT the difference

Motorway

 

[tech/a]

Thanks M/W I'm on it!
7000IU
Wow.
Would that vary if your in the sun enough to tan?

 

[motorway]

Thanks M/W I'm on it!
7000IU
Wow.
Would that vary if your in the sun enough to tan?

You will get Some D from the Sun

But if you use Soap and regularly shower
Most will end literally down the drain ( Why many surfers have low D )

Here is some info from - Professor George Jelinek MD site

http://www.overcomingmultiplesclerosis.org/html/newsletter.php?id=ef9ad172

I have decided to supplement and get some SUN

Why SUN too

Why not just take the supplements and forget about the sun?

Vitamin D made in the skin lasts at least twice as long in the blood as vitamin D ingested from the diet. When you are exposed to sunlight, you make not only vitamin D but also at least five and up to ten additional photoproducts that you would never get from dietary sources or from a supplement.

Old Mother Nature is pretty parsimonious with her creations, and I suspect she wouldn’t have five to ten photoproducts circulating around if they didn’t do something good for us. Just because we aren’t advanced enough yet to figure out what it is they do, doesn’t mean they don’t do something.

Dr. Michael Hollick is one of the top vitamin D researchers in the world

Professor George Jelinek is the Australian Featured on the 7.30 report the other night
regarding Multiple Sclerosis

He has a nice summary of up to date data

Supplementing with vitamin D of up to 10,000IU per day is now thought to be very safe, although in the past many medical authorities have been concerned about the possibility of side effects with doses of this magnitude. Hathcock et al have applied the risk assessment methodology used by the Food and Nutrition Board in the USA to derive a revised safe Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) for vitamin D3

Their risk assessment based on relevant, well-designed human clinical trials of vitamin D3 concluded that the UL is 10,000IU vitamin D3 per day, that is, it is safe to take up to 10,000IU of vitamin D3 per day. Even with plenty of sun exposure, supplementing even up to this dose appears to be quite safe.

To illustrate the safety limits of supplementation, Kimball and Vieth reported in 2008 the cases of two men who had been supplementing with vitamin D.16 One had been taking 8,000IU per day for three years. This resulted in a blood level of 260nmol/L, and no changes in any measured parameters of calcium.

The second, a 39 year old man with MS, had been steadily increasing his self-prescribed dose of vitamin D over four years, from 8,000IU per day to a whopping 88,000IU per day. This latter level would be expected to produce some toxic effects. In fact, the amount of calcium in his urine started to rise, and then blood calcium levels started to go up, with a vitamin D level in his blood of 1,126nmol/L. He displayed no symptoms though.

At that point he stopped taking vitamin D, and within two months, all his blood tests were normal, although vitamin D levels remained high at 656nmol/L. While not recommended, this at least shows that it takes very large doses of vitamin D to produce any increase in calcium levels and toxicity.

Motorway

 

[IB12]

Doctors and scientists can be confusing sometimes.
First they say get out of the sun, b/c you'll get skin cancer.
Now they're telling us to go back out again and get a tan.

 

[roland]

This is interesting: from http://www.overcomingmultiplesclerosis.org/html/newsletter.php?id=ef9ad172

Seems like I can get my wife off the calcium as Vitamin D on it's own is enough...

As for calcium, like many other heavily-marketed supplements, now that the evidence is coming in, we can see that it pays to be very, very selective about what supplements to take. Supplements need to be taken for a good reason, with a therapeutic aim in mind, and utilising the best available evidence to support their use. For people with adequate vitamin D levels (and for people in most geographic regions this means supplementation with relatively large doses of vitamin D in winter), calcium supplementation is completely unnecessary. For those who avoid the sun or cannot get much sun in winter, and those with osteoporosis, supplementation with at least 5,000IU of vitamin D daily is recommended, rather than with calcium. Calcium supplementation, on the basis of current evidence, poses too great a risk to human health, and is not recommended.

 

[motorway]

This is interesting: from http://www.overcomingmultiplesclerosis.org/html/newsletter.php?id=ef9ad172

Seems like I can get my wife off the calcium as Vitamin D on it's own is enough...

Absolutely...

In fact Magnesium is more important ( get an absorbable form not oxide I use Citrate )
Soils are totally deficient in it

Vitamin D needs it
and bone health needs it
it also has many other benifits

If we look at ancestral diets
calcium to magnesium ratio was about 1 to 1

today we over dose on Calcium
WHY ?

Because people are D deficient
and the thinking is you can force the Calcium into bones with brute force..

But without D the cells are deaf dumb and blind

In the cancer vid
D does not KIll the cancer cells
They kill themselves

D just make things work as it should
Cancer cells are forming in your body moment to moment
With D they repair themselves or suicide

Without D.. cells lose connection and intelligence

What that Vid shows is if it is not too late is that
Getting D back to healthy levels allows the DNA library ( where the information that informs cells what to do,,, not become a cancer cell ,, absorb calcium etc )
to be available

You still need adequate levels of nutrients like calcium
But a reasonable diet will provide most.....

It was D that was missing
levels we would have if we were in the horn of Africa
Levels much higher with no seasonal variation

http://www.healthiertalk.com/natural-blood-pressure-regulator-017

The Blood Pressure Regulator You Need to Know About: One Vitamin Could Replace ACE Inhibitors Altogether
By Dr. Jonathan Wright on 01/07/2009


You wouldn't think a roomful of doctors would get excited about vitamin D. But it turns out there's some news about it that is causing quite a stir””at least it did when I presented it at a conference a few years ago. Judging by the reactions I got from other doctors at that conference, this news could turn a whole line of heart health therapy on its ear. So, I think it's important to take a few more minutes to share this information with you, too.

There's actually quite a lot of solid research behind the use of vitamin D as a blood pressure regulator. In fact, it might just rival one of the major blood pressure drug categories in effectiveness””for a whole lot less money out of your pocket.

Is where you live raising your blood pressure?

Epidemiologic studies have shown that people living near the equator are less likely to have hypertension. It's also been observed that blood pressures tend to be higher in the winter, when we get less sunlight, which your body uses to synthesize vitamin D. One recent large study demonstrated a distinct connection between increases in blood pressure and the distance people live from the equator. [1]



Another study, published several years ago in the Lancet, reported that ultraviolet light exposure, which increases the body's internal vitamin D production, lowered blood pressure in individuals with mild essential hypertension. [2] And two other small clinical trials showed that vitamin D supplementation reduces both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. [3,4]

Taken together, these studies and observations strongly indicate that vitamin D is nature's leading blood pressure regulator.

Vitamin D goes one step further than ACE inhibitors””without the dangers

Vitamin D achieves its blood pressure lowering effect by addressing one of the major causes of high blood pressure””a substance called angiotensin II.

Angiotensin II is produced by another substance called angiotensin-converting enzyme, or ACE. When ACE is allowed free rein, it sometimes produces too much angiotensin II. Excess angiotensin II constricts blood vessels, which raises blood pressure. But that's not all that excess angiotensin II does.

Among many other bad effects, excess angiotensin II also leads to abnormal thickening of both the heart muscle and blood vessel walls. It increases output of adrenaline and similar substances, increases the output of another blood pressure raising hormone called aldosterone, and increases salt retention by the kidneys. All of this tends to raise blood pressure.

So blocking ACE, and thereby lowering excess angiotensin II, is actually a logical strategy for lowering blood pressure””and, frequently, it works. But until recently, the best way to block ACE was with patented medications called ACE inhibitors. ACE inhibitor names generally end in the syllable "-pril" (enalapril, captopril, etc.), but they're sold under trade names including Vasotec, Lotensin, Zestril, Altace, Capoten, and others. Like most patent medications and synthetic molecules, ACE inhibitors can cause a number of negative side effects-cough, headache, and dizziness at best; skin rash, kidney problems, and swelling of the face, lips, and throat at worst.

But vitamin D might be able to go one step further-without the added disadvantages of the synthetic ACE inhibitors””by preventing the formation of excess angiotensin II in the first place.

Prescription drugs .. Act like sledge hammers.. They block or turn off key processes

Vitamin D works by allowing intelligent optimized regulation ( here blood pressure . But you name it eg Sugar Metabolism.. )

A whole different thing altogether...



Motorway

 

[roland]

I did come across a march larger list of agricultural mineral and element deficiencies that have occured over time. I am sure it was one promoting Seafood, but other than Vitamin D reduction due to geographic population shifts, we also have the following to contend with if we are wanting to re-establish our genetically ideal environment.

The combined effect of soil mineral depletion and the reduced availability of those minerals that remain is that most of the food that we eat is mineral deficient. The table below summarizes the reductions in the average mineral content of 27 vegetables and 17 fruits, between 1940 and 1991. The results of the latest research are expected to show mineral values in continual decline.
Reduction in average mineral content of fruit and vegetables between 1940 and 1991

Mineral Vegetables Fruit
Sodium -49% -29%
Potassium -16% -19%
Magnesium -24% -16%
Calcium -46% -16%
Iron -27% -24%
Copper -76% -20%
Zinc -59% -27%


A new study published earlier this year shows that, as might be expected, mineral levels in animal products reflect the picture in plant foods. Comparing levels measured in 2002 with those present in 1940, the iron content of milk was found to be 62% less, calcium and magnesium in parmesan cheese had each fallen by 70% and copper in dairy produce had plummeted by a remarkable 90%.

 

[roland]

here it is http://www.truehealth.org/atrclist.html

Our daily food, as produced by our modern agriculture, contains:

# 3 - major nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium - or N-P-K);
# 6 - minor nutrients (calcium, chloride, magnesium, iron, sodium, sulphur) and
# 5 - trace elements as monitored and maintained in agricultural soils
(boron, copper, manganese, molybdenum, zinc) and
# 3 - trace elements as added at other stages of our nutrition
(iodine in table salt; cobalt in salt licks for cattle and sheep; and selenium in fortified chicken feed)
- for a total of 8 (!) nutritional trace elements.

All of the above vital nutrients are generally available in adequate amounts in today's agriculturally grown food products. However, since cobalt and selenium are added to livestock feed, rather than to the soil, pure vegetarians are at some risk of cobalt and selenium deficiencies.

However, all living things need about 72 (!) biological trace elements - as found throughout nature and in all 'wild' plant and animal life - for the normal function of their metabolism, reproductive and immune systems. Today, the only readily available food which still contains the complete natural range of the 72 biological trace elements is seafood.

etc.......

 

[roland]

Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Eye Problems

Two years ago a study appeared in the Archives of Ophthalmology that showed that people who ate more foods with vitamin D, or took vitamin D supplements in lieu of eating foods high in vitamin D, were less likely to have age-related macular degeneration, the foremost cause of blindness in older adults.

http://www.stopagingnow.com/liveinthenow/article/vitamin-d-deficiency-linked-to-eye-problems

 

[roland]

Vitamin D and hearing loss:

(Vitamin) D: As far as hearing is concerned, a deficiency in this vitamin has serious consequences and has been associated with otosclerosis (abnormal bone growth in the middle ear), unexplained and bilateral cochlear deafness, presbycusis, and sensorineural hearing loss. Researchers had to conclude that vitamin D deficiency is likely one of the causes and supplementation should be considered in persons with hearing loss. Vitamin D can be inhibited if there is also a magnesium deficiency. If there is a magnesium deficiency, this will also affect calcium intakes. As you can see, not just one nutrient can be isolated as being a cause or cure of something.

http://www.innvista.com/health/ailments/earail/hearnutr.htm

 

[aussiepipe]

A few years ago I changed my opinion on vitamins and supplements. They changed our family's life, for the better. Thanks for the reminder about vitamin d we had stopped taking it.

I use iherb to get my vitamins from as they sometimes come in larger amounts than what you get here in Oz and usually cheaper. So you aren't taking as many capsules. I usually pay around $12USD for DHL delivery.

The other thing i have found was spreading out the daily dosage for the water-soluble vitamins to 3 - 4 times a day helps. I think Vitamin D is fat soluble so you can take it all at once. Vitamin B, C and Magnesium are water-soluble, I think.

Cheers
aussiepipe

 

[motorway]

Yes Iherb seems great

With D you do not really want to use anything longer than monthly
Dosing ( weekly better and really taking every day I think is better )

You start to get cycle peaks and troughs
Which we are not designed to deal with

( no summer winter on the equator as such )

Vieth has Written a very good paper about why this can be real problem
and have negative heath consequnces.. Also why synthetic D2 causes same problems

There are lag effects when levels fluctuate
Imbalances !

It's an important hypothesis as it explains why it is better to use daily, weekly supplements rather than rely on large doses at extended intervals.

keeping 25(OH)D levels stable will prevent the need for fine tuning of the immune system and shorten the time where there is imbalance between activating (25- and 1a-hydroxylase) and the metabolizing (24-hydroxylase) enzymes.

some more D
I have found large personal effect for me regarding this..

If you are vitamin D deficient, the medical literature indicates that the right amount of vitamin D will make you faster, stronger, improve your balance and timing, etc. How much it will improve your athletic ability depends on how deficient you are to begin with. How good an athlete you will be depends on your innate ability, training, and dedication.However, peak athletic performance also depends upon the neuromuscular cells in your body and brain having unfettered access to the steroid hormone, activated vitamin D.

How much activated vitamin D is available to your brain, muscle, and nerves depends on the amount of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in your blood. In turn, how much 25-hydroxyvitamin D is in your blood depends on how much vitamin D you put in your mouth or how often you expose your skin to UVB light.

Thanks for the mineral info Roland
Wild Fish is the last natural food maybe

Motorway

 

[motorway]

Doctors and scientists can be confusing sometimes.
First they say get out of the sun, b/c you'll get skin cancer.
Now they're telling us to go back out again and get a tan.

Melanoma is what worries people

"The number one risk factor for melanoma is an inability to tan; people who tan easily or have dark pigmentation are far less likely to develop the disease."

~ David E Fisher MD PhD, Director, Melanoma Program, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Professor in pediatrics, Children's Hospital Boston

This is if you get Sun exposure or not ... The inability to Tan is the risk factor...

I have fair skin hazel Eyes
I have found I do not sun burn anymore
( But you still want to treat the Sun with respect )

HIGHER BLOOD LEVELS, QUICKER TAN

Dr. Dixon presented fascinating evidence that high vitamin D blood levels prevent sunburn! Of course, it makes sense. When vitamin D levels are low, the skin stays as white as it can to make as much vitamin D as it can. When vitamin D levels are high, the skin rapidly tans to prevent excessive vitamin D skin production. A number of people have emailed me that observation: now that their levels are high, they tan very quickly. I've noticed the same thing.

The final conversion of vitamin D in the skin requires heat and the heat of sunburn will increase the amount of vitamin D made by any one sun-exposure. Thus, sunburns evolved for a reason. Nature cares less if you damage your skin with sunburn; Nature cares more that vitamin D deficient people maximize any one sun-exposure. That is, people with low 25(OH)D levels have a reason to burn, they make more vitamin D.

Easy sunburning and sun sensitivity may simply be a symptom of vitamin D deficiency. This is also a good study for some young vitamin D scientist to do.Vitamin D sufficient people do not need any extra vitamin D from the sun, so the extra heat in the skin generated by sunburn is not needed.

(As an aside, I also predict that 25(OH)D exerts negative feedback on 7-dehydrocholesterol, vitamin D's precursor molecule.) Vitamin D sufficient readers will see, when they go into the sun this spring, that it takes longer to burn, that their skin is less sun-sensitive, and that when redness does occur, it is often gone the next day.

However, beware: vitamin D sufficient people can still sunburn, it just takes longer. Sunburns increase your risk of melanoma and other skin cancers.Also, some fair-skinned people have a genetic variation that prevents their skin from making melanin pigment. Theoretically, vitamin D should not help them from sunburning.

But don't confuse fact with theory. The fact is that some skin type 1 people cannot make much melanin; the theory is that vitamin D will not protect their skin from sunburn. However, I know of some very fair-skinned, blond-headed, blue-eyed, skin type 1 people whose skin became less sensitive to the sun after taking 5,000 IU/day.

Diets rich in vegetables, fruits, and omega-3 fats””and the absence of appreciable quantities of omega-6 and trans-fats””also protects your skin from burning. The people who get sunburned are modern humans who live and work indoors, avoid fruit and vegetables, love french fries and chips, hate salmon, and go to the beach two or three times in the summer to roast themselves.

Frequent sunburns, especially in childhood, are but one factor in melanoma””genetics and diet are more important.

John Jacob Cannell MD
Executive Director http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/



Women who regularly sunbathe live longer, a leading cancer specialist has claimed.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...er-say-scientists-Lund-University-Sweden.html

There is also Vitamin Ds regulation of Glutathione

Besides reducing inflammatory cytokines, vitamin D does one more thing: it increases concentrations of glutathione””The master antioxidant and Detoxifier.

Glutathione does about everhthing you can think of ... Unlike Vitamin C & E etc
glutathione exists within the cells, it is in a prime position to neutralize free radicals.

remove heavy metals
protect against Sunburn
protect the Brain etc etc

Motorway

 

[motorway]

Another reason for why supplements ( with D3 ! in the earlier quote from Hollick, It looks to me he was talking about D2 )

SHOWERING AFTER SUNBATHING
Dr. Cannell:
Does showering after sunbathing wash off the Vitamin D?
Sarah,
Oklahoma
Yes, but how much of the skin's total production? Agnes Helmer and Cornelius Jensen published a remarkable human/animal study in 1937, showing that significant amounts of Vitamin D are made on the surface of human skin. Reverend Jensen, the senior author, was a professor of biophysics as St. Thomas Aquinas, the precursor of the University of Dayton.

The authors collected surface oils from young men before showering, irradiated the oils, and showed those oils contained large amounts of Vitamin D, enough to cure rickets in animals. Then, they tested a very practical question; can those oils be removed by washing? Indeed they found washing, even with plain water, removed much of the Vitamin D from the surface of human skin. Holick, et al's, landmark 1980 study showing most human Vitamin D production occurs in the deep epidermis was incomplete. It was based on surgically obtained (and assumedly surgically prepped) skin samples that had any remaining surface oils removed by washing with hot water.

Indeed, to accurately address the question of where Vitamin D is made, one would need to obtain unwashed human skin, difficult to do even from cadavers. It appears to me that the percentage of Vitamin D made on the surface of the human skin, compared to that made inside the skin, is unknown at this time and in need of additional and careful research.
Furthermore, if the percentage made on the surface is significant, studies of cutaneous Vitamin D production in modern humans””unless from skin that went unwashed for several weeks””will not give accurate estimates of Vitamin D production in early man. Thus, these studies cannot give an accurate estimate of the "natural" 25(OH)D levels present when the human genome evolved in Northeast Africa.

Good short Vid
with a good punchline

"I'll see you in Acapulco"



Motorway

 

[johenmo]

Motorway - interesting point re washing. With humanity becoming more and more paranoid about sterility (anti-bac handwashes etc etc) and better hygiene, have we swapped some diseases for something else? From what Dr Cannell suggests we aren't helping ourselves. And this likely all ties into the increase in allergen sensitivity in the population.

I shall have to get my books out again when I get back home!

What Vit D suppl do you use, If I may ask?