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  #31   ^
Old Tue, Jun-02-09, 07:02
Demi's Avatar
Demi Demi is offline
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Plan: Muscle Centric
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An interesting article in The Mail today:

Quote:
How avoiding the sun to protect against skin cancer has left Georgia Coleridge facing the threat of brittle bones

By Georgia Coleridge

2 June 2009

Until my friend collared me at a party, I’d never thought much about my bones. ‘I’ve just found out that my bone density isn’t great,’ she said. ‘I wish I’d known earlier about osteoporosis. Promise me you’ll have a scan.’

The conversation seemed surreal. Surely osteoporosis had nothing to do with either of us. I had assumed it affected only a minority of elderly ladies.
I might well have forgotten my friend’s warning, but the next day I had a doctor’s appointment and I found myself asking about bone density. ‘You’re only 43,’ he said. ‘It’s a bit early to worry. You keep fit, don’t you? You get some sunshine?’

‘Ha!’ I said. ‘Exercise and sunshine aren’t really my thing. I’m usually indoors, tapping away on my computer.’

His reaction was both immediate and surprising. All trace of nonchalance disappeared and I felt my first surge of apprehension. Looking back, I don’t know what I had expected - a blood test, maybe - but I left clutching a referral to a private clinic with a state-of-the-art Hologic Discovery QDR bone scanner.

The scan itself was simple and painless. I lay on my back, with my ankles braced against two blocks, then the scanner slid over my body, precisely measuring my hip and lower back.

There’s nothing like being pinned to a piece of strangely shaped hospital equipment to focus the mind. Visions of my bone tissue, described by the assisting nurse as ‘a Crunchie chocolate bar’, crowded my imagination. The denser the honeycomb, the stronger my bones would be.

If I was lucky, I might have built up enough bone mass in my teens and 20s to last the rest of my life. But bone cells, like skin cells, are constantly being broken down and built up, and over the years women who don’t have good genes or a good diet, who smoke and drink too much, who don’t take enough exercise or get enough sunshine, can lose a lot more bone than they replace.
It’s such a slow process that most of us won’t notice or give a moment’s thought to it until the menopause, when levels of oestrogen (a natural bone protector) decline and our bones start becoming fragile, fast.

Osteoporosis affects around three million people in Britain; 50 per cent of us women will become old ladies with osteoporotic fractures, snapping wrists and hips like dry twigs if we fall, shrinking and curving over like crones in a fairy story as our vertebrae begin to crumble.

I left the clinic with that nagging ‘what if ’ feeling that wasn’t assuaged by a hospital leaflet about ‘bone density, sunshine and vitamin D’. Like many women, I’m susceptible to scare stories about sunlight and skin (that catalogue of beauty and health disasters, ranging wrinkles to cancer), and I’ve always worried about my husband, whose idea of a perfect holiday is to fly somewhere close to the Equator and soak up as much sunshine as he can.

I’m fair-skinned and freckly, and unless I cover up or ladle on sun cream, my skin can blister like bubble wrap. I’ve always felt more comfortable in the shade or even indoors. How ironic, then, to think that all my efforts to save my skin had provided a potential recipe for osteoporosis.

Bones need calcium, but I didn’t know that however much milk, cheese and oily fish I devoured, my body would have trouble absorbing it unless I also had a good supply of vitamin D - a staggering 90 per cent of which is manufactured when bare skin is exposed to sunlight.

Apparently, we should all be going outside three or four times a week, for at least 20 minutes, exposing about a fifth of our body to the light. But women like me who cover up, always wear sun cream, live in a northern climate and stay indoors too much could be storing up trouble.

I was already rethinking my wardrobe (swapping my trousers for a knee-length Nanette Lepore skirt to give my milk-white legs a blast of ultraviolet) when my doctor called with the scan results.

‘You shouldn’t panic,’ he said, ‘but the bone density in your spine is at the very low end of normal for your age.’

In five years’ time, he counselled, without oestrogen coursing round my body every month, he might prescribe HRT; but, disconcertingly, until then he had no suggestions. The technical term for the state of my spine is ‘mild osteopenia’.

Uneasy at the idea of doing nothing at all, I spent a confusing afternoon Googling ‘osteoporosis’ and ‘osteopenia’. I read that while HRT used to be the preferred medication, its link to breast cancer has now led specialists to prescribe drugs called bisphosphonates, such as alendronic acid, instead.
They have a downside, too: some patients suffer such terrible heartburn that they won’t take it for more than a year.

On the upside, the World Health Organisation has launched an online Fracture Risk Assessment Tool called FRAX to assess whether sufferers need medication - a test anyone can access, but few GPs know about.
Trying not to panic, I booked myself an appointment with Dr Stephanie Kaye, a consultant rheumatologist at the Lister Hospital in West London.
Patients tend to be sent to her only after an unusual fracture caused by something seemingly innocuous - ‘such as dropping a dog lead on their foot’.

Few premenopausal patients get referred for investigative or preventative treatment.

Dr Kaye explained that, in the majority of cases, osteoporosis is mostly genetic, so statistically I’m lucky my mother has never had a hip fracture or a dowager’s hump, and that my diet is good - I eat lots of fresh, healthy food.
Just as I was beginning to feel relieved, Dr Kaye zeroed in on my sun phobia, insisting on a baseline blood test to check my parathyroid, calcium and vitamin D levels in particular.

When the results came back, my vitamin D levels were so low I was immediately called back in for an intramuscular injection and prescribed a daily calcium/vitamin D supplement.

Dr Kaye suggested I get another bone scan in a year, and encouraged me to do at least 30 minutes of exercise a day, something like brisk walking or jogging, as the thump-thump vibrations stimulate bone growth.

This was another wake-up call, as I’m naturally sedentary and haven’t done enough exercise for years. Though my weekly yoga class helps my bones by gently stressing them in a number of unusual positions, it simply hasn’t had enough impact.

The phrase ‘go to the gym’, once consigned to the bottom of my life list - I always had a book to write, children to look after, parties to go to first - was now something I couldn’t put off ‘until tomorrow’.

After my scan, and Dr Kaye’s advice, and driven by genuine fear, it was time to face up to my primary school hangups and shake off the tired old script that I could never be sporty.

I bought a pedometer and set myself the ambitious target of 10,000 steps a day (Dr Kaye suggested 5,000 minimum). These days, I take the stairs instead of the lift, and park the car farther away, then walk. Whenever I’m falling short of my 10,000-step goal, I go to a Power Plate studio.

I’m surprised how challenging the change in lifestyle has been. Switching to skirts, taking supplements, going out sometimes without sun cream and attending a few exercise classes doesn’t sound like much of a change, but shifting long-held habits feels like a big step.

I don’t know what will show up on my next bone scan, but I am optimistic. It feels good that I’m heading towards my 50s having faced up to my anxieties about exercise and my paranoia about the sun. By trying to ensure my bones are heavier than before, at least my bundle of insecurities feels lighter.

This article is from the July ‘Ageless’ issue of Vogue, out Thursday.
Visit the National Osteoporosis Society at Nos.org.uk

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...ttle-bones.html
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  #32   ^
Old Tue, Jun-02-09, 18:03
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Wifezilla Wifezilla is offline
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Woo hoo! A new thread to muck about in

How is everyone? I have been laying out in the back yard when the weather allows it. The ducks love nibbling on my swim suit top straps. Kind of hard to relax when one of the big ducks mistakes my toes for a grub though

I think I told you guys a while back about my friend's buddy who recently died of melanoma (she was only 35, stayed out of the sun, ate lots of carbs because they were cheap, etc...).

I got a few more details about her condition. The two main spots where the melanoma struck were on her lower spine and under her breast. Two areas that DID NOT see the sun.

Last edited by Wifezilla : Tue, Jun-02-09 at 18:15.
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  #33   ^
Old Wed, Jun-03-09, 08:37
Demi's Avatar
Demi Demi is offline
Posts: 26,644
 
Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160 Female 5'10"
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The Vitamin D Newsletter

Pregnancy and Vitamin D

June, 2009


In the last 3 years, an increasing amount of research suggests that some of the damage done by Vitamin D deficiency is done in-utero, while the fetus is developing. Much of that damage may be permanent, that is, it can not be fully reversed by taking Vitamin D after birth. This research indicates Vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy endangers the mother’s life and health, and is the origin for a host of future perils for the child, especially for the child’s brain and immune system. Some of the damage done by maternal Vitamin D deficiency may not show up for 30 years. Let’s start with the mother.

Incidence of Gestational Vitamin D Deficiency:

Dr. Joyce Lee and her colleagues at the University of Michigan studied 40 pregnant women, the majority taking prenatal vitamins. Only two had levels of >50 ng/ml and only three had levels > 40 ng/ml. That is, 37 of 40 pregnant women had levels below 40 ng/ml and the majority had levels below 20 ng/ml. More than 25% had levels below 10 ng/ml.

Lee JM, Smith JR, Philipp BL, Chen TC, Mathieu J, Holick MF. Vitamin D deficiency in a healthy group of mothers and newborn infants. Clin Pediatr (Phila). 2007 Jan;46(1):42-4.

Dr. Lisa Bodnar, a prolific Vitamin D researcher, and her colleagues at the University of Pittsburg studied 400 pregnant Pennsylvania women; 63% had levels below 30 ng/ml and 44% of the black women in the study had levels below 15 ng/ml. Prenatal vitamins had little effect on the incidence of deficiency.

Bodnar LM, Simhan HN, Powers RW, Frank MP, Cooperstein E, Roberts JM. High prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in black and white pregnant women residing in the northern United States and their neonates. J Nutr. 2007 Feb;137(2):447-52.

Dr. Dijkstra and colleagues studied 70 pregnant women in the Netherlands, none had levels above 40 ng/ml and 50% had levels below 10 ng/ml. Again, prenatal vitamins appeared to have little effect on 25(OH)D levels, as you might expect since prenatal vitamins only contain 400 IU of Vitamin D.

Dijkstra SH, van Beek A, Janssen JW, de Vleeschouwer LH, Huysman WA, van den Akker EL. High prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in newborns of high-risk mothers. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2007 Apr 25.

Thus, more than 95% of pregnant women have 25(OH)D levels below 50 ng/ml, the level that may indicate chronic substrate starvation, that is, they are using up any Vitamin D they have very quickly and do not have enough to store for future use. Pretty scary.

Effects on the Mother:

Caesarean section:


The rate of Caesarean section in American women has increased from 5% in 1970 to 30% today. Dr. Anne Merewood and her colleagues at Boston University School of Medicine found women with levels below 15 ng/ml were four times more likely to have a Cesarean section than were women with higher levels. Among the few women with levels above 50 ng/ml, the Caesarean section rate was the same as it was in 1970, about 5%.

Merewood A, Mehta SD, Chen TC, Bauchner H, Holick MF. Association between vitamin D deficiency and primary cesarean section. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2009 Mar;94(3):940-5.

Preeclampsia:

Preeclampsia is a common obstetrical condition in which hypertension is combined with excess protein in the urine. It greatly increases the risk of the mother developing eclampsia and then dying from a stroke. Dr. Lisa Bodnar and her colleagues found women with 25(OH)D levels less than 15 ng/ml had a five-fold (5 fold) increase in the risk of preeclampsia.

Bodnar LM, Catov JM, Simhan HN, Holick MF, Powers RW, Roberts JM. Maternal vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of preeclampsia. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2007 Sep;92(9):3517-22.

Gestational Diabetes:

Diabetes during pregnancy affects about 5% of all pregnant women, is increasing in incidence, and may have deleterious effects on the fetus. Dr. Cuilin Zhang and colleagues at the NIH found women with low 25(OH)D levels were almost 3 times more likely to develop diabetes during pregnancy.

Zhang C, Qiu C, Hu FB, David RM, van Dam RM, Bralley A, Williams MA. Maternal plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations and the risk for gestational diabetes mellitus. PLoS ONE. 2008;3(11):e3753.

Bacterial Vaginitis:

Dr. Lisa Bodnar and her colleagues found pregnant women with the lowest 25(OH)D level are almost twice as likely to get a bacterial vaginal infection during their pregnancy.

Bodnar LM, Krohn MA, Simhan HN. Maternal Vitamin D Deficiency Is Associated with Bacterial Vaginosis in the First Trimester of Pregnancy. J Nutr. 2009 Apr 8.

Effects on the child:

Before we talk about maternal Vitamin deficiency's effect on the fetus, remember that children need lots of Vitamin D. In fact, seventeen experts, many world-class experts, recently recommended:

"Until we have better information on doses of vitamin D that will reliably provide adequate blood levels of 25(OH)D without toxicity, treatment of vitamin D deficiency in otherwise healthy children should be individualized according to the numerous factors that affect 25(OH)D levels, such as body weight, percent body fat, skin melanin, latitude, season of the year, and sun exposure. The doses of sunshine or oral vitamin D3 used in healthy children should be designed to maintain 25(OH)D levels above 50 ng/mL. As a rule, in the absence of significant sun exposure, we believe that most healthy children need about 1,000 IU of vitamin D3 daily per 11 kg (25 lb) of body weight to obtain levels greater than 50 ng/mL. Some will need more, and others less. In our opinion, children with chronic illnesses such as autism, diabetes, and/or frequent infections should be supplemented with higher doses of sunshine or vitamin D3, doses adequate to maintain their 25(OH)D levels in the mid-normal of the reference range (65 ng/mL) — and should be so supplemented year round (p. 868)."

That's right. Healthy children need about 1,000 IU per 25 pounds of body weight and their 25(OH)D levels should be >50 ng/ml, year round.

Cannell JJ, Vieth R, Willett W, Zasloff M, Hathcock JN, White JH, Tanumihardjo SA, Larson-Meyer DE, Bischoff-Ferrari HA, Lamberg-Allardt CJ, Lappe JM, Norman
AW, Zittermann A, Whiting SJ, Grant WB, Hollis BW, Giovannucci E. Cod liver oil, vitamin A toxicity, frequent respiratory infections, and the vitamin D deficiency epidemic. Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol. 2008 Nov;117(11):864-70.


What about fetuses, what happens to them later in life if their mother is deficient? Eight years before the above recommendations, Professor John McGrath of the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research theorized that maternal Vitamin D deficiency adversely “imprinted” the fetus, making infants more liable for a host of adult disorders. Research since that time has supported McGrath’s theory. Consider, for a minute, what it must be like for John McGrath, to know that maternal Vitamin D deficiency is causing such widespread devastation, to know it could be so easily treated, but to also know he must wait the decades that will be required to deal with the problem.

McGrath J. Does 'imprinting' with low prenatal vitamin D contribute to the risk of various adult disorders? Med Hypotheses. 2001 Mar;56(3):367-71.

Schizophrenia:

Dr. Dennis Kinney and his colleagues at Harvard published a fascinating paper last month on the role of maternal Vitamin D deficiency in the development of schizophrenia, in support of Dr. McGrath’s theory. As they point out, the role of inadequate Vitamin D during brain development appears to “overwhelm” other effects, explaining why schizophrenia has so many of the footprints of a maternal Vitamin D deficiency disorder, such as strong latitudinal variation, excess winter births, and skin color.

Kinney DK, Teixeira P, Hsu D, Napoleon SC, Crowley DJ, Miller A, Hyman W, Huang E. Relation of schizophrenia prevalence to latitude, climate, fish consumption, infant mortality, and skin color: a role for prenatal vitamin d deficiency and infections? Schizophr Bull. 2009 May;35(3):582-95.

Autism:

I’ll say not more other than to point out Scientific American ran a lengthy article last month on my autism theory but the editors insisted that the author not cite me or my paper, because I’m “not a scientist.”

What If Vitamin D Deficiency Is a Cause of Autism?

Mental Retardation:

The only evidence that Vitamin D deficiency is a common cause of mental retardation is from researchers at the CDC who found mild mental retardation is twice as common among African Americans as whites and the politically correct explanation – socioeconomic factors – cannot explain it. If latitudinal studies of mild mental retardation exist, I am unable to locate them.

Yeargin-Allsopp M, Drews CD, Decoufle P, Murphy CC. Mild mental retardation in black and white children in metropolitan Atlanta: a case-control study. Am J Public Health 1995;85(3):324–8.

Drews CD, Yeargin-Allsopp M, Decoufle P, Murphy CC. Variation in the influence of selected sociodemographic risk factors for mental retardation. Am J Public Health 1995;85(3):329–34.

Of course, you are a racist if you believe these studies. In fact, a number of writers have told me their editors will not allow writers to discuss these studies in their stories. I’m glad these studies were conducted by researchers at the CDC although I worry about their political longevity at the CDC after reporting such findings.

I’ll mention one other fact, at my peril, and that is the fact that a very smart man, President Barack Obama, was born in the late summer (August) and has a brain that developed in a womb covered in white skin, during the spring and summer, in the subtropics (Latitude 21 degrees North), during an age before sun-avoidance was the mantra (1961). Make what you want to of that fact. My point is that whites living at temperate latitudes may have a huge developmental advantage over blacks, an advantage that begins immediately after conception, an advantage that has nothing to do with innate genetic ability and everything to do with environment.

Newborn Lower Respiratory Tract Infection:

Newborn babies are vulnerable to infections in their lungs and women with the lowest 25(OH)D level during pregnancy were much more likely to have their newborn in the ICU being treated for lower respiratory tract infections. Drs. Walker and Modlin at UCLA recently presented reasons why viral pneumonia is probably only one of many pediatric Vitamin D deficient infections.

Karatekin G, Kaya A, Salihoğlu O, Balci H, Nuhoğlu A. Association of subclinical vitamin D deficiency in newborns with acute lower respiratory infection and their mothers. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2009 Apr;63(4):473-7.

Walker VP, Modlin RL. The Vitamin D Connection to Pediatric Infections and Immune Function. Pediatr Res. 2009 Jan 28.

Birth weight:

While conflicting results exist on the effects of maternal Vitamin D deficiency and birth weight, the majority of the studies find an effect. Furthermore, the studies are comparing women who have virtually no intake to women who have minuscule intakes. For example, women who ingested around 600 IU per day were more likely to have normal weight babies compared to women whose intake was less than 300 IU per day. One can only wonder what would happen if pregnant women had adequate intakes? Drs. Scholl and Chen, at the Department of Obstetrics at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, concluded pregnant women need 6,000 IU/day, not the 400 IU/day contained in prenatal vitamins.

Scholl TO, Chen X. Vitamin D intake during pregnancy: association with maternal characteristics and infant birth weight. Early Hum Dev. 2009 Apr;85(4):231-4.

Diabetes:

My old nemesis, cod liver oil, when given during pregnancy, resulted in children who were three times less likely to develop juvenile diabetes before the age of 15. Of course this was back when cod liver oil had meaningful amounts of Vitamin D (these Norwegian mothers were taking cod liver oil in the 1980s).

Stene LC, Ulriksen J, Magnus P, Joner G. Use of cod liver oil during pregnancy associated with lower risk of Type I diabetes in the offspring. Diabetologia. 2000 Sep;43(9):1093-8.

Seizures:

Newborns frequently have seizures and those seizures are almost always due to low blood calcium. This problem is so common that many newborns are given a prophylactic injection of calcium. In 1978, researchers found such hypocalcemia can easily be prevented by giving Vitamin D. Sadly, standard treatment remains, not Vitamin D, but calcium and an analogue of activated Vitamin D; such analogues do not correct Vitamin D deficiency. The fact this was known in 1978, and routinely ignored by obstetricians since then, should give you pause. Do not think science will solve the Vitamin D problem. Science simply points the way, activists must change the practice.

Fleischman AR, Rosen JF, Nathenson G. 25-Hydroxycholecalciferol for early neonatal hypocalcemia. Occurrence in premature newborns. Am J Dis Child. 1978 Oct;132(10):973-7.

Heart Failure:

Idiopathic infant heart failure is often fatal. Of course, idiopathic to whom: the idiot cardiologists who do not recognize severe infantile Vitamin D deficiency. Luckily, for 16 infants, Dr. Maiya, Dr. Burch and colleagues at the Great Ormand Street Hospital for Children, are not among those idiots.

Maiya S, Sullivan I, Allgrove J, Yates R, Malone M, Brain C, Archer N, Mok Q, Daubeney P, Tulloh R, Burch M. Hypocalcaemia and vitamin D deficiency: an important, but preventable, cause of life-threatening infant heart failure. Heart. 2008 May;94(5):581-4.

Weak bones:

Dr. Muhammad Javaid and colleagues at the University of Southampton found that children of Vitamin D deficient mothers were much more likely to have weak bones 9 years later. Dr. Adrian Sayers and Jonathan Tobias of the University of Bristol recently found the same thing when they looked at maternal sun-exposure.

Javaid MK, Crozier SR, Harvey NC, Gale CR, Dennison EM, Boucher BJ, Arden NK, Godfrey KM, Cooper C; Princess Anne Hospital Study Group. Maternal vitamin D status during pregnancy and childhood bone mass at age 9 years: a longitudinal study. Lancet. 2006 Jan 7;367(9504):36-43.

Sayers A, Tobias JH. Estimated maternal ultraviolet B exposure levels in pregnancy influence skeletal development of the child. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2009 Mar;94(3):765-71.

Brain Tumors:

John McGrath’s group discovered that children with astrocytomas and ependyomas (brain tumors you do not want your child to have) were more likely to be born in the winter.

Ko P, Eyles D, Burne T, Mackay-Sim A, McGrath JJ. Season of birth and risk of brain tumors in adults. Neurology. 2005 Apr 12;64(7):1317

Epilepsy:

Three studies have found that epileptic patients are much more likely to be born in the winter. Dr. Marco Procopio of the Priory Hospital Hove in Sussex has written all three. Here is his last one, which summarizes his first two.

Procopio M, Marriott PK, Davies RJ. Seasonality of birth in epilepsy: a Southern Hemisphere study. Seizure. 2006 Jan;15(1):17-21.

Craniotabes:

Craniotabes is softening of the skull bones that occur in 1/3 of “normal” newborns. Recent evidence indicates it is yet another sign and sequela of maternal vitamin D deficiency.

Yorifuji J, Yorifuji T, Tachibana K, Nagai S, Kawai M, Momoi T, Nagasaka H, Hatayama H, Nakahata T. Craniotabes in normal newborns: the earliest sign of subclinical vitamin D deficiency. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2008 May;93(5):1784-8.

Cavities:

Dr. Robert Schroth from the University of Manitoba reported that mothers of children who developed cavities at an early age had significantly lower vitamin D levels during pregnancy than those whose children were cavity-free.

Prenatal vitamin D linked to kids' dental health

Asthma:

The extant data here is conflicting. Two studies have found higher Vitamin D intakes during pregnancy decrease the risk of asthma in later childhood and one has found the opposite. The best review of the issue is by Drs. Augusto Litonjua and Scott Weiss, at Harvard, who conclude that the current epidemic of asthma among our children is related to both gestational and ongoing childhood vitamin D deficiency.

Litonjua AA, Weiss ST. Is vitamin D deficiency to blame for the asthma epidemic? J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2007 Nov;120(5):1031-5.

Furthermore, a very recent study by Dr. John Brehm and the same Harvard group found low Vitamin D levels in asthmatic children were associated with hospitalization, medication use, and disease severity.

Brehm JM, Celedón JC, Soto-Quiros ME, Avila L, Hunninghake GM, Forno E, Laskey D, Sylvia JS, Hollis BW, Weiss ST, Litonjua AA. Serum vitamin D levels and markers of severity of childhood asthma in Costa Rica. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2009 May 1;179(9):765-71.

In case you are wondering, black children are four times more likely than white children to be hospitalized or die from asthma.

Akinbami LJ, Schoendorf KC. Trends in childhood asthma: prevalence, health care utilization, and mortality. Pediatrics. 2002 Aug;110(2 Pt 1):315-22.

My experience, both at the hospital and via my readers, is that asthma improves, albeit sometimes slowly, when adequate doses of Vitamin D are taken. However, Vitamin D does not appear to be a cure, like it is in some other conditions. I suspect children with asthma have suffered both gestational and ongoing childhood Vitamin D deficiency that probably altered, perhaps permanently, their immune system.

The Vitamin D Council’s Effort:

We recently ran a Ľ page announcement in OB/GYN News and the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (AJOG). Unfortunately, the editor of AJOG censored our announcement after its first month but we were able to get the full three month run in OB/GYN News. We also sent a very similar email to 18,000 obstetricians in the US. The total cost to the Council for this campaign was about $12,000.00.

The announcement simply pointed out that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recently recommended that all pregnant women have a 25(OH)D blood test because Vitamin D is important for normal fetal development (p. 1145):

“Given the growing evidence that adequate maternal vitamin D status is essential during pregnancy, not only for maternal well-being but also for fetal development, health care professionals who provide obstetric care should consider assessing maternal vitamin D status by measuring the 25-OH-D concentrations of pregnant women. On an individual basis, a mother should be supplemented with adequate amounts of vitamin D3 to ensure that her 25-OH-D levels are in a sufficient range (>32 ng/ml). The knowledge that prenatal vitamins containing 400 IU of vitamin D3 have little effect on circulating maternal 25-OH-D concentrations, especially during the winter months, should be imparted to all health care professionals.”

Wagner CL, Greer FR; American Academy of Pediatrics Section on breastfeeding; American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition. Prevention of rickets and vitamin D deficiency in infants, children, and adolescents. Pediatrics. 2008 Nov;122(5):1142-52.

As the AAP recommendation came from an official medical body, to medical malpractice attorneys it represents evidence of a “standard of care” for future lawsuits. We also reminded obstetricians that the statute of limitations on malpractice suits does not toll (begin) until the injured party recognizes the injury. That is, the parents of a 5-year-old child diagnosed with autism five years in the future may bring suit against that obstetrician for how the child was treated during his time in the uterus, citing the 2008 AAP’s recommendation as a standard of care. Obstetricians are already burdened with numerous lawsuits, but they could decrease the number of suits significantly if they would just take the time to learn about Vitamin D.

Finally, we used our last $12,000 to produce and run the following TV announcement in the Washington, D.C. TV market.

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/videos/vitamin-d-and-pregnancy.wmv

What can you do?

Most people want to do good – at least some good – in their lives. The endless pursuit of the God-almighty dollar, better clothes, better houses and better vacations than your neighbors eventually leaves a hole in your soul. Here is an opportunity to fill it.

If you don’t feel that soul hole, try a meditation I learned at Esalen Institute in the 1980s and have practiced ever since. Lie on the floor and pretend you are dead in your grave. Feel the worms, smell the rot, sense the finality. Then, when you really feel dead, visualize your gravestone above. What does it say? “Here lies Robert; he had a big fancy house.” “Here lies Vanessa; she wore beautiful clothes and had four face lifts.” Here lies Michael; he made a billion dollars.” Through this meditation, I realized I want my gravestone to say, “Here lies John, he did something good.”

One good thing you can do is simply tell every pregnant woman and women thinking of getting pregnant that she needs to take more Vitamin D, a lot more. Pregnant women need a minimum of 5,000 IU per day and even that dose will not achieve 25(OH)D levels of >50 ng/ml in all women. Why not buy a few bottles of 5,000 IU capsules and hand out the bottles to your pregnant friends. You can get 250 capsules for 15 bucks. Forward this email to her. Show her our Pregnancy and Vitamin D public service announcement.

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/videos/vitamin-d-and-pregnancy.wmv

If you want to do more, why not get a copy of our Pregnancy and Vitamin D public service announcement (email: webmaster~vitamindcouncil.org; the ad is not copyrighted) and then pay to run it on a TV station in your hometown. You can easily add a caption at the bottom saying this public service announcement is being sponsored by your company, combining a good deed with good business.

Alas, no glory will be yours, at least in this life. No woman will ever thank you for the schizophrenic child she never had, for the trips to the emergency room with a breathless child that she never made, for the repetitive moaning of the autistic child she never endured. Although, she may wonder why her pregnancy was so easy and why her infant is so healthy, alert, active and smart.

John Cannell, MD
Vitamin D Council


This is a periodic newsletter from the Vitamin D Council, a non-profit trying to end the epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. Please reproduce it, post it on Internet sites, and forward it to your friends. Remember, we are a non-profit and rely on your donations to publish our newsletter, maintain our website, and pursue our objectives. Send your tax-deductible contributions to:

The Vitamin D Council
585 Leff Street
San Luis Obispo, CA 93422
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  #34   ^
Old Wed, Jun-03-09, 18:25
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PS Diva PS Diva is offline
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There has been many posts about vitamin D levels being related to the onset of dementia. But, I am trying to find some studies that talk about the geographic distribution of dementia cases. My theory is that there would be less dementia in people living closer to the equator, but I haven't found a study that asks that question.

And I am also wondering if there is a time of year that dementia is more often diagnosed, because ones vitamin d levels might be lower.

Can anyone point me to some articles that talk about those those questions? My local alzheimer's society is interested in what I have mentioned about the relationship to vitamin d and dementia. (As if I am the one who thought of it!)
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Old Thu, Jun-04-09, 02:17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PS Diva
There has been many posts about vitamin D levels being related to the onset of dementia. But, I am trying to find some studies that talk about the geographic distribution of dementia cases. My theory is that there would be less dementia in people living closer to the equator, but I haven't found a study that asks that question.

And I am also wondering if there is a time of year that dementia is more often diagnosed, because ones vitamin d levels might be lower.

Can anyone point me to some articles that talk about those those questions? My local alzheimer's society is interested in what I have mentioned about the relationship to vitamin d and dementia. (As if I am the one who thought of it!)
This should help to get you started: http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/scie...s-disease.shtml and http://www.google.com/custom?q=deme...mindcouncil.org

Last edited by Demi : Thu, Jun-04-09 at 02:31.
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Old Thu, Jun-04-09, 02:35
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From The Times
June 2, 2009

Quote:
High doses of vitamin D could cut relapse rate among MS sufferers

Melanie Reid, Oliver Gillie


Powerful new evidence about the ability of vitamin D to stem a wide range of diseases has brought the prospect of a nationwide programme to prescribe it in Scotland as a dietary supplement significantly closer.

Reports at the weekend suggested that experts were increasingly convinced that the so-called sunshine drug — whose significance was first revealed in detail by The Times last year — could make a difference to the country’s appalling health record.

New research suggests that high doses of vitamin D could dramatically cut the relapse rate in people with multiple sclerosis. According to scientists in Canada, more than a third of sufferers taking high levels of supplementation did not fall ill during the period of the trial, representing a marked change in the pattern of their disease.

Like Scotland, Canada has a high rate of MS and there is growing evidence that this is connected to a cloudy climate that inhibits the natural uptake of vitamin D through the skin. Several studies have found vitamin D deficiency in people suffering from the disease.

Fears that not enough is known about the possible side effects of vitamin D supplements were countered by evidence presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.

Dr Jodie Burton, a neurologist at the University of Toronto, studied 25 people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. During the year of treatment 40 per cent of patients on the low dose of vitamin D (1,000 international units daily) experienced a relapse compared to only 16 per cent of those in the high dose (14,000 IU daily) group.

People taking the high dose of vitamin D suffered 41 per cent fewer relapses than the year before the study began, compared with 17 per cent of those taking typical doses.

Dr Burton found that those taking high doses of vitamin D did not suffer any significant side effects.

A recent online paper for the Journal of Neurology states that, from a medical point of view, vitamin D supplementation for MS patients “appears unavoidable”.

Charles Pierrot-Deseilligny, a neurologist from Salpętričre Hospital, Paris, says in the paper that vitamin D deficiency is “potentially the most promising” new clinical implication for MS.

He writes that most MS patients have low or insufficient levels of vitamin D compared to the international norm. “It can no longer be ignored that many MS patients have a lack of vitamin D which could be . . . corrected using an appropriate vitamin D supplementation.”

Dr Pierrot-Deseilligny says that giving supplements to MS patients at all stages of the disease appears useful.

The best results in the Canadian study were observed only in those who took the high dose. People in that group were given escalating doses of the vitamin for six months, to a maximum of 40,000 IU daily. Doses were then gradually lowered over the next six months, averaging out to 14,000 IU daily for the year. Dr Burton advised MS patients to talk to their doctors before beginning vitamin D supplements, noting that too much of the vitamin can be harmful for people with certain medical conditions, including kidney disease.

Data was also presented in the Canadian study demonstrating that high dose vitamin D appears to suppress the auto-immune responses thought to cause MS. In patients given high doses, T-cell activity was shown to drop significantly. It is these T-cells that malfunction and attack the myelin sheaths that surround and protect nerve cells in both peripheral nerves and the brain.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/li...icle6408801.ece
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Old Thu, Jun-04-09, 04:01
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PS Diva PS Diva is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Demi

These links should keep me busy for awhile looking for those specific answers! As I started browsing through them I already found myself being distracted by different papers saying, "Oh that's interesting!"
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Old Thu, Jun-04-09, 08:43
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From Natural News.com:


Quote:
Effective Treatment for Multiple Sclerosis is Completely Free with Vitamin D

by Kerri Knox

4 June, 2009

(NaturalNews) There are few effective treatments for the Neurologic problem called Multiple Sclerosis. Sufferers tend to get progressively worse and often end up in wheelchairs, unable to even perform the simplest tasks by themselves. But a new study is showing that effective treatment is right outside the door- in the form of the inexpensive and even FREE- Vitamin D.

Multiple Sclerosis is a devastating disease with few treatment options except hope. It often strikes at a young age and leaves the afflicted unable to care for themselves when they should be in the prime of their lives. It gets its name from the 'sclerosed' appearance that the fatty outer layer of the spinal cord, the myelin sheath, has when viewed on medical scans. These patches slow down- and even stop- electrical transmissions from the brain to the rest of the body and vice versa. Over time, strength and movement slow and are lost entirely.

Treatments for multiple sclerosis haven't worked very well, but drug manufacturers and researchers are always attempting to develop treatments to, if not cure the disease, at least give sufferers relief from their symptoms. Some drug treatments that have seemed to show promise are, as usual, being found to have serious consequences like: brain infections from the drug Rituximab and an increase in cancer from a class of drugs called beta interferons! What a choice to have to make to get better functioning.

But it seems that MS sufferers may not have to make that choice any more. A new study shows that those taking VERY high doses of Vitamin D, about 14,000 IU's per day on average, prevented the frequent relapses that occur with the disease. These high doses of Vitamin D significantly helped the patients in the study to maintain their current level of functioning with virtually no adverse effects. It's somewhat baffling, however, that the researchers warned other MS sufferers not to take more than 4000 IU's of Vitamin D per day until the treatment was proven to be safe.

This is baffling for two reasons: one because the much lower dosages of 4,000 IU's that were used in the study showed absolutely no benefit; two because study after study has already shown that high dose Vitamin D IS safe. In fact the University of Toronto, the research facility for THIS study, had stated previously in a DIFFERENT study that there is "no evidence of adverse effects from taking 10,000 IU of Vitamin D a day".

But even if you are skeptical about taking high doses of Vitamin D in pill form, where there IS the chance of taking too much, you can get high dose Vitamin D for FREE just by exposing your skin to sunlight. If you are light skinned and expose the majority of your body to direct sunlight for the amount of time that it takes you to get the slightest bit pink, you will make up to 200,000 IU's of Vitamin D. Interestingly, even though the body makes such a large amount of Vitamin D all at once, there has NEVER been a recorded overdose of Vitamin D from too much sun.

While this may be the first study to show the effectiveness of Vitamin D to prevent relapses in MS, there is already precedent for the use of Vitamin D in the disease. Several studies have shown that higher levels of Vitamin D are effective at PREVENTING Multiple Sclerosis in the first place. Another study showed that the number of sclerosed areas on the spinal cord could be reduced by as much as HALF using the same high dose Vitamin D used in this study!! In fact, Vitamin D researchers such as Oliver Gilley, who did extensive studies on Scotland's high rate of Multiple Sclerosis, has been urging higher levels of Vitamin D for years in order to ward off this preventable disease.

So, while drug researchers continue looking for the latest greatest drug treatment, Great Britain urges its Prime Minister to devote millions of pounds for stem cell research and the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada creates new training centers designed to "conduct MS research through training of the next generation of MS researchers"; the "next generation" for the prevention AND treatment of this 'incurable' disease is sitting right in front of us -right here, right now. While you may have to weigh the risks and benefits of getting your Vitamin D through the sun, this safe and effective treatment for Multiple Sclerosis is completely free of charge and no insurance is required.

http://www.healthresearchforum.org....ts/scotland.pdf
http://www.easy-immune-health.com/MS-and-Vitamin-D.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...Pubmed_RVDocSum

http://www.naturalnews.com/026384_V...is_disease.html
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Old Fri, Jun-05-09, 07:57
Zuleikaa Zuleikaa is offline
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Great find, Demi!!!

I get so tired of hearing warnings about high dose vitamin D!!!
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Old Fri, Jun-05-09, 08:34
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Me too! < 10K IUs per day is not enough for me.

Vieth explains that the vitamin D system of the human body is better suited to working with an excess of vitamin D rather than a shortage.

Z, would you agree that this is a case of 4K IUs not being effective (as reported) because it is being used up readily by locations of higher priority, leaving an inadequate supply of substrate to be effective at addressing the MS?
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Old Fri, Jun-05-09, 09:06
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Can someone help me locate the most comprehensive and up-to-date online resources regarding vitamin D & insulin resistance and how D improves this function in humans?

Thanks in advance.

Edited -- Nevermind -- I'm scouring the D Council site for their Diabetes research citations. Thanks.
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Old Fri, Jun-05-09, 10:24
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this thread has been an eye opener for me. my son was diagnosed with osteopenia when he was 10 after breaking the growth plate in his wrist twice in 6 months. he was put on 1000mg of calcium and 400 of vitamin d. in 8 months it had worsened significantly and he now has osteoporosis. nothing has helped and it's been almost 6 years. a few months ago i started him on 2000iu of d3 and he'll get another bone scan at the beginning of august. any idea how quickly we could see a change? i'm really hoping we'll see improvement this time.

also, whenever i go out in the sun, if i don't put sunscreen on my lips, i get fever blisters. i have 9 right now and they are painful. that was from a few hours in the sun. i didn't burn anywhere but my face since the rest of my body is tanned from frequent beach trips. i typically put sunscreen on my face but not anywhere else. if i continue taking d3, will my risk of getting fever blisters decrease?
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Old Fri, Jun-05-09, 10:56
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Not sure about the fever blisters, but I think you should pick up and read Nutrition & Physical Degeneration by Dr. Weston A. Price. Problems with mineral metabolism and skeletal defects can be greatly aided by correcting vitamin D deficiency, but D is really only a part of the massively complex equation of total body optimal health. A sufficiently nutrient dense diet is warranted in such a case and relying simply on the addition of vitamin D supplementation may not be all that is needed (which is why I recommend the book above).

There is such synergy between the different fat soluble nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that only addressing one of the elements may not be sufficient. Obtaining adequate minerals above just calcium is also needed. I'll never forget reading that a calcium deficiency is not usually a result of inadequate calcium, but more likely a lacking of the synergistic mineral magnesium.

For example... D and calcium are good and all, but as we're learning from research done by Chris Masterjohn, which has been extended from the work of Dr. Price, vitamin K2 is needed in order to carry out the magic that vitamins A & D set in motion, which includes utilization of calcium and phosphorus and deposition in bones & teeth. Vitamin A is needed (from natural animal sources) to properly utilize vitamin D and also plays a role in bone remodeling above and beyond just vitamin D. The mainstream medical community likes to think that nutrients and minerals work in a vacuum, but the truth is that it is more complex than that and the requirements of the human body are a little more sophisticated than that.

If you haven't reviewed this already, I would recommend reading it in its entirety: http://www.westonaprice.org/basicnu...vitamin-k2.html

To try and answer your question: When Price put nutritionally deficient children on nutrient-dense diets with adequate fat soluble nutrients (activators) and minerals, he observed healing of broken bones and increased bone density within months of beginning the regimen. So, assuming you're doing things right, you should be able to see results fairly quickly, as when you give the body the raw materials it needs to build itself strong and healthy, it will go to work immediately!

Last edited by Jayppers : Fri, Jun-05-09 at 11:09.
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Old Fri, Jun-05-09, 11:26
Zuleikaa Zuleikaa is offline
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Sort of
Yes, 4,000 iU isn't enough and will be used for higher priority purposes but also you have to remember that this 4,000 isn't addressing the chronic vitamin D deficiency that had probably been going on for years.

So 4,000 IU is not only not enough to maintain a healthy status but it is definitely not enough to "fill the hole" and help correct years recurring and or ongoing deficiency.

Also, remember MS vulnerability can start in the womb and that condition can be mitigated but not cured post delivery.
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Old Fri, Jun-05-09, 17:10
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thanks! i appreciate the information. i found the book on amazon and i'm going to order it. hopefully adding vitamin k will help his body use the d better. i'm anxious to see what the next bone scan will show.

how high would you go with his dose? 10,000, increasing slowly? he was only taking 2000 and i recently doubled it. how long would you wait to increase again?
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