Vitamin D Deficency Causing Rickets
Natural News
By E. Huff
A clinical review paper published in the British Medical Journal is warning the public that widespread vitamin D deficiency is resurrecting the once-obsolete disease called rickets. According to Professor Simon Pearce and Dr. Time Cheetham, authors of the paper, people are getting far too little sunlight exposure which is necessary for the body to produce adequate levels of vitamin D.
Nowadays, children spend most of their time indoors staring at computer and television screens rather than playing outside in the sunlight. On the rare occasion that they venture outside, zealous parents are quick to apply UV-blocking sunscreen that prevents the sun’s useful UVB rays from penetrating their skin and producing vitamin D. The result is an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency that is leading to all sorts of illness and disease.
Rickets, a disease in which a person’s bones do not properly develop and harden, results when a person is getting too little vitamin D and most likely not enough calcium. The U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for vitamin D is a mere 400 IU, an amount that is said to be adequate for preventing rickets.
To put this amount into perspective, however, exposure to the summer sun for about 20 minutes is enough to produce up to 20,000 IU of vitamin D in the body. At this level, far more optimal health can be achieved. Yet the fact that children are beginning to develop rickets suggests that they are not even getting 400 IU a day, an amount that should be relatively easy to attain through a moderately healthy diet or a few minutes in the sun every day.
In the U.K., there are several hundred cases of rickets reported every year. According to statistics, more than 50 percent of the adult population in the U.K. is deficient in vitamin D as well. During the winter and spring months, more than 15 percent experience severe deficiency.
Researchers suggest that people with darker skin pigmentation are at a higher risk for rickets because they do not assimilate vitamin D from the sun’s UVB rays as easily as those with lighter skin do. Some experts believe that the changing ethnic profile of the U.K. may play a significant role in the onset of rickets while others point primarily to an overall lack of vitamin D among all ethnic groups.
Either way, the changing lifestyles among all people are partially to blame as people are not spending enough time outside and, when they do they are using too much sunscreen to obtain any sort of benefit from the sun. Overuse of sunscreen can be blamed on government health authorities, regulatory agencies, medical professionals, and mainstream media outlets that continually exaggerate the threat of developing skin cancer from sunlight exposure to the point that some people are afraid of getting any at all.
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Vitamin D Produces Less Falls in Elderly
Febraury 22, 2010
Natural News
By David Gutierrez
Seniors who take a large daily dose of vitamin D may be significantly less likely to suffer from falls, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Center on Aging and Mobility at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and published in the British Medical Journal.
“Falls are important events to prevent,” said researcher Heike A. Bischoff-Ferrari, “and 700 to 1000 IU of vitamin D per day is safe and inexpensive.”
Approximately one-third of all adults over the age of 64 and 50 percent of those over the age of 49 fall at least once per year. In 9 percent of these cases, a visit to the emergency room is required. In 6 percent of cases, a fracture results. Falls are often one of the primary events resulting in admission to a nursing home.
Researchers analyzed the results of eight different studies on a total of 2,400 people over the age of 64. All the studies looked at whether vitamin D supplementation could reduce the risk of falls in the elderly.
The researchers found that at doses below 700 IU per day, there was no reduction in the risk of falls. Above this level, however, the risk of falls was reduced by as much as one in four.
“It takes 700 to 1000 international units (IU) of vitamin D per day and nothing less will work,” Bischoff-Ferrari said. “At the higher dose of 700 to 1000 IU vitamin D, the benefit on fall prevention is significant — at least 19 percent, 26 percent with vitamin D3.”
Although vitamin D2 is the form most commonly found in supplements, the body absorbs vitamin D3 more effectively.
The researchers found no difference in effectiveness between supplements marketed as “active” and those that were simply unmodified D2. “Active” supplements, however, are significantly more likely to lead to high calcium levels, which may cause hormone problems and cancer.
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Drinking Beer May Strengthen Week Bones
February 12, 2010
Guardian
By Press Association
Beer is a rich source of a nutrient that can help prevent weak bones – but it depends what type you drink, claim researchers at University of California, Davis, today.
As one of the nation’s favourite tipples, beer is a rich source of dietary silicon, which can help cut the chance of developing diseases like osteoporosis, they conclude.
However, not all beers are the same, with those containing malted barley and hops having higher silicon content than beers made from wheat.
Some light lagers made from grains like corn have the lowest levels of silicon while beers made from hops seem to come out on top, according to the study. The research, published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, examined 100 commercial beers and their production methods.
The experts said beer was a major source of dietary silicon – roughly half of the silicon in beer can be readily absorbed by the body.
Charles Bamforth, lead author of the study, said: “Beers containing high levels of malted barley and hops are richest in silicon.
“Wheat contains less silicon than barley because it is the husk of the barley that is rich in this element.
“While most of the silicon remains in the husk during brewing, significant quantities of silicon nonetheless are extracted into wort and much of this survives into beer.”
Dr Claire Bowring, from the National Osteoporosis Society, said: “These findings mirror results from previous studies which concluded that moderate alcohol consumption could be beneficial to bones.
“However, while the National Osteoporosis Society welcomes measures to improve bone health we do not recommend anyone increases their alcohol consumption on the basis of these studies.
“While low quantities of alcohol may appear to have bone density benefits, higher intakes have been show to decrease bone strength, with an alcohol intake of more than two units per day actually increasing the risk of breaking a bone.
“There are also many other health concerns linked with alcohol which cannot be ignored.”
Catherine Collins, a dietician at St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust in London, said there was no recommended daily amount of silicon people should be consuming.
She said it was hard to prove deficiency in silicon because so little was needed.
“Sources of silicon do include beer – either alcohol-containing or alcohol-free – and it’s also added as an anti-caking agent to powders such as baking powder.
“It is found in different amounts in water, so contributes to beer’s total silica content.
“Silica may well contribute to bone health but in a minor way.
“It is not really significant compared with nutrients that we know are essential for bone health and are potentially deficient in the UK diet – such as calcium and vitamin D.”
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The Way to Weight Loss – Vitamin D
January 29, 2010
Natural News
By E. Huff
A recent study conducted by researchers from the University of Minnesota found that overweight people have better success in losing weight when their vitamin D levels are increased. Dr. Shalamar Sibley, the researcher who headed the study, placed 38 obese men and women on a diet program and discovered that those whose vitamin D levels were increased lost up to a half pound more than those who followed the diet plan only.
When combined with a reduced-calorie diet, it appears that supplementation with vitamin D helps to promote increased weight loss among those whose levels are low to begin with. For each nanogram per milliliter increase in vitamin D precursor in the blood, it was observed that an extra half pound loss in weight was able to be achieved while the diet plan.
A study published earlier this year in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that 75 percent or more of American teens and adults are deficient in vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency is linked to all sorts of serious illnesses including cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Researchers in the weight loss study are unsure whether vitamin D deficiency causes obesity or if obesity causes vitamin D deficiency. Nevertheless, there is a clear connection between the two.
Vitamin D, in conjunction with calcium and sunlight, helps to properly assimilate food and regulate normal blood sugar levels. When there is a lack of calcium, oftentimes due to a vitamin D deficiency, the body increases production of synthase, a fatty acid enzyme that coverts calories into fat. Calcium deficiency can cause synthase production to increase by up to 500 percent, explaining the correlation between low levels of vitamin D and obesity.
Mainstream research has only begun to scratch the surface about the importance of vitamin D in general health maintenance. A clinical study conducted in April of 2000 revealed that patients who were bound to wheelchairs because of chronic fatigue and body weakness became mobile after just six weeks of supplementation with 50,000 IU of vitamin D per week. Other studies are showing remarkable healing from all kinds of diseases when vitamin D is brought up to proper levels.
Although current guidelines suggest daily intake somewhere between 400 and 600 IU, recent research is suggesting that this may be too low. Getting between 4,000 and 10,000 IU a day will have a much more therapeutic effect, boosting health and fending off disease. When natural sunlight is not an option, supplementation with vitamin D3 is the next best option.
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Vitamin D Reduces Risk of Bone Fractures
January 27, 2010
Natural News
By S. L. Baker
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Lymphoma Battle Worsens With Vitamin D Deficiency
December 7, 2009
Science News
By Nathan Seppa
A shortage of vitamin D may stack the deck against people fighting a common form of lymphoma, researchers reported December 5 at a meeting of the American Society of Hematology. The new study adds this cancer to the list of malignancies suspected of being more difficult to control in patients with vitamin D deficiency common in parts of the U.S. population.
From 2002 to 2008, the researchers analyzed blood samples from 374 newly diagnosed patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, a fast-growing cancer of white blood cells called B cells. It mainly hits people over 50 and accounts for roughly 40 percent of lymphomas.
The study participants averaged 62 years of age. The blood tests revealed that half were deficient in vitamin D at the start of treatment, having less than 25 nanograms per milliliter of blood.
The scientists monitored the patients for an average of three years. During the follow-up, patients who were deficient in vitamin D were twice as likely to die, compared with patients who had adequate vitamin D blood levels at the outset. Patients with low vitamin D concentrations were also about 50 percent more likely than the others to have their cancer worsen, says endocrinologist Matthew Drake of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., who presented the findings.
All patients received standard treatment, including chemotherapy, and the researchers accounted for differences between groups in age and other factors that might bias the comparison.
Vitamin D facilitates calcium absorption in the body, an essential function. While the minimum healthy blood levels of vitamin D are a matter of debate, many scientists draw the line at 25 or 30 ng/ml. Others suggest we need more vitamin D and suggest the minimum healthy level should be defined as 40 ng/ml. “I think right now it’s a moving target,” Drake says. He and his colleagues chose 25 ng/ml because that is the point at which the body starts leaching calcium from bone to maintain appropriate blood levels of calcium.
Drake says more study is needed before supplementation of vitamin D should be ordered for lymphoma patients. Part of his hesitation stems from the lack of clarity surrounding the link between cancer and a vitamin D deficiency.
Past evidence has shown that the vitamin can promote gene regulation, programmed cell death when necessary, and other critical cell functions. “Whether or not vitamin D deficiency plays a role in lymphoma, we really can’t say at this point,’ he says.
But vitamin D deficiency has been linked to cancers in past studies. Maps suggest that mortality rates from cancer are higher in the northernmost areas of the United States — notable because less sun exposure means less vitamin D production — and some studies have linked vitamin D deficiency with a worse outcome in people with cancer of the breast, colon and throat.
The link between a vitamin D deficiency and a worse outcome for this cancer is plausible, says Ola Linden, a medical oncologist at Lund University in Sweden. But the finding might still be influenced by genetic differences among the patients and other factors, and needs to be validated in a trial in which patients are randomly assigned to get vitamin D supplements or not, he says. If the results from such a test were similar to these, he says, oncologists would have another weapon with which to fight this cancer — free of charge.
Although fortified foods provide some vitamin D, these may be inadequate to maintain ideal health levels. While the recommended daily dose of vitamin D, currently set at 400 IUs, stops rickets, many scientists suggest that three times that amount would be useful and wouldn’t risk an overdose.
Vitamin D can be obtained in food or manufactured in the skin by exposure to ultraviolet B radiation from the sun. The vitamin can be stored, but during winter months in temperate zones the supply dwindles. For bone health, Drake recommends that people in the Upper Midwest take vitamin D supplements during winter months and get an hour to an hour and a half of sun exposure each week in the summer. “We’ve become a society where we spend the vast majority of our time indoors,” he says. “It’s very hard to find what I call ‘free-range humans.’”
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PPI Drugs for Acid Reflux Have Side Effects
December 7, 2009
Natural News
By E. Huff
A new commentary published in the November, 2009 issue of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Survery warns doctors to be cautious when prescribing proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), drugs commonly recommended for reflux diseases such as gastroesophageal reflux (GERD) and laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR). Research is revealing that acid is not the only contributor to reflux diseases and that PPIs are not always an effective treatment.
PPIs come with a slew of negative side effects that include inhibited calcium absorption that can lead to hip fractures, alteration of the gastric pH levels that can negatively affect vitamin B12 and iron assimilation, and increased propensity to develop certain types of diarrhea and pneumonia. For these reasons, researchers are urging doctors to carefully monitor patients prescribed these drugs.
In the past 20 years, there has been a four-fold increase in the number of people in Western countries seeking medical help for their reflux symptoms. As a result, there has been a corresponding increase in the volume of PPIs being administered despite the fact that they may often be causing more harm than good.
The study authors are encouraging doctors to weigh the pros and cons and carefully consider whether PPIs are necessary before prescribing them so freely. They implore doctors to consider venturing towards a more holistic approach in which dietary modifications and lifestyle changes are prescribed rather than drugs.
Mainstream medicine claims ignorance about the causes of acid reflux but it is increasingly clear that the over-processed, nutrient-deficient Western diet is to blame for the rapid increase in acid reflux problems among the population. For this reason, it is wise advice to consider a dietary reformation in response to acid reflux symptoms.
Regular intake of probiotic-forming foods like kefir, fermented fruits and vegetables, raw milk, yogurt, kombucha, and probiotic supplements will help tremendously in balancing the digestive system and eliminating the problems of over-acidity. Reducing carbohydrate intake while increasing intake of other foods like fruits and vegetables, nuts, and grass-fed meats may help to eliminate the symptoms of acid reflux as well.
Many people have had great success treating acid reflux symptoms with apple cider vinegar. Highly inexpensive and incredibly alkaline-forming, apple cider vinegar is an excellent addition to one’s daily health regimen. Keeping digestive enzyme supplements on hand for use as needed is another great option; they work great in a pinch and will not damage the body like PPIs do.
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Prevent Heart Disease with Vitamin D
December 7, 2009
Natural News
By Mike Adams
Vitamin D is best known for its anti-cancer effects, but suddenly, following a flurry of recent research, it’s becoming increasingly recognized for its ability to prevent diseases like diabetes and depression. Now heart disease is also emerging as a chronic health condition that vitamin D can help prevent.
Here, we’ve assembled a collection of relevant research quotations on vitamin D and heart disease from authors like Phyllis Balch, Dr. James Dowd, Dr. Joel Fuhrman and many more. Enjoy this unique collection!
Vitamin D in the prevention of heart disease
Diabetes, both type-1 and type-2, are profoundly linked to low vitamin D levels. Obesity, heart disease, hypertension and stroke are inversely related to sunlight exposure and vitamin D levels. Psoriasis, eczema, and periodontal disease are lessened by sunlight exposure and high serum vitamin D. Fertility is positively influenced by sunlight exposure and high vitamin D levels. Sunlight enhances immune system function by producing vitamin D. Dozens of disorders other than those mentioned in this summary are related to vitamin D deficiency.
- Solar Power For Optimal Health by Marc Sorenson
Vitamin D supplements are likely to be useful in preventing diabetes in areas where vitamin D deficiency is common. In a 1997 study looking at the links between environmental factors and Type II diabetes, vitamin D levels were assessed in 142 Dutch men aged from 70 to 88 years of age. Thirty-nine per cent were found to have low vitamin D levels and tests showed that low vitamin D levels increased the risk of glucose intolerance. Heart disease: Low vitamin D levels may also increase the risk of atherosclerosis.
- The New Encyclopedia of Vitamins, Minerals, Supplements and Herbs by Nicola Reavley
Osteoporosis is closely correlated to heart disease. Vitamin D deficiency could certainly be a factor in both, because there is a strong inverse relationship between vitamin D levels and artery calcification; the more D in the blood, the less the calcification. Artery cells have vitamin D receptors (VDR), which when stimulated by vitamin D, inhibit the incursion of calcium.
- Solar Power For Optimal Health by Marc Sorenson
“I think vitamin D is an important ingredient in the longevity recipe,” he said enthusiastically, as if just struck by an epiphany. “Your skin manufactures vitamin D when it comes into contact with the sun. Without that vitamin D, we increase our risk for nearly all age-related diseases including many types of cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes and even autoimmune diseases like MS (multiple sclerosis).” Insufficient vitamin D markedly accelerates heart disease in kidney patients.
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Facts vs Assumptions in Prostate Cancer
November 23, 2009
Natural News
By Sherry Baker
This may well be remembered as the year medical “facts” about prostate cancer were shown to be riddled with wrong assumptions and downright myths. As readers of NaturalNews know, for example, recent studies have shown little if any benefit to regular prostate cancer screening tests with hundreds of thousands of men being over-diagnosed and over-treated with a potentially deadly malignancy when they actually have no lethal disease. Now comes even more startling news about the wrong-headedness of standard prostate cancer care.
It is common for men with elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels to face biopsies. But scientists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered that elevated PSA measurements are not necessarily potential signs of prostate cancer at all. Instead, they can simply be caused by a hormone normally occurring in healthy bodies.
According to a study just published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, the researchers discovered that parathyroid hormone, which the body produces to regulate blood levels of calcium, can raise PSA levels in healthy men who do not have prostate cancer. Unfortunately, elevated PSA levels currently set off alarm bells in the mainline medical establishment, leading many men to be biopsied and then treated unnecessarily with surgery, chemo, radiation, and/or emasculating hormones.
“PSA picks up any prostate activity, not just cancer,” said lead investigator Gary G. Schwartz, Ph.D., M.P.H., an associate professor of cancer biology, epidemiology and prevention at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, in a statement to the press. “Inflammation and other factors can elevate PSA levels. If the levels are elevated, the man is usually sent for a biopsy. The problem is that, as men age, they often develop microscopic cancers in the prostate that are clinically insignificant. If it weren’t for the biopsy, these clinically insignificant cancers, which would never develop into fatal prostate cancer, would never be seen.”
The research team investigated data from 1,273 men who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2005 to 2006. At the time of the survey, none of the research subjects reported any current infection or inflammation of the prostate gland, prostate biopsy in the past month, or history of prostate cancer. The scientists adjusted their findings for age, race and obesity because PSA levels rise with age, are higher in African-American men, and lower in overweight males.
The results? The higher the level of parathyroid hormone measured in the blood, the higher the PSA levels. And when men had parathyroid levels that were normal, but at the high end of the normal scale, their PSA measurements were increased by 43% — a range that, when seen by most urologists, would be used to justify immediate biopsies. The bottom line, according to Dr. Schwartz: “It’s likely that there are a lot of men out there with elevated PSAs that may be due to elevated parathyroid hormone rather than prostate cancer.”
The findings are especially important for black men, the researchers stated, because about 20% of them have high parathyroid hormone levels compared to about 10% of Caucasians. And that results in African-American men being placed at a higher risk for unnecessary biopsies and over-treatment.
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Vitamin D Prevents of Breast Cancer?
October 13, 2009
NaturalNews
By Mike Adams
You’ve heard the good news about vitamin D for years: It’s a “miracle” medicine that reduces cancer rates by 77% according to previous research (http://www.naturalnews.com/021892_c…). It also happens to be a powerful anti-cancer medicine that can both prevent and help reverse breast cancer.
Yet, bewilderingly, the cancer industry still refuses to teach women about vitamin D. Ever wonder why?
Today, we bring you a compilation of expert quotations on vitamin D and breast cancer, cited from some of the most authoritative books and authors in the world. Feel free to share what you learn here with others who may also be suffering from breast cancer.
Vitamin D and breast cancer
Sunlight triggers the formation of vitamin D in the skin, which can be activated in the liver and kidneys into a hormone with great activity. This activated form of vitamin D causes “cellular differentiation” – essentially the opposite of cancer. The following evidence indicates that vitamin D might have a protective role against breast cancer: Synthetic vitamin D-like molecules have prevented the equivalent of breast cancer in animals.
- The Natural Pharmacy: Complete A-Z Reference to Natural Treatments for Common Health Conditions by Alan R. Gaby, M.D., Jonathan V. Wright, M.D., Forrest Batz, Pharm.D. Rick Chester, RPh., N.D., DipLAc. George Constantine, R.Ph., Ph.D. Linnea D. Thompson, Pharm.D., N.D.
Two equally effective sources of vitamin D in humans are derived from plant ergosterol, which is converted to ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) and cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) by the action of sunlight on the skin. The body uses vitamin D3 for normal immune system function, to control cellular growth, and to absorb calcium from the digestive tract. Vitamin D3 can inhibit the growth of malignant melanoma, breast cancer, leukemia, and mammary tumors in laboratory animals. Vitamin D3 can also inhibit angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels that permit the spread of cancer cells through the body.
- Permanent Remissions by Robert Hass, M.S.
There’s surprising new evidence that older women who skimp on foods rich in vitamin D are more likely to develop breast cancer, according to Frank Garland, Ph.D., of the Department of Community and Family Medicine at the University of California at San Diego. This may also help explain fish’s anticancer protection, because fatty fish is packed with vitamin D. Specifically, Dr. Garland finds that dietary vitamin D wards off postmenopausal breast cancer in women over fifty, but not in women who get cancer at younger ages.
- Food Your Miracle Medicine by Jean Carper
In animals fed a high fat diet, which normally would produce a higher incidence of colon cancer, supplements of calcium and vitamin D blocked this carcinogenic effect of the diet. Vitamin D inhibits the growth of breast cancer in culture, and also seems to subdue human breast cancer. Cells from human prostate cancer were put into a “…permanent nonproliferative state”, or shut down the cancer process, by the addition of vitamin D. Human cancer cells have been shown to have receptor sites, or stereo specific “parking spaces” for vitamin D.
- Beating Cancer with Nutrition by Patrick Quillin
Even though vitamin D is one of the most powerful healing chemicals in your body, your body makes it absolutely free. No prescription required. Diseases and conditions caused by vitamin D deficiency: Osteoporosis is commonly caused by a lack of vitamin D, which impairs calcium absorption. Sufficient vitamin D prevents prostate cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, depression, colon cancer, and schizophrenia. “Rickets” is the name of a bone-wasting disease caused by vitamin D deficiency.
- Natural Health Solutions by Mike Adams
George’s Hospital Medical School in London finds local production of vitamin D in breast tissue reduces the risk for breast cancer. For women with low breast tissue levels of vitamin D the risk for breast cancer rose by 354%! This study suggests women sunbathe with breast tissue exposed to the sun to enhance local vitamin D production. The provision of 400 IU of vitamin D per day has been found to reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer by 43%.
- You Don’t Have to be Afraid of Cancer Anymore by Bill Sardi
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