Doctors in Canada Urge Immigrants to Take Vitamin D
February 22, 2010
CBC News
Immigrants who come to Canada from sunnier parts of the world are at risk of health problems caused by a lack of vitamin D unless they take supplements, doctors and nutritionists warn.
“This is a really great example of how … immigration to Canada could be dangerous or bad for your health,” said Dr. Kevin Pottie, who teaches family medicine at the University of Ottawa.
Pottie said when he tests his immigrant and refugee patients, almost all of them show inadequate levels of vitamin D, especially in winter.
Vitamin D is needed to maintain healthy bones. A deficiency may lead to osteoporosis in adults, making them susceptible to breaking bones. Children with a deficiency can develop rickets, a disease in which bones grow soft, leading to skeletal deformities. Some studies also suggest that a lack of vitamin D could be linked to diabetes, multiple sclerosis, cancer and some forms of mental illness.
People can get some of their vitamin D by consuming food such as milk and fatty fish. But humans’ own bodies can produce far larger amounts if their skin is exposed to the ultraviolet B rays of the sun, said Reinhold Vieth, a University of Toronto researcher who studies vitamin D. The ability to produce vitamin D varies with the colour of a person’s skin.
“A white person like me, if I lie on my lawn chair for 10 minutes on [my] front, 10 minutes on the back, I’m going to be putting into my body 100 glasses of milk worth of vitamin D,” Vieth said.
People whose ancestors come from sunny places such as Pakistan or Somalia often have darker skin to protect them from sunburn and other sun damage.
“But as you move north, that skin colour makes it harder and harder for you to make vitamin D,” Vieth said. “Basically, what we’re doing is transplanting people from an area for which their skin is optimized in terms of its colour to an area where their skin is often too dark to be healthy.”
Diet and clothing
Skin colour isn’t the only factor that puts immigrants at risk; diet and culture also play a role.
Vieth co-authored a study of healthy University of Toronto students that found those of South Asian descent were almost six times more likely to have a vitamin D deficiency than those of European descent. Students of European descent got an average of 231 international units (IU) of vitamin D daily from food and supplements — 73 per cent more than the East Asian students and 40 per cent more than the South Asian students, said the study published in 2008 in the journal BioMed Central Public Health.
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Huge California Study Concludes Soda Consumption Undeniably Linked to Obesity
September 23, 2009
Natural News
By Mike Adams
Much like Big Tobacco once did with nicotine, the soda industry and high-fructose corn syrup producers of America have maintained a ridiculous state of flat-out denial about the links between soda consumption and obesity. “Sodas don’t make you fat,” they insist. Meanwhile, as Americans guzzle down insanely large quantities of soda and liquid sugar with each passing year, rates of obesity and diabetes continue to steadily climb. Surely diet must have something to do with it, right?
Thanks to a new California study, soda companies can no longer hide behind the defense of uncertainty when it comes to links between soda consumption and obesity. This massive study questioned the soda consumption habits of 43,000 adults and 4,000 adolescents and concluded this: Drinking one or more sodas a day increases your chances of obesity by 27 percent. A whopping 62% of adults who drink at least one soda each day are overweight or obese.
The study also found that Californians are gulping down sodas at an unprecedented rate: At least one soda is consumed daily by 41 percent of children, 62 percent of adolescents and 24 percent of adults. Through the study, another shocking statistic was revealed: The average California teen consumes 39 pounds of liquid sugar a year solely from soda consumption.
Sadly, the study didn’t look at rates of diabetes and bone loss — the phosphoric acid in sodas causes osteoporosis, even in males — but there’s little doubt that a similar correlation exists between soda consumption and those diseases, too. The whole issue of aspartame and diet sodas also wasn’t looked at in this study, but that’s yet another important area of investigation that will probably be delayed for many years until the number of people drinking diet soda who get diagnosed with brain cancer can no longer be denied.
We’ve been warning about this for years
The interesting thing about all this is that the champions of natural health have been warning society about this for years. Whether you’re talking about myself and NaturalNews, or Dr. Julian Whitaker, or even going back to Weston Price, we’ve all been shouting about the dangers of widespread cola consumption long before it appeared on the radar of mainstream consciousness.
Now, in the thick of a disastrous epidemic of obesity and diabetes, more mainstream health authorities are finally starting to put the pieces together and realize just how bad sodas are for public health. There’s now no question about it: When soda consumption goes up, so do rates of obesity. And with higher obesity rates, you automatically get greatly increased rates of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, depression and other diseases that are very expensive to treat.
Ultimately, that means that soda consumption greatly increases the health care costs of any nation, because higher soda consumption leads to higher rates of diseases that are expensive to treat. I’m guessing that for every dollar a consumer spends on soda, another dollar’s worth of long-term health care cost is created at the same time. Except those costs are paid directly by the consumer; they’re paid by the taxpayers and health insurance customers.
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Proton Pump Inhibitors to Treat GERD Cause Heartburn Problems
August 13,2009
Natural News
By S.L. Baker
Prilosec, Nexium, Prevacid, Aciphex. These and a dozen more drugs known as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) have quickly become superstars of Big Pharma. As recently reported by US News and World Report, last year people worldwide shelled out some $ 25.6 billion for these drugs that are supposed to alleviate heartburn and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Although hailed by most doctors as safe, reports have started cropping up that side effects may include everything from dizziness to osteoporosis, increased risk of heart attacks, pneumonia and more.
Now comes research that shows the drugs actually cause the symptoms they are supposed to treat. A new study just published in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute, found that taking a PPI drug for eight weeks induced acid-related symptoms including heartburn, acid regurgitation and dyspepsia in healthy individuals soon after they stopped taking the pills.
“The observation that more than 40 percent of healthy volunteers, who have never been bothered by heartburn, acid regurgitation or dyspepsia, develop such symptoms in the weeks after cessation of PPIs is remarkable and has potentially important clinical and economic implications,” Christina Reimer, MD, of Copenhagen University and lead author of the study, said in a statement to the media. “This study indicates unrecognized aspects of PPI withdrawal and is a very strong indication of a clinically significant acid rebound phenomenon that needs to be investigated in proper patient populations.”
In the randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial, the scientists investigated whether long-term treatment with a PPI could cause a dependency state. Specifically, they wanted to see if patients would need non-stop, continuous treatment with the drugs due to rebound acid hypersecretion when the medications were stopped. In all, 120 healthy participants were randomized to about three months of taking inactive placebo pills or 40 mg. of the PPI drug esomeprazole (brand names: Nexium, Esotrex) daily. This was followed by having all the research subjects take a placebo for another four weeks. A Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS) was filled out weekly by those participating in the study.
During the first two weeks after withdrawal of the PPI, the majority of research participants began to have mild to moderate indigestion discomfort. What’s more, the GSRS scores for acid-related symptoms were significantly higher in the PPI group during weeks 10, 11 and 12 of the study. In fact, 44 percent of the people taking the PPI experienced at least one worrisome acid-related symptom in weeks nine through 12 compared to only 15 percent in the control taking placebo pills. About 22 percent of people in the PPI group complained of dyspepsia, heartburn or acid regurgitation in week 10 and 11; around 21 percent of the research subjects had indigestion problems in week 12 of the study. However, those in the placebo group reported indigestion and reflux symptoms at a far lower rate. Only about seven, five and two percent of them had heartburn or other related problems during weeks 10, 11 and 12 of the study.
“We find it highly likely that the symptoms observed in this trial are caused by rebound acid hypersecretion and that this phenomenon is equally relevant in patients treated long term with PPIs. If rebound acid hypersecretion induces acid-related symptoms, this might lead to PPI dependency. Our results justify the speculation that PPI dependency could be one of the explanations for the rapidly and continuously increasing use of PPIs,” Dr. Reimer stated.
In the media statement, the researchers noted previous research has have shown that about 33 percent of patients who start taking PPI drugs keep on refilling their prescriptions. So why do they need maintenance therapy if these drugs are supposed to successfully treat GERD and related conditions? Reimer’s research strongly indicates it’s because when people try to stop taking PPIs, they experience an increase in gastric acid secretion that soars beyond their pre-treatment levels. Within two weeks after withdrawal from treatment, they experience even worse heartburn, regurgitation and other GERD symptoms than ever — so they have to go right back on the expensive PPI drug therapy.
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