Dr. Joe's E-News - A Diabetes Newsletter

D*Action Program

2010-02-08T09:48:00.000-08:00

The new year has brought a new price change to our D*action program that we wanted to alert you to. Last year, 2009, was very heavily subsidized to get the project going. We do not have that option for this year, so we have had to find a way to have the subscription options at least pay for our costs and the basic research. As many of you know, we are totally funded by you, people that not only want to know their vitamin D results but see the excitement and value of capturing their health data so we can truly demonstrate the massive health benefits of getting serum levels to the 40-60 ng/ml range.

The good news is that we are still able to enroll new people at a subscription cost less than any other at-home test price on the web!

Further good news is that for each of you as 'early' subscribers, you can re-subscribe at a 'Member' discount of 15%. With the 5 year subscription, that ends up with a unit cost of $51.00. When you re-enroll/choose your next option, on the Order Form, with Payment Options, key in the Coupon Code of 'Member' and click 'Apply'. That will take you to a new page with the discounts!! (If you are a clinician and have patients you want to sign up, please contact susan@grassroothealth.org for options.)

Thank you all so much for your ongoing support of this project. We are getting noted all over the world--we are making a difference in people's lives.

If you need any help with your subscription, please

Call Mary Papa:

760-473-5913
10 am - 2 pm PST Monday-Friday

Donations are always welcome!

Special Note:
We'll be sending out an announcement next week about our next Diagnosis & Treatment of Vitamin D Deficiency Seminar to be held here in San Diego in conjunction with the UCSD School of Medicine, April 9, 2010.

Again, very, very many thanks for your ongoing help in solving this epidemic!

Carole

Carole A Baggerly
Director
GrassrootsHealth

carole@grassrootshealth.org
www.grassrootshealth.net

More Letters on Autism

2010-02-04T12:10:00.000-08:00

This newsletter from Dr. Cannell from the Vitamin D Council is free and depends on contributions to put it out. Every little bit helps,

Dr, Joe

The Vitamin D Newsletter

February 2, 2010

This is a periodic newsletter from the Vitamin D Council, a non-profit trying to end the epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. If you are not subscribed, you can do so on the Vitamin D Council's website.

This newsletter may be reproduced as long as you properly and prominently attribute its source. Please reproduce it, post it on Internet sites, and forward it to your friends.

Below are three more letters I received in response to my last newsletter:

Dear Dr. Cannell:

My nephew was showing signs of delayed development : delayed speech, a slow tongue, rarely smiled, shy, loner, unusually uncommunicative for a toddler. He just seemed sad. After evaluation and confirmation of the abnormalities particularly the poor neuromuscular control of his lower face and tongue, he was enrolled in speech therapy several times a week with some improvement over 6 months or so but he still spoke in one word sentences.

His mother kept him perpetually in sunscreen and sunscreen fabrics and hats with flaps. As he approached his third birthday, I convinced my sister-in-law to try him on some Vitamin D. As he was about 43 lbs (big, not overweight), I told her to give him 2000 IU per day and sent her a bottle of drops to make it easy (2000 IU/day). Six wks later, they came up to our home to go sledding this past December.

They both were ecstatic about the change in him. He was now speaking in complete complex sentences, was smiling, out-going and had finally begun to become toilet trained. She was delighted with the effects but she confided that she was having trouble giving him the Vitamin D, no matter what she put it in; he often refused to eat it. I found this inexplicable, how hard could it be to get one drop into him?

It quickly became apparent that she had been trying to give him one DROPPERFUL per day, roughly 60,000 to 150,000 IU per day, flooding his system with D. She has dropped the D down to 2000 IU/day pending a blood level but he will never be without adequate D again. As they were leaving, he said "Mommy is going to back the car up and then we get in?" His father keeps happily exclaiming that he is a whole new kid.

Dr. Marisa Burrows,
New Hampshire

Dear Dr. Burrows:

Dr. Gene Stubbs, a child psychiatrist from the Oregon Health Sciences University told me of a similar case, accidental Vitamin D overdosing leading to dramatic and rapid improvements in autistic symptoms. However, even if your nephew took 150,000 IU/day for six weeks, I doubt he will be clinically toxic; but he may have high blood calcium, the dose was dangerous. Remember, from 1955 to 1990, every child in East Germany got 300,000 IU at their doctor's office every three months until 18 months of age. I predict the autism epidemic started later in East Germany's former lands (mid 1990s) than it did in the USA (mid 1980s).

Stop all Vitamin D until his 25(OH)D level is around 80 and then restart at 3,000 IU per day, attempting to obtain a level of 80-100 ng/ml, year around. You may notice a rebirth of his symptoms as his 25(OH)D falls precipitously but I believe that his symptoms will again disappear again if you maintain his level in the high normal range.

Dear Dr. Cannell:

I was disappointed to read some of your statements in your latest newsletter regarding autism, although I am quite convinced that Vitamin D deficiency plays a key role both in the development and the continued symptoms of autism.

However, you seem to imply that most, if not all, autistic children could be solely treated and even cured by nothing but Vitamin D. I have two autistic children, a girl age 21 months and a boy age 3 1/2 years, who both tested as Vitamin D deficient (among other things,) and we have been supplementing them with 1,000 IU for the 21-month-old and 2,000 IU per day for the 3-year-old. They have been on the vitamin D for six months. Both of them are now at sufficient levels--74 and 87 ng/ml, respectively--and yet I assure you, while they have improved, they are still very much autistic.

They also take Vitamin A in their powdered multivitamins, including 3,500 IU per day of retinyl palmitate. They've never received a large dose of vitamin A (or anything else) in our DAN doctor's office.

You do a huge disservice to the community when you say,

"The "all autism is caused from vaccinations crowd cannot accept the Vitamin D possibility as it threatens their core beliefs. They simply cannot change their minds."

I would submit that the "all autism is caused by any one thing" crowds are all wrong, and that includes the Vitamin D crowd. I simply cannot change my mind that my daughter's vaccination caused her autism because I watched it happen, starting the very day she received her shot. On the other hand, my son's development did not include a single, major regression following a vaccine, and I know his etiology is completely different and was not caused directly by a vaccine.

Many autistic children show improvement with their Vitamin D supplements, just as they show some improvement with other supplements as well. The woman in your newsletter whose son showed such a complete turnaround with just one supplement is lucky to have found her major puzzle piece. But biomedical parents in the autism community struggle with skepticism enough as it is, and we need to be coming together to find each child's different set of puzzle pieces, not pointing fingers at each other.

Sincerely,

Mary Nelson,
San Jose, CA

Dear Mary:

Your children have subclinical vitamin A toxicity, which blocks the effect of Vitamin D. The 3,500 IU of preformed retinol they are taking would be as if I were taking 25,000 IU of preformed retinol a day. It may take years for the toxic amounts of vitamin A to be removed from their system because, unlike vitamin D, the body has no good system to remove vitamin A quickly.

Vitamin A competes with vitamin D directly at the receptor site. When vitamin A levels are too high, the two retinoic acid molecules bind to each other instead of one vitamin A molecule binding with one vitamin D. When the two vitamin A molecules bind with each other, as occurs with high doses of vitamin A, the two vitamin A molecules then bind to the Vitamin D receptor and weakly stimulate the receptor, and may act as a weak agonist. But, weak agonists block the function of receptors, preventing the vitamin D from working.

Many DAN Doctors use Vitamin A, either as a large bolus dose or the in the powdered multivitamins your child is taking. As such, I predict DAN treated children will be less responsive to Vitamin D until their Vitamin A toxicity clears. For more on the dangers of Vitamin A, see the last part of the paper below, written by 16 experts, warning of the dangers of Vitamin A.

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/PDFs/cannell-et-al-vitamin-d-deficiency-epidemic.pdf

Indeed, a recent Cochrane Review found that vitamin A supplements increased total mortality rate by16%.

Bjelakovic G, Nikolova D, Gluud LL, Simonetti RG, Gluud C. Antioxidant supplements for prevention of mortality in healthy participants and patients with various diseases. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2008 Apr 16;(2):CD007176.

I would stop all vitamin A and increase the Vitamin D to 2,000 IU/day for the 21 month old and 4,000 IU/day for the 3-year-old until your children have 25(OH)D levels around 100 ng/ml, which is perfectly safe, and keep their levels that high for the rest of their childhood. By that time, my prophecy will be fact.

Dear Dr. Cannell:

You said the "all autism is caused from vaccinations crowd cannot accept the Vitamin D possibility as it threatens their core beliefs. They simply cannot change their minds."

How does Vitamin D deficiency explain an autism epidemic starting about 1990? How does your sunshine/Vitamin D theory of autism explain the absence of autistic children with rickets working all day long in the sunless factories of Victorian England? Since the current aggressive vaccination schedule has never been tested for safety against a less aggressive one, how can you so smugly deride the possibility of the damage from it? How do you explain the recent studies showing clusters of autism in California with higher rates among parents with higher education?

How open-minded are you about your own "core beliefs"?

Thomas R. Widden,
Professor Emeritus,
Bay State University, Maine

Dear Professor Widden:

The autism epidemic began in the mid 80s and tracks the sun -scare very closely, as it does the sale of sunscreen.

The neuropsychiatric symptoms of rickets have never been studied in the modern era, as, once the diagnosis of rickets is made all attention is paid to bones and the rickets is aggressively treated. However, as far as the mental condition in rickets, at least two old papers have addressed it, both published before the diagnosis of autism was common.

Hallerhan, M.M. The Effect of Rickets on the Mental development of Young Children. Archives of Psychology, July, 1938 vol 229, pp 1-67.

Gilmour A. The Mental Condition in Rickets. School Hygiene 1912;9:222 pp 6-16

Both papers describe "weak mindedness, feeble minds, mental dullness, and unresponsiveness" as being common in rickets. Gilmour found delays in speech were common. Developmental delays were common in both papers.

Hallerhan reports previous authors found "withdrawal, and negativism" as well as "tantrums, selfishness, depression, and narrowing of interests." However, both authors report that the mental condition in rickets improves with Vitamin D; that is the Vitamin D improves the brain as well as the bones.

The controlled study by Hallerhan was conducted in 1938 where some control children, and not just the rachitic children, would have been on cod liver oil as that was a common hygienic practice in that day. In spite of that, differences were noted in verbal development and significant differences noted in motor development, mental development and social adjustment.

As far as "mass vaccinations," that is, giving multiple vaccinations all at once, you are correct that it has not, to my knowledge, been studied and may trigger autism in vitamin D deficient children. However, triggering and causing are two different things. Remember the co-occurrence of vaccinations and autism may reflect the fact that children are weaned from Vitamin D rich formula to the empty calories of juice, even breast fed infants get formula, around the time of their 12 to 18 month vaccinations, thus precipitously dropping their Vitamin D levels. Shopping malls are full of toddlers drinking my favorite toxin: pure, 100%, organic, fruit juice.

As for your final point, Professor Widden, I assume you are referring to Dr. Karla Van Meter"s study from the MIND Institute, just published.

Van Meter KC, Christiansen LE, Delwiche LD, Azari R, Carpenter TE, Hertz-Picciotto I. Geographic distribution of autism in California: a retrospective birth cohort analysis. Autism Res. 2010 Jan 4. [Epub ahead of print]

California Autism Clusters Linked to Parent Education, Not Local Toxins

Autism clusters tied to educated parents

The main finding was that college educated parents, especially women, had an increased risk of having a child with autism. Actually, this is not a new finding. As I discussed in my 2007 autism paper, this has been known since the early 1980s but was dismissed as being caused by ascertainment bias, or how you pick your samples. Dr. Van Meter's findings correlated well with CDC researchers who found a similar risk for the well-educated, findings that are difficult to dismiss as being entirely due to ascertainment bias.

Bhasin TK, Schendel D. Sociodemographic Risk Factors for Autism in a US Metropolitan Area. J Autism Dev Disord 2007;37(4):667-77.

What is known is the relationship between sun-avoidance and sun-block use, which is strongly correlated with higher education and socioeconomic achievement.

Robinson JK, Rigel DS, Amonette RA. Summertime sun protection used by adults for their children. J Am Acad Dermatol 2000;42(5 Pt 1):746-53.

Hall HI, Jorgensen CM, McDavid K, Kraft JM, Breslow R. Protection from sun exposure in US white children ages 6 months to 11 years. Public Health Rep 2001;116(4):353-61.

What a tragic sight, all those rich kids in LA, clothed from head to toe and lathered with sunblock by their highly educated mothers, banging their heads on the swing set while professors miss such obvious clues.

John Cannell, MD
Executive Director
Vitamin D Council

This newsletter may be reproduced as long as you properly and prominently attribute it source. 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
1241 Johnson Ave., #134
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401

This is a periodic newsletter from the Vitamin D Council, a non-profit trying to end the epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. If you want to unsubscribe, go to the end of this newsletter. If you are not subscribed, you can do so on the Vitamin D Council's website.

This newsletter may be reproduced as long as you properly and prominently attribute its source. Please reproduce it, post it on Internet sites, and forward it to your friends.

John Cannell, M.D.

Autism and Vitamin D

2010-02-02T14:01:00.000-08:00

This is another great piece from Dr. Cannell, Executive Director of the Vitamin D Council. Send it to anyone who has a child with autism or anyone who has the least bit of interest in autism or vitamin D. This is an exact copy of John's news letter. If you have any interest in vitamin D at all, join his news letter.

Dr. Joe

The Vitamin D Newsletter

January 30, 2010.

This month, I dedicate the entire newsletter to a mother's lengthy case report of her autistic son. Other than name and place of residence, the letter was not edited.

Dear Dr. Cannell:

At age 2.5 years, between December 2007 and January 2008, my son experienced a fairly dramatic onset of symptoms that led to his diagnosis of autism. His symptoms (many of which we did not even know the terminology for at the time they first occurred) included:
--The inability to sleep at night, we would put him to bed at 8:00 or 8:30 p.m. following his normal bedtime routine
--Development of anxiety and refusal to leave the house even to do preferred activities
--Obsessive-repetitive questions and monologuing/run-on speech
--Sensory issues (refusal to wear jeans or any fabrics other than fleece, screaming hysterically at bath time, complaining and covering eyes in sunlight, covering ears for everyday noises that had not bothered him before (toilets flushing, pulling pots and pans from cupboards, etc.)
--Toe-walking
--Flapping and self-stimulating behaviors (repeatedly tapping his cheeks and eyes with all ten fingers, continually twisting up his fingers in pretzel-like configurations, holding objects in his peripheral range of vision and straining to see them from the corner of his eyes)
--Development of an unusual pattern of stuttering/vocal tic at the end of words,he would repeat the last sound/syllable,"I don't want to go to the store-or-or-or-or-or-or. It won't be fun-n-n-n-n-n-n-n." He would make sounds even in his sleep "n-n-n-n-n-n" or "s-s-s-s-s-s-s"
--Loss of muscle tone (stopped walking up and down stairs and began crawling/sliding instead, decline in balance and motor skills)
--loss of handedness (began switching left to right hand, after seeming predominantly left-handed)
--Marked increase in hyperactivity
--Frequent spacing out/unresponsive episodes

Our son and his twin sister were born at 36 weeks, 5 days on March 17, 2005 after four months of bed-rest. As early as their 8 week appointment, I mentioned to our pediatrician that we had concerns about our son's eye contact and social responsiveness (in comparison to his sister). I felt that I was having more difficulty bonding with him. We were told "don't worry, but don't wait" and were referred to our state's Early On intervention program. At the end of June a physical therapist and speech pathologist from our intermediate school district came to our home to evaluate our then 3 month old son and told me that he was doing just fine and that I was worrying too much. I agreed that by the time they saw him he had begun smiling and making better eye contact.

We didn't worry again about our son until fall 2006. He had walked just before his first birthday, but by 18 months+ he still seemed clumsy and prone to falling compared to his sister. We took him back to the intermediate school district for evaluation and were told that all of his development seemed to be in the normal range and that we shouldn't worry. We were advised that we could take him to music and gym classes to work on his coordination and told that we could pay for private physical therapy if we elected. We followed all of the recommendations.

For a year, we didn't notice any other changes until the sudden onset of symptoms listed above when he was 2.5 years. With the sudden onset of symptoms above, we took our son to see a number of specialists during the winter of 2008 including a neurologist (who diagnosed him with Asperger Syndrome), a psychologist (who diagnosed with autism), and a second psychologist who specialized in the treatment of autism (who diagnosed him with Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not-Otherwise-Specified). All three diagnoses are on the autism spectrum. He also began seeing an occupational therapist, a speech therapist, a behavioral specialist, and a DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) doctor for dietary interventions. We saw a dramatic improvement by April/May of that year. Nearly all the symptoms on the list above had resolved. We assumed the improvements were due to diet but he started to go into the sun around that time. Our son slept well and spent many peaceful, happy and anxiety-free months during the spring and summer after turning three.

In mid-November 2008, I sent the following e-mail to the DAN doctor who had been helping us with our son.

"You saw our son Jonathan Switzer a few times regarding his autism diagnosis and diet issues, etc. He had a regressive period last winter from about December through April when his autism was diagnosed, then did pretty well all summer. Nursery school started off okay, too, but now he seems to be having another regression.
Main symptoms:

--Great difficulty getting to sleep (fidgets for 2 plus hours most nights while he had been falling asleep easily for several months prior to that)
--Marked increase in anxiety (again refusing to leave the house even to do things he loves, frequently shaking/clenching and telling us "I'm scared)
--Onset of OCD-like behaviors (afraid to get hands dirty, get extremely upset if he gets even tiny drips of water on himself)
--Increase in self-stimulatory behaviors (flapping, fidgeting, noise-making) --Frequent crying jags and telling us he's just giving up on everything

We have had other parents tell us that their kids on the spectrum have a worsening of symptoms during the winter months and we feel like we are observing this same pattern. We've done some reading about light therapy for depression/anxiety and to help correct disturbed sleep patterns and would like to give it a try for Jonathan.
Wondering if you have ever prescribed a light therapy box for pediatric patients before. Our insurance told us they will cover it with a diagnosis of Seasonal Affective Disorder, but I don't even know if that is something that can be diagnosed in children. Guess we're willing to try anything at this point. Do you know much about this type of therapy?"

Neither the DAN Doctor nor our pediatrician would write a prescription for a therapy light, so we purchased one on our own and found it made no discernible impact on his symptoms.

By December, our son's symptoms had worsened further and we decided to put him in a very expensive and intensive autism treatment program through our local hospital. He made slow progress during his participation in the program from January through April. He was also involved in speech and occupational therapy during the winter months. At his IEPC meeting at school in March, we were encouraged to put him in the district's program for children with developmental delays. We instead elected to register him for regular pre-school for the following year.

During that winter, I was crying to some friends about my son and describing his seemingly seasonal pattern of symptoms. We had just seen a second neurologist searching for help, and I was extremely frustrated when, after listening to my son's symptoms and history, he told me bluntly, "There is nothing seasonal about autism," then suggested that we put our son on an anti-depressant. We refused the medication. One of the friends I was crying to is a research librarian and the other is a medical researcher. After our conversation, they located and e-mailed me a few journal articles they thought might help, one of the articles was by Dr. Cannell and discussed his vitamin D theory of autism. Reading the article was one of those "Aha!" moments and I felt hopeful that Dr. Cannell was on to something.

By June our son was released from both speech therapy and occupational therapy and we were told that he no longer showed any delays for his age.

When he had begun occupational therapy in January, the OT had been astonished at our son's lack of muscle tone. She recommended that he also receive Physical Therapy services, so we went on a long waiting list. Our initial OT was in a car accident, and in May we were transferred to a new OT. When the new OT first saw our son, she said could not believe he was the same child described in the notes. By May the low muscle tone, hyperactivity and distractibility noted in his file, were no longer evident. His turn came up for physical therapy and we were told he no longer needed it.

Our son has always spent a lot of time outdoors in the summer, without sunblock. He had a happy and relaxing summer. As fall/back-to-school approached, I began to fear the onset of another regression and again read the article by Dr. Cannell my friend had sent. I visited his website and decided we would try a vitamin D supplement. Our pediatrician did not encourage any dose higher than 400 i.u. (that found in a typical
multivitamin) but did write a script to have his 25-hydroxy level tested. In August his level was 37, so we started him on 5,000 iu daily and had his level retested on October 21st. By October his level was 96. The pediatrician was concerned that this was too high and told us he should not have more than 400 iu per day.

Knowing that Nov-March are typically his worst months, we reduced the dosage down only to 3,000 iu from October through mid-December. At an appointment in December our son was doing wonderfully (none of his usual fall/winter symptoms yet evident) and the pediatrician told us 3,000 iu was too much and that we should be giving no more than 400 iu. In mid-December we reduced the dose to 1,500 iu. By the beginning of January we noted a marked loss of eye contact. We also noted that our son was again interchanging his right hand for writing and eating (after using his left hand exclusively for 8+ months). We increased his vitamin D level to 4,000 iu daily in early January. On January 11 we had his 25-Hydroxy level checked on January 11 and found that it was 89. By the end of January, we and his grandparents noted improvement in his eye contact.

In January 2010 we attended his preschool conferences. The teacher had marked cards with the following code (1=age appropriate, 2=developing, 3=area of concern). Our son received 1s in all areas with the exception of hopping on one foot and balance beam where he received 2s. We were told that he is on par with or ahead of his peers in all areas (academic, fine motor, etc.), and that his teacher had noted no unusual symptoms or concerns.

During the fall/winter 2009-2010 our son has been free from nearly all of the most troubling symptoms that plagued him the previous two winters. The following example may demonstrate the improvement in his daily life since last winter.

One of our son's low points was a Christmas party we attended in December 2008. Before leaving the house to attend the party our son screamed and yelled about having to take a bath and because we would not let him wear sweatpants to the party. He then begged us not to make him leave the house.

During the 40 minute trip to the party our son asked us repetitive questions and talked incessantly. Upon arriving at the party, he immediately walked into an unoccupied room adjacent to the room where the party was occurring, and put his face into the corner. Despite much coaxing by my husband and me, he refused to come out of the corner.

After approximately 45 minutes of standing in the corner we managed to get him out through the promise of some food rewards. He proceeded to walk around and around the perimeter of the living room where all of the other kids were playing. He rubbed himself along the walls and covered his ears as he walked. He finally settled into playing alone in a corner of the room.

All of the kids at the party participated in a book exchange. Our son refused to come to the area where the other kids were gathered. We coaxed him over only to have him throw the book he received and refuse to thank the parent who had purchased it for him. He spent much of the evening in time-outs for that and other inappropriate behavior.

In June of 2008, after playing in the sun for several months, we met for a picnic with the same group of friends at a local park. Our son ran up to the other children and joined right in playing bulldozers in the sand with them. He behaved and interacted in a completely appropriate and typical way during the picnic which lasted several hours.

This year (2009) we attended the same Christmas party at the same house. Our son got ready and left for the party without anxiety or incident. He chatted normally during the drive to the party. He walked into the house, said, "Hey, check out my new train," to some of the kids already playing and settled in to playing happily with the other kids. During the book exchange, he received a book, smiled and gave a big hug to the person who gave it to him.

In December of 2008, I took a leave from my job so I could get my son to the intensive behavioral treatment program he was in and to all of his other therapy appointments. I dedicated 40-60 hours per week to my son's various appointments and home therapy program.

This winter (January 2010), a former colleague asked me what Jonathan's current therapy program consists of. I told her I spend about 30 seconds each day opening the jar of vitamins and giving him his chewable vitamin D.

In my opinion, the 3 minutes or so I spend each week giving him his vitamin D have been much more effective, and much less expensive, than any other treatment we have pursued.

Thank you.
Jeannette, Wisconsin

Dear Jeanette:
You're welcome. Several things need comment. First, the symptoms are typical of autism. Second, the seasonality of symptoms suggest a vitamin D deficient disease. Third, the treatment in the spring of 2008 seemed effective but, in hindsight, it was simply due to spring sun exposure. Fourth, as you may now know, light boxes for seasonal affective disorder make no vitamin D. Fifth, your pediatrician knows little about Vitamin D other than what committees tell him; your decision to ignore his advice probably saved your son's brain from further injury, as autism is a progressive inflammatory destruction of brain tissue. Sixth, the fact that you needed bed rest and gave birth prematurely suggests you were Vitamin D deficient during your pregnancy.

Seventh, his twin sister has never had autism, despite the same intrauterine environment. This is consistent with my theory, that autism is caused from a quantitative, not qualitative, variation is one of the enzymes that metabolize Vitamin D. That is, there are no structural differences in these enzymes in autism, only a genetically determined difference in the amount present. These enzymes are responsive to estrogen; estrogen protects the brain from being damaged by low Vitamin D, probably by increasing the amount of activated Vitamin D present, explaining why boys are four times more likely to have the disease.

The report that your son deteriorated when his dose was reduced from 3,000 to 1,500 IU suggests autistic children need adult doses of Vitamin D. When you reduced the dose from 3,000 to 1,500 IU/day he worsened although his level on 1,500 IU/day was probably still greater than 50 ng/ml. This makes me think that dosage needs to be stable and suggests that Professor Reinhold Vieth's theory of a detrimental seasonal resetting of the intercellular metabolism of Vitamin D may even be true at levels above 50 ng/ml, where the body is storing the parent compound, cholecalciferol, in muscle and fat. His current dose of 4,000 IU per day is perfectly safe and will give him a level of 80-100 ng/ml, inside the reference ranges of American laboratories.

Toxicity (asymptomatic high blood calcium) begins somewhere above 200 ng/ml. Generally speaking, autistic children should take 2,000 IU per every 25 pounds of body weight for six weeks, then have a 25(OH)D blood test and adjust the dosage to get into the high end of the reference range, 80-100 ng/ml.

Although I first published the Vitamin D theory of autism theory 3 years ago, few autistic children are currently treated for their Vitamin D deficiency. This is due to several reasons. One, those who think, correctly, that autism is a genetic disease, stop thinking after that, reasoning that genetic diseases are untreatable. Such thinkers do not understand epigenetics (upon the genome). Vitamin D is probably the heart of epigenetics, as nothing works upon the genome like vitamin D.

Secondly, the "all autism is caused from vaccinations" crowd cannot accept the Vitamin D possibility as it threatens their core beliefs. They simply cannot change their minds.

Finally, as you now know, organized medicine would say you should stop the vitamin D and watch your son deteriorate, which is why slavery to evidence based medicine is fine for scientists and unethical for practitioners.

John Cannell, MD
Executive Director
Vitamin D Council

~~~~~~~~~~
This newsletter may be reproduced as long as you properly and prominently attribute it source. 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
1241 Johnson Ave., #134
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401

Taking Care of Diabetes Outside the Doctor’s Office

2010-01-13T13:58:00.000-08:00

There is a new, very good service that deals with real life and how to deal with it when you have diabetes. Now is a good time to give it a look - just when you might be giving up on those New Year's Resolutions.

http://www.diabetesoutside.com/

It is done by a woman, Amy Gonsalves, who has lived with her diabetes for over two decades. She is a Boot Camp Instructor no less and she just completed her first marathon. But the major part is she knows how to live normally.

I know her personally. You would love to know her personally because she also knows how to have fun in life. She’s smart. She’s tough. She’s cool. Take a look at her site. It just may be your time.

Dr. Joe

Relieving Stress on Beta Cells Prevents Diabetes 2

2010-01-10T17:46:00.000-08:00

News from the Joslin Clinic may help show the way to prevention of Diabetes 2

Cells in your body are constantly changing to make poisonous forms of oxygen called oxidants after which they bring in opposite forms of proteins and chemicals called anti-oxidants to oppose these oxidants. This yin-yang balance of normal oxidative stress has also great potential to negatively affect the insulin producing beta cells. They can malfunction and then start to die causing diabetes 2. So far all this tells us is a story of the balance of normal cells and where things can go wrong.

This process of malfunction seems to begin with a certain enzyme, G6PD, the main producer of an antioxidant called NAPDH that plays a central role in defending beta cells against oxidants when all is normal. The damage to the G6PD by the unopposed oxidation begins to decrease the size and activity of insulin producing cells. Thus we know that an enzyme can start the malfunction.

This indicates a start in a new deadly cycle with the G6PD damaged by the high levels of blood glucose caused from all the known unhealthy issues as from as excessive weight, lack of exercise, excessive carbohydrates produced in causing diabetes. This indicates how these risk factors work to cause diabetes. They kill enzymes.

So how do we prevent diabetes? First we go to the end of the process by providing a diet restricted in fats, carbohydrates and excessive calories. Secondly, I usually recommend Mistica in the early stages of diabetes. The dose is 2-4 ounces daily depending on your size. Mistica is an antioxidant that is five times more powerful than any other available product on the market be they pharmacologic or natural. Thirdly, increase the level of exercise!

The Joslin Clinic work involves only mice at this point. (So many mice have given their all to advance humankind). However the pharmacological industry is already planning their role and the natural supplements are ready.

However, knowing how diabetes 2 begins is what all researchers have looked for since I entered medicine. It is not surprising that it would be a two step process. NAPDH is an essential antioxidant that can regulate the growth and death of beta cells. Health dominates metabolism until stress, activated genes or outside forces upset the balance. This is why I pursue health, strategic health to once again retain balance. Strategic health is finding disease prior to symptoms. For diabetes 2 we probably have the earliest moment until we can look for activated genes.

It’s likely this information will be helpful with other diseases. High levels of oxidants are thought to be a major cause of disease such as Alzheimer’s, Hypertension, heart disease and kidney disease. All the complications of diabetes and the role of the metabolic syndrome as the intermediary situation on the way to clinical diabetes are likely to be targets of research projects.

Yet there are many ways to take advantage of what we know today. No need to wait. It’s your time.

“Dr. Joe”

More Byetta News

2009-12-23T20:59:00.000-08:00

A press release from Eli Lilly was released concerning Byetta LA.

This announcement was carried by Diabetes In Control.

We are increasingly pleased with our ability to control nausea with the twice a day Byetta and what we read about the new product seems to have better news.

Those individuals in our office who had testing to see if Byetta would work for them may have stopped Byetta use due to nausea. This positive report gives reason to consider Byetta LA or even retry the twice a day Byetta as we use new nausea prevention therapy.

Most patients who have nausea have underlying Autonomic Neuropathy but are unaware of it. I will discuss this soon but for now you could look it up on Wikipedia to get an understanding of what Autonomic Neuropathy is about and the symptoms that accompany the disorder.

http://www.google.com/search?q=Autonomic+Neuropathy&btnGNS=Search+wikipedia.org&oi=navquery_searchbox&sa=X&as_sitesearch=wikipedia.org&hl=en

Autonomic Neuropathy has been noted to occur in 50% of people with diabetes 1 or 2 but we have also seen it in a high percentage that have Metabolic Syndrome. Those individuals with Autonomic Neuropathy have a higher chance of having nausea.

The good news is we can reverse the autonomic neuropathy for most people in about 3 months and then diminish the treatment medications. So far there seems to be little chance of recurrent autonomic neuropathy.

Today my biggest concern is for those who have Metabolic Syndrome alone. This may be the precursor of diabetes, cardiovascular disease or Alzheimer’s Syndrome. Formerly these were thought to come from different sources and I believe this is still true. However there is a trigger for these disorders and the increased activity of the Metabolic Syndrome may just be that trigger. That “Brown fat” that is associated with the metabolic Syndrome is still growing around your waist and it is very resistant to diet alone.

Diabetes In Control, the same issue in the link above, reveals research on new drug that delays the progression of diabetes 1. For Diabetes 2 and Metabolic Syndrome, Byetta LA will surpass the very good control with twice a day injections. We are ever broadening all targets with these tools so now we can even use them for weight loss alone. Our patients have literally lost tons of weight.

It’s time to learn about where you fit in all these problems so that you can take charge of your health, own your health and discard all the thoughts that you have no control over these disorders that have you in their grip. It’s your time.

Dr Joe

All About Byetta

2009-12-08T17:40:00.000-08:00

Endocrine Metabolic Medical Center will again be hosting a class on “all about Byetta”.

It will be on Thursday, December 17, 2009 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM. Please contact the office to RSVP.

Since it will involve a number of people who are thinking about Byetta as well as those who are long on Byetta, many are looking to have more perspective on Byetta after they have been using it for as long as two to four years.

We are going to try some new technology then as well. Hope to see you then.

Revisions to Byetta's Drug Label

2009-11-03T14:16:00.000-08:00

Below is a piece or information just released about the use of Byetta. This does not mean it causes kidney disease but that some care should be taken when kidney disease is present. We have had several people in this category and have not had any problems.

“Dr. Joe” Prendergast

November 3, 2009

Dear Member:

Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it had approved drug label revisions for Eventide (Byetta), an approved addition to diet and exercise used to improve glycolic control in adults with type 2 diabetes. The drug label is revised to include information on post-marketing reports of altered kidney function, including acute renal failure and insufficiency.

According to the FDA, from April 2005 through October 2008, the agency received 78 cases of altered kidney function (62 cases of acute renal failure and 16 cases of renal insufficiency), in patients using Eventide. Some cases occurred in patients with pre-existing kidney disease or in patients with one or more risk factors for developing kidney problems.

The FDA has made the following changes to the drug label:

Information regarding post-market reports of acute renal failure and insufficiency, highlighting that Eventide should not be used in patients with severe renal impairment (creatinine clearance <30>
Recommendations to healthcare professionals that caution should be applied when initiating or increasing doses of Exenatide from 5 mcg to 10 mcg in patients with moderate renal impairment (creatinine clearance 30 to 50 ml/min).
Recommendations that healthcare professionals monitor patients carefully for the development of kidney dysfunction, and evaluate the continued need for Exenatide if kidney dysfunction is suspected while using the product.
Information about kidney dysfunction in the patient Medication Guide to help patients understand the benefits and potential risks associated with Exenatide.

Additional information on the revisions to Byetta's drug label, including specific information for physicians and patients, can be found on the FDA website.

Cardiometabolic Risk of Antipsychotic Medications in Youth

2009-11-02T20:52:00.001-08:00

Cardiometabolic Risk of Antipsychotic Medications in Youth JAMA Oct 28, 2009 Pg.1765-1773

Many of us, who see people with metabolic syndrome, particularly in young people, have been startled by the sharp rise in new patients who seem to have been started on antipsychotic medication. Many others who are no longer considered “youths” have similar problems.

The Cardiometabolic Syndrome (AKA METABOLIC SYNDROME, DYSMETABOLIC SYNDRONE, and SYNDROME X) is now regarded to be much more of a clinical problem than just prediabetes since the pre-atherosclerotic component is much worse and more dangerous for early death than previously thought.

The weight changes were most striking. 10% to 36% transitioned to overweight or obese within 11 weeks. These changes were not felt to be due worsening psychiatric disorders. The concern is that youths with this weight and metabolic status will accelerate the cardiometabolic syndrome and its complications. The medications involved in this study include,

Risperidone (http://www.medicinenet.com/risperidone/article.htm)

Quetiapine (Seroquel) http://www.seroquelxr.com/index.aspx?source=828&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=brandxrdtc&utm_campaign=SQLJUN09&WT.mc_id=SQL0209GOOPSDTCB&gclid=CPSUrs-_650CFRgbawodUgQ6LA

Abilify (Aripiprazole) http://www.abilify.com/

Zyprexa http://www.medicinenet.com/olanzapine/article.htm

To trade a serious psychiatric illness for another serious chronic disease is quite a decision. It is something to seriously think about.

It is looked upon as a drug that can precipitate Diabetes type 2. If you have type 1 you can also add insulin resistance and abdominal fat to your problems.

Dr. Joe

Recent Vitamin D Article

2009-10-28T07:45:00.001-07:00

Terrific article in this past weekend's Financial Times on Vitamin D -- Link follows --access is free--

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/11180df8-beaa-11de-b4ab-00144feab49a.html

New Byetta Class

2009-10-23T09:39:00.000-07:00

For those who use, have used or are interested in Byetta, we will have two more educational meetings here in the office. Contact Us to reserve a place in the class.

First will be 10-29-2009, a Thursday 10:00-11:30 AM.

The second will be 12-3-2009, a Thursday 10:00-11:30 AM

There has been increased interest in Byetta due to the scheduled once a week injection Byetta LA in March of next year. This will allow easier start mechanisms, less expensive starting procedures and a dramatic decrease in the nausea. The weight loss is touted to be three times more effective in decreasing weight and twice as effective in growing the cells that produce insulin back into action.

We have been quite successful in all aspects of making Byetta the mainstay of regaining health if you have diabetes. The complications wither in the face of steady Byetta use. The relentless decrease in weight, especially, ultimately, the Brown Fat in the upper abdomen that is the hallmark of the Metabolic Syndrome, is so satisfying.

But so many individuals finished the testing that indicated they could be helped by Byetta then got nausea and perhaps vomiting with their first shot and said “it’s not for me”. We now know that many of these people have autonomic neuropathy that must be cared for first to avoid the nausea. I would invite anyone in this category to return for restart to gain success. We can succeed.

We have now been able to start Byetta on line. This is one of the reasons we have restarted the Internet Care of the metabolic syndrome, type one and type two diabetes.

All this can help you regain control of your body and your life.

It’s your time.

Vitamin D Testing

2009-10-21T12:15:00.000-07:00

From John Cannell, MD
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

American Association of Clinical Chemists: Vitamin D TestingWhats the Right Answer? <http://list.netatlantic.com/t/47863444/75021326/117114/0/>

College of American Pathologists: Vitamin D intrigues, but not a done deal <http://list.netatlantic.com/t/47863444/75021326/117115/0/>

In the above two reports, what really caught my eye above was at the Cleveland Clinic, Vitamin D blood tests jumped from 1,500 tests a month in 2006 to 12,000 a month in 2009. Cleveland Clinic switched to DiaSorin Liaison method to keep up with the demand. That tells me no matter what the Food and Nutrition Board does, patients and doctors are catching on: Vitamin D deficiency is best treated.

If you want to know about the problems with Vitamin D blood testing, read the above two articles. However, my recommendation is not to read them. It will just upset and confuse you. Even if you are a doctor, maybe especially if you are a doctor, dont read them. You expect lab tests to be accurate, give the same result with the same blood sample. Well, OK, believe that if you want.

Vitamin D Meetings

2009-10-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

From John Cannell, MD
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

The second meeting of the new Vitamin D Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) held in Washington DC on August 4, 2009. <http://list.netatlantic.com/t/47863444/75021326/113957/0/>

If you scroll down on the above link you can listen to dozens of presentations at the recent FNB on Vitamin D and the talks range from more is urgently needed, to nothing should change until scientists get a lot more money, to Vitamin D is poison. Of course it is poison, as Paracelsus said, All things are poison, and nothing is without poison, only the dose permits something not to be poison. The readers of this newsletter will remember that vitamin D is used as a rat poison <http://list.netatlantic.com/t/47863444/75021326/117113/0/> . I love the fact that the U.S. government recommends Americans take a rat poison every day, but they do not recommend enough rat poison.

What will the new Food and Nutrition Board do? What doses will they recommend? All you have to do is listen to the presentations; this FNB may not do very much. I hope Im wrong. At the very least, I hope they raise the Upper Limit as that may allow research to be done using the correct dose.

If they stick to the current dangerously low daily adequate intake (AI) 200 IU/day recommendations, it will injure pregnant women and their newborn children the most. The reason: the average person will not take a vitamin supplement, but virtually all pregnant women will take one, a prenatal vitamin. If the FNB increases the AI for pregnancy above 400 IU/day, the prenatal vitamin manufacturers will quickly increase the D content of prenatal vitamins, which is now at a meaningless 400 IU/tablet. The good news is that word is spreading; people are talking, telling friends and neighbors how much Vitamin D helps. I know this because Vitamin D blood testing is skyrocketing.

Treating Vitamin D Toxicity

2009-10-19T07:46:00.001-07:00

From John Cannell, MD
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

Vitamin D toxicity presents with weight loss, malaise and fatigue, followed by anorexia nausea and vomiting, and patients so afflicted almost always have increased thirst, increased urination, and night-time urination. <http://list.netatlantic.com/t/47863444/75021326/117120/0/>

Ever heard of 50,000 IU tablets of Ertron, or Deltalin or Davitin, or Dalsol? You may have if you went to doctor in the 1930s and 1940s. Some doctors of that time prescribed the above drugs, all of which were Vitamin D2, now prescribed as Drisdol. Apparently, some doctors of the time believed massive D2 doses helped arthritis.

This 1948 paper from Johns Hopkins is remarkable for the dosage the doctors prescribed for arthritis and for the toxicity those doses sometimes caused. In their series of 10 toxic patients, the dose ranged from a low to 150,000 IU/day to a high of 600,000 IU/day and it took anywhere from 2 to 18 months for these daily doses to cause clinical toxicity. Clinical toxicity was manifested by weight loss, malaise and fatigue, followed by anorexia, nausea and vomiting. (Note, if you have these symptoms, you are not vitamin D toxic unless you are taking at least 50,000 IU per day for many months, in which case you have not understood anything I have ever written.)

All toxic patients in the above paper had high blood calcium, anywhere from 12.4 to 15 mg%, and 9 of 10 were anemic; all had evidence of kidney impairment. The two bone biopsies were both normal. Seven of the ten patients insisted their arthritis was improved by Vitamin D toxicity and most complained their arthritis returned several months after withdrawal of Vitamin D; return of said arthritic complaints coincided closely with the return to normal of blood calcium.

Treatment of toxicity was simple, stop the Vitamin D. None of the life-threatening corticosteroid treatment toxic patients are given today. Simply stop the Vitamin D, keep them out of the sun, have them drink 4 liters of water a day, and wait. The clinical symptoms disappear in several weeks. The blood calcium returns to normal in several months. Most patients continued to show evidence of some renal damage but that damage appeared to be improving over time. Unlike modern corticosteroid treatment of Vitamin D toxicity, nobody died.

Be Careful Where You Get Your Lab Tests Done

2009-10-18T19:29:00.000-07:00

From John Cannell, MD
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

Robert Michel, publisher of the Dark Report, just reported on his latest experience with Vitamin D testing. The results are not good, especially for Quest Diagnostics. Michel sent 24 aliquots, or identical samples, of his blood, all drawn the same day, to two different reference labs, which in turn sent them, over a three week period, for 24 Vitamin D blood tests. Again, 24 blood samples, drawn from the same person at the same time, so, in a perfect world, all 24 samples would test the same.

However, the results varied from 36 ng/ml to 66 ng/ml! Quests results: 36, 42, 51, 54, 55, and 66. The Mayo Clinic, which uses the same technique that Quest uses, did better, 48, 48, 51, and 61. The good news was the immunoassay methods used by LabCorp, Clinical Pathology Labs, and ARUP clustered around 44 ng/ml and all 11 samples were within 4 points of 44 ng/ml with the highest 48 and the lowest 39.6.

Long story short, if you use Quest Diagnostics, divide by 1.3 and hope they continue to work at improving their process <http://list.netatlantic.com/t/47863444/75021326/117146/0/> .
Mayos is better but Dr. Singh must be getting tired of all those Vitamin D tests, which are hard to do on mass spec. If your lab sends out to LabCorp, ARUP, or Clinical Pathology Labs, you are fine.

If you use ZRT, know that it is a mass spec technique; it has to be mass spec to be done on a blood spot. ZRT is also harmonized to the gold standard, that is, corrected to the gold standard. By gold standard I mean the method that the scientific studies use when they study cancer, heart disease, autoimmune disease, etc. When you see an article that says a new study showed higher Vitamin D levels are associated with longer life, etc., that study almost always used DiaSorin RIA, the gold standard, or DiaSorin Liaison, which gives almost identical results to the DiaSorin RIA.

I see that Dr. Graham Carter, a great proponent of accurate Vitamin D testing, slammed me in a recent paper in Clinical Chemistry.

Carter GD. 25-Hydroxyvitamin D assays: the quest for accuracy. Clin Chem. 2009 Jul;55(7):1300-2. <http:/www.clinchem.org/cgi/content/extract/55/7/1300>

Graham is angry, perhaps, because it was not his watchdog organization, DEQAS, that first detected the problem with inaccurate Vitamin D testing at Quest? Instead, he admits, it was the Vitamin D Council who first blew the whistle on Quest Diagnostics.

Dr. Carter said, correctly, that ZRT home testing cannot easily be monitored by external proficiency testing schemes. Graham is right, schemes, such as Grahams DEQAS <http:/www.deqas.org/> , cannot easily monitor home testing by ZRT, because ZRT uses blood on a blotter paper and not serum. ZRT may be able to be modified to participate in DEQAS, if ZRT can afford it, ZRT is a small lab. Ill ask ZRT if they can find a way to participate.

For those who do not know, this is what DEQAS does. Participating commercial labs pay DEQAS a fee (that is not disclosed on their website but reportedly substantial) so DEQAS will check that labs precision. DEQAS then sends participating labs batches of standardized Vitamin D samples. In other words, it seems that the major reference labs keep DEQAS in business.

The problem with DEQAS is they refuse to send the test samples blind, like Robert Michel did for the Dark Report. In reality, the commercial labs all recognize the DEQAS batches when they come in the mail and all the commercial labs run their DEQAS samples very very carefully. The best DEQAS can hope for is to find out if commercial labs can do it right, not if they do it right.

In the best of all possible worlds, all commercial Vitamin D testing would be accurate, patients would not have to seek in-home Vitamin D levels because their physicians would already have done so in the office, and everybody could afford commercial lab fees, which can range up to $200.00 per test. In the best of all possible worlds, if doctors did order a Vitamin D test, they would order the correct test and finally, in the best of all possible worlds, doctors would know how to correctly interpret the tests that they ordered.

Until then, if you have health insurance or can afford it, I recommend using LabCorp, ARUP, Clinical Pathology Labs, or Cleveland Clinic. If you use the home test kit from ZRT <http:/www.vitamindcouncil.org/health/deficiency/am-i-vitamin-d-deficient.shtml> , they have already corrected for the DiaSorin RIA/mass spec uniform variance but realize it is a mass spec technique. ZRT also submitted, at my request, samples for comparison with RIA and they were quite accurate. Plus, I review ZRTs results; I know they are not artificially high; in fact, way too many of ZRT results are incredibly low. Falsly elevated results is where the danger lies, thinking you are fine when you are deficient.

Widely fluctuating levels of Vitamin D may be harmful

2009-10-17T09:58:00.001-07:00

Widely fluctuating levels of Vitamin D, due to summer sun exposure and winter sunlight deprivation, may be harmful.

From John Cannell, MD
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

Professor Reinhold Vieth of the University of Toronto, has produced evidence that widely fluctuating levels of Vitamin D in patients with low baseline 25(OH)D levels may increase the risk of prostate and pancreatic cancer. At least two prostate cancer studies and two pancreatic cancer studies show that higher baseline 25(OH)D levels at latitudes far from the equator increase, not decrease, the risk of these two malignancies. Vieth produces evidence that this increased risk is related to widely fluctuating levels 25(OH)D in those who rely on summer sun exposure for their Vitamin D.

The latency of the intracellular enzymes that activate and destroy vitamin D explains why Vitamin D should be obtained on a regular basis and not in periodic high doses. When 25(OH)D levels fall abruptly, like in the autumn in countries far from the equator, the enzyme that makes activated Vitamin D inside the cell is still set on low and the enzyme that destroys activated Vitamin D is still set on high and it takes several weeks or even months to fully reset. Vieth believes any supplementation strategy that uses large doses at longer than two month intervals should be avoided. However, high or Stoss doses, such as 50,000 IU of D3 every week or two should pose no problem. Vitamin D2, or ergocalciferol (Drisdol) should be avoided as it causes wider 25(OH)D fluctuations than D3 does.

How do statins work?

2009-10-15T17:29:00.000-07:00

How do statins work? They dramatically raise vitamin D levels.

From John Cannell, MD
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

Several studies have shown that statins raise 25(OH)D levels but last month the above study showed that Crestor nearly tripled Vitamin D levels, from 14 to 36 ng/ml, in just 8 weeks. I loved what the author concluded, We have no idea of the mechanism involved. Nor do I as statins should lower, not increase, vitamin D levels because statins reduce Vitamin Ds precursor, cholesterol. As Dr. Yavuz said, This is clearly an opportunity for further research.

These results are simply amazing, from 14 to 36 ng/ml in 8 weeks and the study was conducted in the winter, when levels should fall, not rise. Just think, if the pleiotropic (many effects) statin drugs work by simply raising Vitamin D levels (and statins pleitropic effects are certainly not mediated through lowering cholesterol levels), then that is one expensive way to raise Vitamin D levels. However, it is the perfect commentary on the American health care system; that is, in America we use statins to treat Vitamin D deficiency, not Vitamin D.

Treatment of Hypertension

2009-10-14T19:53:00.000-07:00

Curt Furberg started the year in the American Journal of Hypertension Volume 22 Number 1(1-2) January 2009 with a comment on how badly we are treating High Blood Pressure in the world. He points out that physicians have a “one size fits all” approach while following the principle of the “JNC 7 made me do it”. These National guidelines to approach blood pressure control aren’t working.

We have developed an assessment system that tells us what the vascular “tree” is doing and how to influence it positively to achieve health, normal arteries and normal blood pressure. It is as follows.

Measure “pressure” with the CVProfiler. This gives us the elasticity and integrity of the C-2 (small) and C-1 (large) arteries. To see them, you would need a microscope.
Measure the Central Aortic Systolic Pressure (CASP), the number derived from the wave form that bounces back from the impact of the pulse wave hitting the aorta as it goes down your back. It bounces back to the BPro device measuring all these waves (think sonar, think radar, think catalytic converter junked up with exhaust residue like cholesterol plaque).

From these data we derive the treatment program.

The cost has not increased because it is all included in the “vascular package” that includes all vascular testing. Our success with this health system is known as strategic health. This process finds disease prior to any symptoms and reverses it.

My last patient today knew there was a problem prior to her stroke last year, but none of the doctors what to look for. The blood pressure drug given her after the stroke unfortunately was one that causes additional stroke by causing inelastic arteries and increasing insulin resistance and diabetes. Wrong choice.

The BPro alone can do all that I have mentioned above and is ever increasingly available throughout the world. We have just opened our newest iteration of Telemedicine for those with diabetes and all related complications such as hypertension we now can do more personal help with problems. Click below.

http://www.endocrinemetabolic.com/programs/online-diabetes.html

We can take care of anyone in California. For patients anywhere in the world we can act as a consultant to whoever is designated to practice in their Country. We want to work as a consultant in California as well because we are limiting our care to our expertise.

The networking can be world wide and enables all doctors to learn this new system.

Those physicians will be able, if they choose, to learn our system and become one of the centers of excellence whose BPro data we will collect. From these data we will draft medical papers that will be published and show the world how this system reverses the “failing report card” of hypertension. Patients managing the research on their own disorder! How unusual!

Although I am not sure we can use all the coupons outside the US, take a look, by clicking on the above, at the savings you can get. Just today I was told about another $500-$700 yearly saving with a new medication that merely bundles two of the medications we use all the time. Although we don’t usually stay with prescription drugs for long, the pharmaceutical companies are now realizing that medications that work so well with the Proargi9 plus that they can be discontinued are really the ones that everyone wants to take first. The first 200 patients to sign up get the ProArgini9 plus! They really have a deal.

More soon on hypertension; there is a major amount to learn about blood pressure and when you know principles it’s easy.

Dr. Joe, the Diabetes Doctor

Source: Vitamin D Council

2009-10-13T08:35:00.000-07:00

I want to apologize to John Cannell MD! Dr. John Cannell is Executive Director of Vitamin D Council, a nonprofit working to create awareness of the global epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. Here is a short Bio on a wonderful man doing a great deal of good for mankind and specifically for you.

The apology is for not properly ascribing the origin of the pieces I have put out over the last 2-3 weeks on Vitamin D in the broadcasts I have sent out and omitting the origin was to him and the vitamin D Council where he publishes all this great information (this has since been corrected). As I recall, I initially thought that it did give him credit for all this but clearly I was wrong. Here is another one of his Publications you’ll find important.

This was all his work in pulling all this information out from multiple sources and bringing forward his own take on what this means to all of us. He is a great scientist, great clinician and a wonderful person.

This is a nonprofit organization. As I do, you sending on your contributions enable the organization to stay afloat. I strongly suggest that that you do that while signing up to have it delivered directly you. It’s your time! Do it!

“Dr. Joe” Prendergast

The Great Vitamin D Panic

2009-10-12T07:05:00.000-07:00

From John Cannell, MD
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

Two years after Great Britain halved its Vitamin D dose for infants, due to the Great Vitamin D Panic, the incidence of infantile hypercalcemia was unchanged.

Fifty years ago, Great Britain laid the foundation for every subsequent U.S. Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) Vitamin D recommendation when England had a fit of hysteria, the Great Vitamin D Panic. Professor Bruce Hollis wrote about this scare in some detail in a 2004 paper, and how the British panic affected the American FNB. He also details the role the Williams syndrome played in the Great Vitamin D Panic. Williams syndrome is a genetic malformation that causes, among other things, infantile hypersensitivity to Vitamin D, elevated 1,25 levels even without supplemental Vitamin D, and often hypercalcemia in response to supplemental Vitamin D. (In fact, it was by studying the Williams Syndrome that I became more convinced of the relationship of Vitamin D to autism. Kids with the Williams syndrome, the only human disease with greatly elevated serum 1,25 levels around birth, grow up to have an adult personality that is the phenotypic opposite of autism, thus they are an experiment of nature.) Anyway, in the midst of the panic, Great Britain reduced infant supplementation by one-half in 1957, expecting to see a reduction in infantile hypercalcemia (7.2 cases per month in the country). It did not. Two years later, in 1959, the incidence of infantile hypercalcemia in Great Britain was essentially unchanged (6.8 cases per month.) However, by 1961, the reported incidence was apparently halved to 3 cases per month. The British Paediatric Association concluded it remains speculative whether the decrease in hypercalcemia by 1961 is a consequence of reduced Vitamin D intake because it was not chronologically related to the reduction of Vitamin D intakes introduced in 1957.

It seems likely that what happened was this. The Great Vitamin D Panic began in the early 1950s and British pediatricians began drawing lots of blood calcium levels on their infant patients, fearful they were toxic. They kept drawing frequent blood calcium levels and thus detecting high baseline blood calcium levels until 1960 when the Great Vitamin D Scare ebbed and they drew fewer and fewer infantile blood calcium levels. Thus fewer high baseline levels were detected and by 1961 fewer British infants diagnosed with high blood calcium. It was simply due to fewer blood tests ordered for calcium; it had nothing to do with Vitamin D.

East German Infants Taking Vitamin D

2009-10-11T07:18:00.000-07:00

From John Cannell, MD
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

From 1955 to 1990, all infants in East Germany received 600,000 IU of Vitamin D every three months for a total of 3,600,000 IU at age 18 months.

With the 400 IU/day recommendation of the American Pediatric Association in mind, I ran across this amazing paper while surfing Medline for Vitamin D. According to this paper, all infants in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) received dangerously high doses of Vitamin D every three months in their doctors office. The policy was in place for 35 years. The first 600,000 IU dose was given at three months and then every three months until the child was 18 months of age. This works out to an average of 6,000 IU per day (actually, for several technical reasons it is not equivalent) for 18 months. The authors collected blood before the dose and then 2 weeks after the quarterly dose to obtain 25(OH)D, 1,25(OH)D, and calcium levels on a total of 43 infants.

Before the first dose, at 3 months of age, the average infant was extremely deficient (median 25(OH)D of 7 ng/ml). Two weeks after the first dose the average 25(OH)D level was 120 ng/ml, the second dose 170 ng/ml, the third dose, 180 ng/ml, the fourth dose, 144 ng/ml, the fifth dose, 110 ng/ml and after the sixth and final dose, 3.6 million total units, at age 18 months, the children had mean levels of 100 ng/ml. That is, by the 15 and 18 month doses, the children were beginning to effectively handle these massive doses.

The highest level recorded in any of the 43 infants was 408 ng/ml at age 9 months, two weeks after the third 600,000 IU dose. Thirty-four percent of the infants had at least one episode of hypercalcemia but only 3 had an elevated serum 1,25(OH)D. The authors reported that all the infants appeared healthy, even the infant with a level of 408 ng/ml, that is, no clinical toxicity was noted in any of these infants.

They also reported that repeated inquires in GDR have failed to identify clinical Vitamin D toxicity as a result of the prophylactic program. The pediatricians and health officials in the GDR just did not look hard enough for toxicity as such doses will certainly cause clinical toxicity, right? Or maybe such doses only cause asymptomatic hypercalcemia and not clinical toxicity. It would be interesting to look at the infant mortality in East Germany during those years, compared to similar Eastern European countries, as well as current cohorts of German adults who underwent such treatment as an infant.

Vitamin D3 and Diabetes

2009-10-08T14:54:00.000-07:00

The role of Vitamin D3 in type 1 and 2 is now more important than everything except insulin. It is important that the wide ranging effects on every aspect D3 in understood by people with diabetes because of D3 contributing to so many complications.

The Vitamin D Council has wisely chosen these articles (sent out in this newsletter the past few weeks) to represent the cross section of problems attributable to low D. Were you aware that Finland increased the incidence of type 1 and type 2 diabetes to 80% of the population by the government decision to drastically lower the amounts of D3 supplementation? Did you know that the reintroduction of Vitamin D3 to the amounts use 15-20 years ago restored the incidence of diabetes 1 and 2 in Finland back to that other Western Countries?

Did you know that virtually all complications of diabetes are at least in part attributable to low vitamin D3, not just in the incidence of complications but the severity?

Dr. Joe

Vitamin D and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

2009-10-07T18:26:00.000-07:00

From John Cannell, MD
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

Low Vitamin D levels associated with increased disease severity in childhood Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE).

Childhood SLE is a tragic disease, one of the autoimmune diseases that have risen to epidemic levels in our children in the last 20 years. Afflicted children develop debilitating kidney, joint, bone, heart, blood, and lung disease; almost all require immunosuppressants (prednisone and hydroxychloroquine) to ward off looming debilitation and death.

Dr. Tracey Wright and colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center found severe Vitamin D deficiency was five times more common in SLE children than in controls (37% vs. 9%), that a measure of SLE disease severity was 2.5 times higher in SLE children with Vitamin D deficiency, that 78% of SLE children who were prescribed Vitamin D were still severely deficient (that is, their pediatricians were prescribing insignificant amounts of Vitamin D while telling them correctly in the case of SLE to avoid the sun), and serum activated vitamin D levels (calcitriol) were significantly lower in SLE kids than healthy controls. (Tragically, the true believers of the Marshall Protocol and I know no scientists who are recommend these children get even less Vitamin D.) The authors concluded, Vitamin D deficiency may be a modifiable risk factor for morbidity in SLE and represents a target for intervention.

Vitamin D deficient mothers with HIV are more likely to infect their baby.

2009-10-06T10:53:00.000-07:00

From John Cannell, MD
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

Dr. Saurabh Mehta and colleagues at Harvard discovered higher Vitamin D levels in HIV infected mothers helped prevent fetal death and HIV transmission to the infant. At 24 months of age, toddlers from low maternal 25(OH)D HIV mothers had a 46% increased risk of acquiring HIV and a 61% increased risk of dying. The authors found an insignificant but disturbing trend for increased infection and mortality in mothers with 25(OH)D levels greater than 70 ng/ml but not enough mothers had such levels to draw any conclusions.

Vitamin D appears to be involved in a rapidly increasing number of infections, from influenza, tuberculosis, bacterial vaginitis, sepsis, the common cold, and now to HIV.

Infantile Cardiomyopathy and Vitamin D

2009-10-05T19:52:00.000-07:00

From John Cannell, MD
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

More evidence Vitamin D deficiency is involved in infantile cardiomyopathy.

In the above paper, Dr. Jennifer Brown and colleagues at Childrens National Medical Center reported on four more babies with life threatening cardiomyopathy (when the heart swells up and cannot pump blood effectively). All four babies improved dramatically with Vitamin D treatment including three babies who are now off all cardiac medications (I hope that does not include Vitamin D, which is a crucial cardiac medicine.) and one infant who was taken off the heart transplant list after treatment with Vitamin D.

The problem with the paper was that the authors only looked at infants whose Vitamin D levels were so low that their body could not maintain their blood calcium levels and also had rickets. The authors concluded the cause of the cardiomyopathy in the four infants was low serum calcium. I emailed Dr. Christopher Spurney, the senior author, reminding him that Vitamin D has direct effects on heart muscle cells, above and beyond its effects on calcium, and that he should check Vitamin D levels on all infants with cardiomyopathy and treat those with a low levels, not just rachitic or hypocalcemic infants. He replied that the Childrens National Medical Center is now doing just that.