D*Action Program

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

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

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

Recent Vitamin D Article

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

Vitamin D Testing

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

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

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

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.

How do statins work?

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.

Source: Vitamin D Council

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

Special Pricing on L-Arginine & Vitamin D3

These prices are good through October, 2009. Contact us with questions, but you must come into the EMMC Clinic to pick up the products. We will not ship the products. AND we are "Going Green" so bring your own bag too!

Low Vitamin D Linked to Obesity

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

Most American teenagers are Vitamin D deficient and low levels in teenagers are associated with teenage hypertension, obesity, and metabolic syndrome.

In the above paper, Researchers at Johns Hopkins and the NIH (led by Dr. Jared Reis) looked at 3500 American teenagers and found teenagers with the lowest Vitamin D levels, compared to the highest, were five times more likely to be obese, 2.5 times more likely to be hypertensive, 2.5 times more likely to have elevated blood sugar, and about 4 times more likely to have the metabolic syndrome. Only 25% of the teenagers had levels higher than 26 ng/ml while 25% had levels lower than 15 ng/ml.

What upset me the most about this study was that the authors did not conclude teenage Vitamin D deficiency should be treated; they concluded scientists should be given more money to study the deficient teenagers: Additional research is necessary . . . and evidence from randomized controlled trials is required before Vitamin D supplementation can be recommended . . . One fourth of American teenagers with levels less than 15 ng/ml, H1N1 already here, and Dr. Reis, the NIH and Johns Hopkins doesn't advise anything should be done but give scientists more money? Email Dr. Reis and tell him what you think: reisjp@nhibi.nih.gov.

Vitamin D and H1N1 Swine Flu

From The Vitamin D Newsletter
September 5, 2009

So far, Swine flu, H1N1, has killed thirty-six children in U.S. and analysis of CDC data indicates Vitamin D deficient children at higher risk of death.

I'm not sure I can do this, watch our children die this winter from what may be a preventable disease, influenza, I'm not sure I'm strong enough. A few minutes ago, the CDC issued a report on Swine flu deaths among children; thirty-six U.S. children dead so far this season and the season hasn't started yet. The dead children were much more likely to be Vitamin D deficient; but the CDC did not realize they discovered this. However, anyone familiar with the Vitamin D literature will recognize it.

The clue: almost two-thirds of our dead children had epilepsy, cerebral palsy, or other neurodevelopmental conditions like mental retardation. What do we know of these neurological conditions? All are associated with childhood Vitamin D deficiency; I wont bore you with the references but anyone who has ever cared for these children know it; anyone who has studied these diseases on Medline knows it; anyone who has one of these kids know it; these kids just don't go in the sun very much. If they do live at home and go outside, parents use sunblock because the child is so vulnerable, never robust. In addition to sunlight deprivation, many of these kids take anticonvulsant drugs, which lower Vitamin D levels.

One more thing, thirty-six dead kids so far this season and the season has not yet started. Over the last 4 years, around 100 American kids have died of the flu during flu season; this year the toll is 36 before the season has started.

Vitamin D and H1N1

From:John Cannell, M.D.

September 17, 2009

I'm writing to alert readers to a crucial email from a physician who has evidence vitamin D is protective against H1N1 and to ask you, the reader,to contact your representatives in Washington to help protect Americans, especially children,from H1N1 before winter comes.

Dear Dr. Cannell:

Your recent newsletters and video about Swine flu (H1N1) prompted me to convey our recent experience with an H1N1 outbreak at Central Wisconsin Center (CWC). Unfortunately, the state epidemiologist was not interested in studying it further so I pass it on to you since I think it is noteworthy.

CWC is a long-term care facility for people with developmental disabilities, home for approx. 275 people with approx. 800 staff. Serum 25-OHD has been monitored in virtually all residents for several years and patients supplemented with vitamin D.

In June, 2009, at the time of the well-publicized Wisconsin spike in H1N1 cases, two residents developed influenza-like illness (ILI) and had positive tests for H1N1: one was a long-term resident; the other, a child, was transferred to us with what was later proven to be H1N1.

On the other hand, 60 staff members developed ILI or were documented to have H1N1: of 17 tested for ILI, eight were positive. An additional 43 staff members called in sick with ILI. (Approx. 11-12 staff developed ILI after working on the unit where the child was given care, several of whom had positive H1N1 tests.)

So, it is rather remarkable that only two residents of 275 developed ILI, one of which did not develop it here, while 103 of 800 staff members had ILI. It appears that the spread of H1N1 was not from staff-to-resident but from resident-to-staff (most obvious in the imported case) and between staff, implying that staff were susceptible and our residents protected.

Sincerely,

Norris Glick, MD
Central Wisconsin Center
Madison, WI

Dear Dr. Glick:

This is the first hard data that I am aware of concerning H1N1 and vitamin D. It appears vitamin D is incredibly protective against H1N1. Dr. Carlos Carmago at Mass General ran the numbers in an email to me. Even if one excludes 43 staff members who called in sick with influenza, 0.73% of residents were affected, as compared to 7.5% of staff. This 10-fold difference wasstatistically significant(P<0.001). That is, the chance that this was a chance occurrence is one less than one in a thousand.

Second, if you read mylast newsletter,you will see that children with neurological impairments, like the patients at your hospital, have accounted for 2/3 of the childhood deaths for H1N1 so far in the USA. That is, the CDC knows, because they reported it, that patients with neurological impairments are more likely to die from H1N1.

The problem is that I cannot get anyone in authority at the CDC or the NIH to listen. I need readers to email or call their senators and congresspersons in Washington.

Ask your senator or congressperson to contact the CDC and NIH to complain about CDC and NIH inaction on Vitamin D and H1N1. Also, ask your senators and representative to demand congressional hearings on Vitamin D and H1N1, before it is too late. Here is the link below, just click it and follow instructions to contact your own representatives.

John Cannell, MD
President
Vitamin D Council
585 Leff Street
San Luis Obispo, CA 93422

Pilot Study of Vitamin D and Autism

Invitation to Doctors to participate in a pilot study of vitamin D and autism.

This is an invitation to doctors who are interested in vitamin D and have access to families with autism to participate in a pilot study entitled: "Study of Vitamin D to prevent Autism in Newborn Siblings" . We are using vitamin D during pregnancy and lactation to prevent the recurrence of autism in newborn siblings in families who already have one child with autism.

If you are interested in participating in this pilot study or have questions, please call Dr. Gene Stubbs at 503-939-7351 or call Kathy Henley at 503-351-9255. Or send us an email at stubbsgene@comcast.net or henleyjks@att.net. If sending a letter is preferred, send it to:

Gene Stubbs, M.D.,P.C.,
7032 SW 3rd Avenue,
Portland, OR 97219.

Vitamin D Studies of Interest

The Vitamin D Newsletter
September 5, 2009
Vitamin D Studies of Interest

This month I will try a different format for the newsletter, the references are linked to the headline. Most of the studies or articles reviewed below are brand new, published this month or last, a few are older. For whatever reason, the national press has reduced reporting on new Vitamin D studies, so I will try to cover a few of the more remarkable papers published in the last six weeks.

Vitamin D and H1N1 Swine Flu

So far, Swine flu, H1N1, has killed thirty-six children in U.S. and analysis of CDC data indicates Vitamin D deficient children at higher risk of death.

I’m not sure I can do this, watch our children die this winter from what may be a preventable disease, influenza, I’m not sure I’m strong enough. A few minutes ago, the CDC issued a report on Swine flu deaths among children; thirty-six U.S. children dead so far this season and the season hasn’t started yet. The dead children were much more likely to be Vitamin D deficient; but the CDC did not realize they discovered this. However, anyone familiar with the Vitamin D literature will recognize it.

The clue: almost two-thirds of our dead children had epilepsy, cerebral palsy, or other neurodevelopmental conditions like mental retardation. What do we know of these neurological conditions? All are associated with childhood Vitamin D deficiency; I won’t bore you with the references but anyone who has ever cared for these children know it; anyone who has studied these diseases on Medline knows it; anyone who has one of these kids know it; these kids just don’t go in the sun very much. If they do live at home and go outside, parents use sunblock because the child is so vulnerable, never robust. In addition to sunlight deprivation, many of these kids take anticonvulsant drugs, which lower Vitamin D levels.

One more thing, thirty-six dead kids so far this season and the season has not yet started. Over the last 4 years, around 100 American kids have died of the flu during flu season; this year the toll is 36 before the season has started.

Swine Flu Sends More Blacks, Hispanics to Hospital

The above racial differences apply to hospitalization rates for H1N1 in Boston and Chicago. It looks as if Vitamin D is a big factor in H1N1. During the 1918-1919 pandemic, Blacks actually had lower illness rates, not higher, perhaps because they had antibodies from previous H1N1 infection in 1916 and 1917. It worried me to read that the 1918 H1N1 was circulating in the world for several years before it devastated that same world in 1918-1919. The same could be true now, that is, this H1N1 may be relatively benign (only kill 50,000 Americans/year) for several years, infect more Blacks than whites, then erupt into a merciless killer in 2011, when Blacks will be relatively protected because of their higher antibodies from higher infection rates in 2009 and 2010.

American Children Vitamin D Deficient

Most American teenagers are Vitamin D deficient and low levels in teenagers are associated with teenage hypertension, obesity, and metabolic syndrome.

In the above paper, Researchers at Johns Hopkins and the NIH (led by Dr. Jared Reis) looked at 3500 American teenagers and found teenagers with the lowest Vitamin D levels, compared to the highest, were five times more likely to be obese, 2.5 times more likely to be hypertensive, 2.5 times more likely to have elevated blood sugar, and about 4 times more likely to have the metabolic syndrome. Only 25% of the teenagers had levels higher than 26 ng/ml while 25% had levels lower than 15 ng/ml.

What upset me the most about this study was that the authors did not conclude teenage Vitamin D deficiency should be treated; they concluded scientists should be given more money to study the deficient teenagers: “Additional research is necessary . . .” and “evidence from randomized controlled trials is required before Vitamin D supplementation can be recommended . . .” One fourth of American teenagers with levels less than 15 ng/ml, H1N1 already here, and Dr. Reis, the NIH and Johns Hopkins doesn't advise anything should be done but give scientists more money? Email Dr. Reis and tell him what you think: reisjp@nhibi.nih.gov.

58 million American children are Vitamin D deficient; 7.6 million are severely deficient and nobody is doing anything about it.

Dr. Jahi Kumar and colleagues at Albert Einstein School of Medicine looked at more than 6,000 American kids (age one to 21) who were carefully selected to be representative of the average American child. Nine percent of the kids had 25(OH)D levels less than 15 ng/ml and 70% (representing 58 million kids) had levels less than 30 ng/ml. The older the child, the blacker the child, the more TV and video games, the fatter the child, the higher the chance the child is deficient. Tragically, 59% of black teenage girls had levels less than 15 ng/ml.

Children with low levels were more likely to have abnormal blood lipids, high blood pressure, obesity, and abnormally elevate parathyroid hormone levels, all risks for future cardiovascular disease. Only 4% of American children take recommended doses of Vitamin D supplements, surely a failure of U.S. pediatricians.

German and British Children, Vitamin D and Long Ago

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 doctor’s 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.

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.

Vitamin D and Infant, Children's Health

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.

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. When are scientists going to get around to looking at the wintertime killer and crippler of kids, meningitis?

More evidence Vitamin D deficiency is involved in infantile cardiomyopathy.

In the above paper, Dr. Jennifer Brown and colleagues at Children’s 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 Children’s National Medical Center is now doing just that.

Vitamin D Levels

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

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 D’s 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.

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

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.

Vitamin D Testing

American Association of Clinical Chemists: Vitamin D Testing—What’s the Right Answer?

College of American Pathologists: Vitamin D intrigues, but not a done deal

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, don’t 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.

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! Quest’s 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. Mayo’s 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.

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 Graham’s DEQAS, 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. I’ll 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 lab’s 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, 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 ZRT’s 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.

Treating Vitamin D Toxicity

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.

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.

Vitamin D Meetings

The second meeting of the new Vitamin D Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) held in Washington DC on August 4, 2009.

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. 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 I’m 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.

14th Vitamin D Workshop in Brugge, Belgium, October 4th to 8th.

If you are a scientist, do not miss this workshop. If you are a lay person, read the program before you register.

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

The Vitamin D Council
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Vitamin D Resources

As you know we sell a vitamin D spray in our office, but there are good sources of vitamin D all around. Apple Foods in Redwood City, CA is one of them. Enjoy their newsletter.

Swine Flu: What to Do

Comparison of Different Vitamin D Dosing Regimens

All these articles were sent to me by my good friend, Norm Shealy MD. There are many sources of changing recommendations on how to use Vitamin D3 in life and here is but a small part of what this excellent physician thinks it is important.

Dr. Joe

Keywords:
AGING, VITAMIN D STATUS, ELDERLY - Vitamin D, Dosing, Dosages

Reference:
"The same annual dose of 292 000 IU of vitamin D(3) (cholecalciferol) on either daily or four monthly basis for elderly women: 1-year comparative study of the effects on serum 25(OH)D(3) concentrations and renal function," Pekkarinen T, Valimaki VV, et al, Clin Endocrinol (Oxf), 2009 May 25; [Epub ahead of print]. (Address: Dr. Matti Välimäki, M.D, Ph.D., Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, Helsinki University Central Hospital, FI-00029 HUS, Helsinki, Finland. E-mail: matti.valimaki@horcon.inet.fi ).

Summary:
In a randomized, double-blind, double-dummy, parallel group study involving 40 women between the ages of 67 and 79 years, daily supplementation with vitamin D 400 IU twice a day was found to be more efficient at raising 25(OH)D(3) concentrations than supplementation with 97,333 IU vitamin D(3) oil, every four months. Both groups of subjects received 1 gram per day calcium. After one year, 100% of subjects in the daily vitamin D group achieved 25(OH)D(3) levels above 50 nmol/L, as compared to 67% in the 4 months group, and 47% in the daily dose group achieved 25(OH)D(3) 75 nmol/L, as compared to 28% in the monthly dose group. Urinary calcium excretion increased in both groups, but no worsening of renal function in either group was found. These results suggest, "In terms of serum 25(OH)D(3) concentrations, 800 IU daily was more efficient than a 97333 IU every four months. However, to incre ase adherence the latter is still worth developing."

Vitamin D May Protect Beta Cell Function in Adults with Latent Autoimmune Diabetes

Topic: Vitamin D May Protect Beta Cell Function in Adults with Latent Autoimmune Diabetes

Keywords: DIABETES, LATENT AUTOIMMUNE DIABETES, TYPE 1 DIABETES MELLITUS - Vitamin D

Reference: "Protective effects of 1-alpha-hydroxyvitamin D3 on residual beta-cell function in patients with adult-onset latent autoimmune diabetes (LADA)," Li X, Liao L, et al, Diabetes Metab Res Rev, 2009 June 1; [Epub ahead of print]. (Address: Zhiguang Zhou, Diabetes Center, Institute of Metabolism and Endocrinology Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China. E-mail: zhouzg@hotmail.com ).

Summary: In a randomized study involving 35 patients with latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) - a form of slowly progressive autoimmune type 1 diabetes - treatment with vitamin D (1-alpha-hydroxyvitamin D3, 0.5 microg/d), in addition to treatment with subcutaneous insulin, for a period of one year, was found to preserve pancreatic beta-cell function more significantly than treatment with insulin alone. Specifically, while levels of fasting plasma C-peptide (FCP) and plasma C-peptide levels 2 hours after a 75-g glucose load decreased in the insulin-alone group, they remained stable in the insulin plus 1-alpha(OH)D3 group. In addition, while only 22% of patients treated with insulin alone maintained stable FCP, 70% of patients treated with insulin plus 1-alpha(OH)D3 maintained stable FCP levels. Further analysis found that the benefits of 1-alpha(OH)D3 on islet beta-cell function appear to exist only for those subjects with diabetes duration no more than one year. These results suggest that adding 1-alpha(OH)D3 to insulin therapy may prevent pancreatic beta-cell function in patients with LADA. These results support findings from previous in vitro and in vivo studies that have showed vitamin D to be effective in preventing pancreatic beta-cell destruction.

Provided by:
C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Energy Medicine
President Emeritus
Holos University Graduate Seminary
www.holosuniversity.org
www.normshealy.com
www.medicalrenaissance.net

Vitamin D in the Treatment and Prevention of Infectious Diseases

Keywords:
INFECTIOUS DISEASES - Vitamin D

Reference:
"Vitamin D for Treatment and Prevention of Infectious Diseases: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials," Yamshchikov AV, Desai NS, et all, Endocr Pract, 2009; 1-29; [Epub ahead of print]. (Address: Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA 30303).

Summary:
In a systematic review of randomized, controlled trials evaluating the effects of vitamin D in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, the authors conclude, "More rigorously designed clinical trials are needed to further evaluate the relationship between vitamin D status and the immune response to infection, and to delineate necessary changes in clinical practice and medical care of patients with vitamin D deficiency in infectious disease settings." The reviewers identified 13 trials that met the study inclusion criteria, out of which 10 were placebo-controlled, and 9 were double-blinded. Results of the studies suggest that vitamin D therapy shows great potential as an adjunctive therapy in the treatment of tuberculosis, influenza, and viral upper respiratory illnesses. Adverse events due to vitamin D supplementation were rare. These results suggest that further research investigating the role of vitamin D in the treatment and prevention of infectio us diseases is warranted.

Provided by:
C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Energy Medicine
President Emeritus
Holos University Graduate Seminary
www.holosuniversity.org
www.normshealy.com
www.medicalrenaissance.net

Osteomalacia After Gastric Bypass Surgery

Topic: Pharmacologic Doses of Vitamin D in the Treatment of Patients with Osteomalacia After Gastric Bypass Surgery

Keywords: OSTEOMALACIA, BONE HEALTH, GASTRIC BYPASS SURGERY, OBESITY - Vitamin D

Reference: "Osteomalacia with Bone Marrow Fibrosis Due to Severe Vitamin D Depletion Following Gastrointestinal Bypass Surgery for Severe Obesity," Al-Shoha A, Qiu S, et al, Endocr Pract, 2009; 1-16. (Address: Bone & Mineral Research Laboratory, Henry Ford Hospital, 2799 W. Grand Blvd, Detroit, MI, USA).

Summary: In a study involving 5 patients (between the ages of 39 and 60 years) who had undergone gastrointestinal bypass surgery for severe obesity, who had developed severe vitamin D depletion over the course of 17 years post-bypass and were diagnosed with osteomalacia with marrow fibrosis, who were unresponsive to "usual" therapy, experiencing symptoms of generalized bone pain and tenderness, muscle weakness, stooping posture, difficulty walking, and waddling gait due to severe proximal muscle weakness for a period of 2-5 years, treatment with pharmacologic doses of vitamin D (100,000 IU/d ergocalciferol) and calcium carbonate (1-2.5 g/d) was found to significantly improve clinical symptoms and functional status, as well as biochemical indices, BMD and bone histomorphometry. The authors point out that in this population (gastric bypass surgery patients), the clinical presentation of osteomalacia is often mistaken for arthritis, gout, osteoporosis or various other conditions. They also point out that the "usual" recommendations for treatment are grossly inadequate. They conclude, "Gastric bypass surgery predispose to severe vitamin D deficiency and osteomalacia in the absence of pharmacologic doses of vitamin D therapy. Prospective long-term studies are needed to determine the appropriate vitamin D dose required to prevent osteomalacia in such patients."

Provided by:
C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Energy Medicine
President Emeritus
Holos University Graduate Seminary
www.holosuniversity.org
www.normshealy.com
www.medicalrenaissance.net

http://www.vitasearch.com/get-clp-summary/38298

Vitamin D and Nutritional Rickets

Keywords: RICKETS, NUTRITIONAL DEFICIENCY - Vitamin D

Reference: "Early and severe presentation of vitamin D deficiency and nutritional rickets among hospitalized infants and the effective factors," Tezer H, Siklar Z, et al, Turk J Pediatr, 2009; 51(2): 110-5. (Address: Department of Pediatrics, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey).

Summary: In a study involving 305 hospitalized children (between 0 and 3 years of age), out of which 6.8% (n=21) were found to have nutritional vitamin D deficiency and rickets, lower vitamin D intake was found among the children with rickets as compared to controls. In addition, the frequency of malnutrition and anemia were higher among children with rickets, as compared to the controls. Out of the 21 children with rickets, 14 were admitted to the hospital for infectious conditions, mostly respiratory tract infections. These results show that rickets due to vitamin D deficiency is still quite common, particularly in infancy. The authors conclude, "To address this problem, a specific attention should be given to women of reproductive age and in the early infancy period. Initiation of vitamin D supplementation could be offered very early (perhaps after the birth) in children with risk factors."

http://www.vitasearch.com/get-clp-summary/38301

Provided by:
C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Energy Medicine
President Emeritus
Holos University Graduate Seminary
www.holosuniversity.org
www.normshealy.com
www.medicalrenaissance.net

Pregnancy and Vitamin D

The Vitamin D Newsletter
June, 2009

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 website.

This newsletter is not copyrighted. Please reproduce it, post it on Internet sites, and forward it to your friends and family. Dana Clark, our underpaid but superb webmaster, will post this newsletter on the website.

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

Incidence of Gestational Vitamin D Deficiency:

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

Lee JM, Smith JR, Philipp BL, Chen TC, Mathieu J, Holick MF. Vitamin D deficiency in a healthy group of mothers and newborn infants. Clin Pediatr (Phila). 2007 Jan;46(1):42-4.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111482/0/>

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

Bodnar LM, Simhan HN, Powers RW, Frank MP, Cooperstein E, Roberts JM. High prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in black and white pregnant women residing in the northern United States and their neonates. J Nutr. 2007 Feb;137(2):447-52.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111483/0/>

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

Dijkstra SH, van Beek A, Janssen JW, de Vleeschouwer LH, Huysman WA, van den Akker EL. High prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in newborns of high-risk mothers. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2007 Apr 25.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111484/0/>

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

Effects on the Mother:

Caesarean section:

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

Merewood A, Mehta SD, Chen TC, Bauchner H, Holick MF. Association between vitamin D deficiency and primary cesarean section. J Clin Endocrinol Metab.
2009 Mar;94(3):940-5.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111485/0/>

Preeclampsia:

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

Bodnar LM, Catov JM, Simhan HN, Holick MF, Powers RW, Roberts JM. Maternal vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of preeclampsia. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2007 Sep;92(9):3517-22.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111486/0/>

Gestational Diabetes:

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

Zhang C, Qiu C, Hu FB, David RM, van Dam RM, Bralley A, Williams MA.
Maternal plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations and the risk for gestational diabetes mellitus. PLoS ONE. 2008;3(11):e3753.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111487/0/>

Bacterial Vaginitis:

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

Bodnar LM, Krohn MA, Simhan HN. Maternal Vitamin D Deficiency Is Associated with Bacterial Vaginosis in the First Trimester of Pregnancy. J Nutr. 2009 Apr 8. <http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111488/0/>

Effects on the child:

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

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

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

Cannell JJ, Vieth R, Willett W, Zasloff M, Hathcock JN, White JH, Tanumihardjo SA, Larson-Meyer DE, Bischoff-Ferrari HA, Lamberg-Allardt CJ, Lappe JM, Norman AW, Zittermann A, Whiting SJ, Grant WB, Hollis BW, Giovannucci E. Cod liver oil, vitamin A toxicity, frequent respiratory infections, and the vitamin D deficiency epidemic. Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol. 2008 Nov;117(11):864-70.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/112045/0/>


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

McGrath J. Does 'imprinting' with low prenatal vitamin D contribute to the risk of various adult disorders? Med Hypotheses. 2001 Mar;56(3):367-71.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111489/0/>

Schizophrenia:

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

Kinney DK, Teixeira P, Hsu D, Napoleon SC, Crowley DJ, Miller A, Hyman W, Huang E. Relation of schizophrenia prevalence to latitude, climate, fish consumption, infant mortality, and skin color: a role for prenatal vitamin d deficiency and infections? Schizophr Bull. 2009 May;35(3):582-95.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111490/0/>

Autism:

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

What If Vitamin D Deficiency Is a Cause of Autism?
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111491/0/>

Mental Retardation:

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

Yeargin-Allsopp M, Drews CD, Decoufle P, Murphy CC. Mild mental retardation in black and white children in metropolitan Atlanta: a case-control study.
Am J Public Health 1995;85(3):324-8.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111492/0/>

Drews CD, Yeargin-Allsopp M, Decoufle P, Murphy CC. Variation in the influence of selected sociodemographic risk factors for mental retardation.
Am J Public Health 1995;85(3):329-34.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111493/0/>

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

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

Newborn Lower Respiratory Tract Infection:

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

Karatekin G, Kaya A, Salihoğlu O, Balci H, Nuhoğlu A. Association of subclinical vitamin D deficiency in newborns with acute lower respiratory infection and their mothers. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2009 Apr;63(4):473-7.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111070/0/>

Walker VP, Modlin RL. The Vitamin D Connection to Pediatric Infections and Immune Function. Pediatr Res. 2009 Jan 28.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/112040/0/>

Birth weight:

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

Scholl TO, Chen X. Vitamin D intake during pregnancy: association with maternal characteristics and infant birth weight. Early Hum Dev. 2009 Apr;85(4):231-4. <http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111494/0/>


Diabetes:

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

Stene LC, Ulriksen J, Magnus P, Joner G. Use of cod liver oil during pregnancy associated with lower risk of Type I diabetes in the offspring.
Diabetologia. 2000 Sep;43(9):1093-8.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111495/0/>

Seizures:

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

Fleischman AR, Rosen JF, Nathenson G. 25-Hydroxycholecalciferol for early neonatal hypocalcemia. Occurrence in premature newborns. Am J Dis Child.
1978 Oct;132(10):973-7.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111496/0/>

Heart Failure:

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

Maiya S, Sullivan I, Allgrove J, Yates R, Malone M, Brain C, Archer N, Mok Q, Daubeney P, Tulloh R, Burch M. Hypocalcaemia and vitamin D deficiency: an important, but preventable, cause of life-threatening infant heart failure.
Heart. 2008 May;94(5):581-4.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111497/0/>

Weak bones:

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

Javaid MK, Crozier SR, Harvey NC, Gale CR, Dennison EM, Boucher BJ, Arden NK, Godfrey KM, Cooper C; Princess Anne Hospital Study Group. Maternal vitamin D status during pregnancy and childhood bone mass at age 9 years: a longitudinal study. Lancet. 2006 Jan 7;367(9504):36-43.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111498/0/>

Sayers A, Tobias JH. Estimated maternal ultraviolet B exposure levels in pregnancy influence skeletal development of the child. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2009 Mar;94(3):765-71.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111499/0/>

Brain Tumors:

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

Ko P, Eyles D, Burne T, Mackay-Sim A, McGrath JJ. Season of birth and risk of brain tumors in adults. Neurology. 2005 Apr 12;64(7):1317 <http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111500/0/>

Epilepsy:

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

Procopio M, Marriott PK, Davies RJ. Seasonality of birth in epilepsy: a Southern Hemisphere study. Seizure. 2006 Jan;15(1):17-21.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111501/0/>

Craniotabes:

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

Yorifuji J, Yorifuji T, Tachibana K, Nagai S, Kawai M, Momoi T, Nagasaka H, Hatayama H, Nakahata T. Craniotabes in normal newborns: the earliest sign of subclinical vitamin D deficiency. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2008 May;93(5):1784-8.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/112041/0/>

Cavities:

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

Prenatal vitamin D linked to kids' dental health <http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/112042/0/>

Asthma:

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

Litonjua AA, Weiss ST. Is vitamin D deficiency to blame for the asthma epidemic? J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2007 Nov;120(5):1031-5.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111502/0/>

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

Brehm JM, Celedón JC, Soto-Quiros ME, Avila L, Hunninghake GM, Forno E, Laskey D, Sylvia JS, Hollis BW, Weiss ST, Litonjua AA. Serum vitamin D levels and markers of severity of childhood asthma in Costa Rica. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2009 May 1;179(9):765-71.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/111503/0/>

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

Akinbami LJ, Schoendorf KC. Trends in childhood asthma: prevalence, health care utilization, and mortality. Pediatrics. 2002 Aug;110(2 Pt 1):315-22.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/112043/0/>

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

The Vitamin D Council's Effort:

We recently ran a ¼ page announcement in OB/GYN News and the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (AJOG). Unfortunately, the editor of AJOG censored our announcement after its first month but we were able to get the full three month run in OB/GYN News. We also sent a very similar email to 18,000 obstetricians in the US. The total cost to the Council for this campaign was about $12,000.00.

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

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

Wagner CL, Greer FR; American Academy of Pediatrics Section on breastfeeding; American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition.
Prevention of rickets and vitamin D deficiency in infants, children, and adolescents. Pediatrics. 2008 Nov;122(5):1142-52.
<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/103031/0/>

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

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

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

What can you do?

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

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

One good thing you can do is simply tell every pregnant woman and women thinking of getting pregnant that she needs to take more Vitamin D, a lot more. Pregnant women need a minimum of 5,000 IU per day and even that dose will not achieve 25(OH)D levels of >50 ng/ml in all women. Why not buy a few bottles of 5,000 IU capsules and hand out the bottles to your pregnant friends. You can get 250 capsules for 15 bucks <http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45820232/75021326/105309/0/> . Forward this email to her. Show her our Pregnancy and Vitamin D public service announcement.

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

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

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

John Cannell, MD

Vitamin D Council

Vitamin D Absorption

This Grassroots group is well founded intellectually and academically. They are launching a very good study to find out about the dynamics of vitamin D absorption and many other questions about longer, larger doses of Vitamin D. They are loosely linked with UCSD and many other academic institutions.

I would urge all of you to get involved with your own Vitamin D sample and join in the project. The more subjects involved the better the outcomes of this study. It’s fun to see your own blood in action. It’s great to be involved. Be a part of something really interesting. It’s your time!
~~~~~

Your most recent vitamin D message is a perfect lead-in to suggesting that people interested in knowing and helping others know about the effects of vitamin D dosages, the serum levels and their associated health benefits should consider enrolling in our D*action study. As we have mentioned before, our study aim is to get the population serum levels to a suggested 40-60 ng/ml and find out what dosages it takes to get people there and, of course, the associated health effects. For anyone of your group who is trying to find the best solution for them, we would encourage them to take part in this international study. Just log on to www.joindaction.org

It is a 5 year prospective study where each 6 months each participant does a vitamin D test (with a blood spot test kit they can do at home; the cost is only $40.00) and enters some health data into an on-line questionnaire.

Since January, we already have over 2000 people enrolled and we'll be adding a very large (10,000) contingent from Japan starting in July.

One of the very interesting things that has already been demonstrated with the group we have is that for a given dose (say 5000 IU/day), the effect on the serum level varies at least 2 fold. We have people whose serum levels at that dose are 30 ng/ml, we have other at the same dose with a serum level of 80 ng/ml. This is true no matter what the dose.

There is considerable variation which is why a 'common' dose is not appropriate. We will be looking at some summary health effects later this year after we have a large enough population who have had 2 tests.

All are invited to participate! (Any other clinics who want to have their members participate are also welcome.) All participation is greatly valued for its help to everyone as well as to individual participants. This group is helping lead this health revolution!

Please feel free to use any part of this memo to your group.

www.joindaction.org

Sunnily yours,

Carole Baggerly
Director
GrassrootsHealth
A Public Health Promotion Organization
www.grassrootshealth.net
carole@grassrootshealth.org

Vitamin D3

Dr. Joe's E-News videos are in FLV format. Click here for more information.

There was some confusion by the (old) title. When I speak of Vitamin D, I mean D3.

Vitamin D Spray

Dr. Joe's E-News videos are in FLV format. Click here for more information.



More information about who to buy the Vitamin D Spray.

Information on Vitamin D

This discussion on prevention of CA of Breast and CA of the colon is on the following link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FMlQeH8RFA&feature=channel_page

Most importantly, if you can’t link up with your doctor for any reason, you can order your own test and link up with a large study that will involve many other aspects of disease prevention with Vitamin D.

http://www.grassrootshealth.net/

You can also see the “open letter to scientists” that enables you to sign up for a continuous flow of scientific information.

http://www.grassrootshealth.net/documentation-coverletter

Just for the record, here is another very good source of information on Vitamin D that can be sent to you directly.

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

Vitamin D3 Spray

As the chemist with Mayor Pharmaceutical Laboratories, I am responding to the request for information about the bioavailability of the vitamin D3 in Dr. Joe's Vitamin D3 molecular oral spray.

Bioavailability is defined as the amount of the active component that actually enters the systemic circulation. Due to the fact that the cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) in the spray is delivered into the oral cavity as a fine mist, the bioavailability is known to be some 10 times greater than that of most oral tablets, based on information from the PDR which shows the clear superiority of spray delivery over some other forms of delivery.

With the molecular oral spray, there is no dependency on disintegration for the release of the active component, thus 100% is available for absorption. However, with tablets there are brand variations which depend upon the disintegration characteristics of each specific brand of tablet.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any additional questions.

Sincerely,
Clive R. Spray

Clive R. Spray, Ph.D.
Mayor Pharmaceutical Laboratories, Inc.
Phoenix, AZ
http://www.vitamist.com

Forefront - Robert Sherman

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Another Forefront report is about preventing type 1 diabetes. Robert Sherman, MD has found a protein called Reg II a new islet derived auto antigen protein that appears to prompt the immune system to go daft and destroy the beta cells.

Normally, the Reg proteins cause the cells to grow and regenerate more beta cells. In the case of type 1 diabetes the new auto antigen does just the opposite and kills the beta cell. Why these crazy things happen is the subject of his research.

Somehow this is why the people of Finland seem to have discovered that if children under one year of age can cut the incidence of diabetes 1 by 80% by using 1,000 IU of D3 daily. Remember D2 is not D3 and will not work to prevent diabetes.

Just last June at the American Diabetes National meeting, a paper was presented that said that that when the D3 was increased to 2,000 IU 80% at one year of age, Diabetes 2 was presented in a period of time that is not quite clear. No one yet knows if you have to take more D to prevent diabetes years later.

If Vitamin D is so hot, can you take more to push things from 80% to 100%? Stay tuned. Remember Vitamin D is a hormone, not a fat soluble vitamin and most doctors have not even got that right yet. We do know that D3 is a marvelous immune modulator. We know it drops the incidence of many cancers 96%.

It’s your time.

The Vitamin D Newsletter

The Vitamin D Newsletter
February 24, 2009

As readers from 3 years ago remember, this newsletter first published evidence vitamin D would prevent influenza and many varieties of the common cold in 2005:

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/2005-nov.shtml

I then published the theory in:
Cannell JJ, et al. Epidemic influenza and vitamin D. Epidemiology and Infection. 2006 Dec;134(6):1129-40.

As Science News reported, I realized this after observing an influenza epidemic at Atascadero State Hospital

The antibiotic vitamin: deficiency in vitamin D may predispose people to infection. Science News, November 11, 2006

Last year, we used vitamin D to explain virtually all of the many unsolved mysteries of influenza.

Cannell JJ, et al. On the epidemiology of influenza. Virology Journal. 2008 Feb 25;5:29.

Our second influenza paper is by far the most accessed paper in the journal this year.

Top 20 most accessed articles for last year in Virology Journal

Today, researchers from Harvard and the University of Colorado, writing in the Archives of Internal Medicine, published convincing evidence my observations at Atascadero State Hospital were correct.

Vitamin D deficiency linked to more colds and flu. Scientific American, Feb 23, 2009

Adit A, et al. Association Between Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Level and Upper Respiratory Tract Infection in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(4):384-390.

Influenza kill around 35,000 Americans every year and similar viruses cause additional mortality and untold morbidity. As I have said, It appears Linus Pauling was right about everything he said about vitamin C, but he was off by one letter. The Vitamin D Council, the nearly broke non-profit educational organization, now believes most influenza deaths and many other respiratory infections, like the common cold, could be prevented if Americans, and their doctors, understood some simple facts:

• Vitamin D is not a vitamin, but a steroid hormone precursor, which has profound effects on innate immunity.
• The amount of vitamin D in most food and nearly all multivitamins is literally inconsequential.
• The correct daily dose of vitamin D for adults is approximately 5,000 IU/day, not the 200-600 IU recommended by the Institute of Medicine, the National Institutes of Medicine and the FDA.
• The only blood test to determine vitamin D adequacy is a 25-hydroxy-vitamin D, not the 1,25-di-hydroxy-vitamin D test many physicians now order.
• Healthy vitamin D blood levels are between 50-80 ng/ml, levels obtained by fewer than 5% of Americans.
• Medicare’s new proposed rule change, which forbids Medicare carriers for paying for virtually all vitamin D blood tests (Draft LCD for Vitamin D Assay Testing (DL29510)), will kill tens of thousands of Americans yearly.
• The mechanism of action of vitamin D in infection, dramatically increasing the body’s production of broad-spectrum natural antibiotics (anti-microbial peptides or AMP) suggests pharmaceutical doses of vitamin D (1,000 IU per pound of body weight per day for several days) will effectively treat not only influenza and the common cold, but help treat a host of other seasonal infections, including meningitis, septicemia, and pneumonia, in both children and adults.
• In 1997, when the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) set the current guidelines for vitamin D intake, they forgot to correct for the widespread sun avoidance that began in the late 1980’s when the AMA’s Council of Scientific Affairs warned against sun-exposure, and recommended that all Americans should make every effort to never let a photon of sunlight strike their skin. The failure of the 1997 FNB to compensate for sun-avoidance, has led to millions of deaths around the world.
• Physicians who ignore vitamin D deficiency will eventually suffer medical-legal consequences.
• While many think the influenza virus causes influenza, Cannell notes it was George Bernard Shaw who first understood: “The characteristic microbe of a disease might be a symptom instead of a cause.” George Bernard Shaw, (Preface on Doctors, The Doctor’s Dilemma, 1911).

If you want professional newsletter services, you will need to help find a foundation that will fund us.

John Cannell, MD
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/
The Vitamin D Council
9100 San Gregorio Road
Atascadero, CA 93422

Medicare's Idiocy - Vitamin D Alert

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Vitamin D Council Newsletter

Emergency!

On Friday, February 6, 2009, Medicare announced its intention to stop paying for vitamin D blood tests in many Medicare districts. If this rule passes, the change will quickly extend to all Medicare districts. Private insurers will then follow suit, denying payment for vitamin D blood tests, even for the diagnoses of vitamin D deficiency. Medicare proposes to pay for vitamin D blood tests for only few limited indications, such as rickets, osteomalacia and chronic renal failure.

Draft LCD for Vitamin D Assay Testing (DL29510).

This rule change flies in the face of an enormous amount of research, some of it published in the last few months. For example, several weeks ago, the British Journal of Cancer reported that in men with prostate cancer, those with highest vitamin D blood levels were 7 (seven) times more likely to survive than were men with the lowest levels (RR 0.16). If any media stories appeared about this amazing discovery, I am unable to locate them.

Association between serum 25(OH)D and death from prostate cancer

Apparently, Medicare's reasoning is not understood in England. A week ago, researchers at Oxford discovered the long-sort genetic link vitamin D has with multiple sclerosis. According to Medicare's new rules, if you have MS, or don't want your unborn baby to develop it, or have a family history of MS, or just don't want to get MS, you will have to pay for the blood test to decide how much vitamin D you should take to optimize your 25-hydroxy-vitamin D level.

MS link to vitamin D deficiency hailed by politicians as giant leap forward

If you are pregnant, and want to reduce your risk of caesarian section by four-fold, you will have to anti up.

Low vitamin D may increase chance of a caesarean delivery

Patients with diagnosed colon cancer are 48% less likely to die if their vitamin D levels are high. If you have this dreaded cancer, how do you know if your levels are high?

Vitamin D May Promote Colon Cancer Survival

If you fear getting demented, pay up. Recent research indicates people with impaired cognition are twice as likely to have vitamin D deficiency.

Vitamin D is mental health aid

If you have Parkinson's disease, or don't want to get it, get our your wallet.

Study finds link between low vitamin D and Parkinson's disease

Even the American Academy of Pediatrics recently stated,

"Given the growing evidence that adequate maternal vitamin D status is essential during pregnancy, not only for maternal well-being but also for fetal development, health care professionals who provide obstetric care should consider assessing maternal vitamin D status by measuring the 25-hydroxy-vitamin D concentrations of pregnant women."

Prevention of rickets and vitamin D deficiency in infants, children, and adolescents.

That is, the American Academy of Pediatrics now suggests vitamin D blood levels be measured in all pregnant women. Expectant mothers, concerned about their baby's "fetal development," will soon have to pay for the only test that will do what the American Academy of Pediatrics now advises, tell them if their unborn baby is vitamin D deficient.

I could go on and on. Now is the time the Vitamin D Council needs your help. I want you to do two things:

1) Email the person taking comments, Medicare's Ms. Gina Oliveri, at Gina.Oliveri@ugswlp.com, and tell her your feelings about this proposed rule change. Include your reason why this test is crucial for the health of Americans.

2) Send an email to your Congressperson and ask them to investigate Medicare's "Draft LCD for Vitamin D Assay Testing (DL29510)." Tell your representative not to let this happen. Simply click on the link below, fill in your state and zip code, go to your Congressperson's website, and then click on "contact."

Write Your Representative

Of course, this rule change will help the finances of the Vitamin D Council, as it will increase sales of ZRT's in-home Vitamin D test, which generates ten bucks per test to us. However, this rule change will end up killing Americans. We cannot let it happen.

I can't stress enough how important this is for the public health of the United States. On February 21st, in just nine days, Medicare will not allow any further input by citizens, so email both Gina.Oliveri@ugswlp.com and your Congressperson right now.

John Cannell, MD
The Vitamin D Council
9100 San Gregorio Road
Atascadero, CA 93422

Why Oral Spray for D3?

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Why oral spray for D3?

Several years ago there was a resurgence of gastric bypass procedures. I know that if you have these procedures you run the risk at 3 years post operation of becoming profoundly low in vitamin D that can lead to death. We saw these terrible results in the late 1960s when I was at UCSF. IV infusion, intramuscular injection and oral liquid D3 all were tried and did not work.

Years later I learned that the buccal mucosa (inside the mouth) and the rest of the surface of the mouth absorbed D3 quite well but no one could be coaxed into the manufacture of the product because they did not feel there would be a market for the administration of D3 in this fashion.

We coaxed a manufacturer of spray vitamins to do a small run to allow me to test the efficacy of this product that I announced last Monday. It’s great.

Now we have the ability to use in many situations to great advantage. Basically it is the speed of getting the D3 in that is the advantage.

• Heart failure needs to treated soon so 8 sprays daily for three to four weeks will be equal to 50,000 by mouth daily.
• When adding D3 as an adjunct to any cancer treatment, as many oncologists do now, the speed of absorption is critical to success.
• Autism
• Stabilizing your genome against Cancers
• Avoiding flu shots.
• Taking a “virus’s antibiotic”.

There is more but this right out of the Vitamin D Council’s Web Site.

Vitamin D3 Spray

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Vitamin D3 oral spray is now available!

This is to announce the availability of the new “Dr. Joe’s” vitamin D3 spray to the public.

Although not yet available in stores or pharmacies it can be purchased by patients, friends and family or Synergy distributors.

Call the office, 650 566 9810 ext 107 to order yours or send email

ashley@endocrinemetabolic.com

Those of you who know Mark Rosales and wish to order wholesale or in bulk can contact him directly.

5,000 IU of Vitamin D3 is obtained with 8 sprays into the mouth.

Vitamin D3 Replacement

I sent out the emails on thyroid testing and vitamin D testing to explain why with hormones administration blood tests are not the ideal way to look for proper dosing. Also the world has become fearful of toxicity and that if you take increasing amounts it will not necessarily hurt you.

I know many of you have heard “all the thyroid tests are normal” and yet feel much better when given thyroid replacement. Metabolic changes in the tissues know the correct doses.

50,000 IU daily of Vitamin D is very appropriate and that is what I have been taking as for the last 5 years. All these eNews I have put out were to show how the body handles different doses of hormones (Vitamin D is now a hormone) and accommodates so that there is no toxicity. That goes for thyroid and Vitamin D.

This was all in explanation to have people understand why we now expect more than good bones with vitamin D; we expect prevention of many diseases and major improvements in health. It is very difficult to understand that the blood levels of D during administration of D are not of vital importance.

So what do you do a year after taking Vitamin D3 50 IU daily? No matter what the levels are in the blood, just keep it up. This is just “topping it off” so to speak.

Vitamin D and the Lab

Vitamin D and the lab

Everyone should know their Vitamin D levels at some point. There has been a huge flap when Quest Lab acknowledged errors and alerted everyone they screwed up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/business/08labtest.html?_r=2&emc=eta1

Quest’s comments are also found at,

http://www.vitamindtestfacts.com/.

As noted on a prior eNews, Vitamin D testing is also available,

https://www.grassrootshealth.net/questionnaire-welcome

This last link will get into steadily increasing information about Vitamin D that will not plateau for the next 10 years. Your data, if you wish will be part of a giant program, will be used to determine how ultimately vitamin D would be used in multiple situations. Your data can help determine success of treatments. New treatment systems with D can be brought in to play and used immediately due to the ability to continue monitoring your situation. Nice.

Your body handles increasing levels of Vitamin D without problems. The values in the blood go up increasingly as you take higher levels of Vitamin D. When all the sites are saturated, the body will not allow any more Vitamin D in and the blood levels begin to fall.

If you take 50,000 IU of Vitamin D daily the blood values will go up to about 200 days and then decline to values that often will be less that the original values prior to starting. These are values from people in my practice who wanted to know these values and have them measured.

An industrial accident I was not associated with gave a gentleman 1.4 million units of Vitamin D3 daily and found that the blood levels were lower than his original levels. No other data is available.

So “toxicity” does not occur unless supplemental Calcium is taken with Vitamin D. I don’t use vitamin D2 because it does not have enough sustained effect. These are new thoughts and explanations for the phenomenon in endocrine/metabolic situations that I have observed since 1964.

D*action Vitamin D Testing

D*action: A Consortium of Scientists, Institutions and Individuals Committed to Solving the Worldwide Vitamin D Deficiency Epidemic.

Scientists are calling for a standard vitamin D intake of 2000 IU/day and the achievement of a serum level of 40-60 ng/ml. Scientists' Call to Action.

GrassrootsHealth has launched a worldwide public health campaign to solve the vitamin D deficiency epidemic in a year through a focus on testing and education with all individuals spreading the word.

Everyone is invited to join in this campaign! Join D*action and test two times per year during a 5 year program to demonstrate the public health impact of this nutrient.

$30 and a quick health survey allows everyone to get a vitamin D blood spot test kit to be used at home (except in the state of New York) have the results sent directly to them take action to adjust their own levels to get to the desired ranges with whatever help is needed from their healthcare practitioners.

With only 100 people joining up today, and getting 2 friends to join in 2 weeks (and those 2 friends getting 2 more), by week 42, there could be 400,000,000 people who are vitamin D ‘replete’! (more than the United States population).

Click here to start the Participant Questionnaire.

In-Home Vitamin D Test

This piece of information from John Cannell is very important. This is solid information and help from the Vitamin D council. I advise everyone to use this because of its accuracy and decreased expense. In the last two weeks patients have come to me complaining that the test in their lab completely covered by insurance in the past is now $600 most of which is not covered by insurance.

The Vitamin D Newsletter
December 28, 2008

The Vitamin D Council is happy to announce that we have partnered with ZRT Laboratory to provide an inexpensive, $65.00, in-home, accurate, vitamin D [25(OH)D] test. The usual cost for this test is between $100.00 and $200.00.

If you read this newsletter, you know about our interest in accurate vitamin D testing. In the next few weeks, you may read about the Vitamin D Council's quest for accurate vitamin D blood tests in the national media. Before we partnered with ZRT, we verified, repeatedly, that ZRT provides accurate and reliable vitamin D tests and that their method corresponds very well to the gold standard of vitamin D blood tests, the DiaSorin RIA.

Our ZRT serviceis not just inexpensive, it means no more worrying about your doctor ordering the right test or interpreting it correctly. You buy the test kit on the internet or by phone, a few days later the kit comes in the mail, you or a nurse friend do a finger stick, collect a few drops of blood, and send the blotter paper back to ZRT in the postage paid envelope provided with the kit. A week later you get results back in the mail and know accurate 25-hydroxy-vitamin D levels of you and your family.

For every test you order,ZRT will donate $10.00 to the Vitamin D Council. Please read the new page hyperlinked below on our website as it both explains the procedure and how to order the test.

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health/deficiency/am-i-vitamin-d-deficient.shtml

Executive summary: keep your family's 25-hydroxy-vitamin D blood test above 50 ng/ml, year around. Most adults need at least 5,000 IU per day, especially this time of year. Most children need at least 1,000 IU per day per every 25 pounds of body weight. Bio Tech Pharmacal provides high quality and inexpensive vitamin D. Currently Bio Tech Pharmacal is providing vitamin D for numerous scientific studies. To see their prices and for ordering, click the hyperlink below.

http://www.bio-tech-pharm.com/catalog.aspx?cat_id=2

As a gift to our readers for the New Year, Thorne publications have provided a free download to a basic paper aboutvitamin D. I wrote it earlier this year for educated lay people as well as health care practitioners. Please read this paper carefully, your family's well-being, even lives, may depend on you understanding it.

http://www.thorne.com/altmedrev/.fulltext/13/1/6.pdf

Seasons Greetings

John Cannell, MD
vitamindcouncil.org

Autism and Vitamin D

As previously reported:

Colin is a 7-year old boy living in the northeastern US with a long standing diagnosis of autism. Symptoms include temper tantrums, repetitive self-stimulatory behavior, impaired language, mood swings, fear of being alone, toileting problems, and impaired muscle strength. He spends a lot of time outdoors starting in the spring and his mother noticed a distinct seasonal variation in his symptoms in that he improved in the summer and regressed in the winter. A 25-hydroxy-vitamin D in April of 2008 was 25 ng/ml and obtained after he had begun to play outside.

Due to the seasonality of his symptoms the mother consulted me and I advised the mother to stop all products containing vitamin A including cod liver oil and begin Colin on 5,000 IU of vitamin D3 per day for two weeks followed by 2,000 IU per day in the form of powdered vitamin D dissolved in juice. Within a week of starting the vitamin D language began to return and he was no longer as fearful of being alone.

At the end of two weeks his language showed further improvement, he began to toilet himself, counted to 10 and knew the spelling of his name. After three weeks language continued to improve and some improvements were noted in his dysbiosis. After four weeks of vitamin D treatment, the mother noted improvements in muscle strength as well as continued improvements in language. The below email is a six month report.

John Cannell, MD
Vitamin D Council

~~~~~
Hi John!

I had lab work performed on Colin - October 9, 2008 - his 25(OH)D level was 62 ng/ml (range 30-100) and his calcium was normal (9.8). This was with him on 3000 IUs per day for the last three months. You had said for him to take 4000 but I just wanted to see what would happen if we continued to do 3000 IUs.

Colin started school this year, we had previously home schooled him. He got into a really good school that requires a lot from the students. Colin is doing very well there. He mastered the first five sounds they taught him in less than 2 weeks (they do an intense reading/writing/language method called The Association Method). They said some kids can take 3 months to master 1 sound. He also had another IQ test performed recently. In July, he had a very difficult time attending to the testing and scored a 63 which put him in the MR category. However, he just did another IQ test on 9/26/08 and he scored an 83 on one and a 79 on another. This takes him out of the MR range and puts him into the low average intelligence range. It's great news and I believe he will continue to score higher and higher each year.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thank you.

J. P.

D3, L-arginine and Cancer

Vitamin D in Children

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Sometimes scientific reporting is so good, there is nothing I, or anyone else, can do to make it better. My experience is nowhere as good as John Cannell M.D.’s careful sifting of his experience and world’s literature to give us all solidly scientific information that is just frantically important.

You must not put this down until you have consumed every bit of it. You must not delete this ever. This must be saved because you just don’t know what grandchild’s life will be changed by having the parents devour this.

Most of you know the “new priests of science and medicine” still will not do their own research to attempt to find the manifestations of the “toxicity” they fear and just continue to misdiagnose and mistreat situations encountered each day. Perhaps forward this to them?

Lastly, as you save this piece where you will never lose it, write John’s non profit a little check so all this wisdom doesn’t have to come out of his pocket alone. We all benefit from this and now this is your time.

Dr. Joe

The Vitamin D Newsletter
October, 2008

This is a periodic newsletter from the Vitamin D Council , a non-profit trying to end the epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. This newsletter is not copyrighted. Please reproduce it and post it on Internet sites. I will post this newsletter on the website.

I decided to focus on children in this newsletter but before we start, you should know Oliver Gillie recently published a landmark work. Instead of concentrating on a group at risk for vitamin D deficiency, such as the aged, the dark-skinned, pregnant women, or young children, Oliver concentrated on an entire country, Scotland. His remarkable report is free for download.

Scotland's Health Deficit: an Explanation and a Plan

Dear Dr. Cannell:

Two years ago in March, my five month old baby girl died from heart failure, called "idiopathic cardiomyopathy." She was my first child, I breast fed her, we did everything her pediatrician said to do; he told us not to let her into the sun and to always use sunblock if we went outside. He never mentioned vitamin D. The heart doctors did everything they could think of before she died but they never measured her vitamin D level. I just read about a study that found my baby may have died from untreated vitamin D deficiency. Do you know about that study?

Jena, New York.

Dear Jena:

I'm sorry to tell you that I do. It appears likely that infantile idiopathic cardiomyopathy may just be another word for undiagnosed and untreated vitamin D deficiency. English cardiologists recently concluded that "the heart failure associated with vitamin D deficiency in infants is surprising," but added "the outcome is good" in the children treated with vitamin D. They should have said the "outcome is good if the diagnosis is made." The outcome is often fatal when the diagnosis is missed. It appears to me that the major mistake is that unless the serum calcium is low, pediatric cardiologists never measure vitamin D levels. Of course, if they did measure vitamin D levels, would they order the right test? If they did order the right test would they know how to interpret it or would they rely on the outdated and dangerous reference ranges of American labs, such as LabCorp and Quest? As you will see below, genetics plays a much bigger role in 25(OH)D levels than anyone suspected and we must assume the same is true of tissue levels of activated vitamin D. Thus these children should be given enough vitamin D to normalize the kinetics of 25(OH)D, enough to get their 25(OH)D levels into the upper part of the reference range, 60-80 ng/ml.

Maiya S, et al. Hypocalcaemia and vitamin D deficiency: an important, but preventable, cause of life-threatening infant heart failure. Heart. 2008 May;94(5):581-4.

Five years ago, the New England Journal of Medicine reported on 435 cases of pediatric cardiomyopathy in the USA and failed to make the diagnosis of vitamin D deficiency in even one of the children. Sixty-eight percent of the cases were idiopathic, that is, no known cause. However, if the authors or the editors would have just looked at their data a little closer; children in the north were more likely to get cardiomyopathy than children in the south and the disease more common in black children than white children. Those two facts alone should have alerted the authors and the NEJM editors that vitamin D deficiency may be a common (and equally important, easily treatable) cause of pediatric cardiomyopathy.

Lipshultz SE et al. The incidence of pediatric cardiomyopathy in two regions of the United States. N Engl J Med. 2003 Apr 24;348(17):1647-55.

Jena, it appears quite possible that your baby girl died from lack of vitamin D. Just think, in the year 2008, infants in the United States are dying from the lack of a simple vitamin, from lack of sunshine. I hope Dr. Barbara Gilchrist and the dermatologists (or should I say cosmetologists) soon stop blaspheming the Sun God or the Sun God's wrath will take even more of our children.



Dear Dr. Cannell:

My two children (age 5 and 7) have had asthma almost since they were born. In the winter, they are in and out of the hospital, it's horrible it is to see your child struggling for breath. Last fall I started both of my children on 2,000 IU of vitamin D a day and over the last year the asthma has just faded away. I'm afraid to stop their asthma medications but they don't seem to need them anymore. When I forget to give their asthma meds, I can't see any difference. Before the vitamin D, if I missed a dose of their asthma meds, I would know it very quickly. Could it be the vitamin D?

Joanne, Minnesota

Dear Joanne:

It seems increasingly likely that childhood asthma is but another presentation of vitamin D deficiency. At least two researchers at Harvard think so; they think it is the result of maternal vitamin D deficiency.

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

Weiss ST, Litonjua AA. Maternal diet vs lack of exposure to sunlight as the cause of the epidemic of asthma, allergies and other autoimmune diseases. Thorax. 2007 Sep;62(9):746-8.

However, I have heard from a number of parents who wrote to tell me their child's asthma went away after taking vitamin D. Also, a paper is in press that shows low vitamin D levels are a risk factor for exacerbations of asthma in children.

Low vitamin D levels linked to asthma exacerbations

So, it appears that childhood asthma can also be caused by simple childhood vitamin D deficiency, and thus perhaps cured by simple vitamin D. If so, asthma is yet another disease the dermatologists worsened, one killing about 200 American children every year, by imprecating the Sun God.


Dear Dr. Cannell:

My teenage son has type 2 diabetes. I started him on 5,000 IU of vitamin D a day about 6 months ago. Three things have happened so far, he started losing weight, his blood sugars improved, and his acne went away. I know you have written about diabetes and weight loss with vitamin D but I can't remember anything about acne?

Mary, North Dakota

Dear Mary:

I have had some reports that vitamin D cured acne but frankly, I didn't believe them. Then I ran across this 1938 paper. You can read the entire paper yourself and see what 5,000 to 14,000 IU per day did for these patients with severe acne. When I was a kid, I always wondered why my pimples got better in the summer and worse in the winter.

Maynard MT. Vitamin D in Acne: A Comparison with X-Ray Treatment. Cal West Med. 1938 Aug;49(2):127-32.

As far as vitamin D improving type-2 diabetes, in my experience, that is the rule not the exception. How much it will improve it probably depends on how much vitamin D you give and how much weight the child loses together with his diet. Higher levels 25(OH)D prevent the disease but so far, I am not aware of any randomized controlled trials showing a treatment effect but, in the past, about half my adult type-2 patients were eventually able to go off their diabetic meds with proper doses of vitamin D. Dr. Knekt, at the National Public Health Institute in Finland, just discovered that men with the highest 25(OH)D levels (>30 ng/ml) had an 82% lower risk of developing type-2 diabetes in the future compared to men with the lowest levels but no effect was found in women. And get this, in Finland the average 25(OH)D level for all 7503 people tested was 43 nmol/L or 17 ng/m. For men it was 18 ng/ml and for women only 15 ng/m and that was a representative sample of Finnish adults!!!

Knekt P, et al. Serum vitamin D and subsequent occurrence of type 2 diabetes. Epidemiology. 2008 Sep;19(5):666-71.


Dear Dr. Cannell:

I read somewhere that cavities in children are a sign of vitamin D deficiency. Is that true?

George, Utah

Dear George:

Yes, it is true. Several months after your child begins taking adequate doses of vitamin D, cavities will stop forming. Actually, Professor McBeath did a placebo controlled trial in New York City orphanages in 1934 of 425 children. The children received either no vitamin D or 330, 465, or about 1,000 IU (The paper uses Steenbock units, one Steenbock unit is 3.3 IUs) of vitamin D a day as cod liver oil. Also, remember, cod liver oil in the 1930s had much more vitamin D than modern cod liver oil. McBeath said he conducted this study because several earlier studies showed ultraviolet irradiation gave "striking results" in stopping cavity formation. McBeath's results were quite amazing in preventing new cavities. Like the paper on acne above, you can read the entire study yourself. Remember that 1,000 IU of vitamin D is not enough for many children to obtain levels of 50 ng/ml, however, this study showed that even 1,000 IU virtually stopped new caries from developing.

McBeath EC. Vitamin D Studies, 1933-1934. Am J Public Health Nations Health. 1934;24(10):1028-30.


Dear Dr. Cannell:

I don't understand what you have against vitamin A. All vitamins are good and have to be taken together, especially A and D. I give both my children a tablespoon of Nordic Naturals Arctic Cod Liver Oil every day. Also, I disagree with what you have written about vitamin D preventing colds and flu, my children are sick most of the winter.

Mary, Pennsylvania

Dear Mary:

Did you ever stop to read what is on the label of Nordic Naturals Arctic Cod Liver Oil ? You are giving your children between 3,000 to 6,000 IU of vitamin A per day but only 3-60 IU of vitamin D. In fact, you are slowly poisoning your children.

A recent Cochrane review found vitamin A supplements increased total mortality by 16%, perhaps through its antagonism of vitamin D.

Bjelakovic G, et al. Antioxidant supplements for prevention of mortality in healthy participants and patients with various diseases. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2008;(2):CD007176.

Another, recent Cochrane review concluded that, although vitamin A significantly reduced the incidence of acute lower respiratory tract infections in children with low retinol, as occurs in the third world, it appears to increase risk and/or worsen the clinical course of such infections in children in developed nations.

Chen H, et al. Vitamin A for preventing acute lower respiratory tract infections in children up to seven years of age. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2008;(1):CD006090.

As for the evidence that vitamin D decreases respiratory infections, Wayse et al compared 80 children with lower respiratory infections to healthy controls and found children with the lowest 25(OH)D levels were eleven times more likely to become infected. Furthermore, sixty thousand IU of vitamin D a week administered for six weeks to 27 children suffering from frequent respiratory infections resulted in a complete disappearance of such infections for the following six months.

Wayse V, Yousafzai A, Mogale K, Filteau S. Association of subclinical vitamin D deficiency with severe acute lower respiratory infection in Indian children under 5 y. Eur J Clin Nutr 2004;58:563-567.

Rehman PK. Sub-clinical rickets and recurrent infection. J Trop Pediatr 1994;40:58.

As readers know, I first hypothesized vitamin D will prevent colds and flu in November of 2005 in this newsletter . Also, our second paper on influenza is the third most accessed paper in Virology Journal this year, in spite of being out only six months. It is free to download.

On the Epidemiology of Influenza

As to all vitamins being good, I assume you mean all vitamins are good in the proper doses and if the body is not getting enough from diet. Vitamin A deficiency in the USA is practically non-existent. The real problem is subclinical vitamin A toxicity, which appears to be fairly common. Please stop poisoning your children with cod liver oil and start them on adequate doses of vitamin D.


Dear Dr. Cannell:

How much vitamin D should I give my children?

Robert, New Mexico

Dear Robert:

It depends on their preexisting blood levels of 25-hydroxy-vitamin D. How much sun do your children get in New Mexico? How much do they weigh? Do they use sunblock? How much milk or fish do they consume? Let me add one more thing, a stunner. It also depends on their genetics. Three twin studies, one in osteoarthritis, one is asthma, and one in multiple sclerosis, all found a significant heritability for 25(OH)D. (Heritability should not be mistaken for genetic percentage.)

Hunter D, et al. Genetic contribution to bone metabolism, calcium excretion, and vitamin D and parathyroid hormone regulation. J Bone Miner Res. 2001 Feb;16(2):371-8.

Wjst M, et al. A genome-wide linkage scan for 25-OH-D(3) and 1,25-(OH)2-D3 serum levels in asthma families. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2007 Mar;103(3-5):799-802.

Orton SM, et al. Evidence for genetic regulation of vitamin D status in twins with multiple sclerosis. Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Aug;88(2):441-7.

The heritability of 25(OH)D levels may also explain the enormous variation in 25(OH)D response that people show when they take vitamin D. Some only show slight increases and others more robust increases in 25(OH)D, perhaps due to genetic variations in how quickly 25(OH)D is made and how quickly it is catabolized. Furthermore, Orton et al found a significant association of 25(OH)D levels with the enzyme that activates vitamin D, which is a mystery, at least to me.

What this probably means is that how much activated vitamin D you have in any tissue of your body is under both genetic and environmental control. It varies between children, explaining why one child gets sick and the other does not. Activated vitamin D almost assuredly varies among organs as well, explaining why one vitamin D deficient child gets asthma, another frequent infections, another heart disease, another rickets, another diabetes, and another cavities. When the vitamin D deficiency occurs in the womb, the results also vary in later life, from autism to type-1 diabetes to cancer. All this is simply another argument for the need for 25(OH)D testing and supplementation to the mid point of the normal reference range. Do not accept 40 ng/ml as adequate, it is not.

However, as a general rule, breast fed infants need 1,000 IU per day, bottle fed infants an extra 600 IU per day. Children generally need about 1,000 IU for every 25 pounds of body weight. So a 75 pound nine-year-old needs about 3,000 IU per day. This is in the absence of significant sun-exposure, that is, they don't need to take it in the summer if they spend time outside without sunblock. However, tremendous individual variation exists in 25(OH)D response to vitamin D.

Dear Dr. Cannell:

What vitamin D should I use?

Vincent, California

Dear Vincent:

Anywhere. Vitamin D in 1,000 IU tablets by Nature Made are available in most pharmacies in the USA and Canada. On the internet, Bio Tech Pharmacal has prices that are hard to beat and has 1,000 and 5,000 IU capsules and they send a $1,000.00 check to the Vitamin D Council every month. Life Extension Foundation also has 1,000 and 5,000 IU capsules. Ddrops are now available in the USA from Carlson with 400, 1,000 and 2,000 IU per drop, perfect for children. LifeSpan Nutrition has a variety of vitamin D preperations. LifeSpan was the earliest financial supporter of the Vitamin D Council.

If price is no object, and you want the most expensive product on the market, Purity Products will soon begin telemarketing Dr. Cannell's Advanced Vitamin D . The idea is to bring vitamin D into people's living rooms, via radio and TV, no inexpensive task, that is, to get people taking vitamin D who are not taking it now. To do so, I helped develop a preparation that contains cofactors vitamin D seems to need to work optimally in the body and that are often lacking in modern diets, such as zinc, boron, magnesium, vitamin K, etc. If the product survives its test marketing, Purity will mass market it on thousands of radio shows and, hopefully, tens of thousands of people not taking vitamin D will begin taking it. If that happens, my family will make enough money so I can start researching and writing about vitamin D full-time. However, in the interest of full disclosure, you can save some money and get the same cofactors by taking less expensive vitamin D and eating spinach every day.


Dear Dr. Cannell:

Anything new on your theory that vitamin D is involved in autism?

Sally, New York

Dear Sally:

Science News reported that two Swedish doctors recently proposed vitamin D deficiency is linked to autism.

Doctors eye vitamin D link to autism

Another article looked at the amazingly high rate of autism in dark-skinned immigrants in Minnesota.

A mysterious connection: autism and Minneapolis' Somali children

Of course, the vitamin D theory of autism, first published in this newsletter in May of 2007 and subsequently published in Medical Hypothesis in October of 2007, predicts exactly such a dramatic increase in autism in the children of dark-skinned immigrants.

Furthermore, I continue to get reports from parents with autistic children that adequate doses of vitamin D sometimes has a treatment effect in autistic children, mainly younger children who developed signs of autism around the age of weaning, improving repetitive behavior, sleep disorders, and screaming spells. In rats, pups born to deficient mothers can regain some brain function if they are started on vitamin D at birth. Unfortunately, the recovery in rat pups brain damaged by maternal vitamin D deficiency is never complete.

I have come up with a protocol for diagnosing and treating vitamin D deficiency in autistic children but it can be used in any child. Remember, the worst thing that can happen is that children will have stronger bones:

1. Advise parents to stop giving children all preformed retinol, such as cod liver oil, and all vitamins or supplements containing retinyl palmitate and retinyl acetate. Preformed retinol antagonizes the action of vitamin D, probably at the vitamin D receptor site. Beta carotene does not have this same effect but children only need extra beta carotene if their diet is poor in colorful fruits and vegetables, dairy products, or fortified breakfast cereals.

2. Order a 25-hydroxy-vitamin D [25(OH)D] blood test. Do not order a 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D as it is often elevated in vitamin D deficiency and will mislead you.

3. If the 25(OH)D level is less than 70 ng/ml, the mid range of American references labs (30 - 100 ng/ml), give your child vitamin D3 supplements. Generally children require 1,000 IU per 25 pounds of body weight per day. However, great individual variation exists and autistic children need to be retested and the dose adjusted about every month until levels are at least 50 ng/ml in healthy children and at least 70 ng/ml in any child with autism, diabetes, frequent infections, or any chronic illness.

4. Test for 25(OH)D every month and treat with enough vitamin D until 25(OH)D levels are stable. Vitamin D toxicity has never been reported, in adults or children, with 25(OH)D levels below 200 ng/ml.

As far as the cause of idiopathic autism, I'm more convinced my theory is true than ever, so I wrote a poem of sorts.

To an Older God

Long before our current gods, the people worshiped an older god, the Sun God, their first God. They knew life receded when she receded and returned when she returned and called her Amaterasu and Liza and Surya and Ra and Apollo and Helios and Sol and many other names, but dared not look upon her face knowing the Sun God blinds those so arrogant. Pregnant women lay in the sun, held their infants up to the sun, and sent young children to play under the sun. The Sun God's blessing was calcitriol, which she carefully deposited into the tiniest of developing brains. With it, the children waxed lean and strong and brown with vibrant brains for calcitriol, the Sun God's gift, orchestrated brain growth.

Then, new priests of science and medicine, told the people the Sun God was only a star, one of trillions, nothing special. Great temples called hospitals and research institutes arose, which admitted only filtered sunlight and where the people offered sacrifices to the gods of science and medicine, sacrifices that enriched the new priests. Then, twenty years ago, the new priests of dermatology told the people to shun the Sun God. "Banish her from your lives," they said, "She is evil." The people listened to the new priests and kept their pregnant women out of the Sun Gods warmth, and told their children she was wicked. The people stayed inside, their children with them and traveled behind glass in their cars and wore sunblock and sunhats to keep the Sun God away.

The Sun God grew vengeful. She withdrew her gift of calcitriol. Without it, fetal brains grew without a grower, sang the song of development without a conductor. The infants cried and would not look into their mother's eyes and the children rocked for hours and banged their heads and couldn't sleep and threw appalling tantrums. The people brought their brain-damaged children to see the new priests and sacrificed dearly, but all the people's offerings were in vain. The new gods of science and medicine could do nothing.

For the Sun God had sent a plague and her wrath was upon the people. A great wailing arose in the houses and a gnashing of teeth and tears of anguish, as the people tasted the bitterness of autism.

John Cannell, MD
vitamindcouncil.org

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

The Vitamin D Council
9100 San Gregorio Road
Atascadero, CA 93422

Vitamin D and Mortality

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Vitamin D Prevents Peripheral Heart Disease

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Dr. Joe on Vitamin D

This was recorded a while ago, but Dr. Joe says the same thing about Vitamin D today and more.

Try The Vitamin D Newsletter

This is an excellent, very conservative, very well informed, entirely accurate continuous update on vitamin D’s new impact on health. As most of you know I am more aggressive than this but that takes nothing away from the great work that he does. I wouldn’t expect us to be identical in how we use Vitamin D3; we work in different fields. He is in a position to know how patients and how reluctant they can be to try a therapy that wasn’t promoted in kindergarten. After all he is a psychiatrist.

The doctors who don’t understand the new implications of recent research on vitamin D need remedial work on reading medical literature. Perhaps you could send your doctor a gift subscription and give him a hint to make a donation to the Vitamin D Council to allow to allow some catch up.

Send him some money, sign up for all that you can learn from this news letter. It’s your time.

Dr. Joe

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The Vitamin D Newsletter
July, 2008

This is a periodic newsletter from the Vitamin D Council, a non-profit trying to end the epidemic of vitamin D deficiency.

Our website is now getting about 3,000 visitors a day and more than 40 people signing up for this newsletter every day. Our most frequent request is that we post a basic Q&A page on our website. I decided to start that process this month. If you can think of questions that should be on a Q&A website, please hit reply and tell me and I'll add your question and my answer to the new Q&A web page.

Before I start, one of the most frequent questions I get is "How can I help?" Besides making a donation to the Vitamin D Council, another way to help is by going, or getting your friends to go, to a series of talks that Carole Baggerly of Grassroots Health is giving around the country this summer. Grassroots Health recently issued a Vitamin D Scientist's Call to Action Statement signed by some of the best known vitamin D scientists in the world. You can access Carole's itinerary here. If you can't go, call a friend in the city she will be in and have them go in your place. Carole is the one who recently talked the AMA into their first position statement on vitamin D.

CHICAGO, June 17, 2008 ----The American Medical Association (AMA), the nation's largest physician organization, voted today at its Annual Meeting to adopt the following new public health policy: The current Reference Intake Values for Vitamin D were established by the Food and Nutrition Board in 1997. Current research suggests that the Upper Limits for adults is likely overly conservative. Today the AMA called on the FDA to re-examine the current Daily Reference Intake Value for Vitamin D in light of new scientific findings. "The health benefits of Vitamin D are plentiful, such as strong bones and a reduced risk of breast cancer and cardiovascular disease," said AMA Board Member Steven Stack, M.D. "It's time to take a good look at the current daily recommended level of Vitamin D and ensure that Americans know the appropriate levels so they can reap the full health benefits."

The AMA's statement is timely in light of another study published a few days later that showed those with the lowest vitamin D levels are twice as likely to die as those with the highest levels.

Deborah Kotz, US News & World Report. Time in the Sun: How Much is Needed for Vitamin D?

Also, don't miss the Washington Post article that just came out:

Rob Stein, Washington Post; Some Seek Guidelines to Reflect Vitamin D's Benefits.

So, one thing you can do is get a group together and go to one of Carole's talks. Again, here is a link to them. If you can't come, but know someone in that city, get them to go with their friends. If you know someone in the cities that do not have venues, and the person you know may be able to arrange a host for the meeting, email Carole at carole@grassrootshealth.org.

Now the Q&A:

1) How much vitamin D should I take?

I don't know.

2) How often should I have a 25-hydroxy-vitamin D blood test?

I don't know.

3) Why don't you know?

OK, but I really don't know. The reason I don't know is that everyone's situation is either a lot, or at least a little, different. How much vitamin D you need varies with age, body weight, percent of body fat, latitude, skin coloration, season of the year, use of sunblock, individual variation in sun exposure, and - probably - how ill your are. As a general rule, old people need more than young people, big people need more that little people, fat people need more than skinny people, northern people need more than southern people, dark-skinned people need more than fair skinned people, winter people need more than summer people, sunblock lovers need more than sunblock haters, sun-phobes need more than sun worshipers, and ill people may need more than well people.

Regular readers should understand the reasons behind all these statements except for the last one. However, don't feel bad, no one understands it. Vitamin D is used by the body, metabolically cleared, both to maintain wellness and to treat disease. If you get an infection, how much vitamin D does your body use up fighting the infection? Nobody knows. If you have cancer, how much vitamin D does your body use up fighting the cancer? Nobody knows. If you have heart disease, how much vitamin D does your body use up fighting the heart disease? Nobody knows. If you are a child with autism, how much vitamin D does your brain need to turn on the genes that autism has turned off? Nobody knows. If you are an athlete, how much vitamin D does your body use up making you stronger and quicker? Nobody knows, etc.

This is what I'd do. If you live in Florida and sunbathe once a week, year around, do nothing. If you use suntan parlors once a week, do nothing. However, if you have little UVB exposure, my advice is as follows. Well children under the age of two should take 1,000 IU per day, over the age of two, 2,000 IU per day. Well adults and adolescent between 80 pounds and 130 pounds should start with 3,000 IU per day, over 130 pounds but less than 170 pounds, 4,000 IU per day and over 170 pounds, 5,000 IU per day. Two months later have your doctor order your first 25-hydroxy-vitamin D blood test. Yes, start the vitamin D before you have the blood test. Then adjust your dose so your 25(OH)D level is between 50 and 70 ng/ml, summer and winter. These are conservative dosage recommendations. Most people who avoid the sun - and virtually all dark-skinned people - will have to increase their dose once they find their blood level is still low, even after two months of the above dosage, especially in the winter.

One more thing. Everyone has different vitamin D machinery. For example, regular run-of-the-mill rickets does not require much vitamin D to be cured. However, two other forms of rickets, both rare, one caused by a defective vitamin D receptor and the other by a malfunction of the enzyme that activates vitamin D, requires either much more vitamin D or activated vitamin D (calcitriol) itself. It seems likely that there is as much variation in the amount and functionality of the enzyme that activates vitamin D as there is in the vitamin D receptor. Furthermore, there are probably tissue variations as well. That is, one vitamin D deficient child gets rickets, another autism, another asthma, and yet another type-1 diabetes because functionality of the vitamin D machinery is genetically variable both between children and within children's tissues. Therefore, some people, who have genetically determined decreased functionality of the machinery in different tissues, will need more vitamin D. How much more, we do not know. However, should you have a child with autism, they will usually need more than a normal child to overcome their genetic defects. None of what I say in this last paragraph has been proven, it is theoretical.

4) What blood test should I have?

The only blood test that can diagnose vitamin D deficiency is a 25-hydroxy-vitamin D [25(OH)D]. Get your levels above 50 ng/ml, year around. Unfortunately, about 10-20% of the doctors in the USA order the wrong test. They order a 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D, thinking that by measuring the most potent steroid in the system, they are getting useful information. They are not. 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D is an adaptive hormone; it goes up and down with calcium intake. Furthermore, as 25(OH)D is a weak steroid, when 25(OH)D levels are low, the body compensates by increasing the amount of the potent steroid, 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D. Thus, a common cause of high 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D is low 25(OH)D or vitamin D deficiency. So these doctors see the 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D is normal or high and tell their patients that they are OK when they are vitamin D deficient, advice that may prove fatal. Furthermore, the reference labs in this country know this is occurring but, to date, have not taken steps to educate the doctors ordering the test because the reference labs make more money off a 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D than they do from a 25-hydroxy-vitamin D. Although the misdiagnosis of vitamin D deficiency may prove fatal, the doctors, and the reference labs, are ordering and processing the wrong test.

5) Does it matter what reference lab my doctor uses?

Yes, it might make a huge difference. A number of methods exist to measure 25(OH)D in commercial labs. The two most common are mass spectrometry and a chemiluminescence method, LIAISON. The first, mass spectrometry, is highly accurate in the hands of experienced technicians given enough time to do the test properly. However, in the hands of a normally trained technician at a commercial reference lab overwhelmed with 25(OH)D tests, it may give falsely elevated readings, that is, it tells you are OK when in fact you are vitamin D deficient. The second method, chemiluminescence, LIAISON, was recently developed and is the most accurate of the screening, high throughput, methods; LabCorp uses it. Quest Diagnostics reference lab uses mass spec. Again, both Quest and LabCorp are overwhelmed by 25(OH)D requests. The problem is that the faster the technicians do the mass spec test, the more inaccurate it is likely to be. If your 25(OH)D blood test says "Quest Diagnostics" on the top, do not believe you have an adequate level (> 50 ng/ml). You may or may not; the test may be falsely elevated. Let me give you an example. A doctor at my hospital had Quest Diagnostics do a 25(OH)D. It came back as 99 ng/ml of ergocalciferol. He is not taking ergocalciferol (D2), he has never taken ergocalciferol, only cholecalciferol, and he is not taking enough to get a level of 99 ng/ml, 50 ng/ml at the most. His email to Dr. Brett Holmquist at Quest about why Quest identified a substance he was not taking went unanswered other than to say "any friend of Dr. Cannell's is a friend of ours."

Long story short: if your lab report says "LabCorp" on the top, it is probably accurate; if it says Quest Diagnostic, it may be falsely elevated. While LabCorp has also been overwhelmed with 25(OH)D requests, the LIAISON method they use is relatively easy to do and does not rely on technician skill as much as the mass spec methods do. I'm not saying this because I'm a consultant for DiaSorin, who makes LIAISON, I'm saying it because it is true. If you don't believe me, get Quest to make me an offer to be their consultant at 10 times what DiaSorin is supposed to be paying me ($10,000 per year) and see how fast I turn Quest down. If Quest fixes their test, I'd love to consult. The ironic thing: I've made both Quest and LabCorp lots of money via this newsletter, the website, and by repeatedly telling the press that people need to know their 25(OH)D level, which has contributed to the skyrocketing sales of 25(OH)D blood tests.

Demand for vitamin D tests soars as nutrient's potential benefits touted.

Here you can help. Find out which labs in your town use Quest Diagnostics and which use LabCorp. Have a 25(OH)D test at both labs the same day (you will have to pay for them yourself). Then send both results to the Vitamin D Council address below. If Quest Diagnostics does not fix their 25(OH)D test, the Vitamin D Council will fix it for them.

6) Where should I get my vitamin D supplements?

Anywhere. Vitamin D in 1,000 IU tablets by Nature Made are available in most pharmacies in the USA and Canada. On the internet, Bio Tech Pharmacal has prices that are hard to beat and has 1,000 and 5,000 IU capsules. Life Extension Foundation also has 1,000 and 5,000 IU capsules. Capsules are important as it is easy dissolve the powder inside the capsule in juice for children. In Canada, Ddrops are now available, with 1,000 IU per drop. Ddrops will soon be available in the USA from Carlson, with 400, 1,000 or 2,000 IU per drop! Unfortunately, Carlson keeps selling products with toxic amounts of vitamin A. LifeSpan Nutrition has a variety of vitamin D preparations including their new "30 minutes of sunshine," which has magnesium together with 5,000 IU of vitamin D. If you don't eat a lot of vegetables, you are probably magnesium deficient. Both Bio Tech Pharmacal and LifeSpan Nutrition support the Vitamin D Council so consider getting your vitamin D from them. In fact, LifeSpan Nutrition began supporting us five years ago and is responsible, in large part, for our website being what it is.

7) My doctor prescribed Drisdol, 50,000 IU per week. What is it?

Drisdol is a prescription of 50,000 IU tablets of ergocalciferol or D2. Ergocalciferol is not vitamin D but it is similar. It is made by irradiating ergosterol, which is found in many living things, such as yeast. D2 is not normally found in humans and most studies show it does not raise 25(OH)D levels as well as human vitamin D (cholecalciferol or D3) does. However, Drisdol is a lot better than nothing. The best thing to do, if you are vitamin D deficient, and a human, is to take human vitamin D, cholecalciferol, A.K.A. vitamin D3.

8) Why are you against cod liver oil?

Cod liver oil contains toxic amounts of vitamin A. Vitamin A antagonizes the action of vitamin D. Stay tuned to the press. In several months you will see a clear warning by numerous experts not to take vitamin A or cod liver oil.

9) What is the ideal level of 25(OH)D?

We don't know. However, thanks to Bruce Hollis, Robert Heaney, Neil Binkley, and others, we now know the minimal acceptable level. It is 50 ng/ml. In a recent study, Heaney et al enlarged on Bruce Hollis's seminal work by analyzing five studies in which both the parent compound, cholecalciferol, and 25(OH)D levels were measured. It turn out that the body does not reliably begin storing the parent compound (cholecalciferol) in fat and muscle tissue until 25(OH)D levels get above 50 ng/ml. The average person starts to store cholecalciferol at 40 ng/ml, but at 50 ng/ml, virtually everyone begins to store it for future use. That is, at levels below 50 ng/ml, the body is usually using up the vitamin D as fast as you make it or take it, indicating chronic substrate starvation, not a good thing.

Hollis BW, Wagner CL, Drezner MK, Binkley NC. Circulating vitamin D3 and 25-hydroxyvitamin D in humans: An important tool to define adequate nutritional vitamin D status. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2007 Mar;103(3-5):631-4.

Heaney RP, Armas LA, Shary JR, Bell NH, Binkley N, Hollis BW. 25-Hydroxylation of vitamin D3: relation to circulating vitamin D3 under various input conditions. Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Jun;87(6):1738-42.

10) I have advanced renal failure and I'm on dialysis, how much vitamin D should I take?

The same as everyone else. Since I have told you about commercial labs ripping you off, let's add some drug companies. Patients with advanced renal failure need activated vitamin D or one of it's analogs, available by prescription. This is very important as their kidneys cannot make enough 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D (calcitriol) to maintain serum calcium. However, the rest of their tissues activate vitamin D just fine and when those tissues get enough, and when the kidneys get more vitamin D, the calcitriol spills out into the blood, lowering their need for prescription calcitriol or one of its analogs. The companies that make the analogs don't like that, it means reduced sales. So these companies do nothing, the scientists behind these companies say nothing, and renal failure patients die prematurely from one of the vitamin D deficiency diseases.

Vieth R. Vitamin D toxicity, policy, and science. J Bone Miner Res. 2007 Dec;22 Suppl 2:V64-8.

11) When I asked my doctor for a 25(OH)D blood test, he just laughed and said it was all idiotic. What can I do?

Help me unleash the dogs of war, the plaintiff attorneys. If you read about past nutritional epidemics caused by society, such as beriberi or pellagra, you will realize that education alone will take decades. Physicians successfully fought against the idea that thiamine deficiency caused beriberi for decades. However, things are different now. The agents of change in modern America, as obnoxious as they are, are plaintiff attorneys. Once the first malpractice lawsuits claiming undiagnosed and untreated vitamin D deficiency led to breast cancer, autism, heart disease, etc., get past summary judgment, and they will, and end up in front of a jury, and they will, things will change rapidly. One of the main reason physicians do what they do is fear of lawsuits. In a matter of months, arrogance and ignorance will give way to 25(OH)D tests and vitamin D supplementation.

Goodwin JS, Tangum MR. Battling quackery: attitudes about micronutrient supplements in American academic medicine. Arch Intern Med. 1998 Nov 9;158(20):2187-91.

12) The vitamin D Council takes money from Bio Tech Pharmacal and Lifespan Nutrition and now you are a consultant for Diasorin. With those conflicts, how can I believe what you say?

Believe what you want, most people do anyway. As far as conflicts, I am actively soliciting them. No conflicts means no money and I don't want to work in a maximum security hospital for the criminally insane all the rest of my life. (Whops, I means a liberty impaired haven for the mentally challenged who are criminally defiant.) Furthermore, the Vitamin D Council cannot do what we need to do on $12,000.00 per year (what we get from Bio Tech Pharmacal). So if you know anyone or any business with some money to donate that would create a conflict, send them our way.

13) My blood test came back at 120 ng/ml. Am I toxic?

No, vitamin D toxicity has never been reliably documented with 25(OH)D levels less than 200 ng/ml. Ranges for humans living and working in the sun are between 50 and 100 ng/ml. Did Quest Diagnostics do your 25(OH)D?

John Cannell, MD
The Vitamin D Council

This is a periodic newsletter from the Vitamin D Council, a non-profit trying to end the epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. This newsletter is not copyrighted. Please reproduce it and post it on internet sites. Remember, we are a non-profit and rely on donations to publish our newsletter and maintain our website. Send your tax-deductible contributions to:

The Vitamin D Council
9100 San Gregorio Road
Atascadero, CA 93422

Heart Attack, Stroke and Vit D

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Vitamin D—The Cure For Many Diseases?

VITAMIN D—THE CURE FOR MANY DISEASES?
C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D.

I have been planning for many months to write a commentary on Vitamin D. Recently I had the good fortune to spend a couple of hours with Dr. Joe Prendergast, an endocrinologist /diabetologist.

www.uncommondoctor.com; www.endocrinemetabolic.com. He has managed over 1500 diabetic patients and, in the last decade, not one of his patients has had a stroke or heart attack. Only one has even been hospitalized! His secret—50,000 units of Vitamin D3 daily. Dr. Joe further reports:

• Reversal of advanced coronary disease
• Reversal of advanced lung disease, avoiding a lung transplant!
• Cure of multiple sclerosis
• Cure of amotrophic lateral sclerosis
• Regression of rheumatoid arthritis
• Improvement in allergies
• Control of many cancers including prostate, breast, colon, brain tumors, leukemia, myeloma, etc
• Reversal of osteoporosis
• Prevention of influenza
• Cure of depression and many other mental disorders
• Hashimoto’s hyperthyroidism

He slyly then mentions that men report that the penis grows an average of 10% in length and girth (Volunteers??) and that women report growth of the labia.

Upon my return home, I searched the literature and found thousands of articles supporting in general every possibility Dr. Prendergast mentioned, except penis and labia growth. Interestingly, I did not find a single article integrating all this remarkable potential benefit in virtually every disease. Indeed, I know of no supplement or treatment that is so successful in such a broad variety of diseases. One of D’s greatest effects appears to be immune modulation. Indeed, even tuberculosis is strongly correlated with deficiency of vitamin D!

Vitamin D enhances calcium absorption, which enhances milk production in pregnant women. Suckling of the breast induces prolactin and oxytocin production (even in non-pregnant women) the nurturing and trust hormones. Everything is related to everything!

The recommended daily intake of vitamin D is only 400 units. When I was in medical school dosages above 1000 units were thought to be toxic—perhaps because most of the D then came from cod liver oil and were associated with significant amounts of vitamin A. Vitamin A is toxic at long term dosages above 10,000 units, although beta carotene is safe at dosages up to hundreds of thousands of units. There are several articles which emphasize the safety of Vitamin D up to 10,000 units. And a single article suggests that 50,000 units will not induce toxicity. Among the most interesting articles are many that emphasize the remarkable decrease in Type 1 diabetes in children given 2000 units of D throughout early childhood—up to 80% decreased incidence! Dr. Prendergast recommends increasing to 50,000 units at puberty. There are also suggestions that gluten sensitivity may be increased because of inadequate D. Since one-third of Americans have gluten sensitivity, D deficiency may be a contributor!

One article has stated that 15 minutes of exposure to sunlight on face and hands leads to production of 400 units of D. Total body exposure might then be approximately 8000 units per hour. One could argue that our forebears living, in the tropics, might have produced well over 50,000 units of D daily!!

Dr. Prendergast warns that patients taking 50,000 units of vitamin D3 SHOULD NOT TAKE ANY CALCIUM SUPPLEMENTS! It is fine to have some milk products and the small dose of calcium in most multivitamins (400 mg) will not be a problem. Since most adults seem to have deposits of calcium outside bones, in arteries, around joints, etc, perhaps the vitamin D assists in retrieving calcium from these undesirable deposits! The OTHER EXCEPTION TO THE 50,000 UNITS WOULD BE INDIVIDUALS WITH KIDNEY FAILURE—THOSE ON DIALYSIS. Although there is great evidence that D is needed and that D deficiency is related to kidney failure, the dose in these individuals should be monitored by blood levels!

In summary, the evidence for safety and remarkable efficacy of Vitamin D3 suggests that virtually ALL adults should probably take 50,000 units of D3 daily. This is certainly true for those with virtually any illness. If you are concerned about that dosage, then take six 50,000 unit capsules each month. Children, pre-puberty should take 2000 units. 1000 and 50,000 units of D3 ARE AVAILABLE AT WWW.SELFHEALTHSYSTEMS.COM, 888-242-6105.

D3 deficiency and Hypertension

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Calcium and Brain Aging and Alzheimer's Disease

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Calcium and Brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease
Aging Cell, 2007june; 6(3): 307-317

Two decades of research has implicated Calcium in multiple ways in brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease as discussed in this paper from the University of Kentucky.

It seems to me that it is unwise to continue to take oral calcium as a supplement. The extra vitamin D gets in all calcium you need at a natural rate and it seems that the scientific papers that accused vitamin D of causing memory problems have it wrong. It was the calcium supplement that did the wrong.

Select estrogens (Premarin) are protective against neurodegenerative insults and prevent Alzheimer’s.
BMC Neuroscience2006, 7; 24. Article available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2202/7/24

This is a follow up on the use of estrogen recently and shows a distinctly positive reason to take estrogen.

Osteonecrosis March 2008

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Osteonecrosis

You recall that this is the “jaw rot” after using Bisphosphonates such as Fosamax, Actonel, Boniva and the like. If it starts, the jaw rots completely away and you are left with some flaps of skin and similar flaps of gum where the teeth used to be.

We have now finished follow up on 12-15 patients using 50,000 IU of Vitamin D3 daily for 30 days or more and all the patients have undergone routine dental cleaning with no problems.

The people who were at risk for Osteonecrosis appear to have dodged the bullet and are going to be just fine. I always hope there will be no exceptions.

Vitamin D levels may affect heart health

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Text Summary
JAMA 02.20.08
Half of all middle-aged and older adults are vitamin D deficient. This is below 15 ng/ml – unequivocally low in the world today.

Known disease that have been associated with low D include, osteoporosis, weak muscles, cancer, diabetes, schizophrenia depression, lung dysfunction and cardiovascular disease.

The chance of a first cardiovascular event is increased 62% in someone with high blood pressure and low vitamin D.

T-4 and t-3 together? - The Key to Thyroid Replacement

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Text Summary
JAMA 2/20/08, PAGE 769-777

It is well known that there is a distinct group of people who become hypothyroid and don’t return to normal feels of health even with fully normal serum T-4 free levels. Often the addition of T-3 replacement helps for a time but often energy flags after a few months.

This is an excellent scientific approach to the problem but in my mind will not have me do anything different.

I still don’t know the answer but I do know the way to approach this problem. In the main, patients usually will better by pushing T-4 free near the top, the TSH down near the bottom and use a healthy amount of Vitamin D3 (50,000) IU daily for a month or two.

Vitamin D - Chronic Kidney Disease

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Proton Pump Inhibitors - 2

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The Vitamin D Council

The Vitamin D Council is a very important organization that pursues medical literature to inform us all and display inconsistencies in interpretation by physicians and major medical organizations. These differing opinions are a continual part of medical expertise but here you see a dark side that that I had not observed this bluntly until this century.

I have been told that the Surgeon General of the United States who resigned this last summer commented years ago in a speech to the American Medical Association that he believed America is losing 95 billion dollars a year due to vitamin D deficiency.

Make up your own mind because it’s your time.


The Vitamin D Newsletter
December, 2007

Does vitamin D prevent cancer? If it does, will doctors who ignore the research end up with blood on their hands? The press makes it easy for doctors to believe what they want to believe. Below are six stories about the same scientific study; read the six different headlines. According to your a priori beliefs, you can choose the story you want to believe and read that one. Don't feel bad, we all do it. As Walter Lippman once said, "We do not see and then believe, we believe and then we see."

Vitamin D cuts colon cancer death risk
Study Finds No Connection Between Vitamin D And Overall Cancer Deaths
Vitamin D protects against colorectal cancer
Vitamin D May Not Cut Cancer Deaths
Vitamin D protects against colorectal cancer
Scientists advise a vitamin D downgrade as there is no real proof ...

Another option is to read the study yourself.

Freedman DM, et al. Prospective Study of Serum Vitamin D and Cancer Mortality in the United States. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2007 Oct 30; [Epub ahead of print]

What Dr. Freedman actually discovered is that when you take a very large group of people (16,818), some as young as seventeen, measure their vitamin D levels, and then wait about ten years to see who dies from cancer, you find 536 die and that a vitamin D level from ten years earlier is not a good predictor of who will die from cancer. However, even a level drawn ten years earlier predicted that those with the lowest level were four times more likely to die from colon cancer, suggesting, as Ed Giovannucci has, that colon cancer may be exquisitely sensitive to vitamin D. Furthermore, 28 women got breast cancer, 20 in the group with the lowest vitamin D level but only 8 in the highest. The breast cancer findings were not statistically significant - even during a very long breast cancer awareness month - but can you imagine what critics at the American Cancer Society would be telling women if the numbers were reversed, if the 20 women who got breast cancer were in the high vitamin D group?

Another large epidemiological study appeared about breast cancer the very next day. This time, the press passed on the story and the American Cancer Society was mum, no editorials by Dr. Lichtenfeld, their spokesman, in spite of breast cancer awareness month.

Abbas S, et al. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and risk of postmenopausal breast cancer - results of a large case-control study. Carcinogenesis. 2007 Oct 31; [Epub ahead of print]

In the above study, 1,394 women with breast cancer were case-controlled with a similar number of women without breast cancer. The women with breast cancer were three times more likely to have low vitamin D levels. That is a lot of women who may be dying during next year's breast cancer awareness month.

Both of the above studies were epidemiological, not randomized controlled trials. Of course a randomized controlled trial has already shown a 60% reduction in internal cancers in women taking even a modest 1,100 IU per day of vitamin D.

Lappe JM, et al. Vitamin D and calcium supplementation reduces cancer risk: results of a randomized trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Jun;85(6):1586-91.

What is interesting is the difference in the response of the Canadian Cancer Society and the American Cancer Society. The Canadian Cancer Society has advised all Canadians to take 1,000 IU per day - not enough but a good first step - and for immediate additional large scale clinical trials. The Canadians simply performed a risk/benefit analysis. What is the risk of treating vitamin D deficiency versus what are the potential benefits? They quote the American Food and Nutrition Board, which says 2,000 IU/day is safe for anyone over the age on one to take, on their own, without being under the care of a physician. If there is little or no risk, then the next question is what are the potential benefits of treating vitamin D deficiency? This is not quantum mechanics.

Cancer society calls for major vitamin D trial

The Canadians acted because the Canadian government knows it could save billions of dollars by treating vitamin D deficiency.

Vitamin D Deficiency Drains $9 billion From Canadian Health Care ...

If wide spread treatment of vitamin D deficiency became the rule, ask yourself, "Who would be helped and who would be hurt." First ask yourself that question about Canada and then about the USA. Remember, in Canada, the government directly pays for its citizen's health insurance; in the USA, private insurance is the norm. In Canada, the government is realizing they could save billions if vitamin D deficiencies were treated. In the USA, a large segment of the medical industry would be hurt, some anti-cancer drug manufacturers would have to close their doors, thousands of patents would become worthless, lucrative consulting contracts between industry and cancer researchers would dry up.

Both Canadians and Americans are shocked to think their doctors care about money, are in the illness business. In some ways people think of their doctors like they do their local public schools. They know medicine is a business and know doctors do things for money but they don't think their own doctors do. Likewise they think public schools are in bad shape but think their local schools are above average. They think their doctor is above average, like their "Lake Woebegone" kids.

Lake Woebegone Effect

The fact is that doctors, hospitals, regional cancer centers, and the cancer drug manufacturers are all in business to make money and all of these businesses make money off the sick, not off the well. Just a fact, but, as Aldous Huxley once observed, "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."

Vitamin D will save the Canadian government enormous amounts of money but will cause widespread economic disruption in the USA. Do the physicians leading the American Cancer Society have strong economic ties to the cancer industry in the form of patents, stock options, and consulting fees? If so, what do you expect them to do? What would you do? It's simple. You would believe what you have to believe, what you need to believe, that is, anything with the word "vitamin" in it is simply the latest Laetrile. Look to Canada, not the USA, to lead the way.

Vitamin D may fight cancer

What about American physicians? They are apparently waiting for the American trial lawyers to smell a tort. After all, the case is quite simple. Doctor, did you advise Mrs. Jones to avoid the sun? Doctor, did you tell her the sun is the source of 90% of circulating stores of vitamin D? Doctor, did you prescribe vitamin D to make up for what the sun would not be making? Doctor, did you measure her vitamin D levels? So you had no way of knowing if your sun-avoidance advice resulted in vitamin D deficiency? Doctor, do you know our expert tested her vitamin D level and it was less than 20? Doctor, did you tell her about any of the studies indicating vitamin D deficiency causes cancer? Doctor, did you know Mrs. Jones has terminal breast cancer and will be leaving behind a loving husband and two young children?

And what about the American Cancer Society? Dr. Lichtenfeld, their spokesman, quickly gave his opinion; from what I can tell the first time he ever commented on a vitamin D study. That is, he has ignored the hundreds of positive epidemiological studies, ignored the incredible randomized controlled trial, but he jumped on this one:

Maybe Vitamin D Isn't The Answer After All

Dr. Lichtenfeld, implied the Canadian Cancer Society has acted precipitously in recommending that all Canadians take 1,000 IU of vitamin D daily. He implied that Americans should placidly wait until more randomized controlled trials, such as Lappe JM, et al (above), accumulate before they address their vitamin D deficiency. That is, nothing should be done until more randomized controlled trials prove vitamin D prevents cancer, one randomized controlled trial is not enough; epidemiological studies are not enough, animal studies are not enough, multiple anti-cancer mechanisms of action are not enough? If that is his position, I challenge him to point to one human randomized controlled trial that proves smoking is dangerous?

If he cannot, then he must admit that the American Cancer Society's position on smoking is entirely derived from epidemiological studies, animal studies, and a demonstrable mechanism of action, not on human randomized controlled trials? Vitamin D not only has hundreds of epidemiological studies, thousand of animal studies, and at least four anti-cancer mechanisms of action, vitamin D deficiency has something smoking does not have, it has a high quality randomized controlled trial. If future randomized controlled trials fail to show vitamin D prevents cancer - and Dr. Lichtenfeld better hope they do - he can have the satisfaction of saying "I told you so." If future randomized controlled trials confirm vitamin D prevents cancer, then he needs to look at his hands, the red he sees is the blood of needless cancer deaths.

John Cannell, MD
The Vitamin D Council
9100 San Gregorio Road
Atascadero, CA 93422

This is a periodic newsletter from the Vitamin D Council, a non-profit trying to end the epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. If you don't want to get the newsletter, please hit reply and let us know.

This newsletter is not copyrighted. Please reproduce it and post it on Internet sites.

Remember, we are a non-profit and rely on donations to publish our newsletter and maintain our website. Send your tax-deductible contributions to:

The Vitamin D Council
9100 San Gregorio Road
Atascadero, CA 93422

Vitamin D Levels Predicts Physical Performance and Its Decline in Older Persons

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The article referred to in this video is: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 92:2017-2029, 200.

Generic Wars

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Sunshine Vitamin

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Alternative to flu shots

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Vitamin D Status and Physical Performance

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Low Blood D Despite Sun

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The Vitamin D Newsletter

Many of you who haven’t won your doctors over yet on the benfits of vitamin D, perhaps should share a copy of the Bitamin D Newsletter with them.
Dr. Joe

The Vitamin D Newsletter
February, 2006

Time for some continuing education and another quiz! But first, Marc Sorenson has written a fine book about vitamin D for the general public: Solar Power for Optimal Health. Marc's book is also available on Amazon.

1) Most of the infants born in the northern half of the USA are at risk for rickets, especially if they are breast fed.

A) True
B) False

True. Dr. Joyce Lee, at the University of Michigan, has recently confirmed that both newborn infants and their mothers in Boston are severely vitamin D deficient. Fifty percent of the mothers and 65% of the infants had vitamin D blood levels below 12 ng/ml (30 nmol/L), which is low enough to cause rickets in the infants and osteomalacia (adult rickets) in the mothers. Healthy levels are at least 40 ng/ml.

Lee JM, et al. Vitamin D deficiency in a healthy group of mothers and newborn infants. Clin Pediatr (Phila). 2007 Jan;46(1):42-4.

Make no mistake, rickets is a serious problem in the USA, even in the summer. This disease of the industrial revolution is getting to be a common problem in African American infants. Ironically, the incidence is higher in infants who consume the Zion of nature's perfect food, breast milk.

Weisberg P, Scanlon KS, Li R, Cogswell ME. Nutritional rickets among children in the United States: review of cases reported between 1986 and 2003. Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 Dec;80(6 Suppl):1697S-705S.

Ziegler EE, et al. Vitamin D deficiency in breastfed infants in Iowa. Pediatrics. 2006 Aug;118(2):603-10.

It's not just rickets these breast-fed infants must contend with, but seizures and heart failure as well, both of which can be fatal.

Cramm KJ, Cattaneo RA, Schremmer RD. An infant with tachypnea. Pediatr Emerg Care. 2006 Nov;22(11):728-31.

Bloom E, et al. Variable presentations of rickets in children in the emergency department. Pediatr Emerg Care. 2004 Feb;20(2):126-30.

Alouf B, Grigalonis M. Incidental finding of vitamin-D deficient rickets in an otherwise healthy infant--a reappraisal of current vitamin-D supplementation guidelines. J Natl Med Assoc. 2005 Aug;97(8):1170-3.

Ashraf A, et al. Prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in early infantile hypocalcemia. J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab. 2006 Aug;19(8):1025-31.

Balasubramanian S, Shivbalan S, Kumar PS. Hypocalcemia due to vitamin D deficiency in exclusively breastfed infants. Indian Pediatr. 2006 Mar;43(3):247-51.

It's not just infants who are having seizures and breaking their bones. This 17-year-old New Yorker had a seizure from low blood calcium caused by vitamin D deficiency; the seizures broke the necks of both of his femurs, usually the strongest bones in the body.

Schnadower D, et al. Hypocalcemic seizures and secondary bilateral femoral fractures in an adolescent with primary vitamin D deficiency. Pediatrics. 2006 Nov;118(5):2226-30.

The reason breast feeding (still the best way to feed an infant) is a risk factor for infantile rickets, seizures, and heart failure is that breast milk, like any milk, is only as nutritious as the mother who produces it. As most mothers are vitamin D deficient - in spite of their consumption of multivitamins and vitamin D fortified cow's milk - breast milk is a poor source of vitamin D. Even mothers who go into the sun will have deficient breast milk in the winter in northern latitudes. However, as Bruce Hollis and Carol Wagner showed several years ago, mothers who take 4,000 IU of vitamin D daily can safely breast feed their infant without concern their baby will develop any of these medieval diseases.

Hollis BW, Wagner CL. Vitamin D requirements during lactation: high-dose maternal supplementation as therapy to prevent hypovitaminosis D for both the mother and the nursing infant. Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 Dec;80(6 Suppl):1752S-8S.

Furthermore, it is time to shed a tear for mothers, especially African American mothers, who followed La Leche League's advice to breast feed their infants without taking vitamin D supplements. These mothers were dedicated enough to breast feed and concerned enough to bring their child to an emergency room when their child's bone's started to break - only to be unjustly accused of child abuse. "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion."

Bloom E, et al. Variable presentations of rickets in children in the emergency department. Pediatr Emerg Care. 2004 Feb;20(2):126-30.

Paterson CR. Vitamin D deficiency rickets simulating child abuse. J Pediatr Orthop. 1981;1(4):423-5.

2) If you take a multivitamin and drink three glasses of milk a day, but totally avoid direct sunlight, you will become vitamin D deficient.

A) True
B) False

The answer is false. I know several years ago I said "true," but research steadily goes on. Dr. Turnbull, working with Dr. Kimlin in Australia, showed that UVB light in the shade is strong enough to activate vitamin D production in the skin. Think of UVB as a ping-pong ball. It bounces off lots of things. When you go into the sun - if the sun is high enough in the sky - UVB light comes through the atmosphere and then starts bouncing around. It bounces at you from the ground, buildings, cars, and even the bottom of clouds. Sitting under a shade tree delivered about half as much UVB as sitting in the direct sun. Furthermore, the damaging UVA radiation under direct sun was three times more than under the shade tree. Sitting in the shade in the summer (and the winter in subtropical and tropical latitudes) is a good way to get vitamin D. You even get some in the car - as long as the windows are down.

Turnbull DJ, Parisi AV, Kimlin MG. Vitamin D effective ultraviolet wavelengths due to scattering in shade. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2005 Sep;96(5):431-6.

3) The U.S. Federal Government recommends you take a rat poison every day.

A) True
B) False

True, but they don't recommend enough. Vitamin D has been used as a rat poison (rodenticide) for years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodenticide

However, as I said three years ago, it's the dose, the dose, the dose. Humans would have to take tens of thousands of standard 1,000 IU vitamin D capsules to risk chance of death from overdosage. With the 50,000 IU capsule, this margin of safety is 50 times lower. Not one person has ever been reported to have died from taking vitamin D supplements - unless they purchased low-quality supplements that had hundreds of thousands times more vitamin D in them than reported on the label. Not one person has ever been reported to have successfully committed suicide with vitamin D. In fact, water is more toxic than vitamin D. Not only are there more deaths - a lot more - from water intoxication than from vitamin D intoxication, water has a lower therapeutic index (the ratio of toxic to therapeutic doses). The words of the father of toxicology, Paracelsus, ring true over the ages, "All things are poison and nothing is without poison, only the dose permits something not to be poisonous."

4) In a recent study, HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol) was strongly associated with vitamin D blood levels.

A) True
B) False

True. The association was strong (P<.005) among their 120 women with polycystic ovarian disease. However, like dozens of other studies, the authors also found a strong inverse correlation between obesity and vitamin D levels - the higher the vitamin D levels the thinner the patients - and this may explain the association with HDL cholesterol. Unfortunately, the authors did not look further at their data to see if the association with HDL held after correction for body weight. Hahn S, et al. Low Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Concentrations are Associated with Insulin Resistance and Obesity in Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. Exp Clin Endocrinol Diabetes. 2006 Nov;114(10):577-83.

5) People can reach 100 years of age without any vitamin D in their blood.
A) True
B) False

True. When researchers went to an Italian nursing home, they found that 99 of 104 residents had no detectable vitamin D in their blood. All of the 104 resident were over 98 years old! But the key word is "can." Before you stop your vitamin D so you can live to a 98, the study said nothing about what their levels were before they came to the nursing home. A recent large study showed good evidence that low levels are not only associated with going into nursing homes, but dying as well.

Passeri G, et al. Low vitamin D status, high bone turnover, and bone fractures in centenarians. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2003 Nov;88(11):5109-15.

Visser M, et al. Low serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in older persons and the risk of nursing home admission. Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Sep;84(3):616-22; quiz 671-2.

6) Being in the sun helps protect you from being in the sun.
A) True
B) False

True. Dr. Dixon, at the University of Sydney - working with Professor Rebecca Mason's group - has presented additional evidence that vitamin D metabolites protect the skin from sun damage, and do so via rapid acting pathways that do not involve genetic transcription. As anyone who has ever taken 5,000 IU a day for several months can tell you, your skin is much less likely to burn when you are no longer vitamin D deficient.

Dixon KM, et al. In vivo relevance for photoprotection by the vitamin D rapid response pathway. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2007 Jan 11; [Epub ahead of print]

7) It looks like vitamin D deficiency is a major cause of Parkinson's disease. A) True B) False True. In an excellent paper, Drs. Harold and Jonathan Newmark (father and son), present the considerable evidence that vitamin D deficiency is one cause, perhaps the major cause, of Parkinson's disease (Muhammad Ali has this disease and, in his case, it may have been caused by boxing. However, a lot of boxers never get Parkinson's disease, and most people who have Parkinson's disease never boxed). Drs. Newmark remark on a 1997 case report in which a patient with Parkinson's disease steadily improved when treated with 4,000 IU daily. However, their recommendation for an interventional study using only 2,000 IU daily in Parkinsonian patients is regrettable. Such a low dose in such a severe disease may tragically miss a treatment effect and would only have to be repeated in the future with physiological amounts of vitamin D. All clinical interventional studies - in any disease - should use enough vitamin D to obtain and then maintain blood levels at levels obtained from natural summertime sun exposure (at least 50 ng/ml). For many people, the aged, African Americans, and the obese, this require 5,000 IU daily. If you know Muhammad Ali, or anyone with Parkinson's disease, suggest they start taking 5,000 IU a day. If they or their doctor are concerned about toxicity, have them read the literature. If they can't do that, have the doctor measure their 25(OH)D and calcium levels every four months. Both patient and doctor will soon realize that 5,000 IU is a physiological dose.
Newmark HL, Newmark J. Vitamin D and Parkinson's disease-A hypothesis. Mov Disord. 2007 Jan 17; [Epub ahead of print]

8) There were at least 100 courageous people in Boston in 1919.
A) True
B) False

True. Five controlled human studies were conducted on volunteers in the desperate days of 1919 when 50,000,000 people in the world had just died from influenza. All five attempted to show influenza is transmitted like the common cold, from the sick to the well. It gave me chills to read what the 100 Boston volunteers were willing to risk in the largest study, one published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Rosenau, MJ. Experiments to determine mode of spread of influenza. JAMA. 1919;73:311-313.

In the above study, Rosenau and his six colleagues took 100 volunteers, "all of the most susceptible age," none of whom had ever had influenza. That is, "from the most careful histories that we could elicit, they gave no account of a febrile attack of any kind," during the previous year, and thus no evidence they would have had immunity to the 1918 virus. The authors took great care to select their influenza donors from patients in a "distinct focus or outbreak of influenza, sometimes an epidemic in a school with 100 cases, from which we would select typical cases, in order to prevent mistakes in diagnosis of influenza." Rosenau went on to say, "A few of the donors were in the first day of the disease. Others were in the second or third day of the disease."

Now, read this to see if you would volunteer for the experiments, knowing the lethality of the 1918 virus.

"Then we proceeded to transfer the virus obtained from cases of the disease; that is, we collected the material and mucous secretions of the mouth and nose and bronchi from cases of the disease and transferred this to our volunteers. We always obtained the material in the following way: The patients with fever, in bed, have a large, shallow, traylike arrangement before him or her, and we washed out one nostril with some sterile salt solution, using perhaps 5 c.c., which is allowed to run into this tray; and that nostril is blown vigorously into the tray. That is repeated with the other nostril. The patient then gargles the solution. Next we obtain some bronchial mucous through coughing, and then we swab the mucous surface of each nares and also the mucous membranes of the throat." Then they mixed all this "stuff" together and squirted it into the noses of the volunteers! "None of them took sick in any way."

Undaunted, Rosenau reported they conducted another experiment on 10 of these brave souls. "The volunteer was led up to the bedside of the patient; he was introduced. He sat down alongside the bed of the patients. They shook hands, and by instructions, he got as close as he conveniently could, and they talked for several minutes. At the end of five minutes, the patient breathed out as hard as he could, while the volunteer, muzzle to muzzle, received this expired breath, and at the same time was breathing in as the patient breathed out. This they repeated five times, and they did it fairly faithfully in almost all instances. After they had done this five times, the patient coughed directly into the face of the volunteer, face to face, five different times. I may say that the volunteers were perfectly splendid about carrying out the technic of these experiments. They did it with a high idealism. They were inspired with the thought that they might help others. They went through the program in a splendid spirit. After our volunteer had had this sort of contact with the patients, talking and chatting and shaking hands with him for five minutes, and receiving his breath five times, and then his cough directly in his face, he moved to the next patient whom we had selected, and repeated this, and so on, until this volunteer had had that sort of contact with ten different cases of influenza, in different stages of the disease, mostly fresh cases, none of them more than three days old. We will remember that each one of the ten volunteers had that sort of intimate contact with each one of the ten different influenza patients. They were watched carefully for seven days - and none of them took sick in any way."

Rosenau concluded, "We entered the outbreak with a notion that we knew the cause of the disease, and were quite sure we knew how it was transmitted from person-to-person. Perhaps, if we have learned anything, it is that we are not quite sure what we know about the disease."

Can you imagine volunteering for this study, the year after 50,000,000 people died in the world from influenza? Courageous volunteers who knew nothing about the evidence vitamin D protects one from influenza. I wish modern virologists would read these 1919 studies, which are the only ones that ever attempted to show human influenza is transmitted from the sick to the well. If any reader knows of any controlled human study, in any language, of any date, that proves influenza is propagated by an endless series of transmissions from the sick to the well, I invite its citation for my continuing education.

John Cannell, MD
This is a periodic newsletter from the Vitamin D Council, a non-profit trying to end the epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. If you don't want to get the newsletter, please hit reply and let us know. This newsletter is not copyrighted. Please reproduce it and post it on Internet sites. Remember, we are a non-profit and rely on donations to publish our newsletter and maintain our website. Send your tax-deductible contributions to:
The Vitamin D Council
9100 San Gregorio Road
Atascadero, CA 93422

Vitamin D and L-Arginine

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol, 85, 1, 6-18, January 2007 has come out with an exceptionally important article on vitamin D forward to me by a good friend of mine, Clay Stringer. One of the authors of this study I consider to be a good friend of mine too, although I haven’t seen him in so long he probably has no memory of me, Robert Heaney, MD.

They are assuring us all that the new levels of D everyone is using is safe. In fact, they are now suggesting that we all take 10,000 IU of Vitamin D Daily, twice what I am suggesting now after we do the “Stoss” therapy.

Between the use of the D and the l-arginine which I have promoted in ever increasing amounts, my professional life has become an absolute joy. You can’t imagine how delightful it is to visit people who are steadily getting healthy rather than just coping with disease.