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

International Conference on Alzheimer’s

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:33:00 +0000

Click the video to pause play. This video is 2:09 minutes in duration and took 14 seconds to load over a DSL connection. You will need the latest version of the Free QuickTime Player to view it. Additional help for Mac users.

How to Save Money

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:47:00 +0000

Click the video to pause play. This video is 1:09 minutes in duration and took 14 seconds to load over a DSL connection. You will need the latest version of the Free QuickTime Player to view it. Additional help for Mac users.

World Diabetes Day - Nov. 14, 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:16:00 +0000

If you are near San Jose, you might find this interesting. Contact the San Jose Chapter of the American Diabetes Association for details. Office Hours: Mon - Fri -- 8:30 am - 5:00 p.m. (EST). Telephone: (408) 241-1922 or 1-888-342-2383.

Click here to see larger version of image.

Synergy's Open House

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:00:00 +0000

Click the video to pause play. This video is 2:12 minutes in duration and took 14 seconds to load over a DSL connection. You will need the latest version of the Free QuickTime Player to view it. Additional help for Mac users.

Razor Blades and Syringes

Razor Blades and Syringes

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:43:00 +0000

Click the video to pause play. This video is 3:22 minutes in duration and took 16 seconds to load over a DSL connection. You will need the latest version of the Free QuickTime Player to view it. Additional help for Mac users.

UKPDS 30 Years of Type 2

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:06:00 +0000

Flu Vaccine and Heart Attack

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:23:00 +0000

Click the video to pause play. This video is 2:10 minutes in duration and took 18 seconds to load over a DSL connection. You will need the latest version of the Free QuickTime Player to view it. Additional help for Mac users.

Pneumonia vaccine slashes risk of heart attack: Researchers

Pauline Tam , Canwest News Service
Published: Monday, October 06, 2008

OTTAWA - A vaccine that helps protect against pneumonia can also cut the risk of heart attacks, opening the door to a safe and inexpensive way to prevent thousands of cardiac deaths each year, new research shows.
The vaccine, typically used to protect the elderly against the most common cause of bacterial pneumonia, can lower the rate of heart attacks by as much as 50 per cent, says the study, published in the latest issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

"The magnitude of the effect was really surprising for us," said Dr. Danielle Pilon, the study's lead author and an associate professor of medicine at the Universite de Sherbrooke in Quebec. "We didn't expect the vaccine to lower the risk of heart attacks by such a high rate."

In Ontario, the pneumonia vaccine is recommended for people with weak immune systems, cirrhosis of the liver and high-risk conditions such as chronic heart, kidney or lung disease. It is also commonly given to the elderly.

An accompanying editorial urges physicians to use the vaccine more widely as a preventive measure for patients at high risk of developing heart disease.
Previous studies have shown that flu can trigger heart disease, leading to a spike in heart attacks during flu season. The most common and serious complication of the flu is pneumonia, an infection that sneaks into the lungs after influenza weakens the immune system.

The latest evidence suggests the vaccine not only prevents pneumonia, it also has anti-inflammatory properties that stop the buildup of plaque in blood vessels, leading to atherosclerosis, a disease that makes people susceptible to heart attacks.

"Our research adds to the theory that infection may be related to heart attacks," said Pilon. Her research team studied the medical records of 5,000 Quebec hospital patients, all of whom had at least one risk factor for heart disease: high cholesterol, high blood-pressure or diabetes.

The researchers found that compared to patients who didn't have heart attacks, those who did were much less likely to have received a pneumonia vaccine at least two years before they were hospitalized.
The pattern was similar for men older than 45 and women older than 50.

In Ontario, the pneumonia vaccine is recommended for people with weak immune systems, cirrhosis of the liver and high-risk conditions such as chronic heart, kidney or lung disease. It is also commonly given to the elderly.

Unlike the flu vaccine, which needs to be given every year, the average person only needs to be vaccinated against pneumonia once.

© Ottawa Citizen 2008

Autism and Vitamin D

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 01:32:00 +0000

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.

Stem Cells and Transplants

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:57:00 +0000

Click the video to pause play. This video is 2:10 minutes in duration and took 11 seconds to load over a DSL connection. You will need the latest version of the Free QuickTime Player to view it. Additional help for Mac users.

Spleen cells and transplants

Breakthroughs in cell transplant technology are occurring all the time these days. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105, 14527 (2008) carried a bit of research where donor spleen cells were first treated with a “chemical crosslinker” to make them able to withstand the onslaught of the immune attack attempting to destroy them.

Then spleen cells given before and after the islet cells that were implanted in mice were noted to begin down-regulation of the host effector T cells that induced long term tolerance to the transplants.

Islet Cell grafted into diabetic mice produced insulin for a long time (mouse time) and if the grafts began to fail new cells could be replaced without additional spleen cell treatment as long as the cells came from the same original donor.

Timing and size of the fixed-cell injection was everything. Now if we can get a similar protocol for humans, it’s your time.

Stress of the Times

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:11:00 +0000

Click the video to pause play. This video is 2:10 minutes in duration and took 11 seconds to load over a DSL connection. You will need the latest version of the Free QuickTime Player to view it. Additional help for Mac users.

Stress of the times

What do I see as signs of stressed people who come to the office today? Stress has been the bête noir of civilization but until recently we have had little ability to measure it.

Decreased flexibility of the large and small arteries is what is noted today. People who have had excellent vascular health have watched their life’s financial work become threatened have “cranked up” their epinephrine and norepinephrine on a continuous basis. The most vulnerable and fastest changing component of arterial health takes a big hit.

Fortuitously most of the people reading this know that boosting the ProArgi9 plus by another scoop will control the situation and reassure you that all will return to normal. Most likely you’ll feel it.

You have to control this temporary situation to be ready to control tomorrow. It’s your time.

Dark Chocolate

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:15:00 +0000

Click the video to pause play. This video is 1:10 minutes in duration and took 11 seconds to load over a DSL connection. You will need the latest version of the Free QuickTime Player to view it. Additional help for Mac users.

Dark Chocolate

Consuming moderate amounts of dark chocolate can significantly reduce levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) as shown by an Italian study in the October 2008 issue of the Journal of Nutrition. It is well understood that inflammatory markers such as the highly sensitive CRP are significant markers for risk of cardiovascular disease.

These are the first results to come out of a large Italian epidemiological study aiming to recruit 25,000 individuals to look for environmental and genetic factors associated with cardiovascular disease and cancer.

The reduction in CRP (hs) seen from eating moderate amounts of dark chocolate changes the risk from medium risk of cardiovascular disease to low risk. The 17% average reduction will reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease one third in female participants and one fourth in men.

Yoga and Insulin Pumps

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:07:00 +0000

American Diabetes Association Champions Gala - October 25, 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:45:00 +0000

Click the video to pause play. This video is 5:00 minutes in duration and took 19 seconds to load over a DSL connection. You will need the latest version of the Free QuickTime Player to view it. Additional help for Mac users.

Champions Gala Invitation, Live Auction Packages

Ig Nobel Prize

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 03:12:00 +0000

As most of you know, I just love Nobel Prize winners and all they do for the world. But lesser known and only slightly less important is the presentation of the Ig Nobel Prize. Click on this or copy it into your browser

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/1003/1?etoc

This is important. This is how to keep up with science. It’s your time!

Antidepressants and Gastric Bypass

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:35:00 +0000

Click the video to pause play. This video is 1:10 minutes in duration and took 5 seconds to load over a DSL connection. You will need the latest version of the Free QuickTime Player to view it. Additional help for Mac users.

People who undergo Gastric Bypass procedures apparently are now found to be unable to absorb their antidepressants after surgery. Obs Surg 2005;15:677-683.

Many people who go through this procedure have major depression. Studiers have shown 20% to 28% who are being followed for consideration for undergoing this surgery fall into this category.

This is very important and is causing a major reconsideration of patients being considered for bypass.

D3, L-arginine and Cancer

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:35:00 +0000

Click the video to pause play. This video is 20:00 minutes in duration and took 45 seconds to load over a DSL connection. You will need the latest version of the Free QuickTime Player to view it. Additional help for Mac users.

Vitamin D in Children

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:09:00 +0000

Click the video to pause play. This video is 2:00 minutes in duration and took 14 seconds to load over a DSL connection. You will need the latest version of the Free QuickTime Player to view it. Additional help for Mac users.

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

Importance of low-Grade Albuminuria

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:48:00 +0000

Click the video to pause play. This video is 2:00 minutes in duration and took 14 seconds to load over a DSL connection. You will need the latest version of the Free QuickTime Player to view it. Additional help for Mac users.

Importance of low-Grade Albuminuria

The importance of low grade albuminuria is changing the world of understanding of the complications of diabetes.

Throughout my career I believed and understood from all my teachers that chronic diabetes renal disease begins in kidneys.

Cardiovascular disease was typically thought to originate and to progress as a separate entity. As these things are looked at today, it seems that these beliefs are entirely reversed. It is cardiovascular disease that is beginning and the kidney is best thought of as a ball of blood vessels, large and small, that get included in the vessels undergoing accelerated atherosclerosis so characteristic of diabetes.

The urinary albumen excretion is now accepted as an important marker for developing cardiovascular disease. The traditional upper limit of protein in the urine is 30 milligrams per deciliter. The levels above this but lower than a gram is microalbuminuria.

This association of protein excretion and cardiovascular disease is independent of kidney function. The treatment in my office is valsartan and an l-arginine complex ProArgi9 plus® that seems to quickly reverse this clinical situation.

Mayo Clinic Proc. July 2008 ;(7):806-812

LifeScan OneTouch Ultra test Strip recall!

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:54:00 +0000

This is limited to a very small number of strips limited to lot number 2829235, 25-count packages. If you only buy the 50 or 100-count packages, forget all this.

They with replace them without cost to you. Take them to your pharmacy for replacement or call LifeScan directly at 1-408-263-9789.

The reason for the problem is that some of the strips may measure too low. Frankly, if something has to be wrong this is the best side of the error. It is better to feel that you need a little glucose to be sure rather than an extra large bolus of insulin.

The integrity of LifeScan is unexcelled. Their commitment to excellent products is superb. Their response to “stuff happens” situations is always ethically on target. It has always been privilege to work with them in any situation knowing they will always do the right thing.

My Story

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:19:00 +0000

Click the video to pause play. This video is 6:00 minutes in duration and took 20 seconds to load over a DSL connection. You will need the latest version of the Free QuickTime Player to view it. Additional help for Mac users.

Many people have emailed in to ask why I am so hot about l-arginine. I wrote a book about this called the “Uncommon Doctor” which you are welcome to buy, but let me summarize it.

At age 37 I had a CT scan of my abdomen to check out a vague abdominal pain. We saw no abnormalities except, as the radiologist said, “You have the arteries of an 80 year old man”.

My father had his first stroke, the big one that never allowed him to work again, at age 42 so I figured I was in the gun sight for my own vascular tragedy.

I was desperate to find something that worked. John Farquhar in preventative medicine at Stanford was my first stop – he doesn’t recall our meeting – but each time I see him I thank him for saving my life.

The real attack began when I started working with Victor Dzau and John Cook using l-arginine to reverse atherosclerosis. This was in the Division of Cardiovascular Research and allowed me to start very small amounts of l-arginine, with the idea that although the appropriate dose was not known, you have to start somewhere.

I had been very familiar with l-arginine and had used in for endocrine testing and research both in my first fellowship at Henry Ford Hospital and the second at UCSF. I even tried to see if we could use it orally for growth hormone and insulin testing. I always joke that if I had been smart enough I would have won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1998! It’s a thought anyway.

As you might guess, I became a student of l-arginine. I read all that the three Nobel Prize winners published and constantly strived to make whatever product I was using better. I tried to get 3 different pharmaceutical firms interested in the retail manufacture and distribution of the product but who wants to have a product they cannot patent?

I started myself and all my patients on l-arginine in 1991 and gradually improved the product. I never believed that I could reverse the atherosclerosis, all that calcified plaque, that concrete in my arteries.

Then I had another CT scan of my abdomen. “How did you do this?” the radiologist shouted at me. I told him but he, like me, was befuddled. “It’s impossible” I thought to myself. How can you get rid of the concrete lining the arteries? It’s magic!

With time and much study I realized that it could be done and I was doing this on all my patients as well. 80% of my patients at that time had diabetes and we had been in the sad place where we were referring 30% for cardiac problems until 1991. Now we have not referred any patients or admitted any patients in 17 years.

I turned to Network marketing, social networking, to get the product I needed for myself and my patients. I had no idea that U-Tube was a new social phenomenon that sprang from the concept of Network marketing nor did I realize the quality of the products was as good as any pharmaceutical company until I had toured Synergy.

Now I can bring together all that I need for my arteries and work on continuing the development of what is now the best antiaging product around. ProArgi 9 plus (how to purchase) fulfills all that I hoped for and will look for in the future.

This is my story and my time of a moment of strategic health. You need not be terrified of what is ahead for you because now the path is clear and safe. It’s your time.

Retinal Changes in Pre-diabetes, Pre-hypertension

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:52:00 +0000

Click the video to pause play. This video is 2:10 minutes in duration and took 16 seconds to load over a DSL connection. You will need the latest version of the Free QuickTime Player to view it. Additional help for Mac users.

Diabetes Care October 2007, page 2708-2715 reported that new technologies are now picking up the retinal changes in the back of the eye that diagnose prediabetes and pre-hypertension.

We know that these two problems begin long before symptoms or signs of the disease. In the past we would consider this a victory for “strategic health” but little treatment to reverse this was suggested.

Now we confirm these advancing diseases with the wave form analysis with the CardioVascular Profiler and begin treatment with ProArgi 9 plus immediately. The ProArgi9 plus reverses all the vascular problems of both diseases actually reversing both disorders as far as the vascular component is concerned.

This is not a cure, but a reversal. Diabetes is a multi-metabolic problem and with time different treatments will be needed. At least you will not be in the bad patch the group in Seattle was in when the diagnosis of their diabetes was first made when they had their heart attack.

L-arginine, the Trojan Horse

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:18:00 +0000

Click the video to pause play. This video is 2:10 minutes in duration and took 14 seconds to load over a DSL connection. You will need the latest version of the Free QuickTime Player to view it. Additional help for Mac users.

An article to be published in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shortly will present some research from Stanford University on the use of l-arginine to help fight resistant disease.

The l-arginine surrounds the antibiotic chosen, allowing this complex to get past the membrane pump that encloses the resistant cells. Eight l-arginine molecules surrounded Taxol, the drug used against ovarian cancer in mice.

L-arginine is common in metabolism throughout the body and therefore allowing the resistant cell to allow entry of this complex much like it was a “Trojan Horse”. This in effect “disguised” the Taxol allowing the entry into the resistant cell.

Taxol was used in this study but the authors felt other medications could be used as well.

Bariatric Surgery - A Cure for Diabetes?

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 21:10:00 +0000

Click the video to pause play. This video is 1:10 minutes in duration and took 10 seconds to load over a DSL connection. You will need the latest version of the Free QuickTime Player to view it. Additional help for Mac users.

The September 18, 2008 medical newspaper Endocrine Today had on their front page, Bariatric Surgery – a cure for diabetes?

I have been involved with people needing to consider this type of surgery for their diabetes and other severe problems relating to their metabolism since 1965. The initial success in the first year has again given many people a reason to consider that new technology and understanding of the pathogenesis of diabetes might get better success that in the past.

I get to see people in their second year after surgery. Many have new metabolic problems in the area of vitamins (especially vitamin D) and most dreaded of all, the return of diabetes and weight gain.

The Chief Medical Editor of this publication, Alan Garber, MD included his perspective at the end of the article noting the durability of the antidiabetic effect remains uncertain. He noted the observation that when diabetes is diagnosed there is a progressive loss of beta cells, the cells that produce insulin. Thus in my experience as well as Alan’s, we have only delayed diabetes, not denied its presence.

Water Bottles and Diabetes 2

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:23:00 +0000

Click the video to pause play. This video is 2:10 minutes in duration and took 15 seconds to load over a DSL connection. You will need the latest version of the Free QuickTime Player to view it. Additional help for Mac users.

Plastic water bottles, food containers, baby bottles and water containers contain bisphenol A, a chemical that suppresses a hormone that protects humans from heart attacks and diabetes 2.

Hundreds of studies have shown bisphenol A’s toxicity in developing tissue and tissue function. Reproductive problems, certain cancers and asthma have been shown to cause problems in lab animals.

Bisphenol A leeches from food and beverage containers and has been found in 93% of the urine samples in test patients. In the body it mimics estrogen and prevents natural estrogens from attaching to the estrogen site. When this happens in mice they become obese and insulin resistant.

Testing of fat tissue from bisphenol A affected humans reports suppression of the protective hormone adiponectin. Adiponectin protects against heart attacks and type 2 diabetes. Similar studies in mice indicate effects on the beta cells that create insulin resistance. This may well be a reason for children and adolescents’ obesity and early diabetes.

Environmental Health Perspective August 14, 2008.
Science News 9.29.2007
Science News 9.13.2008

Cardiometabolic Health Congress

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Joe) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:25:00 +0000

There is a terrific Cardiometabolic Health Congress October 15-16 2008 * Sheraton Boston Hotel* Boston MA.

It will have great discussions with great leaders in Diabetes Care. New insights, Management issues, integrating new weight loss protocols into your practice will all be covered.

The Metabolic Syndrome with all its nasty ramifications is the focus. 37.5 hours of CME and 10 corporate-supported symposia for some in-depth information.

Jay Skyler, MD will tell you lots more!

See you there!