GOT D?

It’s thought that 85 percent of the American public is deficient in vitamin D and over 95 percent of African American or deeply pigmented individuals. And, in the United States, the late winter average vitamin D is only about 15-18 ng/ml, which is considered a VERY SERIOUS deficiency state.

Some of the deficiency has been caused by the scare of sun exposure in the past years. Yes, too much sun (burn) is not good, but not enough is just as dangerous! We also spend less time outdoors, just look at yourself and see how much time you spend outside every day? Children hardly play outside anymore and spend vast amounts of time in front of computer and TV screens.

By John Cannell, MD, The Vitamin D Council
"Here is an example, according to Dr. William Grant -- one of the top vitamin D researchers in the world – the cancer rate in Iceland is 90 per 100,000 people per year. Those in the tropics, meanwhile, have rates of 25 per 100,000!

In 1994, Dr. Rehman gave 60,000 units of vitamin D a week to 27 children (ages 3-12) with frequent childhood infections and compared them to controls. The children also had elevated alkaline phosphatase (like many American children), which usually indicates vitamin D deficiency. He gave the kids vitamin D for six weeks along with calcium. He didn't say if he used real vitamin D (cholecalciferol) or if he used ergocalciferol. Anyway, he gave them 60,000 units a week for six weeks, about 9,000 units a day.

Within a few weeks, "infections were fully controlled and no recurrences were reported for six months." The kids just stopped getting sick! An ignored study, ignored facts, not repeated, not remembered. The author didn't measure vitamin D levels, but 9,000 units a day of vitamin D for six weeks should bring most vitamin-D-deficient children to 50 ng/ml, probably higher.

I'm skeptical by nature. So I decided to experiment on myself. Physicians experimenting on themselves are one of the great traditions in medicine. I bought some 50,000-unit capsules of real vitamin D from Bio-Tech. The next time I got the crud, I took a single capsule (50,000 units) of cholecalciferol, which is perfectly safe for adults.

In Europe, they give 10 times that amount as "stoss therapy" all the time. I was amazed how much better I felt the next day. If you decide to experiment on yourself, do it once or twice. Don't keep taking 50,000 units every day or you will get toxic. Also, keep close tabs on your vitamin D level.

Children don't need the 60,000 units a week to improve their immune system, although Dr. Rehman found that amount safe for six weeks -- 60,000 units per week for a young child is a pharmacological dose, not a physiological dose."

Vitamin D is not only good for your bones but also your number one defense against the flu! "Just one example of an important gene that vitamin D up-regulates is your ability to fight infections. It produces over 200 anti microbial peptides, the most important of which is cathelicidin, a naturally occurring broad-spectrum antibiotic. And, when you consider the fact that you only have 30,000 genes in your body, and vitamin D has been shown to influence more than 2,000 of them, the bigger picture of its true impact on your health can be easily understood. It may, in fact, have literally thousands of health benefits! So it’s likely we’re just beginning to scratch the surface of its true potential for reversing the modern disease state."

More from the Mercola website:
"Vitamin D deficiency has been clearly linked with Syndrome X. (21) Syndrome X refers specifically to a group of health problems that can include insulin resistance (the inability to properly deal with dietary carbohydrates and sugars), abnormal blood fats (such as elevated cholesterol and triglycerides), overweight, and high blood pressure."

There are several sources for vitamin D, the sun, foods with added D (like milk and margarine) and foods with naturally rich in D.

Now is the time to get your extra D and if you have health concerns have your levels of D checked. "You can find out what your levels are by asking your doctor for a blood test called a 25(OH)D, also called 25-hydroxyvitamin D. (Please note, there are two types of vitamin D tests, and this one is the one you want.) There are also two primary labs in the U.S. and you ONLY want to use Lab Corp."

Sources: Dr. Mercola

NutritionData

Be well, MO