Vitamin D Newsletter
March 21, 2012
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  Optimal levels of vitamin D during pregnancy
March 13, 2012 -- John Cannell, MD

More than 60 years ago, based on the science of the time (science that has stagnated for 60 years), Dr. E. Orbermer of Italy wrote the following:

“Until further experimental evidence, adequate and incontrovertible, is made available, I submit that we should play for safety. In a climate like that of England every pregnant woman should be given a supplement of vitamin D in doses of not less than 10,000 IU per day in the first 7 months, and 20,000 IU (per day) during the 8th and 9th months.”

OBERMER E. Vitamin-D requirements in pregnancy. Br Med J. 1947 Dec 6;2(4535):927.

The “adequate and incontrovertible evidence” that Dr. Orbermer wanted, to a certain extent, is finally here, 60 years later. As it has to do with developing human beings, it could not be more important. The study is the highest standard of proof, a randomized controlled trial, conducted by Professor Bruce Hollis and colleagues at the Medical University of South Carolina. They took 350 pregnant women, gave 1/3 of them 600 IU/day, 1/3 of them 2,000 IU/day, and 1/3 4,000 IU/day. Then they waited to see, among many things, which group would produce infants with at least 20 ng/ml of vitamin D in their blood, the lowest limit the 2010 Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) says is needed for good fetal health.

Hollis BW, Johnson D, Hulsey TC, Ebeling M, Wagner CL. Vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy: double-blind, randomized clinical trial of safety and effectiveness. J Bone Miner Res. 2011 Oct;26(10):2341-57. doi: 10.1002/jbmr.463

Surprise surprise, only the 4,000 IU/day pregnant women group even approached the minimal safety level of 20 ng/ml in their infants. Furthermore, the 2010 FNB recommendations of vitamin D in prenatal vitamins would have left 50% of the White women and 80% of the Black women with fetuses below 20 ng/ml.

However, Professor Hollis found something else, something potentially much more important. He found that the average fetus in the USA is starved for enough building blocks for his or her mother to make adequate activated vitamin D to ship to the baby; activated vitamin D that is probably used for microscopic organ development, such as in the brain.

Activated vitamin D in pregnancy is mysterious. It appears the mother makes it in her kidney (maybe some in her placenta) at levels up to 3 to 4 times normal (without maternal hypercalcemia) and ships it across to the fetus. This only happens if the mother has enough of this vital steroid hormone in her body to ship to the fetus and most mothers do not. If she can’t make it, she can’t ship it maximally, and the 38 fetal organs depending on activated vitamin D to fully develop must do the best they can do with inadequate amounts of this steroid. Of course, none of this applies to mothers who frequently sunbathe, or who take 5,000 IU/day while they are pregnant.

To quote Professor Hollis: “These findings suggest that the current vitamin D (requirements for pregnancy, currently 600 IU/day) issued in 2010 by the Food and Nutrition Board should be raised to 4,000 IU of vitamin D per day so that all women, regardless of race, can attain optimal nutritional and hormonal vitamin D status throughout pregnancy.”

The Vitamin D Council agrees and considers this an important study in support of why adults and pregnant women need at least 4,000 IU/day to elevate blood levels and improve fetal health and birth outcomes. Although there are no trials that support taking more, the Vitamin D Council believes 5,000 IU/day is equally safe and would be more effective at maintaining adequate fetal blood levels of vitamin D. Click here to comment on this blog
 

Vitamin D: Just another vitamin C or E?
March 21, 2012 -- Brant Cebulla
Dr Cannell reviews a paper covering the influence vitamin D has on DNA repair genes and its role in repairing DNA “double stranded breaks.” Continue reading → (membership required)


Vitamin D and DNA repair genes: a closer look
March 19, 2012 -- John Cannell, MD
Dr Cannell reviews a paper covering the influence vitamin D has on DNA repair genes and its role in repairing DNA “double stranded breaks.” Continue reading → (membership required)

Vitamin D linked to length of survival in ICU
March 15, 2012 -- John Cannell, MD
Dr Cannell reviews a recent study looking into vitamin D levels in critically ill patients in the ICU and length of survival. Continue reading → (open access)


Vitamin D conference in Warsaw, Poland
On October 19-20 The Children’s Memorial Health Institute in Warsaw will be putting on its first vitamin D conference discussing updated recommendations for diagnostics, prevention and management of Vitamin D deficiency. Click here for more information.

Vitamin D Council March 16th, 2012
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  The difference between two "normals"
March 16, 2012 -- John Cannell, MD

In a paper the press ignored, well-respected researchers from three different hospitals on the east coast recently reported on high blood calcium levels in three infants and toddlers with rickets who were given vitamin D. The reasons for the high blood calcium, all of which were trivial, were not clear from the paper at first, at least to me.

Vanstone MB, Oberfield SE, Shader L, Ardeshirpour L, Carpenter TO. Hypercalcemia in Children Receiving Pharmacologic Doses of Vitamin D. Pediatrics. 2012 Mar 12.

Before we talk about this recent paper, it is important to remember that (in a paper you are free to download and read in its entirety) the entire country of East Germany had a lot of experience with “pharmacological” (very high) doses of vitamin D in children. Unbelievably, for several decades, every child in East Germany went to the doctor every 3 months where the child received 600,000 IU of vitamin D. All the kids in the entire country got it every three months until the child was 18 months old. That means in the first year and a half of life, every child in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) had a total dose of 3.6 million units of vitamin D.

Markestad T, Hesse V, Siebenhuner M, Jahreis G, Aksnes L, Plenert W, Aarskog D. Intermittent high-dose vitamin D prophylaxis during infancy: effect on vitamin D metabolites, calcium, and phosphorus. Am J Clin Nutr. 1987 Oct;46(4):652-8

That is way too much as the paper above documents but the amazing thing is that only about 1/3 of the children got high blood calcium and none got clinically toxic. In fact, the authors reported, “All the infants appeared healthy . . .” However, they were not all healthy; some had calcium levels as high as 13 mg/dl, too high but far from fatal. The key, and this is critical, is that the range of calcium considered normal in East Germany was 9.4 to 11.2 mg/dl and these were ranges borrowed from Norway. In the USA, “normal” ranges are 9 to 10.5 mg/dl.

How do we get these calcium ranges? We take several thousand vitamin D deficient children, measure their calcium and use a Gaussian distribution to calculate “normal.” How do I know the kids are vitamin D deficient? Because virtually all the kids in the USA are vitamin D deficient, thanks to video games, the sunscare, and sunblock. For the first time in human history, we are raising a generation of indoor children. Because calcium and vitamin D are connected, such children will have slightly lower calcium levels than would several thousand truly “normal” kids. Therefore, we use the abnormal to calculate the normal.

Next comes my second reading of the recent “toxicity” paper. All three children had rickets but their “hypercalcemia” was all below 11.2 mg/dl. That’s right, none of the children had high blood calcium. They had a calcium level that reflected the fact that someone detected their rickets (rather rare) and gave them the correct amount of vitamin D (total doses of around 150,000 IU), hardly the “pharmacological” doses the authors reported. If they want pharmacological doses, they should take a time train back to East Germany. Pity our children, now, because of these three case reports, children desperately in need of vitamin D will not get it, not because of a conspiracy, but due to the failure to know the difference between normal and normal.

Vitamin D Newsletter
March 13, 2012
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  Vitamin D may ease menstrual cramps
March 7, 2012 -- John Cannell, MD
Painful periods or dysmenorrhea are a common problem today. Millions of women suffer 4-7 days of severe abdominal cramps together with irritability, insomnia, depression, and generalized pain requiring medications like ibuprofen and antidepressants. Dr. Antonio Lasco and colleagues at the University of Messina in Italy took the first step in what I predict will be a major trip forward in relieving the suffering of these women by publishing their results from yet another randomized controlled trial.

US News & World Report 2/29/2012 Vitamin D3 Might Ease Menstrual Cramps

Antonino Lasco, MD; Antonino Catalano, MD; Salvatore Benvenga, MD Improvement of Primary Dysmenorrhea Caused by a Single Oral Dose of Vitamin D: Results of a Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-Controlled Study Arch Intern Med. 2012;172(4):366-367. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2011.715

First, the authors found that the lower the vitamin D level, the worse the periods. Second, the authors found that a single dose of 300,000 IU of vitamin D (equivalent to 5,000 IU/day) had dramatic results in relieving dysmenorrhea over the next two months. These results came despite the average baseline levels being around 30 ng/ml, a relatively high vitamin D level for a group or population. However, the paper came with a sensible warning in the form of an editorial, saying that no one should take 300,000 IU in an effort to stop painful periods based on one trial.

Elizabeth R. Bertone-Johnson and JoAnn E. Manson Vitamin D for Menstrual and Pain-Related Disorders in Women: Comment on “Improvement of Primary Dysmenorrhea Caused by a Single Oral Dose of Vitamin D” Arch Intern Med. 2012;172(4):367-369

I do not recommend taking a 300,000 IU mega dose. I understand the usefulness of a single high dose in a clinical study (you make sure everyone takes the medications), but I believe vitamin D should be taken daily, not every two months. The Vitamin D Council recommends 5,000 IU/day, which should raise blood levels to the 40-60 ng/ml range (a loading dose of 10,000 IU/day for ten days is also reasonable if your periods are really bad).

This is, in essence, the same dose they used in the study, spread out over two months. Although it is purely speculative, there may be a different optimal range for improving dysmenorrhea but that awaits further study. The good news is that approximately 5,000 IU/day had dramatic effects on of the most disabling conditions suffered monthly by otherwise healthy woman. Way to go Italy with yet another randomized controlled trial, which are now numbering over one hundred or so.

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Dr Cannell on the California channel!
For all you Californians out there! Keep an eye out for Dr Cannell's interview with Brad Pomerance on the California Channell Wednesday the 14th and Saturday the 17th at 8am and 8pm. Visit the California Channel website for more info: http://www.calchannel.com/

Weeping for Scotland
March 9, 2012 -- John Cannell, MD

Dr Cannell comments on Oliver Gillie’s book “Scotland’s Health Deficit: an explanation and a plan”, and looks into research showing what primary care doctors in Scotland are doing about the problem. Continue reading → (membership required)


The cost of vitamin D blood tests
March 10, 2012 -- John Cannell, MD

A recent study from Dr. Beth Baily and colleagues at East Tennessee State University reveals that frequent vitamin D blood tests mean lower, not higher, total medical care costs. Continue reading → (open access)

Adolescent depression and vitamin D
March 12, 2012 -- John Cannell, MD

Dr Cannell discusses the “placebo effect” in psychiatric studies and a recent study published in Acta Paediatrica looking into the role of vitamin D in adolescent depression. Continue reading → (membership required)


Check D levels during pregnancy petition
Sign the Department of Health's petition to require doctors to check vitamin D levels as part of routine blood tests during pregnancy. Click here for more info or to sign the petition. NOTE: You must be a British citizen or live in the UK to sign this particular e-petition.

Berkeley Wellness Report
The Berkeley Wellness Report has a comprehensive new report out titled "The Benefits of Vitamin D: Bone Health and Beyond." Visit the Berkeley Wellness Alerts website for more info.

Please consider donating to the Vitamin D Council or becoming a member today

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The Vitamin D Council 1241 Johnson Ave. #134 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401

This is a study done in nursing homes.

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/low-vitamin-d-levels-increase-death-risk-in-elderly/

This is a study with rats. Not that different from humans genetically. What do you have to lose by trying this. Doses were very low in the rat model.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/242435.php

Vitamin D Council Newsletter Tuesday, March 6, 2012 3:23 PM Vitamin D Newsletter
March 6, 2012
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  Vitamin D and risk of CVD in overweight and obese women
March 1, 2012 -- John Cannell, MD


One of the most replicated findings in vitamin D research is that the higher your vitamin D, the less you weigh; the lower your vitamin D, the more you weigh. Conventional wisdom says that fat-soluble vitamins, like D, dissolve themselves in fat and disappear from the blood.

Another explanation is even simpler: if you dissolve a teaspoon of sugar in a glass of water, it will be sweeter than if you dissolve it in a quart of water. That is, anything (vitamin D) dissolved in a limited mass (fat) will be more concentrated.

Body weight and vitamin D blood levels

But what about the possibility of vitamin D playing a causative role, not just an associative role, in obesity and body mass? That is, to a limited extent, does vitamin D act like a diet pill? Last week, Dr. Selehpour of the Tehran University of Medical Sciences found some interesting results in her randomized controlled trial.

Salehpour A, Shidfar F, Hosseinpanah F, Vafa M, Razaghi M, Hoshiarrad A, Gohari M. Vitamin D3 and the risk of CVD in overweight and obese women: a randomised controlled trial. Br J Nutr. 2012 Feb 9:1-8. [Epub ahead of print]

In this RCT of 77 overweight women, they gave half a small dose of vitamin D (1,000 IU/day), and half a placebo. In just 12 weeks, the vitamin D group had lost five more pounds than the control group. They also found improved scores in lipoprotein/cholesterol ratios for better heart health in the vitamin D group verses the placebo. Which brings some readers to a question: “If I want to diet, how much vitamin D should I take?”

First, 5,000 IU/day is for otherwise healthy adults weighing average adult weight (125-200 pounds). If you’re above this weight, however, 32 IU per pound per day is a good rule of thumb (as reported in the “Body weight and vitamin D blood levels” blog above. This means that a 300lb person would need 10,000 IU/day, though it wouldn’t surprise me if they needed more. Only way to know is to test blood levels. As your weight decreases, it is important to reduce your dose.

I doubt vitamin D is a classic diet pill. It may work by increasing your activity as your “get up and go” is back. Just lying on the sofa popping vitamin D pills will get you nowhere, however. Follow that urge to take the walk, clean out the garage, and take that weekend trip.
  Click here to comment on this blog
Understanding vitamin D analogue studies February 29, 2012 -- Brant Cebulla

Brant Cebulla explains endocrine and autocrine functions of vitamin D and looks into a recent study published about chronic kidney disease and activated vitamin D. Continue reading → (open access)

"The End of Illness" needs a dose of vitamin D
February 28, 2012 -- Dr William Grant

Dr Grant reviews the book, The End of Illness by David B. Agus, M.D. (Free Press, NY, 2011)who may have some good points regarding lifestyle choices, but misses the mark regarding vitamin D by a wide margin. Continue reading → (open access)



Body weight and vitamin D blood levels
February 27, 2012 -- John Cannell, MD

Who needs more vitamin D, a 250lb fit man who has 12 percent total body fat or a 250lb obese man who has 50 percent total body fat? Continue reading → (open access)

Association between vitamin D and inflammation after heart attack
March 1, 2012 -- John Cannell, MD

Ever wonder what happens to your heart after you have a heart attack? Your heart starts fixing itself, or remodeling, a sign of permanent cardiac injury. Dr Cannell discusses the study which shows a relationship between Vitamin D blood levels and damage done during a heart attack. Continue reading → (membership required)


Help support the Vitamin D Council

The Vitamin D Council is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We rely on the contributions of individual donors to support our efforts in educating the public on vitamin D and the deficiency pandemic. This year, we have a number of initiatives to reach out to the public better than ever before. But we need your help!
 
Please consider donating to the Vitamin D Council or becoming a member today.



Our mailing address is:
The Vitamin D Council 1241 Johnson Ave. #134 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
  

So, you think, I just got back from a vacation in the Caribbean or a trip to the tanning parlor.....I must have got a lot of vitamin D out of that experience. Probably not! Everyone knows, maybe, if you are sixty or over it is next to impossible to get enough vitamin D years around from the sun or tanning parlor. But there is another factor that drastically effects vitamin D production and retention. Now we know!
It is soap! What!
What happens is that vitamin D is produced on the surface of the skin, in the oil on the skin. It takes two days for this vitamin D to be absorbed! So if you wash with soap, after your sunning exercise, you wash the oil and vitamin D away. A shower with just water is ok...won't happen. What about washing with soap where the sun has not reached? That is fine. No loss of vitamin D.
Our aboriginal ancestors did not have soap. So this has only been a factor since civilization started! More disease induced by civilization.......

This study used one large dose to control menstrual pain. I recommend one dose a day of 1k of vitamin D per 25 lbs body weight. Check in three months for your blood level and adjust the dose accordingly.
In there any condition that vitamin D is not helped by? I can not think of one..
click below for URL

BB Blog. Menstrual cramps and fibroids reduced in size
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/vitamin-d-shrinks-fibroid-tumors-in-rats/
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/new-study-vitamin-d-eases-menstrual-cramps/

So, thank you again for checking my website out this pass month. I have had 1057 hits on the website in the last 29 days. Seems people are getting more interested!
 I have also attached a pdf file that contains ten cards advertising my website. Thanks to family members, wife Carol, stepdaughter Brenda and grand child Sarah for making the production of a home made business card about the website possible. Sometime it is hard to explain all this information to some one who is not familiar with this information. So, I hand them a card. Feel free to do so also, if you are so inclined. Remember, I receive no reimbursement from this website. It is fun for me and when people feel better, I feel I am paid in full! It is great to be retired and to have the time to do research!

Vitamin D
I have to say it. It is not a vitamin....it is a prohormone. Vitamin D is used to make a hormone in the body by the liver and kidneys. This does not happen with any other vitamin! Our diet is grossly deficient. A great deal of the vitamin D was obtained by eating the "whole" animal years gone by. No one does that today. All that vitamin D was in the organs. Of course, our black ancestors did that also, but the sun was available to them year year around so no problem there. Now, we do have sun up here in Northern NY year around, but the sun only supplies significant vitamin D from May to September. To get  enough  vitamin D from the sun you have to be under age sixty and see your shadow, when standing in the sun.(Shadow should be shorter than you are). Do I really have to say just having your face and hands exposed will NOT do the trick?  You must at least have 50% exposure and do not burn and avoid tanning!  As you tan you absorb less and less vitamin D. I do not believe you can get a optimum amount of vitamin D from the sun if you are sixty or over. The skin is less efficient converting sunlight into vitamin D as we age . Tanning does NOT mean you got enough vitamin D if you are over the age of sixty. Tanning and the vitamin D wavelengths are different.
Dose; 1000 iu per 25 lbs of body weight. Check a blood level in three months to make sure you are optimized. I have seen people get two or times the blood level with the same dose. A lack of response to vitamin D can be due to a lack of magnesium!

Magnesium
I am afraid this is a recurring theme. You not getting enough. Why? Because magnesium is in raw vegetables and well water. It is in cooked vegetables too, but when you throw out the water you cooked them in, you throw out a lot of the magnesium. Processed vegetables, forget about it. So, not many people eat raw vegetables consistently and well water is not available to the general public. Interestingly, magnesium is used in the production of the vitamin D prohormone. So, if you were low before taking the supplement or going out in the sun, you are even lower after supplementing with Vitamin D or sunning.
Advantages of magnesium are that it smooths out your heart rhythm, relieves muscle aches and those trigger points in your back. It is good for the bones and helps with sugar metabolism. (Tip; salt in the salt shaker is sodium chloride. It is not salt! Salt contains magnesium and is called sea salt. Throw out the non sea salt in the shaker and use only sea salt which contains magnesium).  I suggest you read more on my blog. Magnesium should not be taken by those, without a Doctors supervision,  who are being treated for atrial fib with anti-coagulant blood thinners.

K2, not K1
Very simple...vitamin k2 is the vitamin that tells calcium to go to the bones and not to the arteries in your heart and else where. It works with vitamin D. Your body makes k2, but if your diet is lousy it may not. There is no test for this and there is no over dose. The only caution....if you are on a blood thinner, do not take it. I take it and hope to avoid my coronaries from filling up and needing a coronary bypass operation at some point in my life like my Brother did. 100 mg is the dose. You will find it on line if you are interested.
More information here..
http://products.mercola.com/vitamin-k/?e_cid=20120301_DNL_art_1&source=nl

Vitamin B-12
This is interesting. A person who is deficient in  B-12 can look like he or she has Alzheimer disease. Alzheimer's is only diagnosable on autopsy. So a diagnosis is always tentative until death. A B-12 deficiency is reversible by taking the vitamin. A rhetorical question. How many of the people in a nursing home, with this diagnosis, has a B-12 deficiency and not Alzheimer disease? Other symptoms of B-12 deficiency is back pain, numbness of extremities, depression, confusion and insomnia. Meat is the dietary source of B-12.
Who has this deficiency? Anyone who takes antacids and treats reflux disease or heart burn on a consistent basis. Any one over the age of sixty and vegetarians. The key factor is a lack of acid in the stomach because without acid or enough acid B-12 absorption is reduced. Antacids reduces stomach acid and as we age stomach acid is less. Now B-12 is absorbed best when bound to meat. If not bound to meat, as when you take a supplement, you must take massive does because it is only absorbed poorly in that form. Maybe as low as one percent. So the dose is 2 mg a day for one month then one mg a day the rest of your life. It is recommended you take it as a under the tongue supplement. More in my blog if you care to look there.

Pure Coconut oil, Statins, Sugar
Now this is really interesting. Did I just say that? Sorry, but it is. This stuff reverses Alzheimer's ( I would give them B 12 also). Seems preposterous does it not!
Just realize what I am about to tell you does not put any money into the pockets of medical practitioners or drug companies. It seems (this is the theory) Alzheimer's is a diabetes of the brain. What happens is the brain loses the ability to utilize glucose and brain cells starve. But there is another substance that the brain will accept as nourishment and it is ketones.  It seems the coconut oil, when metabolized, breaks down into ketones in the body. People get better and better.
Remember how everyone said fat is bad for you. Well, they have decided that that is not true....just avoid trans fats. In fact this coconut oil will put your HDL up. The very thing your Doctor maybe giving you a statin for. So the theory of statins is wrong. Have you seen all those new side effects that have recently been in the papers? Confusion and raising blood sugar!  How about muscle pains ignored can lead to loss of your kidneys.
What causes all those problems of heart disease? You are not going to like this. It is sugar and especially corn sugar or fructose. It seems that these sugars put the insulin way up in the blood stream, then when the blood level of sugar drops the insulin is still high. This causes inflammation and damages the blood vessels causing those problems we want to avoid. I should also point out Carbs are nothing but sugar molecules bound together. The whole grain Carbs are digested slower, so the level of insulin does not stay as high as long without sugar in the blood stream.

Seems all this is not possible, and why are you not finding this information out else where? I have two answers. Ignorance and money! Feel free to print this out and pass it along to your health provider. I welcome scrutiny! I learn as I go along and I learn from other people, articles etc. When I find something new I will investigate.