Is everyone deficient, including me.  Pretty much and looks like in more than one way. That would not be news to my friends, but they still like me, so I will not worry about that. I am, of course, talking about another kind of deficiency.
My journey into this curiosity of mine about what is happening to the human body and extra readings on the subject started a long time ago. How does civilization effect my health and those I care about? What can I change that has very low or of  no risk and it will improve my life and maybe even live longer, better. Let me say this, it has been a consuming interest over the years and has won me some very dubious looks from those I have broached the subject to. So be it.
Back in 1969 I was called upon to work in a blood drive clinic put on by the USAF. I was a Captain in the Nurse Corps and had a reputation for being able to draw blood and start iv's. So I found myself looking at all these blood bottles we had drawn for the boys in Vietnam. One caught my interest out of thirty or so, we had drawn that day. It was layered at the top with this yellow looking substance. It looked just like spaghetti sauce with a layer of grease on it a quarter inch thick. Wow, I thought that must be cholesterol and triglycerides sitting there. So here we are today with just about half the population on Statin Drugs. By the way there is a new paper just out stating that raising the HDL with Niacin does no good. That is, it does not reduce heart attacks.  Then there is the fact that about 15 % of the population will benefit from Statin use by use of Statins. By that statement I mean a reduction in heart attacks. Oh by the way, about 15 % of the population will suffer from "side effects" of Statins. If you start getting muscle aches for unexplained reasons, consult your doctor right off. It could be a problem. One of those side effects is losing your kidneys. Now I understand that the percentage of people benefiting from stains can be doubled if a special coronary artery study is done. How does that sound to you. I am very lucky and do not have indications to use Statins and I would not if I did have those indications!
Vitamin D. Surprised, I don't think so if you have read anything of mine. Show me a person who spends one half hour or two  in a half hours  in the sun ( Caucasian or black skin respectively), lives on the equator, wears no clothes and I will tell you this person is probably vitamin D adequate. All bets are off if you are sixty or older ( you need more time in the sun at that age to get the same amount of vitamin D). One other group gets enough vitamin D naturally and that is the Eskimo. Surprised? No sun up there to speak of, but they eat the native fish and I suspect the "whole" fish, which is full of vitamin D. Again all bets are off if you are Eskimo and eating  non native foods. So with supplementation we are just replacing what our ancestors got " naturally"! What I am doing is suggesting a way of going " natural" in a supplemental way!
This next deficiency may surprise you a little. It is magnesium. There are quite a few bad things that can happen if you are deficient. Heart irregularity is one of them if you eat the American regular or normal ( really abnormal from what our ancestors ate) you are deficient. I will tell you a couple of stories. Back in the early nineties I went into give blood and they would not do it. My heart was very irregular. I checked it and indeed it was. 10 to 15 times a minute it would do a flip flop. So did studies etc and they confirmed that it was indeed doing premature ventricular contractions or pvc's. I started reading about heart irregularities and found that magnesium was frequently deficient in that condition. So I started taking magnesium and increased my consumption of nuts ( high in magnesium) and the irregularity went away and never came back. I still eat nuts and take magnesium and my heart is fine.
Next story. A friend of mine who I have know for over fifty years started taking vitamin D and felt great, but then after a time he did not feel so good. Noticed that his heart would have short runs of irregularity. He cut back on his vitamin D and felt better heart wise and every time he tried to increase the vitamin D his heart acted up again. What is this I thought. Vitamin D is good for you! Then I did some more reading. It seems 1) everyone is probably deficient in vitamin D AND magnesium. 2) When you take vitamin D magnesium it used to convert Vitamin D to the prohormone calcitriol which is the active ingredient! So if you do not increase your amount of magnesium in your diet blood levels will drop and possibly cause you to "not feel good".
Interesting heh? Well now for the rest of the story. It gets better. When he was taking 10,000 iu of vitamin D a day he had a blood level of 86. That is good and he felt good until he started feeling bad, as noted above. So after corresponding with him he decided to increase his magnesium level with a supplement and increase (he had dropped the amount he was taking) his vitamin D level up to 6,000 iu. A couple of things happened. 1) his heart irregularity went away. 2) He felt better. Maybe the best in years! Now a very interesting thing happened. After three months or so of this regime he had his vitamin D level drawn (the 25(oh)D test). His blood level was 91. He took less vitamin D and had a higher level and I would say it was all due to a more healthy level of magnesium and vitamin D. So magnesium, calcium, vitamin D and vitamin K all work together. A quick list of symptoms of magnesium deficiency.

• irritability or anxiety
• nausea
• headaches
• insomnia
• fatigue
• muscle cramps/twitching ( could this be a cause of "Restless leg syndrome")?
  
• weakness
• constipation

So now a quick question for those who have a scientific bend. The scientific process requires that you only change one thing at a time and do a double blind study and see what happens. How can you study vitamin D without looking at all the others?
 One more fact. The most popular form of Magnesium is in the form of Magnesium oxide. Only about four percent of it is in a absorbable form. Not a good choice if you decide to supplement. If you start supplementing with magnesium this may bounce your level up. Test in three months a adjust accordingly.
My Dad used to say some very interesting things which have stuck with me over the years. One was ( he was a farmer and a good one), " you can lead a horse to water, but you can not make him drink". Another saying is, people are adults and they have the right to live their lives as they wish, but ideally it should be done with information they can either decide in favor or not. So be it.
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/about-vitamin-d/vitamin-d-cofactors/magnesium/

I have known many asthmatic people and after taking vitamin D in appropriate doses for three months (1000 iu per 25 lbs and test in three months) their asthma problems are greatly reduce or eliminated. Aim for 70 to 100 ng/ml. I would avoid going over 100 ng/ml as calcium levels may start to rise if you do so. Remember, 20 to 30 minutes in the sun with minimal clothing will create up to 10,000 iu of vitamin D. If you are black or of a darker skin coloring it will take up to 2.5 hours to do get 10,000 iu. Older people do not create as much vitamin d as younger ones.  Reddening of the skin is skin damage and may set you up for problems.
Unless you run around in significantly less clothes than most people and do so every day you may still have inadequate amounts of vitamin D. This cause vitamin D deficiency to be called a deficiency of civilization and the lack there of to cause "diseases of civilization".
So here is the study for you to consider.



Contact: SINC Team
info@plataformasinc.es
FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology
Sun protects against childhood asthma IMAGE: Ninety percent of our vitamin D is synthesized through exposure to the sun.


Click here for more information. Vitamin D, which is primarily absorbed from the sun, plays a role in protection against childhood asthma. Now, a new study led by Valencian researchers has shown that children who live in colder, wetter cities are at greater risk of suffering from this respiratory problem, since there are fewer hours of sunlight in such places.

"Prolonged exposure to the sun can cause cancer, but it's also dangerous to avoid it. There has to be a balance between the pros and cons", Alberto Arnedo-Pena, an epidemiologist at the Public Health Centre in Castellón and lead author of the research, which is part of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC), led by Luis García Marcos of the University of Murcia, tells SINC.

In fact, 90% of our vitamin D is synthesised through exposure to the sun. This vitamin, which can be found in various cell receptors, is usually found at lower levels in people with asthma. The study results show that there is a higher prevalence of this illness among children in wetter places with less sun (northern Spain).

The research, carried out on more than 45,000 children and teenagers from nine Spanish cities and published in the International Journal of Biometeorology, shows that climatic conditions, above all solar radiation, can in many cases explain the high geographical variation in the prevalence of asthma in Spain.

"Although we need more studies on this issue – this hypothesis is not even five years old - it is clear that an average level of sun exposure is important for the assimilation of vitamin D, a compound that is extremely important in preventing illnesses such as asthma, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases", stresses Arnedo-Pena.

The solar vitamin

In northern countries (where there are fewer hours of sunshine than in the Mediterranean), the advice is to spend 20 to 30 minutes' in the sun each day, although not at times within the highest risk period (from noon to 4pm). For now, no similar advice exists in Spain.

Once the benefits of sun exposure are understood, it can be seen that there is a problem in countries at latitudes higher than 40º north, where it is not possible to absorb enough vitamin D during the winter months. "People in these countries should take supplements to ensure they are not at risk", the researcher concludes.

### References:

Alberto Arnedo-Pena; Luis García-Marcos; Jorge Fuertes Fernández-Espinar; Alberto Bercedo-Sanz; Inés Aguinaga-Ontoso; Carlos González-Díaz; Ignacio Carvajal-Urueña; Rosa Busquet-Monge; Maria Morales Suárez-Varela; Nagore García de Andoin; Juan Batlles-Garrido; Alfredo Blanco-Quirós; Angel López-Silvarrey Varela; Gloria García-Hernández. "Sunny hours and variations in the prevalence of asthma in schoolchildren according to the International Study of Asthma and Allergies (ISAAC) Phase III in Spain". Int J Biometeorol (2011) 55:423-434.

Vitamin D Council

May 19, 2011

On July 1, 2011, the Vitamin D Council is planning to begin a free clinic for children with autism.  My time will be free, the autism assessment scales will be free, the blood tests will be free, and the vitamin D for the kids will be free (due to the generosity of Ddrops). We estimate 3-4 clinic visits will be needed.  Anyone in the world with a child with autism can call and get an appointment to see me. The Vitamin D Council will sponsor this clinic as long as we can afford it, which means as long as we have enough donors, members and especially enough lifetime members. From now on, a lifetime membership also means that such membership sponsors one autistic child to come to the free clinic and we will encourage that family (if the donor wants) to call and thank the donor in person.

We are taking a risk, as our financial situation is – as it is too often – precarious. In order to have a free clinic we must hire an administrative assistant to organize and help with the free clinic. Therefore, I will no longer be getting any salary from the Vitamin D Council. This also helps with conflicts of interest. However, we still have to pay a full time web director, a science advisor, a controller, another 6 months on our $40,000.00 contract with Minervation to finish the new website (coming any day), and a commitment to fund a $20,000 preliminary study on autism and vitamin D by the University of California at San Francisco, a study I will tell you more about in a future newsletter.  We will soon post our 2010 tax returns for public scrutiny. Why can’t we attract the attention of a wealthy foundation or donor? Sometimes, I make myself sick worrying over the finances of the Council.

Please consider donating or joining as a member. If you cannot afford $50.00, then donate whatever you can afford. We now have the ability to process donations via credit cards – not just PayPal – so the $5.00/month option is even easier.

Become a member of the Vitamin D Council

Two More Autism Letters

In the last few weeks, I received the two letters below. I was so glad to find out that I may be wrong, that adults with autism – not just young children – may be helped with vitamin D. 

Dear Dr. Cannell: 

We talked a couple months back about my autistic 3 year old son (now 4).  As you suggested, I began giving him 5000 IU of Vitamin D daily.  Since starting the vitamin D, I have seen the following improvements;

1.    Larry is now sleeping through the night which has a tremendous positive impact on functioning throughout the day.  (as well as the functioning of the rest of the family).  He does take a sleeping medication as well.  I do think the D has had a positive effect on the length and quality of his sleep.  He no longer wakes several times throughout the night and sleeps the proper amount of time.  He wakes up with a smile.

2.   He definitely has more eye contact.  He is mostly “present” and aware of his environment.  He seems to pay more attention to what is going on around him.

3.   He has started a picture program to help him communicate.  He was having slow progress with this at school.  He started additional home therapy a little after he started the vitamin D.  He now communicates very well with a variety of picture cards including cookie, outside and music.  When he can’t find his card, he attempts to communicate in an alternative way.

4.   He smiles much more.  Along with the eye contact, we have had a lovely increase in smiles and giggles.  He used to have violent episodes.  He is on a behavior medication but since starting the D he seems to be more emotionally engaged with others and his environment.

5.   He seems to listen more and respond to his name.  This one seemed to start when we started the D and home therapy.  I can be outside with him and if he wanders off, I call his name and he responds by stopping, listening and generally following the directions to come back.  I can ask him to do simple tasks like throw a wrapper in the garbage of turn off the light and he will do it.  He will even hold my hand and walk into stores with me.

6.   He has been interacting a little more with his older brother (18 months older).  When his brother pays attention to him, Larry lights up and seems excited, smiles and jumps up and down.

7.   He initiates more physical contact with others, spontaneously giving hugs or just being close.

Thank you so much, we have hope again.

Will he ever be “normal?”

Sincerely,

Jan

Dear Jan,

I am so pleased. Such dramatic improvement after only two months is a sign that improvement may continue. This appears to me to be evidence that Larry’s genes are not structurally damaged, but before the vitamin D, the involved genes did not have enough of their messenger system (vitamin D) to properly express themselves. Yes, he may be “normal,” whatever that is, I just don’t know. I am hoping for a Larry who is happy and able to learn like other children.  What his brain needs now is time, time to heal from the genetic, inflammatory, autoimmune disorder that we call autism. A recent South Korean study implies the rate is now almost one child in 35, an epidemic that may bankrupt our medical and civil services soon unless pregnant women and young children start taking the correct amount of vitamin D.

Be sure that he takes no excess retinol, such a retinyl acetate or retinyl palmitate, and no cod liver oil.  He also needs approximately 125 mg of magnesium, 5 mg of zinc, 2 mg of boron, and at least 80 mcg of vitamin K2, the vitamin D cofactors Americans often lack.  Seeds and nuts are good source of all but the K2, which is usually taken as a supplement. Trader Joe sells sunflower and almond butter that autistic kids seem to like.

Obtain a 25-hydroxy-vitamin D in two months with the target range being high normal, around 80-100 ng/ml.  He may require more than 5,000 IU/day to obtain such blood levels.

Stay in touch and let me know his 25(OH)D and his progress. You have my cell phone number, call me whenever you have questions.

Sincerely,

John Cannell

Dear Dr. Cannell:

I have a 19 year old boy with autism. I include a brief summary of Jake’s development with the hope of helping with his data collection.  I have tape from before the vitamin D and I will tape Jake now so we can have video proof of this amazing change.  And, oh yes, don't give up on the adults.  My favorite saying is "everyone can always do better."

Jake is a 19 year old young man with regressive autism, having been born perfectly normal, and actually progressed ahead of schedule until a series of ear infections, oral antibiotics, immunizations, and an exposure to the wild virus strain of chicken pox caused Jake to suffer a loss of language, eye contact, joint attention, behavioral self-modulation, and a general ability to verbally communicate his needs, problems, and pain. He developed a severe and persistent gastrointestinal overgrowth of yeast, alternating constipation and diarrhea, food allergies, seasonal allergies, enterocolitis, and lymphoid hyperplasia, that could be so painfully debilitating that it caused him to cry and scream, try to find physically comfortable positions, and miss many days of school.

Jake has been maintained on a strict casein and gluten free diet for 6 years, with variable and minor improvement. He continued to battle chronic yeast overgrowth, clostridia, and alternating diarrhea and constipation, abdominal pain, gas, bloating, and failed to progress in terms of acquisition of social and language skills, to the degree it seemed he should. His tantruming, mood changes, and behavioral outbursts, in retrospect, were essentially all related to his state of bowel function and discomfort.

Treatments have been somewhat helpful, such as oral immunoglobulin, B12 injections, complex supplementation, however his progress has been at a standstill and his language has not had any major improvements in 7 years.  Although he can express his most basic needs, conversation is extremely difficult for him.

I started supplementing with Vitamin D, 2000 IU a day, on April 15 and have increased his dose to 6000 IU a day just last week.  It seemed that he was having a bit more language on just the 2000 IU but it was hard to tell.  Last week, after he had been on 6,000 IU for several weeks, it seemed as if everyone began to notice.  Just yesterday I received a call from his staff that was so excited to report that "Jake cannot stop talking". 

We are seeing the same improvement at home.  Not only talk but singing as well.  The complex language is amazing, he asked me "why would you limit that"  and when he told me he had a bad dream he said " I'm crying because I had a bad dream that I got sick and died".  Prior to this I would have just assumed that he woke crying because his stomach was bothering him.  He would have never been able to explain his problem in fact I didn't even realize he knew the concept of a dream.  Today I increased his dose to 10,000 IU per day.  I'll keep him on this dose for several weeks before running another level.  His first level was 17 ng/ml.

Thanks again, Dr. Cannell, I'll keep you updated on his progress.

With warmest regards, and gratitude for your work.

Mary

Dear Mary:

Somewhere in a previous newsletter, I wrongly predicted (I hope) that older autistic subjects would not respond to vitamin D.  Obviously, one case report does not prove the point but now I believe all autistic adults should start taking 10,000 IU per day immediately. My reasoning is simple, 10,000 IU/day will not harm autistic adults and it may help, it is just that simple.

Obtain a 25(OH)D in two months and adjust the dose as need to obtain levels of 80-100 ng/ml. Never have I been so glad that I was wrong.

Also, be it autistic child or autistic adult, if you want to bring your loved one to our new free clinic, but can’t afford the travel costs, maybe lifetime donors will allow some of their donation to be used for travel.  I can certainly coach you via email and phone.  It is not that difficult to get one’s vitamin D level into the high range of normal while avoiding excess preformed retinol.

Mary, you have my phone number, call if you have questions, and let me know his responses and the blood test results.

Sincerely,

John Cannell

New Phase of My Life

As of July 1st, I will enter a new phase of my life.  I will stop publishing peer-reviewed scientific papers and concentrate on getting vitamin D into the brains of autistic children. This will involve everything from treating children at the free clinic, public speaking about vitamin D and autism, running public service announcements on TV and radio, supporting the autism and vitamin D study at UCSF, and trying to get Congressional hearings on vitamin D and autism.  For that reason, from now on, please videotape your autistic child before starting the vitamin D and again six months after obtaining a blood levels of 80-100 ng/ml.  I may ask you to testify in the future, hopefully in Washington DC; before and after videotapes would be powerful testimony.

However, the free clinic, even with my time entirely donated, costs money.  Please help us.

Become a member of the Vitamin D Council.

John Cannell, MD Vitamin D Council 1241 Johnson Ave., #134 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 PS   While I am not planning on researching and publishing any more theories in peer reviewed journals, new scientific theories on vitamin D are waiting to be written.  For example, take one of the most common medical conditions in the USA, heartburn or GERD.  It involves a dysfunctional weakened muscle (esophageal sphincter) at the base of the esophagus.  Treatment is geared to stopping the side effects of this weak muscle, not strengthening the muscle itself. Like similar muscles in the bladder, which increase the risk of urinary incontinence in vitamin D deficient women, I suspect, and hereby theorize, that the esophageal muscle is weakened by vitamin D deficiency.  If any researchers are reading this, it is an easy correlation to do with whatever cohort you have access to, GERD symptoms or GERD diagnosis compared with 25(OH)D levels. (I understand if you don’t credit me as first theorizing it.) If any lay people are reading this, and you have, or used to have, GERD or heartburn, please email me a letter to this email address, telling me about heartburn before and after vitamin D, that is, did vitamin D (5,000 IU/day or more) appear to have an effect on the heartburn, one way or another? 

For members, you will get a special newsletter in a few days with another likely theory, one that has not been proposed in peer-reviewed literature, one that explains 65,000 American deaths per year. This theory’s author is a Cannell, just not me. However, after researching this theory, I have little doubt it is true, and it also explains a longstanding mystery of medicine. Please become a member, it is the best 50 dollar investment you will ever make. (As is true with all “member only” publications, it will be posted for all to read in two months.) Before you complain I am withholding information, if you are taking 5,000 IU/day, you do not have to worry that you are missing out on anything.

Just put in latitude, skin coloration, time of day, time of year, altitude, latitude and the type of surface you are on. That is, sand, concrete, grass, and snow etc. Don't forget if you are a older person, like me at 71, efficiency of conversion can be as low as 20%. There are no documented cases of people becoming toxic from a combination of supplements and sun. Also if you cut back on your vitamin D and you start hurting, it is probably because your blood level dropped. This can happen in as little a day or two.

copy and paste the address below....

http://nadir.nilu.no/~olaeng/fastrt/VitD-ez_quartMED.html

Some interesting things I have run across in my readings. The sun is bad for you. Well sort of, maybe. It depends. Whenever the skin becomes red it is damaged and that kind of damage is what gives people cancer of the skin years later. Now for the rest of the story. A Caucasian will absorb up to 10 k of vitamin D in 20 to 30 minutes. A very dark skinned person will take two or two a half hours to do the same. There is NO damage at all as long as the skin does not get red.But there is more. If a person was to go out in the sun frequently ( avoiding redness) wrinkles would tend to go away as the cutaneous layers of skin would build up and fill in the wrinkles. You would look younger! This takes discipline! The people who look terrible with leather like skin have a lot of skin damage from being over exposed.
One more fact. If you are a OG (old gomer) like me ( 71) you may only absorb 20% of the vitamin D that you would have a couple of decades ago. The skin is just not as good doing the vitamin D thing as you age. So you can not count on the sun to get your requirement of vitamin D from the sun. Supplement too!
Where people get into trouble is they are not in the sun at all then they get a big dose in a hour or two, with consequential skin damage. Not a good idea! So follow your dermatologist, doctors advice and put on a sun screen to protect your skin. Maybe not such a good idea, but maybe a better choice than getting sun burned. Maybe. Here is why. Sun screen rubbed into the skin goes below the skin and into the circulation. It ends up in the same place as if you were to drink the stuff. So get out your sunscreen. Look at the ingredient. Get on the computer and look up each of the individual ingredients. Still want to use the stuff all the time, at all? Decide for yourself.....
Aristotle talked of the Golden Mean in life. The golden mean is the desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency. A lot of things in life are like that.....