Over the years my self education has lead me to empathize different aspects of vitamin D and supplementation. It all started in 2004 when I started dosing and found my dermatitis of over 40 years went away. No medical person told me to do this and to this day I see that few medical people recommend it for dermatitis, but others say it is worth considering. For me I know with my particular type of dermatitis was cured by vitamin D. That was nine years ago and still no dermatitis. Double blind, no. Convincing to me, yes!
I get constant feed back from people who have tried the following supplements. I know these people personally and their reactions have been very positive. To the point when they run out of some of them they are distressed and quickly try to remedy the situation. I get very few comments on line. I would like to hear more from you as we both can learn from your experience.
These are the supplements I use. One they are very safe and the side effects are non existent if used in the ways I suggest. I am 73 years old and do not have the time to wait for double blind studies and I believe the drug companies will not suggest them for the following reason. Money! FDA also, money!
First of all magnesium. I take it every day in the form of magnesium malate. I am not sure I feel better with it, but I do know that vitamin D depletes magnesium and a magnesium deficiency is not a place you want to go as it has cardiac implications. All people tolerate it as long as you have normal kidney function.
Krill oil. I take it every day. It has made a difference in my ability to move my joints with out pain. For many years my joints where pain free with just vitamin D, however of late it has not been enough. It is a anti inflammatory substance. Avoid fish oil. Fish oil frequently is contaminated with heavy metals and has its therapeutic effect due to eating krill. Cut out the middle man and just take krill, one a day and they have no contamination as they don't live long enough to become contaminated.
Almost forgot to mention. Co-enzyme Q 10. It is deficient in old age and strengthens muscles, including the heart.
Turmeric. It is a anti inflammatory substance and is extremely safe without the concerns of NSAID like advil etc or the liver implications of Tylenol. I take a preparation which is the concentrated form of turmeric called Curcumin bcm 95. It is a concentrated form of turmeric that has at least twenty times the potency of plain Turmeric. I take at least one a day. Helps with pain and of course reduces inflammation.
After all this my joints where better, but still not as good as I would like. So I went back to a old standby. Glucosamine with MSM. 1500 mg a day. It works, and now stairs are comfortable and walking is pain free. If you do start this supplement double up on the dose the first week. They are large pills. It may take a month to start working.
All these things are to reduce pain and inflammation. Studies of late are saying reduce inflammation and reduce the process of aging. I am all for that. I would like to live to a ripe old age, but not one in which I am in constant pain and discomfort. So far I am successful. I will keep you informed.
It seems our bodies are set up to aggressively attack any insult, infection etc to our bodies. That is a way to a cure, but in the process this excess inflammation attacks tissue that suffer some damage. Limiting the inflammation limits the damage and reduces pain.
Do I take a multivitamin. No I do not, but I do take B vitamin complex with vitamin C. These vitamins are all water soluble meaning they need to be replaced daily. Anything else. Yes I avoid bread and sweets.
Bread and sweets (sugar and fructose) cause your insulin levels to go up and then the blood level of glucose drops leaving your insulin high. That causes inflammation. Multivits tend to contain to much vitamin A and that can interfere with vitamin D absorption.
I also take cinnamon. It helps control blood sugar and reduces LDL. I take two caps a day. Control insulin levels and you control some of the inflammation. I do not worry about LDL and would never consider taking a statin drug. The statins actually can cause depression and there are number of people who have significant life threatening events related to this drug. The side effects are not inconsequential. I suggest your read about it on line as there are excellent sources of information on this subject.
If you are fifty years old and/or take a drug to reduce acid reflux you most likely need B 12. It is very poorly absorbed as a pill and needs to be absorbed in a acid environment which is reduced by the anti reflux medications. Also keep in mind Alzheimer disease and B 12 deficiency look the same. I wonder how many people diagnosed with Alzheimer disease actually have a B12 deficiency. Dose is about one mg a day. You need to take a huge dose to compensate for the poor absorption. Taking too much has no side effects! So it is very safe. Also keep in mind that as we age less and less acid is produced in the stomach. A set up for B12 deficiency. I think everyone over age fifty should consider this very safe supplement.
Now the big one. Fermented foods. Sauer kraut is the best one and cheapest to ingest. Don't want to bother with making that food? Take a probiotic pill first thing in the morning on a empty stomach. Don't eat or drink for twenty minutes. I would take at least a five billion colony multi stain probiotic ( I am not sure less would work. Let me know your experience and I will pass it along without your name). It will seed you alimentary canal. It works. For all the benefits you felt from vitamin D there is another step up which will make you feel at least as good as vitamin D did. That is probiotics! If you are on a anti coagulant or blood thinner, do not do this without checking with your doctor. Fermented foods will counter act the thinning effect of your medicine!
Probiotics. The natural anti depressant and reducer of anxiety. Probiotics seem to reduce stress and this maybe the mechanism that causes many people to lose weight after starting them. Seems those good guys ( the probiotic bacteria) communicate with the brain via the vegus nerve and say good things). They reduce inflammation and pain. It works. Never constipated again. Bowel bacteria is replaced with up to 85% with probiotics and your immune function is improved accordingly. 85% of your immune function is in the gut. No more urinary tract infection. The source of UTI's is bowel bacteria. Friendly bacteria do not cause infection. Simple and it works. It needs to be taken every day. Our refined diet is fatal to the probiotic bacteria.
I am not interested in anything that is dangerous or does not work. Hope you consider these changes as they can change your life as it has mine and many many others. I do this without compensation. There are no adds on my website. Hearing from you and your experiences would be a encouragement and perhaps we both can learn more.
Live life and prosper,
BB
--
A little feed back suggest that I mention sources of these supplements and K2.
So sources first. I suggest you look in your favorite big box store and if you don't find them there go to a on line source. I do not like to endorse or name brands, but in the interest of advancing the cause I will mention a few. Walmart has a good selection, Amazon on line is available to everyone. There are individual companies that you maybe comfortable using also. Of course you can use a search engine and see what that says.
I do not recommend that you keep switching brands of vitamin D. Different manufactures tend to be poor in putting the correct amounts of vitamin D in their brands. Sticking with one brand may at least make your intake of vitamin D consistent and perhaps have more predictable results.
If you are starting vitamin D keep in mind that it takes three months of steady dosing to achieve a steady state when tested for blood levels of vitamin D. This fact also means you may not get full benefits from vitamin D for three months. I am also seeing that at some point, perhaps a year or so, the fat will become saturated with vitamin D. At this point the vitamin D instead of going into the fat will go into the blood stream and your blood level will rise. I have seen this happen several times with different people.
I do not see a advantage and do not recommend that you go over 100 ng. That is not toxicity but does get into some areas that have not been investigated. I will say however if I was seriously ill or going to have a operation, I would consider raising my blood level into those areas. There is no doubt that vitamin D causes peptides to be formed that fight infection and insult to your body. One last thing. That number you get for a vitamin D level is important. Write it down and educated your self about this important subject. The quality of your life may depend on it and I consider it more important than a cholesterol reading.
K2. A extremely important vitamin. If you eat fermented foods like sauer kraut or take a probiotic pill as instructed above, you are generating k2. There is no blood test for k2. K2 has the very important function of telling calcium where to go and you want calcium to go to your bones. It works with vitamin D and magnesium. It is important to understand that these things work together and using just one is not appropriate.
What causes your arteries to plug up or the cause of a heart attack. There are essentially three ways this happens. One is uncontrolled inflammation. As a example a soft plaque in your coronary arteries breaks off and floats down stream and causes the artery to plug the artery. One third of people die. The rest recover to some degree.
So to prevent this you must control inflammation and plaque formation. First inflammation. Vitamin D, fermented foods, krill oil and turmeric are very strong anti inflammatory products. Do you see where I am coming from? In the process of reducing inflammation you reduce pain. Not a bad thing at all and a lot of good side effects like improved mood and out look on life.
An other mechanism is plaque formation. So a question. What is the leading indicator of heart attack? It is calcium in the arteries. If a study is done and they find calcium in your heart arteries you are at very high risk of a heart attack. It is more important than cholesterol. When you consider what I have just mention you see that cholesterol becomes a minor problem despite all the advertisement for statins that you hear.
Very simply K2 tells calcium to go to the bones. One study I read stated that within six months of starting k2 supplementation fifty percent of the calcium in the coronary arteries was removed and sent to the bones. Therefore any plaques would start going away! Keep in mind that vitamin k2 will prevent any blood thinner that you are on from working well. Do not consider fermented foods or vitamin k2 unless you are in consultation with your doctor, if you take a blood thinner.
So what do Statins do. There are even studies that show some people benefit from them ( though not many). For one thing they increase the level of vitamin D. The mechanism how it does this is unknown. Side effects ( despite what the medical people say) is as high as fifteen percent. The side effects include muscle aches ( a big warning sign), depression, and insult to your kidneys. My view is just take vitamin D and get the same benefit without the risk. I will say right up front most health providers do not agree with me, but in my defense I will say I do not believe they have not researched this like I have.
Now the third mechanism of heart attack. It is a rhythm disturbance which cause the heart to beat in a inefficient manner. One of the major causes of this is a lack of magnesium. If you recall vitamin D uses magnesium to make hormones. So take magnesium. It is important. Well water is a important source of magnesium and of course magnesium can be obtained as a supplement. Avoid magnesium oxide. It is primarily a laxative.
I never did considered a heart attack a desirable out come and now feel I am actively preventing it with my regime.
BB
I get constant feed back from people who have tried the following supplements. I know these people personally and their reactions have been very positive. To the point when they run out of some of them they are distressed and quickly try to remedy the situation. I get very few comments on line. I would like to hear more from you as we both can learn from your experience.
These are the supplements I use. One they are very safe and the side effects are non existent if used in the ways I suggest. I am 73 years old and do not have the time to wait for double blind studies and I believe the drug companies will not suggest them for the following reason. Money! FDA also, money!
First of all magnesium. I take it every day in the form of magnesium malate. I am not sure I feel better with it, but I do know that vitamin D depletes magnesium and a magnesium deficiency is not a place you want to go as it has cardiac implications. All people tolerate it as long as you have normal kidney function.
Krill oil. I take it every day. It has made a difference in my ability to move my joints with out pain. For many years my joints where pain free with just vitamin D, however of late it has not been enough. It is a anti inflammatory substance. Avoid fish oil. Fish oil frequently is contaminated with heavy metals and has its therapeutic effect due to eating krill. Cut out the middle man and just take krill, one a day and they have no contamination as they don't live long enough to become contaminated.
Almost forgot to mention. Co-enzyme Q 10. It is deficient in old age and strengthens muscles, including the heart.
Turmeric. It is a anti inflammatory substance and is extremely safe without the concerns of NSAID like advil etc or the liver implications of Tylenol. I take a preparation which is the concentrated form of turmeric called Curcumin bcm 95. It is a concentrated form of turmeric that has at least twenty times the potency of plain Turmeric. I take at least one a day. Helps with pain and of course reduces inflammation.
After all this my joints where better, but still not as good as I would like. So I went back to a old standby. Glucosamine with MSM. 1500 mg a day. It works, and now stairs are comfortable and walking is pain free. If you do start this supplement double up on the dose the first week. They are large pills. It may take a month to start working.
All these things are to reduce pain and inflammation. Studies of late are saying reduce inflammation and reduce the process of aging. I am all for that. I would like to live to a ripe old age, but not one in which I am in constant pain and discomfort. So far I am successful. I will keep you informed.
It seems our bodies are set up to aggressively attack any insult, infection etc to our bodies. That is a way to a cure, but in the process this excess inflammation attacks tissue that suffer some damage. Limiting the inflammation limits the damage and reduces pain.
Do I take a multivitamin. No I do not, but I do take B vitamin complex with vitamin C. These vitamins are all water soluble meaning they need to be replaced daily. Anything else. Yes I avoid bread and sweets.
Bread and sweets (sugar and fructose) cause your insulin levels to go up and then the blood level of glucose drops leaving your insulin high. That causes inflammation. Multivits tend to contain to much vitamin A and that can interfere with vitamin D absorption.
I also take cinnamon. It helps control blood sugar and reduces LDL. I take two caps a day. Control insulin levels and you control some of the inflammation. I do not worry about LDL and would never consider taking a statin drug. The statins actually can cause depression and there are number of people who have significant life threatening events related to this drug. The side effects are not inconsequential. I suggest your read about it on line as there are excellent sources of information on this subject.
If you are fifty years old and/or take a drug to reduce acid reflux you most likely need B 12. It is very poorly absorbed as a pill and needs to be absorbed in a acid environment which is reduced by the anti reflux medications. Also keep in mind Alzheimer disease and B 12 deficiency look the same. I wonder how many people diagnosed with Alzheimer disease actually have a B12 deficiency. Dose is about one mg a day. You need to take a huge dose to compensate for the poor absorption. Taking too much has no side effects! So it is very safe. Also keep in mind that as we age less and less acid is produced in the stomach. A set up for B12 deficiency. I think everyone over age fifty should consider this very safe supplement.
Now the big one. Fermented foods. Sauer kraut is the best one and cheapest to ingest. Don't want to bother with making that food? Take a probiotic pill first thing in the morning on a empty stomach. Don't eat or drink for twenty minutes. I would take at least a five billion colony multi stain probiotic ( I am not sure less would work. Let me know your experience and I will pass it along without your name). It will seed you alimentary canal. It works. For all the benefits you felt from vitamin D there is another step up which will make you feel at least as good as vitamin D did. That is probiotics! If you are on a anti coagulant or blood thinner, do not do this without checking with your doctor. Fermented foods will counter act the thinning effect of your medicine!
Probiotics. The natural anti depressant and reducer of anxiety. Probiotics seem to reduce stress and this maybe the mechanism that causes many people to lose weight after starting them. Seems those good guys ( the probiotic bacteria) communicate with the brain via the vegus nerve and say good things). They reduce inflammation and pain. It works. Never constipated again. Bowel bacteria is replaced with up to 85% with probiotics and your immune function is improved accordingly. 85% of your immune function is in the gut. No more urinary tract infection. The source of UTI's is bowel bacteria. Friendly bacteria do not cause infection. Simple and it works. It needs to be taken every day. Our refined diet is fatal to the probiotic bacteria.
I am not interested in anything that is dangerous or does not work. Hope you consider these changes as they can change your life as it has mine and many many others. I do this without compensation. There are no adds on my website. Hearing from you and your experiences would be a encouragement and perhaps we both can learn more.
Live life and prosper,
BB
--
A little feed back suggest that I mention sources of these supplements and K2.
So sources first. I suggest you look in your favorite big box store and if you don't find them there go to a on line source. I do not like to endorse or name brands, but in the interest of advancing the cause I will mention a few. Walmart has a good selection, Amazon on line is available to everyone. There are individual companies that you maybe comfortable using also. Of course you can use a search engine and see what that says.
I do not recommend that you keep switching brands of vitamin D. Different manufactures tend to be poor in putting the correct amounts of vitamin D in their brands. Sticking with one brand may at least make your intake of vitamin D consistent and perhaps have more predictable results.
If you are starting vitamin D keep in mind that it takes three months of steady dosing to achieve a steady state when tested for blood levels of vitamin D. This fact also means you may not get full benefits from vitamin D for three months. I am also seeing that at some point, perhaps a year or so, the fat will become saturated with vitamin D. At this point the vitamin D instead of going into the fat will go into the blood stream and your blood level will rise. I have seen this happen several times with different people.
I do not see a advantage and do not recommend that you go over 100 ng. That is not toxicity but does get into some areas that have not been investigated. I will say however if I was seriously ill or going to have a operation, I would consider raising my blood level into those areas. There is no doubt that vitamin D causes peptides to be formed that fight infection and insult to your body. One last thing. That number you get for a vitamin D level is important. Write it down and educated your self about this important subject. The quality of your life may depend on it and I consider it more important than a cholesterol reading.
K2. A extremely important vitamin. If you eat fermented foods like sauer kraut or take a probiotic pill as instructed above, you are generating k2. There is no blood test for k2. K2 has the very important function of telling calcium where to go and you want calcium to go to your bones. It works with vitamin D and magnesium. It is important to understand that these things work together and using just one is not appropriate.
What causes your arteries to plug up or the cause of a heart attack. There are essentially three ways this happens. One is uncontrolled inflammation. As a example a soft plaque in your coronary arteries breaks off and floats down stream and causes the artery to plug the artery. One third of people die. The rest recover to some degree.
So to prevent this you must control inflammation and plaque formation. First inflammation. Vitamin D, fermented foods, krill oil and turmeric are very strong anti inflammatory products. Do you see where I am coming from? In the process of reducing inflammation you reduce pain. Not a bad thing at all and a lot of good side effects like improved mood and out look on life.
An other mechanism is plaque formation. So a question. What is the leading indicator of heart attack? It is calcium in the arteries. If a study is done and they find calcium in your heart arteries you are at very high risk of a heart attack. It is more important than cholesterol. When you consider what I have just mention you see that cholesterol becomes a minor problem despite all the advertisement for statins that you hear.
Very simply K2 tells calcium to go to the bones. One study I read stated that within six months of starting k2 supplementation fifty percent of the calcium in the coronary arteries was removed and sent to the bones. Therefore any plaques would start going away! Keep in mind that vitamin k2 will prevent any blood thinner that you are on from working well. Do not consider fermented foods or vitamin k2 unless you are in consultation with your doctor, if you take a blood thinner.
So what do Statins do. There are even studies that show some people benefit from them ( though not many). For one thing they increase the level of vitamin D. The mechanism how it does this is unknown. Side effects ( despite what the medical people say) is as high as fifteen percent. The side effects include muscle aches ( a big warning sign), depression, and insult to your kidneys. My view is just take vitamin D and get the same benefit without the risk. I will say right up front most health providers do not agree with me, but in my defense I will say I do not believe they have not researched this like I have.
Now the third mechanism of heart attack. It is a rhythm disturbance which cause the heart to beat in a inefficient manner. One of the major causes of this is a lack of magnesium. If you recall vitamin D uses magnesium to make hormones. So take magnesium. It is important. Well water is a important source of magnesium and of course magnesium can be obtained as a supplement. Avoid magnesium oxide. It is primarily a laxative.
I never did considered a heart attack a desirable out come and now feel I am actively preventing it with my regime.
BB
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