Round-the-world News About Vitamin D

Round-the-world News About Vitamin D

Work & Family Life

03-05-08

Originally Published:20080201.

Research reports keep rolling in on the importance of vitamin D in our diet-beyond its familiar role in helping us to build strong bones. Here are some of the findings:

Periodontal disease, in a dental study of 6,700 people from 13 to 90, the gums of patients with higher blood levels of vitamin D were 20 percent less likely to bleed. “The evidence on gingivitis and tooth loss suggests that vitamin D influences oral health by decreasing inflammation,” said Bess Dawson-Hughes, director of the Bone Metabolism Lab at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University.

Cancer. Studies by Reinhold Vieth at the University of Toronto have reported a substantial reduction in the rates of colon cancer as blood levels of vitamin D went up. Dr. Vieth suggests that vitamin D inhibits a mechanism by which cancer cells spread or it may boost the function of blood vessels or the immune system.

Diabetes. A number of studies have found that people with higher blood levels of vitamin D had a lower risk of diabetes than people with lower levels. Researchers have suggested that vitamin D seems to influence responsiveness to insulin.

Fitness. A study at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine found that people with low blood levels of vitamin D scored from 5 to 10 percent lower on tests measuring grip strength, balance and walking speed than those who had higher levels. Apparently vitamin D helps build and repair muscles as well as bones.

Longevity. People who take vitamin D supplements may also live longer, according to Sara Gandini, Ph.D., of the European Institute of Oncology in Italy, and Philippe Autier, M.D., of the International Agency for Research on Cancer in France. “The intake of ordinary doses of vitamin D supplements seems to be associated with decreases in total mortality rates,” they reported.

“The results are remarkable,” according to Edward Giovannucci, M.D., ScD., of the Harvard School of Public Health, in an editorial on vitamin D research in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

What to do. Adults should try to get 800 international units (IU) daily of vitamin D-or 1000 IUs a day if you are 70 or older. The average U.S. adult intake of vitamin D is 230 IUs daily, according to a study reported in the journal Nutrition Reviews. Vitamin D is available from sunlight, of course, and from foods such as fatty fish, eggs, fortified milk and fortified cereals as well as supplements.

-Sources: Bottom Line Health, CSPI Nutrition Action Letter, and Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter

(Also, see an earlier article I posted on 21 December, 2007.)

Detox Your Home

PlanetGreen.com has a new room-by-room feature detailing how to replace toxic products with more healthy alternatives, and reduce environmentally hazardous materials and practices.

It’s called Detox Your Home and it includes short videos with Sarah Snow, who has two terrific shows on the Discovery Networks:  Get Fresh and Living Fresh.

(More home health links here:  http://del.icio.us/bobodod/home+health and more home related videos here:  http://del.icio.us/bobodod/home+video)

Mardi Gras: Made in China

Plot synopsis via AllMovie.com:

One of the better known traditions of the annual Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans, LA is the beads — most folks wear lots of cheap plastic beads while they wander the city’s streets in search of fun, and men hoping that women will flash their breasts usually toss ladies their beads in what they hope will be considered a fair exchange. However, while in New Orleans, those beads symbolize a wild party and low-level exhibitionism, on the other side of the world they mean something else. In Fuzhou, China, a man named Roger Wong owns a factory that produces the majority of the beads tossed to strangers during Mardi Gras, and to his employees, the beads mean work days of 14 to 20 hours, for which they are paid less than ten cents an hour. Most of the workers in Wong’s plant are young women, whom he says are less likely to cause trouble or make demands than their male equivalent. The workers live in a dormitory where they can be fined one month’s wages if a member of the opposite sex is found in their room. And most are struggling to support themselves and their families on wages that are low even by the standards of a Chinese sweatshop. Mardi Gras: Made in China is a documentary which explores the dramatic contrast between the conditions under which Mardi Gras beads are made and what happens with them once they arrive in the United States; both American revelers and Chinese workers are given a perspective on how the other half lives, and what can be done to make their circumstances more equitable.

Mardi Gras: Made in China official website

IMDB

RottenTomatoes.com

Nontoxic Dry Cleaning – The Cool Kids Are Doing It

Years ago, I had a good friend who worked nearly full-time at a cleaners. She would arrive home from work each day with a nasty headache and a very limited ability to concentrate on anything at all for very long.

Around that time, I learned that “dry cleaning” doesn’t mean “dry.” It means “without water.” What is used as a substitute for water and soap (or detergent in this case, which often contains synthetic toxins itself) is a chemical commonly known as PERC. Its full chemical name is percholroethylene, and as its name implies, it’s a highly toxic petroleum distillate.

PERC has been banned in California and the United States is in the process of phasing it out through the rest of the country. It is absorbed both through inhalation and absorption through the skin and can build up in one’s system to contribute to a significantly increased risk of developing cancer.

There are alternatives to PERC (2nd source) and I found when I called cleaners within two miles of my home that there were indeed businesses that had already moved on to safer solutions. Unfortunately, PERC is very soluble in water and has been found in U.S. water supplies and not all water filtration systems are capable of filtering it out.

~ ~ ~

(Are you interested in what real soap is like? Check out this article by my favorite soap maker, Dr. Bronner’s. And here is their dramatic demonstration of an unreliable GHB drug testing kit that turns out to be an effective test of real versus fake soaps.

For more information regarding toxins in general, take a look at these two pages of links I’ve created: http://del.icio.us/bobodod/toxins and http://del.icio.us/bobodod/nontoxic)

Vitamin D: put a little light in your life

Vitamin D is turning up in more and more “Best-Of” lists of nutritive compounds. And the best kind is free from our local star. Getting outside each day is already good for you (unless you live in a high pollution zone). Combine that with some healthy Sun exposure (don’t burn!) and a reasonable walk, and studies show you’re much, much better off.

Al Sears, MD 12794 Forest Hill Blvd., Suite 16 Wellington, FL 33414

December 17, 2007

I recently wrote about a report out of a university in Nebraska showing that vitamin D has the potential to lower the risk of all cancers in women by 77%.1

In the last 15 months, 5 more bombshells exploded showing the power of vitamin D to stop cancer. Here’s the rest of the timeline:

• In February, researchers at UC San Diego released the results of two key studies on breast and colon cancer. They said you can lower your risk of breast cancer by 50%, and colon cancer by more than 65%,simply by boosting your vitamin D levels through sunlight, diet, or supplements.2,3

• In October of last year, scientists published compelling discoveries linking sun exposure and lowered cancer risk in the journal Anticancer Research. They found that plain old sunlight– about 20 minutes a day for fair-skinned folks, and two to four times that much for those with dark skin – can reduce the risk of 16 types of cancer in both men and women.4

• A Harvard-sponsored report published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in September 2006 uncovered a connection between low vitamin D levels and increased cancer risk. It revealed that when men raise their vitamin D intake, they can lower their overall risk of cancer death by 29%, drop rates of “digestive tract” cancers by 43% (throat, stomach, and colon), and reduce death rates from these cancers by 45%.5

The response was tremendous… in Canada. After the Creighton report last summer, the Canadian Cancer Society decided it was time to get the word out. They launched a nationwide campaign recommending that every Canadian citizen start taking 1,000 IEUs of vitamin D every day. (You should, too.) Vitamin D was flying off the shelves all over the country.

On this side of the border, the silence was deafening.

Forget about a national vitamin D awareness campaign in this country, because there isn’t one. Instead, let’s look at a recent report from a relatively small group, the Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force. It’s made up of over 100 doctors and nurses. Their goal is to inform black women about the risks of breast cancer and what they can do to prevent it.6

In Chicago, black women die from breast cancer at a rate 68% higher than white women. Yet in its 113-page report, the Task Force doesn’t mention vitamin D once. This is particularly upsetting when you consider that black women are especially vulnerable to vitamin D deficiency.

Think about it: a large, vulnerable segment of the female population in the US is missing out on the biggest, most affordable cancer prevention bonanza to come along in years.

And this is just one small example of mainstream medicine’s handling of cancer prevention, from a “task force” whose stated goal is to help a group especially at risk. So you can see why I think the healthcare industry is doing the American public a major disservice.

To remedy the situation, let’s review what you can do to bolster your vitamin D levels and drive your risk of all kinds of cancer through the floor:

• Eat a “D-rich” diet – fish, eggs, milk (wild-caught, free-range, and organic) all have plenty of vitamin D.
• Take supplements – available on line or in health food stores – at least 1,000 IEUs per day.
• Get 20 minutes of sunlight if you’re fair-skinned, or up to twice that much if you’re dark-skinned.

When it comes to vitamin D and cancer, it’s no exaggeration to say that the American medical establishment’s silence is more than deafening – it’s deadly.

To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, MD

(Update:  More vitamin D news blogged on 11 March, 2008.)

Toxic furniture getting some standards

What’s in furniture? It’s enough to make you sick.
Susan Fornoff, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Laura Ingram rarely buys anything new, but last spring the 58-year-old Oakland landlord sprang for 16 feet of new oak bookcases to line the walls of her backyard studio-office.

“There was no problem in the showroom, when I was standing there with huge stacks of shelves,” she said. “But when the shelves arrived, they provoked such a violent allergic reaction in me after delivery that the vendor had to come and get them the next day and put them on a loading dock for three weeks to off-gas.”

The bookcases came back, and Ingram paid a carpenter to install them and a helper to move 35 boxes of books. Still, her chest would hurt, her lips would swell, she’d get confused and feel as if she had the flu.

So the furniture sat in her yard for three more months while she waited for the chemical odor to dissipate. It didn’t. The vendor finally returned Ingram’s money and took the bookcases away.

“This was my attempt to spiff up my environment,” Ingram said. “Now, I’d be extremely wary and want every certificate in the world.”

The problem for Ingram and others who are growing increasingly sensitized to indoor air pollutants is that the certificate doesn’t exist, and the furniture industry resists the notion of labeling its wares. Consumers can read a list of the ingredients in their cornflakes and a summary of what nutrients they contain, but good luck trying to find out what’s in the new set of bedroom furniture we spend eight hours with every night.

The store owner concluded that it was some chemical in the lacquer that made Ingram sick. Lacquers can contain high levels of solvents that release volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, that the American Lung Association reports can irritate eyes, skin and lungs and cause headaches, nausea and even liver and kidney damage.

Kirk Saunders, a finish specialist at EcoHome Improvement, guesses it was formaldehyde off-gassing from pressed wood. Emissions from urea formaldehyde - “which is really, really bad for you, and is so ubiquitous in an urban environment,” Saunders said - can cause cancer “and other adverse health effects,” according to the California Air Resources Board.

BookMooch in the NY Times

Clear the Bookshelf and Fill It Up Again, All Online - New York Times

A good introduction and some background on this wonderful social site.

FreeRice

FreeRice > Take a multiple-choice vocabulary quiz and feed people for every word correctly or incorrectly identified. How cool is that? The more you play, they more food gets delivered. It’s also adaptive to individual skill levels.

I think I could definitely use some help with my lexicon (50¢ please).