There are two serious vitamin D health epidemics in America today; one is the epidemic of vitamin D deficiency and the other is the epidemic of ignorance about vitamin D deficiency.
As a board certified internist, I have chosen, for the last 30 years, to take a personalized approach in my practice of integrative medicine. I have worked with literally hundreds of herbs, vitamins and dietary supplements, to help my patients, often when drugs did not work. In all this time, I have not seen one nutritional supplement that has the power to affect human health as much as vitamin D. This is because Vitamin D is not actually a vitamin - it is a hormone that has the ability to interact and affect more than 2,000 genes in the body.
It is for this reason that vitamin D deficiency has been linked with many of the diseases of modern society. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with 17 types of cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, autoimmune disease, chronic pain, osteoporosis, asthma, and most recently with autism.
Over my 30 years of practicing medicine, countless times I have had to deliver or discuss with a patient their sad and possibly terminal diagnosis. Diseases like cancer and heart disease are at best life altering, and most times life threatening. When I have this kind of difficult conversation with a patient, I often reflect that if their vitamin D level had been normal for the previous many years, maybe they would never have developed this disease.
This understanding has fueled my passion about vitamin D and inspired me to write my book, The Vitamin D Revolution. In the hope of preventing unnecessary suffering and loss of life, I want to spread the word about the importance of taking this supplement every day. I recommend that all otherwise healthy adults take 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily.
Worldwide, it is estimated that the epidemic of vitamin D deficiency affects one billion people. In America, medical journal articles estimate that 30-50% of Americans are deficient in vitamin D. I question whether this number is really too low, as in my practice in sunny Southern California, 90% of my new patients have a vitamin D deficiency when they start with me.
As part of my campaign to correct vitamin D deficiency, and in collaboration with Hay House publishing, I have released an easily affordable and attainable at-home vitamin D testing kit package.
Ideally, your health care provider is your partner in exploring your vitamin D status, but patients usually do not want to visit their doctor just to ask for a vitamin D level, and many doctors are not yet up to date on the importance of vitamin D. If you use the at-home test kit and your blood level of vitamin D is low, I would encourage you to discuss this information with your physician. I have provided a special section in my book showing how I treat the various vitamin D levels that can help facilitate the discussion that you have with your doctor.
Although the majority of the health food store vitamin D supplements are very reputable, there are still some companies out there that are not so reliable. A consumer often cannot tell the difference between the two, and for that reason I have worked closely with a supplement manufacturer that normally makes products only for physicians' offices. Through our partnership, we have been able to make pharmaceutical quality vitamin D, with guaranteed potency, available at supermarket prices.
Over the weeks ahead, I plan to blog on the Huffington Post about the many aspects of vitamin D and its association with the chronic diseases of modern society. I invite your comments and your questions either here or on my vitamin D blog. There you can also watch my interview with Joel Roberts about my vitamin D project.
Follow Dr. Soram Khalsa on Twitter: www.twitter.com/vitamindrev
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!!!
I think some sun exposure every day is perfectly safe and healthy. I trust nature more than man-made vitamins or absorbing through my skin any of the chemicals in sunblocks.
It is fine to get your D from the sun as long as you know about all the factors that play a role in getting Vitamin D from the sun. Remember, if you live above the 35th parallel you will get NO D from November to March every year!
Vitamin D is indeed a hormone and that is why it is so powerful. But it is NO way related to Prednisone, or the side effects of Prednisone
I am not sure why you had a problem with the Vitamin D you took unless there was a contaminant in the pill. Vitamin D will have no side effects when taken in the proper dose.
Dr Soram
There is much information why people who have certain auto immune diseases have awful reactions to Vitamin D, both naturally and suplementally. Please, Please read up on Lbacteria and Vitamin D research www.bacteriality.com
1.Vitamin D is not a vitamin; it is an immunosuppressive steroid. 2.The vast majority of studies fail to account for the long-term effects of vitamin D.
3. Chronically ill people are not deficient in vitamin D.
4. Healthy people are not deficient in vitamin D and do not need to consume extra amounts of this steroid.
5.The public does not require extra sun exposure in order to prevent vitamin D “deficiency.” 6.Vitamin D does not reverse osteoporosis.
7.Extra vitamin D does not reduce the risk of cancer. 8.Vitamin D deficiency does not cause rickets.
9.Most researchers fail to consider the alternate hypothesis about vitamin D. 10.When it comes to vitamin D, the current medical climate of consensus is hostile to new ideas.
11.Research touting vitamin D’s benefits is often biased, methodologically weak, and ultimately misleading.
12.The dairy and supplement industries are intent on heavily promoting vitamin D.
13.The media is neither well-informed nor objective about vitamin D.
14.We must take immediate action to remedy the health crisis that has resulted from faulty conclusions about vitamin D in chronic disease.
According to recent molecular models, the steroid 25-D binds the Vitamin D Receptor and affects the activity of the immune system as well, but in a manner opposite to 1,25-D. When the steroid 25-D binds the Vitamin D Receptor, it decreases the activity of the receptor, causing the innate immune system to slow down and shut off. This effect begins around 20 ng/ml and gradually increases with higher levels of 25-D, until the VDR becomes completely blocked.
At the moment, most researchers understand that 1,25-D activates the Vitamin D Receptor. However, they are unaware of the models which demonstrate that 25-D has the opposite effect. Consequently, they do not understand that when people start to supplement with extra vitamin D (which is converted into 25-D) the Vitamin D Receptor begins to turn off, not on.
Most of these researchers are also unaware of a new understanding about the cause of many chronic diseases. As a person falls ill with a chronic disease, L-form bacteria begin to live inside the cells of the immune system and in various tissues.These bacteria create proteins that, just like elevated 25-D, are able to bind and block the Vitamin D Receptor.
Dr Soram
Then, I had a series of immune globulins every two weeks for six months, and they cost a fortune. During this time, I INSISTED upon being tested for Vit D and it was tremendously low. I went on Vitamin D once a week in the prescription capsules and Vitamin B injections once a week. I am now five months past the end of the second series of immune globulin infusions and all but one of the subclass lymphocytes remain adequate. I finally got the doctor to admit that the Vitamin D and Vitamin B may well be the reason for this. I am also attemping to spend fifteen to twenty minutes a day taking in the sunlight which is not enough to have to use sunscreen.
It has taken a dedication on my part, yet I have found several "spots" on the planet (one of which is my own back yard) to sit and connect with the sun, the earth and my breath. I wish the same for you.
These are the things I have seen in my practice as well and that is why I wrote the book, to get the word out to more people!
Dr Soram
They may avoid skin cancer but they might spend much of their lives depressed and then get colon cancer instead. If I had to make the choice, I'd go for the skin cancer.
I addressed this problem in a recent post on my blog:
http://rebeccaclayhaynes.blogspot.com/2009/02/i-love-sun.html
In the long run, I'm not entirely convinced that people can really get the vitamin D they need from a pill. There's a reason why the sun is up in the sky -- its benefits far outweigh its risks -- and we should, in moderation, take advantage of its life-giving and healing properties.
However every child should have their vitamin D level tested and normalized whether they have an illness like autism or not.
I am glad the D helped you as you must have had osteomalacia which is adult rickets.
As an integrative medicine doctor I encourage you to look for an integrative doctor in your area as there is much more to be done for fibromyalgia
Dr Soram
Please research the connection between untreated/undertreated hypothyroidism and fibromyalgia. When I was untreated for my hypothyroidism and adrenal insufficiency, I had all the symptoms of fibro. After being OPTIMALY treated, all the symptoms disappeared. There was NO fibro before the inadequate thyroid tests were introduced. Doctors treated based on symptoms before that which were exactly the same symptoms that are now called fibro. You can find a good doctor for this on Mary Shoman's website where she has a list of Top Docs. http://www.thyroid-info.com/topdrs
I wish you luck as I personally know this can be eliminated.
This site also has just producted a new micro tablet formulation of vitamin D and are offering free supplies for customers children. It also has a good newsletter worth signing up for.
New data on the role of vitamin D in prostate cancer is worth reading as just about everyone knows someone with this condition. There are also details of trials running in cancer patients in Canada using up to 40,000IU per day
www.vitamind3world.com
these links are not working but just google it and you will find it.
I just went there.