The post last week about Cocoa Krispies and the immune system generated a lot of comments about vitamin D, so I thought I’d post a YouTube interview with Dr. John Cannell in which he talks about the topic:
By coincidence, a reader also sent me a link today to another YouTube video about vitamin D and cancer. You may remember Dr. Garland, who appears later in this video, from a previous video post as well. In that video, he explains the DINOMIT theory of cancer. It’s fascinating stuff. This one is pretty good too:
In reading a little more about vitamin D over the weekend, I even came across some information suggesting that an adequate level of vitamin D in the blood may prevent the balding gene from expressing. Now they tell me. If only I’d heard about that one in my thirties.
But if keeping my vitamin D level up saves me from the horrors of colon cancer and chemotherapy, which I’ve seen my dad go through twice, I can live with the Kojak look.
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From someone who is taking vitamin D3 everyday, for the past year, at 5000 units per day, I AM GOING BALD on a weekly basis.
I’m also 49 years old.
Guess it’s just an interesting theory. I’d actually rather believe it was genetic destiny than a vitamin deficiency I could’ve solved for maybe a nickel per day.
My Mum had that too.. not nice.
Don’t worry about the hair, Tom.. I wouldn’t climb over you to get to Brad Pitt..
no, I never said that 🙁
Ha! I nearly did a spittake with my coffee … thanks.
Interesting… the balding gene is a new one for me. I’m going to have to look into that.
There’s a mention in this one:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/25372.php
Make Sure You Get the Right Vitamin D Test
25-Hydroxy-Vitamin D
More info at Emotions for Engineers
http://www.emotionsforengineers.com/2009/10/which-vitamin-d-test-to-get-25-hydroxy.html
Keep it coming Tom.
Tony
Is there a way to know how much Vitamin D one should take without getting the blood test done? I’d like to start taking supplements, but I don’t feel like taking the time and the money to get the test done.
From Dr. Cannell, who appears in the first video:
“If you use suntan parlors once a week or if you live in Florida and sunbathe once a week, year-round, do nothing. However, if you have little UVB exposure, my advice is as follows: healthy children under the age of 1 years should take 1,000 IU per day—over the age of 1, 1,000 IU per every 25 pounds of body weight per day. Well adults and adolescents should take 5,000 IU per day. Two months later have a 25-hydroxyvitamin D blood test, either through ZRT or your doctor.”
You can also order a test kit online from the Vitamin D Council:
http://www.zrtlab.com/vitamindcouncil/
Thought I’d share something I learned about Vitamin D supplements… at my last checkup, I mentioned to my doctor that I was having achy pain in my legs, esp. at night, so he decided to test my Vitamin D levels. I thought it would be a waste of time since I had been taking 2000iu of Vitamin D every day for months. So imagine my shock when I tested at 18ml!
My doctor asked me if I was taking a oil-filled gel cap or a powdered capsule. He told me that Vitamin D is fat soluble and needs to be taken with fat in order to be fully absorbed. Well as you can guess, I was taking the dry powdered capsules. He recommended I open the capsules and spread the powder over a piece of buttered bread. Since I don’t eat bread, I decided to just buy the oil gel caps instead. Unfortunately, in all the Vitamin D news I have been reading, I am not hearing about this, and it seems a pretty important piece of information.
That’s a good point. We buy the gelcaps, and of course I get plenty of fat in my diet.
That’s another reason I’m against the heavy-handed marketing of bariatric surgery. Most people who undergo the procedure end up losing much of their ability to absorb fat-soluble vitamins, including D. So you lose weight, but end up vitamin-D deficient, thus losing much of your protection against disease.
Man, everybody is on the vitamin D thing – from Joel Fuhrman to Dr. Mercola. Must be Vitamin D day or something.
Getting enough vitamin D in the diet ain’t easy. Make sure to spend time in the sun and don’t wear sunscreen!
I’m considering running around outdoors in a loin cloth.
Isn’t Vitamin D day in June?
The 6th to be exact.
Thank god I live in California. I’ve been working out in a park with my kettlebell and I still have a nice tan in November =P
It’s getting a little colder here, but a few minutes of slinging the bell around really gets me radiating heat, so I can take off my shirt and not be cold (this is in the morning too).
Nothing like natural vitamin D.
On the radio this morning they had their resident pharmacist on talking about health issues.
Sentence: Swine flu is still very much a risk, so if you are travelling overseas, make sure to tailor your diet and supplements to boost your immune system.
Next sentence: And as we are coming into summer, sun protection is very important. Wear sunscreen whenever you go outside and cover up, find shade and stay indoors between 11 and 4 when possible.
I guess he meant eating cocoa puffs for breakfast…
That’s gotta be it.
From Dr. Cannell, who appears in the first video:
“If you use suntan parlors once a week or if you live in Florida and sunbathe once a week, year-round, do nothing.
So going to a suntan parlor also produces vitamin D. That’s interesting.
Yeah, I wouldn’t have thought of that one.
Hey Tom, you may want to make a separate post on this but I saw this in the news today – so they may be pushing it in your schools too.
The creators of the “Got Milk?” campaign are getting ready to make a big push to keep chocolate milk on kids’ minds and on school lunch menus, a plan that has some educators and obesity activists none too pleased.
…
experts like Marlene Schwartz, deputy directory of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, want chocolate milk tossed. She said kids have too much sugar already and chocolate milk has no place in schools.
http://www.wusa9.com/news/health/story.aspx?storyid=93423
I just asked Sara, my six-year-old, if they have chocolate milk at her school. She said yes, and lots of kids drink it, but she only had it once, on her birthday. I asked if that makes her feel left out. She replied, “I don’t feel left out because I don’t drink sugar! Sugar is bad for me!”
Hey Tom, just a reminder: it is important that any supplement include a balance of all the fat soluble vitamins, (A, K, E, D) not just vitamin D. The fat soluble vitamins have synergistic actions with one another, and taking mega-supplements of just one of these vitamins can cause problems. There’s a good article on this here: http://www.westonaprice.org/basicnutrition/vitamin-d-safety.html
Good points in the article. I don’t think it’s wise to take megadoses of anything.
Great videos! I just ordered high vitamin butter oil and cod liver oil (no synthetic vitamins added but tons of natural ones, including D), so I’ll get to see if my immune system/overall health improves, and how rapidly. As mentioned in the Weston Price Foundation article, you only need a very small amount to see results… too much can cause problems.
Sometimes I have to remind myself of that :p
I didn’t WTFV but the more I read about vitamin D and health problems linked to its deficiency, the more I’m convinced that so many health problems have been caused by the official recommendations to 1) eat a low fat low cholesterol diet and 2) bundle up like an eskimo and use sunscreen whenever you go outside. Because many foods high in vitamin D are also high in fat (eggs, butter, salmon) and/or cholesterol (eggs, shrimp) and because sunlight also produces vitamin D, these twin recommendations have caused a lot of people to be deficient. I’m glad I always liked eggs and red meat and getting a tan.
Vitamin D toxicity is a load of bologna based on conventional wisdom. There is no evidence of it. They’ve learned a whole lot in the past 10 years. For instance, we make 10,000 units of vitamin D in just 30 minutes in the sun. See here for more information http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/vitaminDToxicity.shtml
Sorry to comment on an old posting but I came across this today and it got me wondering if vitamin D is all it is cracked up to be.
http://thepeopleschemist.com/blog/2010/05/09/the-vitamin-d-scam.html
It’s always good to hear opposing opinions. I don’t see why big pharma would be behind the vitamin D publicity; you can buy the stuff at any drug store for a few dollars, and if it works as well as some doctors say, it will reduce the need for expensive prescription drugs.
In our personal testing, we’ve found a big dose of vitamin D seems to knock out colds or flu infections in a day.