Did you know that:

1.4 million people at any given time are suffering from a hospital-acquired infection?

98,000 people per year die from hospital-acquired infections in the U.S.?

For more information on which infections are commonly picked up in a hospital environment and also how to protect yourself if you do wind up in the hospital, this site is useful.

For myself, I wound up with pneumonia and 7 different bacterial infections immediately following the birth of my third child (long story with many mind/body components), so I did end up having to go to the hospital (since there are no natural hospitals where I live).

In addition to measures mentioned in the site above, I also:

• used my own 100% cotton bedding and lined the mattress with a sheepskin from Ikea – trust me, this makes a huge different to comfort and prevents bedsores.
• took Natren probiotics 3x/day
• drank Absorb Plus shakes instead of eating nasty hospital food
• kept the window open in the room at all times (choose an older hospital as these likely still have windows that open)
• paid extra for a semi-private room
• wrapped my hand in a towel or edge of the hospital gown before touching any door handle, elevator button etc. Advise your visitors to do this too.
• when I got out of the hospital I went to my naturopathic clinic and received 10 IV Vitamin C infusions and 10 hydrogen peroxide. Also did acupuncture and inhaled glutathione. Remember that up to 40% of people suffer a secondary infection once the initial pathogen has been cleared – because the antibiotics wipe out your protective bacteria and you’re wide open for opportunistic infection. So in addition to the high dose probiotics, you need to also take preventive measures.

Many of you know that I warn in Listen To Your Gut against using toothpaste that contains fluoride and I recommend you only drink filtered or spring water. Well, although I’ve taken a second look at topical fluoride vs. systemic (ingested) fluoride, here’s some recent research that further backs up my warning against systemic fluoride. And in my opinion, it is particularly vital for people on long-term steroids, or prone to osteoporosis to rigorously avoid any fluoride use or ingestion.

The following is excerpted from: Too Much Fluoride in Water Endangers Bones By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fluoride in drinking water — long controversial in the United States when it is deliberately added to strengthen teeth — can damage bones and teeth, and federal standards fail to guard against this, the National Academy of Sciences reported on Wednesday.

Children exposed to the government’s current maximum fluoride limit “risk developing severe tooth enamel fluorosis, a condition characterized by discoloration, enamel loss and pitting of the teeth, ” the academy said in a statement.

Earlier reviews of health issues associated with fluoride have considered enamel fluorosis to be ugly but not a health hazard. But the new assessment considers it a health hazard as one function of tooth enamel is to protect the teeth and underlying dental tissue from decay and infection.

Over a lifetime, people who drink water with the level near the federal limit of fluoride probably have a higher risk for bone fractures, a majority of the panel concluded.

The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) allows up to 4 milligrams of fluoride per liter of drinking water — .000534 ounces per gallon — but the report found this level did not protect against known risks from the chemical.

The Environmental Working Group, a non-profit watchdog organization, applauded the academy’s report for raising health concerns about excessive fluoride in drinking water.

“The bottom line from the nation’s top voice on science is that you can protect your children’s teeth by brushing them and you can protect their bones by getting rid of fluoride in tap water,” Tim Kropp, the group’s senior scientist, said in an e-mail.
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This next article shows the extreme damage that fluoride can do (as evidenced in an Indian village), but also points out how and why the current “safe fluoride level” used by America is still too high:

Skeletal Fluorosis
by Darlene Sherrell
The Manchester Guardian, July 9, 1998

Madhya Pradesh is famous for its rich mineral deposits. “The problem is enormous, unbelievable,” says Andezhath Susheela of the Fluorosis Research and Rural Development Foundation in Delhi. She has been unraveling the national story for a decade during which time her estimate of the number of people leading “a painful and crippled life” from fluorosis has risen from one million to 25 million and now to 60 million – six million of them children – spread across tens of thousands of communities. “In some villages three-quarters of the population are seriously affected.”

Many parents, including Krishna’s mother, suffer painful, stiff and misshapen backs and hips, and chronic gastro-enteritis. Bhaskar Raman, a local activist who brought the village’s plight to the attention of doctors, says there has been an epidemic of stillbirths and involuntary abortions – all known symptoms of fluoride poisoning.

In Britain, the Department of Health says the “optimum” fluoride dose for water supplies is 1 part per million. But in one Indian village studied in detail, Bhanakpur near Delhi, water with between 0.7 and 1.6 ppm of fluoride was enough to leave 17 per cent of the population suffering from the bent bones of skeletal fluorosis.

Crippling dosages

In 1985, when the EPA raised the maximum contaminant level to 4 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water, they used dosage figures miscalculated in 1953 by Harold C. Hodge, who was chairman of the NAS committee on toxicology. Hodge’s original figures (20-80 mg/day for 10-20 years) were corrected by Hodge in 1979, and by NAS in 1993. The corrected figures, based on Roholm’s classic study of workers in the cryolite industry, amount to 0.2 to 0.35 milligrams of fluoride per kilogram of body weight per day, for eleven years. When extrapolated over a lifetime of 55 to 96 years, these crippling dosage figures equal 1 milligram of fluoride daily for each 55 pounds of body weight … 0.04 mg/kg/day.

In the early years of water fluoridation, this dosage was not the norm. At that time, water was virtually the only source of fluoride in the American diet. The total intake for most adults was 0.02 mg/kg/day… about one to one and a half milligrams of fluoride daily.

Today, the figure is at least 0.095 mg/kg/day… from food and drinking water alone … more than 6 milligrams daily.

This increase in ingested fluoride, largely due to the use of artificial fertilizers containing fluoride, pesticide residues, dental products, and modern food processing, has changed a relatively safe dosage into one capable of causing crippling deformities of the spine and major joints, as well as the muscle pain associated with fibromyalgia.

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BUT WHAT ABOUT TOPICAL FLUORIDE?
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My own dental challenges (and those of my kids) have caused me to take a second, in-depth look at topical fluoride vs. systemic (ingested) fluoride. You can get my complete report on this here:

http://www.listen2yourgut.com/blog/why-our-family-is-trying-fluoride-toothpaste/

But the bottom line is: my kids and I are now testing using a fluoride toothpaste and other topical fluoride items along with the nanoparticle-sized minerals in Bone Support. NOTE: We are not swallowing nor ingesting fluoride, just using it topically for fairly short periods of time.
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In “Listen To Your Gut” I have an entire chapter that walks you through, step-by-step, how to eliminate everyday toxins from your living environment and food supply. This is essential in creating a healing, supportive environment for your body – and then you can save your strength and detox efforts for those unavoidable toxins in our environment and keep your body from being overwhelmed!
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COMPLIMENTARY HOLISTIC DENTAL HEALTH TELESEMINAR

And while we’re on this topic, you absolutely MUST listen to, or read through the transcript of my Teleseminar with Holistic Dentist – Dr. Hal Huggins.

I normally charge for Teleseminars, BUT, the information in this one is SO crucial to everyone’s health, that I have made it available for free. So be sure and listen to/read it and then share it with all of your family and friends.

Also, if you’re primarily concerned with tooth decay, then check out my post and video on how I finally healed my family’s tooth decay using nanoparticle minerals! (scroll down)

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Jini Patel Thompson’s books on natural healing for digestive diseases have sold in over 40 different countries. Her health articles have been published in journals and magazines in the U.S., Australia and U.K. www.ListenToYourGut.com

Some readers have asked about whether it’s safe to use L-Glutamine with children, based on an article that appeared on Dr. Joseph Mercola’s website. But again, read through it carefully and you’ll see that this is only an issue when intake exceeds need. Otherwise, there is no excess and the body utilizes it fully.

Also, in this article he completely warns against any L-Glutamine intake by pregnant women as it can cause retardation. However, I drank 1-2 Absorb Plus shakes per day (containing 1000 mg L-Glutamine in each shake) during both my pregnancies and breastfeeding. Both my children’s teachers are amazed at their quickness and intelligence and they consistently outperform many of their peers in both physical and mental function.

And one of my readers used The IBD Remission Diet for seven weeks during her pregnancy (to avoid having to use Prednisone), which meant she was drinking 4-5 Absorb Plus shakes per day (4,000 – 5,000 mg L-Glutamine per day) and her baby was perfectly healthy with normal brain development. The last time I heard from her, the baby was three years old and doing very well in all aspects.

Remember too that this article is just one professional’s opinion – and while it is worth reading, the majority of professional opinion and clinical trials in children show no adverse effect for appropriate L-Glutamine supplementation.

Here’s the result of my research and my personal opinion on the topic:

Kids with sickle cell anemia need higher amounts of L-glutamine. So this study assessed response/effects with a massive dosage of 600 mg of L-Glutamine per 1 kg of body weight. Which means, for example, that a child weighing 44 pounds would ingest 12,000 mg of L-Glutamine per day. Even at that very high dose, this study (below) on children as young as 5 years old showed no negative effects of supplementation.

STUDY #1:

Oral glutamine supplementation decreases resting energy expenditure in children and adolescents with sickle cell anemia. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol. 2004 Oct;26(10):619-25. To determine the effects of orally administered glutamine on the resting energy expenditure (REE) and nutritional status of children and adolescents with sickle cell anemia. Twenty-seven children and adolescents (13 boys, 14 girls), 5.2 to 17.9 years old, received orally administered glutamine (600 mg/kg per day) for 24 weeks. Measures of REE and other nutritional parameters were compared at baseline and 24 weeks.

RESULTS: After 24 weeks, the patients’ median REE (kcal/d) decreased by 6%. Patients with less than 90% ideal body weight had even greater declines in REE after 24 weeks. Improvements in nutrition parameters and in two amino acids in the plasma were observed.

CONCLUSIONS: After 24 weeks of orally administered glutamine, children and adolescents with sickle cell anemia had a decrease in REE and improvement in nutritional parameters. Those who were underweight had a greater decrease in REE than those of normal body weight. Lowering REE may be an effective way to improve the growth of these children and adolescents.

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As well, a few studies I looked at concerning L-Glutamine used on children with cancer (to prevent mucosal inflammation during chemo) showed only positive effects.

L-Glutamine is only a problem when you ingest MORE than your body needs, or can utilize. For anyone in a disease state, their requirements are going to be much higher since the body is engaged in ongoing repair of damaged tissue.

And just for another counter to the claim that L-Glutamine can cause mental retardation, I found a few studies done using L-Glutamine with Attention Deficit Disorder children, that show that supplementation INCREASES mental ability. Here’s one example:

STUDY #2:

“Intellectually impaired children and adults often show an increase in IQ after taking glutamine in combination with Ginkgo biloba and B6. Dr. Roger Williams demonstrated that children and adults diagnosed with ADHD showed a marked improvement when taking 250 mg to 1,000 mg of glutamine daily. Dr. C. Fredericks research also demonstrated a definite increase in the IQs of children given glutamine. When glutamine was given daily, children showed impressive improvements in their abilities to learn, to retain, and to recall. Glutamine is a major part of my orthomolecular program for hyperactive and ADHD children. Glutamine is one of the amino acids that create the neurotransmitters in the brain that enhance learning and memory. Hyperactive and ADD children have lowneurotransmitter levels, especially glutamine. Adding glutamine increases the level of neurotransmitters. Start with 500 mg of glutamine and gradually increase until you reach the optimal dose for your child, to a maximum of 3,000 mg per day.“
- ADD & ADHD Natural Control of ADD & ADHD
Billie J. Sahley, Ph.D., CNC

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So, the best route, as always, is to “listen to your gut” – and more importantly, listen to your child’s gut. She/he will let you know if it’s good for him/her, or not. And if you want to follow pre-established limits, as evidenced in clinical trials, then these indicate that you can safely give your child anywhere from 3,000 – 10,000 mg per day (depending on the study).

Don’t forget, many health sites are purposely looking for information that they can present in a shocking or “groundbreaking” way – this increases their subscribers and also gets higher readership of their newsletters (thus driving more people to their site). So try to be discriminating and don’t over-react to new findings until you have done your research and put it into context. It may be 100% valid, and it may not.

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Jini Patel Thompson’s books on natural healing for digestive diseases have sold in over 40 different countries. Her health articles have been published in journals and magazines in the U.S., Australia and U.K. www.ListenToYourGut.com

Did you know you can get Hepatitis C, HIV or even a mycobacterium infection (MAP) from a colonic?

Just like a colonoscopy, if the therapist does not use a disposable tip and tube, you risk disease transmission.

Join me in this podcast with the renowned Bianca James from the Sydney Colon Health Clinic (she’s the one who helped Dr. Thomas J. Borody develop his fecal infusion protocol) as we discuss:

-  what someone in any country needs to look for in a practitioner and how to find a qualified practitioner.

- WHAT colon hydrotherapy is – perhaps you’re a newbie and know nothing about it and maybe even feel nervous about it.

- size of tube, how many insertions, how long does it take, how do I feel afterwards, etc.

- who should have it done and Bianca’s thoughts regarding frequency, etc.

- Bianca’s opinion on raw foodists who recommend a colonic every day for a month and then once per month thereafter.

Just click the play button below…

My Personal Opinion on Colonics

Note: I have to mention, that my personal opinion on colonic hydrotherapy is that it is not required or beneficial for normal, ongoing functioning. From my research and experience, I have to conclude that a good balance of healthy microorganisms in the bowel should not be messed with.

There are certain instances where a colonic, or series of colonics can be beneficial: When you’ve been constipated for longer than 8 months, or in disease states (as Bianca discusses), colonics can be necessary for a period of time. But once the flora is balanced and healthy, I feel there are better tools to ensure digestive health and that colon hydrotherapy is too disruptive and should not be utilized on an ongoing basis.

If you need to have regular, repeated, ongoing colon hydrotherapy or enemas in order to feel “clean” or to get your bowel functioning regularly, then you are treating the symptom, not the cause. Many ‘health gurus’ recommend daily enemas as the basis for health. However, this is a very good way to destroy the healthy bacterial flora in your bowel, damage the muscle tone of your intestinal walls and interfere long-term with peristalsis. Just use your common sense: Is there any healthy tribe of humans (no degenerative disease, tooth decay rate of less than 1%) that have been giving themselves daily enemas or colonics?

You also need to examine the language used by those who recommend daily or weekly colonics or enemas – they will talk a lot about feeling clean and pure. This is not so much a physical phenomena as a spiritual/emotional one. Humans are teeming with bacteria. In most parts of the world we co-exist happily with parasites, viruses and fungus. Nature is not “clean”. The basis for the natural world and the natural life is mother earth – and healthy earth is filled with worms, insects, microorganisms, etc. So if you need to feel “clean” I would encourage you to look at your emotional/spiritual life – what lies have you accepted about being “dirty”? What traumas do you need to heal? Where do you need to forgive yourself? What guilt are you carrying?

The secret to strong, ongoing bowel health is a healthy diet (that naturally nourishes, detoxifies and builds vitality), probiotics, exercise, and lots of joy and fun in your life.

Colonic Hydrotherapy Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (497)

This remedy is not just applicable for Crohn’s, please read on for my comments on how this applies to colitis and IBS as well, at the end of the article…..

Testing Charcoal As Crohn’s Remedy

By Jamie Talan
Staff Writer

A pill containing activated charcoal is being tested to treat Crohn’s disease in a clinical trial that came about, in large part, because of Dr. Kenneth Kenigsberg, a retired pediatric surgeon at North Shore University Hospital.

Kenigsberg, 76, likes to say he spent 45 years as a plumber, navigating the complex terrain of the young human body, removing problems. Instead of retiring, he headed into the laboratory at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, part of North Shore University-Long Island Jewish Health System.

Three years ago, a lab colleague studying tubular cells in livers noticed a lot of tumor necrosis factor, a protein produced by immune cells that target tumors and inflammation.

Kenigsberg used his “plumbing” skills to help his colleague. He triggered sepsis, a life-threatening infection, in a rat, inserted a tube into its liver and removed its bile, where he found a buildup of tumor necrosis factor, TNF. He knew that the liver drains into the intestine, and that too much TNF could be toxic. It was then he got the idea of using charcoal. An age-old treatment for poisoning, charcoal soaks up toxins. He took rats and mice, made them septic, and fed charcoal to half his subjects. Those that were fed charcoal lived. The others died.

People with Crohn’s have high levels of TNF when they are sick. The condition, which affects 500,000 Americans, is marked by bowel inflammation. It flares up and goes into remission like other so-called autoimmune diseases. Symptoms include diarrhea, abdominal pain, fatigue and vomiting.

Treatments for Crohn’s, which has no cure, include antibiotics and corticosteroids. The latest treatment is an expensive drug called Remicade, an antibody against TNF. It’s infused every few months, at $5,000 per treatment.

What if charcoal did the trick? Kenigsberg got permission to conduct a clinical trial, both from his hospital and from the Food and Drug Administration. He’s been enrolling patients over 18 years old experiencing the active phase of the disease. He draws blood to test immune markers associated with Crohn’s. Then, after three weeks without treatment, patients take six charcoal pills in the morning and six at night for three weeks.

January 20, 2006
Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.
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This article is very interesting, but it is still a treatment aimed at alleviating a symptom – not getting to the root cause. Why are TNF levels elevated in people with Crohn’s? Why is the body producing a substance that combats inflammation? Why are the intestines inflamed?

Again, the more I read and the more of my readers I hear from, the more convinced I am that Crohn’s (and colitis) has an infectious etiology (cause). The body is not “overreacting” with the immune system inappropriately in “attack mode”. But rather, the body is doing everything it can to combat legitimate intestinal infection. And the best research we have at this time points to that new fungal/bacterial hybrid organism called mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (MAP) as being the infectious agent. For those of you who have Listen To Your Gut, you can read all about mycobacterium, why they’ve gone undetected for so long, and where to get tested: see pages 144, 148, and 159 of Listen To Your Gut.

Getting back to this article, the charcoal may also provide relief if it traps and flushes bad bacteria from your system (like Bentonite Clay does – a remedy I recommend in certain instances (see pg. 74 and 384 of Listen To Your Gut) – thereby reducing infection in the gut for a period of time. However, unless ALL of the infectious agents are eradicated, the body will still produce an inflammatory reaction.

That is why I still feel the best treatment for Crohn’s, colitis and diverticulitis (and moderate to severe IBS) includes:

1. Jini’s Wild Oregano Oil Protocol* to eradicate all infectious microorganisms. New trials have now confirmed that wild oregano oil does indeed kill MAP – but again, as I point out in Listen To Your Gut, MAP has a dormant/active lifecycle, so you have to treat every 3-4 months for 2-3 years to completely eradicate it.

2. Followed by Jini’s Probiotic Retention Enema and high dose oral probiotic supplementation* to repopulate the gut with good, protective bacteria to ensure good digestion/absorption, and prevent contracting any new infections.

3. Targeted supplements to heal and restore the mucosal lining and tissues of the GI tract (e.g. L-Glutamine, MucosaHeal, NAG, George’s Aloe Vera, etc.).

4. Endocrine (hormonal) system assessment and rebalancing/healing as needed (for anyone who’s been on any prescription drugs or had the diseases for longer than 2 years).

5. Emotional, dietary and lifestyle healing/balancing to promote long-term health and prevent recurrence of dis-ease (imbalance).

*Steps 1 and 2 may need to be repeated every 3-4 months for a period of 2-3 years to completely eradicate pathogenic miccroorganisms with dormant/active life cycles, like mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (MAP).

Again, those of you who have Listen To Your Gut will already have in your hands detailed instructions for all of these protocols and supplements – I hope you’re doing the Workbook! (on the CD-Rom)

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Jini Patel Thompson’s books on natural healing for digestive diseases have sold in over 40 different countries. Her health articles have been published in journals and magazines in the U.S., Australia and U.K. www.ListenToYourGut.com

In my post about natural treatment for depression, vitamin D was mentioned as a substance that people are often deficient in. Today’s post (courtesy of the Vitamin D Council) goes into the problem of vitamin D deficiency and treatment more in depth.

Again, this is a very relevant issue for people with IBD and IBS since many have been on a steroid or immune suppressant drug that has greatly interfered with bone formation and maintenance (for which vitamin D is key). Also, if you get a lot of cavities in your teeth, adequate intake of vitamin D (or not taking minerals in an absorbable form) may be the culprit. In my family: All 3 of my kids take 2,000 IU vitamin D per day, along with cod liver oil. My husband and I take 4,000 IU per day, and of course, we take our cod liver oil and nanoparticle minerals.

Here’s the article. Enjoy……

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Another Vitamin D Quiz

This month we have a ten question quiz on the latest vitamin D research. Here’s a primer.

Question: Name a rat poison crucial to health and safer than water.

Answer: Vitamin D

Yes, cholecalciferol is a rat poison.

If it is a rat poison, why did Professor Heaney just recommend up to 4,000 units every day?
JSteroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2005 Jul 15; [Epub ahead of print]

The answer is dosage. To demonstrate the point, I recently swallowed an entire bottle (100 capsules) of vitamin D (40,000 units) in front of a skeptical audience to convince them that vitamin D is safer than water. Here’s why. Eight glasses of water a day is fine for healthy adults. Ten times that amount, eighty glasses of water, will make you sick from water intoxication.

Humans need about 4,000 units of vitamin D a day (from all sources). Ten times that amount, 40,000 units, is very safe in a single dose, as I demonstrated to the audience. Therefore, vitamin D has a safer therapeutic index than water.

(Taking the entire bottle certainly got the audience’s attention. I think they were paying close attention to see if I would drop dead. By the way, if you were to take 40,000 units every day for months you would get vitamin D toxicity, after years of such doses you would probably die. After taking 40,000 units at one time – equivalent to two days at the beach – I simply stayed out of the sun for several days).

A rat poison safer than water – but why do we need vitamin D? Within the last several months, scientists published impressive new evidence that vitamin D is involved in a staggering array of diseases: age related cognitive decline, heart disease, breast cancer, tuberculosis, Parkinson’s disease, prostate cancer, chronic pain, fractured hips, premenstrual syndrome and diabetes.

Good time for another quiz.

1. Vitamin D reverses inflammatory changes associated with age-related memory impairment.

a) True
b) False

True. Researchers from Ireland were the first to demonstrate that vitamin D3 acts as an anti-inflammatory agent and turns old brains into young brains – at least as far as inflammatory cytokines are concerned. This research suggests vitamin D may prevent, or even treat, age-related cognitive decline!
Biochem Soc Trans. 2005 Aug;33(Pt 4):573-7.

2. Your blood sugar is closely associated with your vitamin D level.

a) True
b) False

True. Researchers in Australia added to the growing evidence that sun avoidance may have caused the epidemic of type 2 diabetes. The Australians’ findings were straightforward and powerful. The higher your vitamin D level, the lower your blood glucose.
Clin Endocrinol (Oxf). 2005 Jun;62(6):738-41.

3. In July, a group from Minnesota found that 100% of elderly patients admitted for fragility fractures were vitamin D deficient despite the fact that half of them were taking vitamin D supplements.

a) True
b) False

True. The authors found that women taking supplemental vitamin D had average levels of 16.4 ng/ml while women not taking supplements had levels of 11.9.ng/ml, both dangerously low. None of the 82 women got enough sun or took enough vitamin D to obtain a level of 40 ng/ml. These were fragility fractures, not fractures caused by unusual trauma. That is, their bones just sort of fell apart.
Curr Med Res Opin. 2005 Jul;21(7):1069-74.

4. Women with the lowest vitamin D levels had five times higher risk for breast cancer.

a) True
b) False

True. Women with 25(OH)-vitamin D blood levels less than 20 ng/ml were more than five times more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than were women with levels above 60 ng/ml. That is five, repeat five, times less likely!
Eur J Cancer. 2005 May;41(8):1164-9. Epub 2005 Apr 14.

5. Avoiding the sun doubles the risk of prostate cancer.

a) True
b) False

True. Again, the risk of avoiding the sun is clear, this time in another study with prostate cancer. However, the authors pointed out that sun exposure increases the risk of skin cancer and believed that proper vitamin D supplementation ‘may be the safest solution to achieve an adequate vitamin D status.’
Cancer Res. 2005 Jun 15;65(12):5470-9.

I also believe supplementation is the only way to go for many people. African Americans are simply unable spend adequate time in the sun. In addition, the sun ages the skin and that fact alone will keep many Americans out of the sun. That said, I go into the sun whenever I can. The reason is simple: it is the most conservative thing to do. Until we know everything the sun does – and it does more than just make vitamin D – the conservative approach is to mimic our ancestors and the environment in which human evolved, whenever we can. Therefore, it makes sense to sunbathe sensibly in the late spring, summer, and early fall and take supplements or use UVB lamps the rest of the time.

6. South Korean researchers associated vitamin D deficiency with Parkinson’s Disease.

a) True
b) False

True. Actually, they showed that certain genetic malformations (VDR polymorphisms) are more likely in-patients with Parkinson’s Disease, implying an association with vitamin D and Parkinson’s.
JKorean Med Sci. 2005 Jun;20(3):495-8.

7. Researchers in England discovered that patients with chronic pain have phenomenally low vitamin D levels.

a) True
b) False

True. The authors added to the evidence that severe vitamin D deficiency is associated with chronic pain. They found that 88% of their patients with chronic pain had levels less than 10 ng/ml. If they treated their patients, they did not report it. However, Swiss researchers recently treated chronic pain patients with vitamin D and reported the pain ‘disappeared’ within one to three months in most of their patients. This is the second open study that showed adequate doses of vitamin D dramatically improve chronic pain.
Ann Rheum Dis. 2005 Aug;64(8):1217-9.
BMJ. 2004 Jul 17;329(7458):156-7.
Spine. 2003 Jan 15;28(2):177-9.

8. Severe vitamin D deficiency is common in TB patients.

Some English doctors don’t know the difference between ideal and “normal” levels.

Most American doctors don’t know the difference either.

a) All are true
b) All are false
c) Some are true and some are false

All are true. First, the authors reviewed the impressive animal evidence that vitamin D can help treat TB. Then they reported that most of their immigrant TB patients had undetectable vitamin D levels. Then they reported the normal range for their lab was between 5 to 47 ng/ml but “normal” was any level greater than 9 ng/ml. Finally, the researchers reported they treated their patients with “normal daily doses” of vitamin D, without reporting how much they gave. Apparently, they gave just enough to get patients above 9 ng/ml.
JInfect. 2005 Jun;50(5):432-7.

Keep in mind that different laboratory technique result in different ranges for 25(OH)-vitamin D levels. Now matter what technique is used, ideal levels can roughly be defined as any level above the median. In this case, as you will see below in Dr. Heaney”s article, the doctors should have treated their patients with 4,000 units a day. They should also watch for evidence of vitamin D hypersensitivity, which can occur when treating tuberculosis patients for vitamin D deficiency.

We can only mourn for the poor immigrants who have to suffer from both TB and vitamin D deficiency. Of course, few physicians in the USA know the difference between the Gaussian definition of “normal” (average ranges for the population tested) and the ideal definition of “normal” (levels above 32 ng/ml). Getting commercial reference labs to report ideal 25(OH)-vitamin D levels should be a priority of everyone involved in trying to end the epidemic of vitamin D deficiency.

9. Virtually all nephrologists give renal failure patients a vitamin D-like drug.

Virtually all renal failure patients are severely vitamin D deficient.

Some nephrologists know the difference between vitamin D and calcitriol.

a) All are true
b) All are false
c) Some are true and some are false.

All are true. Finally, the truth about renal failure patients: most of them are vitamin D deficient despite taking vitamin D analogs! Most nephrologists prescribe activated vitamin D (calcitriol) or vitamin D analogs but not vitamin D. Calcitriol and vitamin D analogs do nothing to prevent vitamin D deficiency. Renal failure patients need both vitamin D and a calcitriol-like drug. Moreover, 400 units a day of vitamin D will not correct their deficiencies. As you will see below, they need up to 4,000.
Am J Kidney Dis. 2005 Jun;45(6):1026-33.

P.S. If you think nephrologists know the difference between vitamin D and calcitriol, read this months paper from some nephrologists at the University of Texas. They discuss the importance of vitamin D in preventing and treating heart disease. (I think adequate vitamin D nutrition may prevent more cardiovascular deaths than cancer deaths.) However, I read the Texas paper three times and still don’t know if the authors know the difference between vitamin D and calcitriol. I hope they know the difference between cholesterol and testosterone. (Some cholesterol is metabolized into steroid hormones, vitamin D is a prehormone; testosterone is a steroid hormone, calcitriol is the most potent steroid hormone in the human body).
Kidney Int Suppl. 2005 Jun;(95):S37-42.

10. Professor Robert Heaney proved, again, that he is a gentleman and a scholar.
a) True
b) False

True. In the most important clinical paper published this month, Heaney gave the three best reasons why we should all maintain minimum levels of at least 32 ng/ml, the level that:

(a) effectively suppresses PTH,
(b) maximizes calcium absorption,
(c) maximally improves glucose tolerance.

Then he goes on to show that some of us, especially African Americans, will need to take 3,000 to 4,000 units every day to maintain healthy 25(OH)-vitamin D blood levels.
JSteroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2005 Jul 15.

He then defends the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) recommendation that we only take one-tenth that amount as the best science that was available in 1997. I admire Dr. Heaney for trying to cover for the IOM. The truth is that both Dr. Heaney and Dr. Holick told the IOM that 2,000 units a day was not toxic and would prevent both adequate treatment and meaningful research. The IOM then proceeded to ignore the only two vitamin D experts on the panel.

Writing two years later, Professor Reinhold Vieth came up with dozens of studies the IOM overlooked. These studies conclusively showed 2,000 units a day could not be toxic. Furthermore, Vieth found the literature published before 1997 clearly showed 10,000 units a day was unlikely to be toxic. Vitamin D toxicity probably starts around 20,000 units a day, and then only if taken for months or even years.
Am J Clin Nutr. 1999 May;69(5):842-56.

Imagine. A rat poison safer than water and crucial to health.

John Cannell, MD
9100 San Gregorio Road
Atascadero, CA 93422
The Vitamin D Council
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Check out the bone-building supplements that I recommend (and that are free of aggravating ingredients):

- MINERALS to see my recommendations for high-absorption, bone building supplements
- VITAMINS to see the vit. D that I take
- HEALTHY OILS to see the cod liver oil that my whole family takes
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Jini Patel Thompson’s books on natural healing for digestive diseases have sold in over 40 different countries. Her health articles have been published in journals and magazines in the U.S., Australia and U.K. www.ListenToYourGut.com