DAY 168 - RED ALERT ... With Sunny Outlook on Solutions

Photo by Rocky Brown

PLEASE read this carefully. As you will see, we are actually talking LIFE or DEATH.

As you know, we have some dangerous things going on in the world right now; revolution in Libya, disaster in Japan. And no simple answers.

We have another RED ALERT, one that is not new, just unheard and/or unheeded by our society. The great news is that the outlook for solutions is sunny!

The RED ALERT is that vitamin D deficiency is of epidemic proportions in our Country and in the world. (Vitamin D is created in the human body when skin is exposed to sunlight. According to internationally recognized experts, blood levels of vitamin D should be above 50 ng/ml.) I have abbreviated for you the already abbreviated descriptions of these critical new studies on vitamin D which have been distributed by the Vitamin D Council.

Vitamin D deficient veterans in hospital ICU’s are almost twice as likely to die, as those who are not deficient.
McKinney JD, Bailey BA, Garrett LH, Peiris P, Manning T, Peiris AN. Relationship between vitamin d status and ICU outcomes in veterans. J. Am Med Dir Assoc. 2011 Mar;12(3):208-11.

The crude odds ratio (risk) of being hypertensive (having high blood pressure) was almost five times higher for those with 25(OH)D (vitamin D) levels less than 15 ng/ml compared to those above 40 ng/ml.
Bhandari SK, Pashayan S, Liu IL, Rasgon SA, Kujubu DA, Tom TY, Sim JJ. 25-hydroxyvitamin d levels and hypertension rates. J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2011 Mar;13(3):170-7. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-7176.2010.00408.x. Epub 2010 Dec 22.

Vitamin D can increase the liver’s ability to remove toxins and drugs from the body. Blood levels of vitamin D fluctuate with the seasons; so can drug levels in the blood. Theoretically this affects a long list of drugs, including the antidepressants, citalopram, escitalopram, fluoxetine, norfluoxetine and sertraline. For a full list of drugs that may be lowered in the blood as vitamin D levels go up, go to: Wikipedia and look at the list of drugs in the column under the heading “Substrates”. Are your drugs in that list?
Lindh JD, Andersson ML, Eliasson E, Bjorkhem-Bergman L. Seasonal variation in blood drug concentrations and a potential relationship to vitamin D. Drug Metab Dispos. 2011 Feb 24. [Epub ahead of print]

A RED ALERT for our children; ... in Iran, being virtually the same distance from the equator as Ventura, CA (latitude affects sun exposure and thereby vitamin D status), it was found that in the winter, 91% of the children had vitamin D levels lower than 20 ng/ml, 86% lower than 15 ng/ml, and an unbelievable 38% had vitamin D levels lower than 5 ng/ml. The authors wrote that their findings should be "regarded as a public health emergency by all stakeholders."
Neyestani TR, Hajifaraji M, Omidvar N, Eshraghian MR, Shariatzadeh N, Kalayi A, Gharavi A, Khalaji N, Haidari H, Zowghi T, Nikooyeh B. High prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in school-age children in Tehran, 2008: a red alert. Public Health Nutr. 2011 Feb 28:1-7. [Epub ahead of print]

Vitamin D helps to protect us from a laundry list of dangerous diseases, including; heart disease, cancers (17 cancers, including breast, colon and prostate), diabetes, high blood pressure, depression, and more. Please have your vitamin D blood levels tested now. And have your children tested also. For some time now, the usual fee for the test has been around $240. In our office, we charge $50. Shop for the test, and protect your family’s health!