The Health Plus Letter
October 7, 2004, Vol. 2, No. 33
By Larry Trivieri, Jr. – founder & publisher,
http://www.1healthyworld.com

If you prefer to read this issue online, you can read it, along with all other back issues, at http://www.1healthyworld.com/ezine.


Table Of Contents
What’s New
Quote of the Day
Fast Fact
Medical F/r/e/edom Alert
Vitamin D: Startling New Research On An Old Bone Builderby Susan Brown, PhD


Unabashed Plug

Amazon.com continues to offer my newest book, Health on the Edge: Visionary Views of Healing in the New Millennium at a healthy discount. To order it, visit http://www.amazon.com.  In it, you will learn:

How to quickly and easily restore relaxation throughout your body using hand warming, an easily mastered biofeedback technique you can do without any equipment.

How to increase your IQ by 20 points or more in less than a week’s time.

How to permanently eliminate long-standing fears, phobias, and traumas using energy psychology.

How to create a bioscalar energy wave within your body for rapid healing.

Take the next step in your healing, and order Health on the Edge today.


What’s New

Once again I must apologize for the fact that this week’s issue is late. The reason has to do with the deluge of book and other projects that have come my way recently, leaving me very busy for the foreseeable future. My commitment to you remains the same, however, and I am taking steps to ensure that I will remain able to keep producing this newsletter in a timely and complete basis. Please stay with me; the best is yet to come.

I’m devoting this issue to a single article written by my friend, Dr. Susan Brown. Susan shares with us the most recent findings concerning Vitamin D, nutrient that in recent months has increasingly been found to be important to our overall health, yet which most of us lack sufficient amounts of. Please read Susan’s article and take the steps she recommends to ensure your Vitamin D stores are adequate.

Due to my time commitments, I’m extending the time that you can obtain any and all titles in our Burton Goldberg eBook Library of Health for only $9.95 each (a savings of nearly 70%). The wealth of health-related info/rmation in this series is unrivaled and has already helped thousands of people to live healthier, more productive lives.  This offer will end at the end very shortly and will not be repeated. For more info/rmation, please visit http://www.1healthyworld.com/ebooks Your orders help support this newsletter and 1HealthyWorld.com and are greatly appreciated.

As always, please continue to send me your comments and suggestions. And please spread the word about The Health Plus Letter by passing it along to your friends and inviting them to subscribe.

I’ll be back next week with a full issue (honest!), including more of my ongoing series, Learning To Heal.


Quote Of The Day

The love we receive from our loved ones provides us with a mirror in which we can see our own Divinity.


Fast Fact

Stress is the primary contributing factor to over 95 percent of all illnesses.


Medical F/r/e/edom Alert

Our health f/r/e/edom remains under siege. Please support the following organizations, which are at the forefront of those working to protect our rights:

Citizens for Health - http://www.citizens.org (Sing their online petition to safeguard health supplements.)

Institute for Health F/r/e/edom – http://www.ForHealthF/r/e/edom.org

International Advocates for Health F/r/e/edom (IAHF) – http://www.iahf.com

Health Lobby (Monica Miller) – http://www.healthlobby.com

Also, please do your part to ensure that the misleadingly named “Dietary Safety Supplement” Act (S. 722) is defeated. To become info/rmed about S. 722 and to take action to help defeat its passage, please visit:http://capwiz.com/nnfa/S722.html

To stay info/rmed of other developments related to medical f/r/e/edom, please visit http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org the website of Dr. Mattias Rath, a leading crusader for medical f/r/e/edom.

To see to what depraved lengths people will go to persecute practitioners of alternative medicine in the U.S., please read the following report by noted medical f/r/e/edom advocate Tim Bolen at http://www.quackpotwatch.org/opinionpieces/Suster2.htm

And to learn how corrupt and extensive Big Pharma’s monopoly is, visit http://www.pnc.com.au/~cafmr/online/research/index.html the website for the Campaign Against Fraudulent Medical Research. In particular, read their in-depth report The Pharmaceutical Drug Racket that you will find there.

New! Do your part to help preserve the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), which safeguards your right to readily access nutritional supplements without interference from government bureaucracies.

Take action! Ask the U.S. Codex Delegation to protect your right to readily purchase nutritional supplements and to protect the . Visit http://www.healthactioncenter.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item+21232

Then write to Dr. Barbara Schneeman and other key official U.S. Codex delegates to let them kn/o/w that we are confident that the U.S. Delegation won't let us down at the Codex conference tables in Bonn, Rome, Geneva and h/e/r/e in the U.S.

This message reflects a collaborative effort between Citizens for Health, http://www.citizens.org and The  Alliance for Natural Health, http://www.alliance-natural-health.org


Unabashed Plug

Learn the Truth about Heart Disease, Stroke and Hypertension. Most of what conventional medicine has to offer for treating these conditions is based on faulty and potentially dangerous assumptions. Discover the real causes behind these diseases and learn what you can do today to prevent and reverse them using safe and natural alternatives that have been scientifically proven to be effective. Read the critically-acclaimed eBook Burton Goldberg’s Definitive Guide to Heart Disease, featuring the contributions of Dr. Garry Gordon, Dr. Stephen Sinatra, and many other leading heart specialists. To order or to find out more about this potentially lifesaving guide, visit http://www.1healthyworld.com/ebooks/Heart-Book-Info.cfm.


Vitamin D:  Startling New Research Findings on an Old Bone Builder by Susan E. Brown, Ph.D., CCN, Director, Osteoporosis Education Project

From the height of the Industrial Revolution until nearly seventy years ago large percentages of urban children in the US and Northern Europe suffered from a mysterious disease. This disease left children with growth retardation and bone defo/rmity so severe that giving birth vaginally was impossible. As a consequence, birth by Caesarian section became widespread in Britain. This bone devastating disease became kn/o/w as “rickets” in children and “osteomalacia” in adults.  After decades of experimentation the cure was found in two things; sunlight exposure and small amounts of cod liver oil.

The First Wave of Vitamin D Awareness (early 1900’s to mid 1990’s)

Vitamins are nutrients essential for life that cannot be produced within the body.  They must be consumed in the diet.  Identification of the substance in cod liver oil that cured rickets led to the classification of Vitamin D as a “vitamin”.  In reality, however, vitamin D is a “prohormone”.  It is a substance produced in the body upon exposure to ultraviolet solar radiation, which is then converted by the liver and kidneys into an active hormone.  With abundant sunlight exposure we need not consume vitamin D.  In fact, few sources of human food contain vitamin D, and as a rule 80% or more of our vitamin D is produced from sunlight exposure.

Humans evolved in open sunlight and needed no other source of vitamin D.  However, as if nature anticipated the move into colder, darker climates, she provided for limited dietary sources of this vitamin D.  While these dietary sources do not provide for optimal levels of vitamin D as does sunlight exposure, they can provide enough vitamin D to prevent bone-damaging deficiency disease.

In the early 1900’s discovery of the factor in cod liver oil that cured rickets and osteomalacia was a triumph of early nutrition science.  Stemming from this success, the “first wave” of vitamin D awareness pegged the need for vitamin D at the minimal amount which could prevent sunlight deficiency-induced bone disease, roughly 100 International Units (IU) daily.

This “first wave” of vitamin D awareness also brought the realization that vitamin D was fat soluble and stored in the body, and thus had a potential for toxic accumulation.  For various reasons, vitamin D toxicity became an issue of exaggerated concern, the extent of which is only n/o/w becoming evident. Looking back scientists n/o/w realize that vitamin D toxicity is rare and only occurs from unusual oral intake, ne/ver from sunlight exposure. The early cases of vitamin D intoxication which fo/rmed the basis for the “first wave” toxicity concern generally involved impurities in vitamin D production, or the use of synthetic vitamin D analogues, or accidental use of extremely high doses, or individuals with vitamin D hypersensitivity.

The “Second Wave” of Vitamin D Awareness (mid 1990’s to present)

In the mid 1990’s key vitamin D researchers began challenging common assumptions about vitamin D.  Most importantly they began to ques/tion what might be the optimal level of vitamin D, as opposed to the minimal level used to prevent rickets and osteomalacia. This in turn led to a long overdue critical analysis of vitamin D toxicity. Well respected researchers including Dr. Reinhold Vieth of the Univer/sity of Toronto and US calcium guru Dr. Robert Heaney of Creighton Univer/sity blazed this exciting new scientific trail.

“New Wave” Findings on Vitamin D

Once these insightful researchers set aside the old assumptions about vitamin D and began to ask new ques/tions, a new wave of info/rmation arose.  This new wave promises to revolutionize the way medicine looks at, and uses, vitamin D.  New wave perspectives include awareness that:

Vitamin D is far from just a bone nutrient

Receptors for vitamin D have been found all over the body from bone and brain to thymus and uterus.  While there is still much to learn, strong evidence suggests that vitamin D is also important as an immune enhancement, anti-cancer and cardio-protective and joint protective agent, as well as being a potent antioxidant.

From an anthropological perspective we evolved outdoors exposed to abundant sunlight with attendant “high” vitamin D blood levels

Even today farmers and outdoor workers in sunny climates produce an equivalent of 10,000 IU vitamin D a day from solar radiation.  These outdoor folks have naturally high vitamin D blood levels, at, or above the high end of normal for the standard laboratory range. These levels are maintained without any toxic effects, in fact, considerable data suggest health-promoting effects of these naturally occurring high vitamin D levels.

The optimum, health-promoting level of vitamin D is much higher than expected

As it n/o/w appears the “optimum” blood level of vitamin D falls at the high end of the normal range.  (The typical laboratory normal range for vitamin D in the fo/rm of 25(OH)D is from 20 to 150 nmol/L or from 8 to 60 ng/ml, depending which unit of measurement is used).  In regard to bone health, for example, the optimum level of vitamin D appears to be that level which favorably reduces parathyroid hormone (a hormone which you want low to prevent osteoporosis).  Research suggests the blood level of vitamin D needed for this is 100nmol/L (40 ng/ml) or greater.  Interestingly, the two well accepted studies showing osteoporosis fracture prevention with vitamin D and calcium supplementation reported that the mean vitamin D concentration of subjects after supplementation exceeded 100nmol/L, measured as 25(OH)D.

It takes much more vitamin D input than expected to gain and maintain this optimum vitamin D level

Whether our vitamin D comes from sunlight, food or supplements, researchers find we need substantially more vitamin D input than expected to maintain optimum blood levels. Depending on sunlight exposure and vitamin D body stores, maintaining these levels can require anywhere from 0 to 4,000 (IU) of vitamin D daily (Always work with your physician to determined the amount of vitamin D you need).

The new 1997-2002 US Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) recommendations for oral vitamin D intake are too low

Dr. Robert Heaney himself was a member of the FNB which set the official vitamin D intake levels.  Dr. Heaney n/o/w reports, however, that his new research suggests these government recommendations are far too low.  As he calculates, our typical diet combined with the recommended supplemental D intake (200 IU, raising to 400 IU at age 51 and 600 IU for 71 years and older) would only provide 15% of an ideal vitamin D blood level. Dr. Heaney himself n/o/w classifies the FNB recommendations as “falling into a curious zone between irrelevant and inadequate”. For those individuals with extensive solar exposure the governmental intake recommendations add little to their daily production, and for those without exposure the recommended levels are insufficient to ensure desired 25(OH)D blood levels.

The best way to determine vitamin D need and to gauge safety of supplement use is to measure the blood level of the vitamin D metabolite kn/o/wn as 25(OH)D vitamin D

The only real way to kn/o/w if you are receiving an adequate and or safe dose of  vitamin D is through a blood test for 25(OH)D.  Be sure your physician tests for the more stable fo/rm of vitamin D kn/o/wn as 25-Hydroxyvitamin D, kn/o/wn as  25(OH)D and not for the transient 1, 25-Dihyrdroxyvitamin D fo/rm.  Also, it is wise to retest after using vitamin D for a month to make sure that you are not getting too high or too low levels of vitamin D.  Occasional retesting thereafter might be recommended by your physician if you are on higher dose therapy.

The potential for vitamin D toxicity has been overstated

While vitamin D can accumulate and become toxic, documented toxicity is rare and often involves either individuals with specific vitamin D hypersensitivity or accidental misuse.  As Dr. Veith reports, vitamin D toxicity is always accompanied by serum 25(OH)D levels greater than 220 nmol/L.  Further, his exhaustive research finds no cases of D3 toxicity due to intentional consumption. Of course, everyone’s biochemistry is different, so it is wise to have your vitamin D use monitor by your physician.

While most of our vitamin D comes from sunlight exposure, winter internal vitamin D production is almost nil in much of the world

In latitudes 40 degrees either way from the equator (a Northern parallel around Philadelphia or Lisbon) the slant of the sun is such that during winter months we produce very little, if any, vitamin D, even with sunlight exposure.  In the winter those in Northern climates depend on vitamin D stores accumulated in the summer.

Populations in many parts of the world do not have adequate levels of vitamin D

Even using the “old wave” traditional standards for vitamin D adequacy nearly one half of US African-American women ages 15 to 49 were recently found to be vitamin D deficient.  Further, 30% of African-American women who were consuming more than 200 IU of vitamin D from supplements were still found to have low vitamin D levels. In another study thirty-four percent of Canadians surveyed had inadequate Vitamin D levels.  In a Boston study of elderly people who took vitamin D supplements or drank 2-3 glasses of vitamin D fortified milk, 80% were overtly or borderline vitamin D deficient at the end of winter. Further, in an area as diverse as Israel large portions of the population are reported to be vitamin D deficient.

Types of Vitamin D Supplements

There are two common fo/rms of vitamin D supplements.  One, kn/o/wn as D₃ (cholecaliferol)is a natural fo/rm of the vitamin. D₃ is most commonly derivedfrom lanolin from sheep’s wool and can be alsoproduced from fish oil. The other common fo/rm of vitamin D is kn/o/wn as D₂ (ergocalciferol).  D₂ is a synthetic fo/rm of the vitamin.  It is roughly half as potent as natural vitamin D₃.  When possible we prefer to use fish oil based natural vitamin D₃, which also offers good levels of the important Omega 3 essential fatty acids.  A good, purified, low in vitamin A, and carefully packaged cod liver oil (such as Carlson’s) is an excellent source of natural vitamin D.

Stay Tuned For The New Vitamin D Research

The “first wave” of vitamin D awareness gifted humans with a cure for one devastating bone disease.  The currently unfolding “second wave”, is guaranteed to move us closer to a cure for the modern day osteoporosis epidemic.  For research updates and guidelines for monitoring your vitamin D use visit us at http://www.betterbones.com and http://www.susanbrownphd.com.

Tips on Vitamin D Supplementation

Use the natural D3 cholecalciferol from of D, it is more effective and safer than the synthetic D2 (ergocalciferol)

Avoid vitamin D supplementation containing very much vitamin A (for bone health limit total vitamin A supplementation to 2,500 IU)

Begin with 400, or possible 800 IU if sun exposure is minimal

Ask your doctor to test your blood 25(OH)D level at base line and then after at least four weeks of supplement use, and adjust dose accordingly and retest as necessary

Do not use D supplements without your doctor’s supervision if you have kidney problems, kidney stones or any disease such as sarcoidosis which makes you hypersensitive to vitamin D

Guidelines for Sunlight Exposure

Short periods, 15-20 minutes daily, of near full body exposure are best for light skinned people (without sunscreen)

Use sunscreen after this initial period, so as not burn your skin

Very dark skinned people require 4-6 times more sunlight exposure than light skinned people

In Northern areas longer exposure is needed, especially during the winter

The useful ultraviolet rays are strongest between 10 am and 2 pm

Vitamin D Toxicity

First symptoms of toxicity include anorexia (loss of appetite), nausea, vomiting followed by excessive urination, weakness and nervousness

Elevated serum calcium levels of 12 to 16 mg/dl are constant findings when toxic symptoms occur (normal calcium levels are 8.5 to 10.5 mg/dl)

There is no evidence of adverse effects with serum 25(OH)D levels less than 140 nmol/l

Intoxication is usually associated with 25(OH)D concentrations above 375 nmol/L with attendant high blood calcium and phosphate levels

Selected References

Barger-Lux, M.J., Effects of Above Average Summer Sun Exposure on Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D and Calcium Absorption. J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab.. 2002, 87(11) 4952-4956

Chapuy M.C., Vitamin D₃ and calcium to prevent hip fractures in the elderly woman.  N Engl J Med 1992; 327: 1637-42.

Dawson-Hughes B., Effect of calcium and vitamin D supplementation on bone density in men and women 65 years of age or older. N Engl J Med 1997; 337:670-6.

Heaney, R.P., Human Serum 25 Hydroxy-Cholecalciferol Response To Extended Oral Dosing with Cholecalciferol. Am J Clin Nutr, Forthcoming 2003.

Heaney, R.P., Lessons for nutritional science from vitamin D. Am J Clin Nutr 1999 May, 69 (5): 825-826.

Holick, M.F., Too little vitamin D in premenopausal women: why should we care? Am J Clin Nutr 2002 Jul; 76(1): 3-4.

Holick, M.F., “Vitamin D,” in Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, ed.Shils, M.E., et al. (Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 1999.

Vieth, R., Vitamin D supplementation, 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations, and safety. Am J Clin Nutr 1999, 69: 842-56.

Vieth, R., Efficacy and safety of vitamin D₃ intake exceeding the lowest observed adverse effect level (LOAEL). Am J Clin Nutr 2001 Feb, 73 (2): 288-294.

Heaney, R, et al. “Human Serum 25-Hydroxy-Cholecalciferol response to Extended Oral Dosing with Cholecalciferol” Am J Clin Nutr, Forthcoming 2003. 

Vieth, R. “Would prehistoric human 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration be beneficial, and how much vitamin D do we need to ensure desirable nutritional targets?” (Chapter in book, we are trying to get full reference)

Note: The Osteoporosis Education Project is a public-interest, non-profit organization dedicated to exploring human potential for natural bone health maintenance and regeneration. We give you permission to print and distribute this document, requesting that it is printed in full, ackn/o/wledging its source. Those intersted in bone health would benefit from our book Better Bones Better Body, A Comprehensive Self-Help Program for Preventing, Halting & Overcoming Osteoporosis (Keats, 2000) as well as our Better Body Better Bones Alkaline Way pH Test Kit. Info/rmation on both of these items can be found in our Better Bones Better Body Store and can be obtained by calling 315-432-1676 or by e-mailing drsbrown@earthlink.com. We invite you to also visit our websites: http://www.betterbones.com and http://www.susanbrownphd.com.

Copyright © 2004 by Susan Brown, Ph.D. All rights reserved.


Unabashed Plug

Discover and Gain Control of Your Human Energy Field. Read Dr. Valerie Hunt’s Mind Mastery Meditations: A Workbook for the “Infinite Mind,” the empowering guide created by one of the world's foremost researchers into the human energy field, energy medicine, and the relationship between consciousness and health. Each of the meditations this eBook contains is designed to give you mastery of your mind and to empower you to discover the answers to why you are the way you are, your soul's needs, your unique talents and capacities, and your self-designed destiny. By practicing and mastering these meditations, you will become able to live your life with greater ease and success, speed your self-healing, and dramatically increase your ability to manifest your deepest goals. To order this life-changing guide, visit
http://www.1healthyworld.com/ebooks/Mind-Mastery-Book-Info.cfm.

That’s all for this week. I promise to have a full issue ready for you next Tuesday.

Health and Blessings!

Larry Trivieri, Jr. (larry@1healthyworld.com)


Disclaimer: The Health Plus Letter is a weekly eZine published by Larry Trivieri, Jr. and Library of Health, LLC (dba www.1healthyworld.com) 1514 Genesee Street, Suite 52, Utica, NY 13502. It is made available without charge for info/rmation purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical care. If you are experiencing a health problem, seek prompt medical attention.

The Health Plus Letter is fully compliant with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.

Legal Notice: The info/rmation in this eZine may be f/r/e/ely and widely disseminated so long as full attribution is made as follows: The Health Plus Letter, October 7, 2004, Vol. 2, No. 32. Copyright © 2004 by Larry Trivieri, Jr. All rights reserved.

To Subscribe Or Unsubscribe to The Health Plus Letter, please visit http://www.1healthyworld.com/lists