Viral Alternative News: vitamin D

Showing posts with label vitamin D. Show all posts

Amazing Vitamin That Stops Cancer Growth

Vitamin D is extremely beneficial and needed vitamin which effectively prevents many diseases, including diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Sadly, numerous people do not consume sufficient amounts of this miraculous vitamin.

Medical experts point out that around 1.7 million new people are expected to be diagnosed with cancer in the U.S. What’s more, these numbers refer to absolutely new cancer cases, meaning that they do not include the already infected ones.

Nowadays, the modern medicine is continually struggling to discover effective treatments and cancer cures, and newest research suggests that the use of this vitamin will help in the fight against this deadly disease.

Nevertheless, statistics demonstrate that around 70% of children in the U.S. do not take sufficient amounts of vitamin D, and around 75% of the adults do not consume enough of it regularly.

This vitamin is crucial and especially useful for our body, as it prevents numerous diseases, including diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Therefore, the regular and sufficient consumption of vitamin D is of crucial importance for our health.

The common symptoms of vitamin D deficiency are the following:

Chronic pain
Excessive sweating – (which is not caused by a physical activity or high temperature)
Severe asthma, particularly in young children
Cognitive impairment, especially in older adults
Bone pain
Depression – (According to many studies, vitamin D may prevent anxiety and help in the case of depression .)
Muscle weakness

A research team from Norway conducted a study in 2008, which involved 441 overweight participants. Findings showed that individuals who consumed 20,000 and 40.000 IUS vitamin D a week significantly reduced the depression symptoms, which was not the case with those who did not take vitamin D.

A growing number of studies are struggling to determine and confirm the link between vitamin D and cancer prevention.

Namely, a study conducted in 2007 showed that women who in menopause consumed a certain amount of vitamin D, significantly reduced their risk of all kinds of cancers in just 4 years;

The main function of this vitamin is to maintain bone health and to promote calcium absorption. Moreover, it also enhances the function of the cardiovascular system, boosts the immune system, as well as other important functions for our health.

Experts also say that the recommended daily intake of vitamin D is adaptable, as in the case of people aged 1 to 70 years, it is 600 IU, and in the case of infants from 0-12 months, the recommended daily intake is 1.000 IU.

Furthermore, it is recommended to consume it mostly through dietary sources, including orange juice, tuna, milk, oily fish, yogurt, mushrooms. Moreover, you should also spend more time in the sun.

Thanks for taking the time to read this article. If you found this information helpful, please share it with your friends and family. Your support in our endeavor of sharing free information would be much appreciated.

Follow us on Facebook to stay updated with what's going Viral in the Alternative News scene. https://www.facebook.com/ViralAlternativeNews

www.finelivingadvice.com

Study: Vitamin D May Repair MS Nerve Damage

By Dr. Mercola

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, neurodegenerative disease of the nerves in your brain and spinal column, caused by a demyelization process. In MS, your immune system mistakenly attacks the myelin, which is a protective coating around your nerve fibers.

This leads to disruptions in the messages sent around your brain and spinal cord, leading to symptoms such as trouble balancing, muscle weakness, tremors, pain, and fatigue.

Researchers have long been searching for a method to repair this damage to the myelin, and thereby slow, stop or even reverse the course of the disease.

While your body does have the ability to repair myelin naturally, this process tends to become less effective as you get older. Now, however, researchers have uncovered a natural option that might play a major role in boosting the repair of damaged myelin in people with MS: vitamin D.

Vitamin D Might Help Regenerate Damaged Myelin

The RXR gamma receptor protein is known to be involved in the repair of myelin. Researchers from the University of Cambridge revealed that the vitamin D receptor protein is also involved and pairs with RXR gamma during this process.1 According to the University of Cambridge:2

"By adding vitamin D to brain stem cells where the proteins were present, they found the production rate of oligodendrocytes (myelin making cells) increased by 80 percent.

When they blocked the vitamin D receptor to stop it from working, the RXR gamma protein alone was unable to stimulate the production of oligodendrocytes."

The researchers noted that the study "provides significant evidence that vitamin D is also involved in the regeneration of myelin" once MS has developed, and they hope to create a myelin repair drug that works by targeting the vitamin D receptor (currently, the typical prescription for MS focuses on highly toxic medications like prednisone and interferon).3

Susan Kohlhaas, head of biomedical research at the MS Society, stated, however, that she'd like to see more studies to reveal whether taking vitamin D supplements could be an effective treatment for MS.4

Vitamin D Deficiency Is Prevalent Among People with MS

There's no need to wait for further research to optimize your vitamin D levels, especially if you have a condition like MS.

Research presented at the 2014 annual meeting of the American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) shows that vitamin D deficiency is surprisingly prevalent both among those diagnosed with MS and patients suffering other neuromuscular conditions.5

In this case, vitamin D deficiency was defined as a 25(OH)D3 level of 30 ng/ml or less. Of patients diagnosed with a neuromuscular condition, 48 percent were deficient in vitamin D.

Only 14 percent were above "normal," which here constituted a vitamin D level of 40 ng/ml (to maximally benefit from vitamin D, you likely need a level of 40 to 60 ng/ml). According to one of the authors:

"While the connection between vitamin D deficiency and neurologic disease is likely complex and not yet fully understood, this study may prompt physicians to consider checking vitamin D levels in their patients with neurologic conditions and supplementing when necessary."

Sensible Sun Exposure Associated with MS Risk

About a dozen studies have noted a strong link between MS and vitamin D deficiency, including lack of sun exposure. It is through sunlight exposure that your body is able to produce vitamin D.

For example, a number of studies have confirmed that your risk of MS increases the farther away you live from the equator, suggesting lack of sun exposure amplifies your risk.6

People born in April or May, just after the darker, colder winter months, have also been found to be significantly more likely to have MS than those born during October and November (after the sunny summer months). Researchers concluded:7

"Month of birth has a significant effect on subsequent MS risk. This is likely to be due to ultraviolet light exposure and maternal vitamin D levels, as demonstrated by the relationship between risk and latitude."

Evidence presented in the journal Dermato-Endocrinology even confirmed that exposure to the sun in appropriate and measured timeframes has a number of health benefits unrelated to vitamin D production, such as protecting against and suppressing symptoms of MS.8

Vitamin D Deficiency May Be Putting Your Health at Risk

It's incredibly easy to boost your vitamin D levels, so there's no reason to put your health at risk from low status … yet researchers such as Dr. Michael Holick estimate that 50 percent of the general population is at risk of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency.

If you're among them, your risk of not only multiple sclerosis, but also diabetes and other metabolic disorders may be significantly increased. In a study of more than 100 people, those with low vitamin D levels were more likely to have type 2 diabetes, pre-diabetes, or metabolic syndrome, regardless of their weight.9

Dementia is also directly linked to vitamin D. Seniors who have low vitamin D levels may double their risk of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease.10 As noted by the authors, "This adds to the ongoing debate about the role of vitamin D in nonskeletal conditions."

Incidence of several types of cancer could also be slashed in half if more people increased their vitamin D levels.

As mentioned by Dr. Holick, one of the Nurses' Health Studies showed that nurses who had the highest blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, averaging about 50 ng/ml, reduced their risk of developing breast cancer by as much as 50 percent.

Similarly, a Canadian study done by senior investigator of research Julia Knight, Ph.D., showed that women who reported having the most sun exposure as a teenager and young adult had almost a 70 percent reduced risk of developing breast cancer.

One of Dr. Holick's studies showed that healthy volunteers taking 2,000 IUs of vitamin D per day for a few months upregulated 291 different genes that control up to 80 different metabolic processes.

This included improving DNA repair to having effect on autoxidation (oxidation that occurs in the presence of oxygen and /or UV radiation, which has implications for aging and cancer, for example), boosting your immune system, and many other biological processes.

How to Optimize Your Vitamin D Levels

I believe sensible sun exposure is the ideal way to optimize your vitamin D levels. As a general rule, you'll want to expose large amounts of bare skin to the sun until it turns the lightest shade of pink, if you're light-skinned.

This typically occurs in about half the time it would normally take you to burn. So if you know you tend to get sunburned after 30 minutes, you'd want to stay in the sun for about 15 minutes. Those with darker skin may need to pay closer attention to notice when this slight reddening occurs.

It's nearly impossible to give any firm recommendations for how long you need to stay in the sun to optimize vitamin D production, as it varies greatly depending on a number of factors, such as:

Antioxidant levels and diet in general Age

Skin color and/or current tan level Use of sunscreen

Latitude and altitude (elevation) Cloud cover and pollution

Ozone layer Surface reflection

Season Time of day

Weight

While sunlight is the ideal way to optimize your vitamin D, winter and working indoors prevent more than 90 percent of those reading this article from achieving ideal levels.

A high-quality tanning bed is your next best option, but if your circumstances don't allow you to access the sun or a high-quality tanning bed, then you really have only one option if you want to raise your vitamin D, and that is to take a vitamin D3 supplement.

As a general guideline, research by GrassrootsHealth suggests adults need about 8,000 IUs per day to achieve a serum level of 40 ng/ml.

However, to find out what dosage is best for you make sure to get tested, and take steps to optimize your levels accordingly. The vitamin D test you're looking for is called 25(OH)D or 25-hydroxyvitamin D. This is the officially recognized marker of overall D status and is most strongly associated with overall health. The other vitamin D test available, called 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D (1,25(OH)D), is not very useful for determining vitamin D sufficiency.

If you do opt for a vitamin D3 supplement, you also need to boost your intake of vitamin K2 through food and/or a supplement, as well as continue to get your levels tested to be sure you're safely within the therapeutic range.

Sources

Nutrition for Your Mitochondria May Benefit MS

I believe optimizing your vitamin D level is of great importance if you have MS, but it's not the only factor. Dr. Terry Wahls, who reversed multiple sclerosis after seven years of deterioration simply by changing her diet, discovered that MS patients' brains tend to shrink.

This roused her curiosity and led her to research other diseases that have similar brain shrinkage, namely Huntington's, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's diseases. One common denominator is poorly functioning mitochondria. Mitochondria are like little "batteries" in your cells that manage the energy supply to the cell. Unless you consume the correct nutrients, eventual mitochondrial malfunction is the result.

She discovered three nutrients in particular that are essential for proper mitochondrial function:

Animal-based omega-3 fat

Creatine

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), or better yet the reduced version known as ubiquinol

The breakfast I currently enjoy, which is based on coconut oil, is also designed to improve the health of your mitochondria. Your myelin also needs specific nutrients to function properly, such as:

Vitamin B1

Vitamin B9

Vitamin B12

Animal-based omega-3 fat

Iodine

The neurotransmitters in your brain also need specific nutrients, including sulfur and vitamin B6, for optimal functioning. Eventually, Dr. Wahls designed her own eating plan, based on the nutrients she knew she needed for optimal mitochondrial, myelin, and neurotransmitter function, because while your body can create some nutrients, others must be provided through your diet. Dr. Wahl eliminated processed foods, grains, and starches from her diet and began to eat the foods that follow.

3 cups daily (equal to one dinner plate, piled high) of green leaves, such as kale, which are high in vitamins B, A, C, K, and minerals 3 cups daily of sulfur-rich vegetables from the cabbage and onion families, mushrooms, and asparagus 3 cups daily of brightly colored vegetables, fruits, and/or berries, which are good sources of antioxidants

Wild-caught fish for animal-based omega-3s Grass-fed meat Organ meats for vitamins, minerals, and CoQ10

Seaweed for iodine and selenium

Dr. Wahl began to notice significant improvement in just three months, and at the nine-month mark of her new diet, she was able to go on an 18-mile bike ride. This is the power of nutrition!

More Natural Strategies for Multiple Sclerosis

MS can be a challenging disease to treat, which is why it's best to consult a natural health care provider who can help you attack it from multiple angles, including the dietary, environmental, and emotional elements. For instance, aspartame and mercury toxicity have been known to mimic diseases such as MS, so addressing this possibility, if it applies to you, should be at the top of your list — in addition to adjusting your diet, not in lieu of dietary changes.

Certain supplements may also be useful, such as low-dose Naltrexone (LDN), along with alpha-lipoic acid. Naltrexone (generic name) is a pharmacologically active opioid antagonist conventionally used to treat drug and alcohol addiction – normally at doses of 50 milligrams (mg) to 300 mg.

As such, it's been an FDA-approved drug for over two decades. However, researchers have found that at very low dosages(3 mg to 4.5 mg), Naltrexone has immune-modulating properties that may be able to successfully treat a wide range of autoimmune diseases including MS.

When you take LDN at bedtime, it blocks your opioid receptors for a few hours in the middle of the night, and is believed to up-regulate vital elements of your immune system by increasing your body's production of metenkephalin and endorphins (your natural opioids), hence improving immune function.

More often than not, some form of hidden emotional wound can also be found in patients suffering with autoimmune diseases like MS.

Strategies like meditation, prayer, and energy psychology techniques such as the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) are particularly effective and need to be part of your overall treatment strategy in order to truly address the root of your illness, as well as help you cope with symptoms. Again, working with a holistic health care provider can help you to determine the best overall strategy for you.

How To Supercharge Your Body With Vitamin D To Relieve Asthma By 70%

The effect of vitamin D is strongest among people with asthma and other lung diseases who are predisposed to respiratory infections. to recommend approval if more safety restrictions were added. Published in the British Journal of Nutrition, a review found in children previously diagnosed with asthma, vitamin D supplementation resulted in a 74% reduction in the risk of asthma exacerbation.

According to previous research published in the journal Allergy, people with a vitamin D deficiency were 25% more likely than other asthmatics to have had at least one flare-up in the recent past.

“Vitamin D has significant immunomodulatory effects and, as such, was believed to have an effect on asthma — an immunologically mediated disease,” said Confino-Cohen. “But most of the existing data regarding vitamin D and asthma came from the pediatric population and was inconsistent. Our present study is unique because the study population of young adults is very large and ‘uncontaminated’ by other diseases,” stated Dr Ronit Confino-Cohen.

People with the worst vitamin D deficiency were 36 percent more likely to suffer respiratory infections than those with sufficient levels, according to the research in this week’s Archives of Internal Medicine. Among asthmatics, those who were vitamin D deficient were five times more likely to get sick than their counterparts with healthy levels. And the risk of respiratory infection was twice as high among vitamin D-deficient patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) than in lung patients with normal levels of the vitamin.

Potential impact

According the World Health Organisation (WHO) about 235 million people suffer from asthma, which is particularly common in children. It cited asthma as one of the major non-communicable diseases facing the world today.

The condition means air passages of the lungs become inflamed and narrowed.

The causes of asthma are not completely understood but it is thought to be a combination of genetic predisposition and environmental exposure to irritants like allergens, tobacco smoke and air pollution.

ARI refers to the infection of the sinuses, throat, airways or lungs usually caused by viruses or bacteria. They can be particularly dangerous for people with asthma. According to a 2013 paper , an estimated 11.9 million episodes of severe ARI and three million episodes of very severe ARI in young children resulted in hospital admissions in 2010 globally.

Meanwhile a separate paper from the Child Health Epidemiology Reference Group of WHO and UNICEF found almost two-thirds of the 7.6 million children worldwide who died within the first five years of life died of infectious diseases. Within these two-thirds, pneumonia was the leading cause for a total of 1.396 million deaths.

WHO has said in the past that further research on vitamin D supplementation and the possible decrease in frequency and severity of respiratory infections in children was needed before specific recommendations could be made.

The Chinese researchers wrote in their review: “Although vitamin D is widely recognised for its importance in calcium metabolism and bone health, researchers have spent several years focusing on its growing number of possible non-calcaemic health effects.

“One of the more promising areas of study is the relationship between vitamin D status and respiratory infection. Recent research has indicated that vitamin D may play a role in protecting against ARI by increasing the body’s production of naturally acting antibiotics.”

The review was conducted by researchers at the Anhui Medical University, Shaoxing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Huzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Anhui Institute of Schistosomiasis Control and the Anhui Provincial Family Planning Institute of Science and Technology in China.

It included trials in Japan, Afghanistan, India, Poland and Mongolia that compared vitamin D supplementation with either placebo or no intervention in children younger than 18 years of age.

Protect Yourself Against These Top Two Killers Cancer & Heart Disease With One Simple Change

When someone asks me what the most important nutrients are that they should be getting, my response is: All of them.

Fact is, your body must have the full array of nutrients to function the way it’s supposed to—nutrients are not optional.

While all of the 2,000 or so vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients are impressive in their own way, one superstar nutrient worthy of a pat on the back is vitamin D.

Let’s take a closer look at all that vitamin D does for you and why you don’t want to be without it.

Vitamin D—bones are just the beginning!

Vitamin D works with parathyroid hormone (PTH) to regulate the level of calcium in your blood and support bone health (plus it helps prevent against osteoporosis too).

But it’s also important for your teeth and oral health. Studies have shown that in men and women over 50 years of age, a lack of vitamin D is associated with increased risk of periodontal (gum) disease.

An immune boost

Vitamin D also helps regulate your immune system activity by helping to prevent excessive, inflammatory immune responses such as those seen in autoimmune conditions like Crohn’s, colitis, multiple sclerosis, lupus, Type 1 diabetes and Graves’ disease.Type 2 diabetes

The role of vitamin D in regulating calcium goes beyond your bones and teeth.

Calcium also plays a major role in your body’s ability to regulate glucose and insulin levels, so having enough blood calcium (which depends on healthy levels of vitamin D) is important to prevent Type 2 diabetes.

In addition, vitamin D also supports proper pancreatic function to help control glucose in the bloodstream (since your pancreas produces insulin).

Our #2 killer–Cancer

Researchers have been intrigued for a long time about vitamin D’s role in preventing cancer, since studies have shown that people who live in southern latitudes (where they get more sun exposure and their bodies can make vitamin D) have lower levels of certain cancers.

Turns out they were on to something.

Vitamin D plays an important role in your cell activity—in other words, helping to regulate cell multiplication and cell death.

By definition cancer is excessive cell multiplication, along with a concurrent slowing down in cell death. That’s what allows tumors to form and take over surrounding tissues—they multiply like crazy and don’t die off.

But vitamin D’s action to encourage proper cell activity shines through here– studies have found that vitamin D acts to decrease the growth of cancer cells and to stimulate the death of those deadly cells.

Our #1 killer—Heart Disease

Several studies have been conducted linking low levels of vitamin D to an increased risk of heart disease including heart attack, peripheral artery disease, congestive heart failure and atherosclerosis.

For example, a study conducted by researchers at Harvard University found that people who had low levels of vitamin D were twice as likely to have a heart attack as those who had adequate D levels.

This is merely another example of vitamin D’s anti-inflammatory efforts in action.

Since inflammation in your arteries is a leading contributing factor to high blood pressure, arterial damage, atherosclerosis and ultimately heart disease, vitamin D’s anti-inflammatory properties can help protect against our #1 killer.

Why do so many have too little?

Unfortunately, vitamin D deficiency is extremely common, especially in the northern hemisphere where we have less exposure to sunlight and therefore our bodies can’t always make enough vitamin D.

Additionally, our increasing use of statins has contributed to our vitamin D deficiencies too.

Your body needs cholesterol to manufacture vitamin D. So if you take statins (which suppress the liver’s ability to produce cholesterol like it was designed to), that most assuredly can have an effect on your vitamin D level.

Moreover, as we get older, our skin doesn’t make as much vitamin D in response to sun exposure. At the same time, our kidneys become less efficient at converting vitamin D into the form used by the body as we age.

So now what?

Hopefully by now you’ve gotten the idea that vitamin D is not something you want to be low in.

It’s important to know where you stand, so ask your doctor to do a test to see if you are lacking.

If you are deficient, then you’ll need to consider increasing your dietary intake of vitamin D. Natural food sources of vitamin D include: shrimp, milk, cod and eggs.

And if you want to consider supplementing, look for formulas that provide both vitamin D (in the highly recommended form D3) as well as vitamin K (in the form of K2).

Just like vitamin D, vitamin K also provides bone support and helps to prevent atherosclerosis, thereby decreasing your risk of heart disease, so a formula with both D and K is ideal.

All of the 2,000 nutrients are extremely important, but vitamin D really packs a punch in terms of health benefits and protecting you against our top two killers (and many other chronic diseases).

So it’s crucial to do what you need to do to make sure you have enough of this potential life saver!

Antioxidant levels and diet in general	Age
Skin color and/or current tan level	Use of sunscreen
Latitude and altitude (elevation)	Cloud cover and pollution
Ozone layer	Surface reflection
Season	Time of day
Weight

3 cups daily (equal to one dinner plate, piled high) of green leaves, such as kale, which are high in vitamins B, A, C, K, and minerals	3 cups daily of sulfur-rich vegetables from the cabbage and onion families, mushrooms, and asparagus	3 cups daily of brightly colored vegetables, fruits, and/or berries, which are good sources of antioxidants
Wild-caught fish for animal-based omega-3s	Grass-fed meat	Organ meats for vitamins, minerals, and CoQ10
Seaweed for iodine and selenium

Navigation