Vitamin D: A new old, phenomenon

For about 12 years I have been preaching to my patients about vitamin d, make sure you take vitamin d or get in the sun.

Why, because your body requires it, and there are highly evolved mechanisms created over thousands of generations to syntheize vitamin D from sun exposure. So why would the body go through such trememdous biochemical cartwheels? Something really important must be going on.

First, the US RDA for vitamin D is 400iu, enough to prevent rickets, but this thinking was in place years ago, without a full understanding of what roles vitamin d plays in the body besides calcium absorption.

Now the medical community has embraced some of the amazing findings that have surfaced over the last several years including vitamin d's role in the nervous system, immune system, endocrine system and musculoskeletal system.

Blood test can now measure vitamin d levels. People with auto immune diseases or people who just plain dont want to have auto-immune diseases need to monitor vitamin d. The major hurdle with vitamin d was the alleged toxicity. In comparison Tylenol is thousands of times more toxic, so we need to first get the truth out about what we are dealing with. Patients often balk at taking such a large sounding number. A caucasian person can synthesize 20,000 iu of vitamin D in about 20minutes of sun exposure. Supplementing 4-5000iu is not a big dose. I recommend some folks take 50,000iu for a few days to raise their levels and then a maintenance dose to keep their levels in the optimum zone.

I have used 50,000iu to 100,000 iu dosages myself and with my family for many years safely and effectively, and the only downside is the energy that comes from taking it too late in the day and not being able to sleep.

Now everyone is on the bandwagon, and medical doctors frequently prescribe vitamin d, although the typical prescription is for ergocalcifol or vitamin D2. To put it bluntly, this is the wrong nutrient, and I dont care who prescribes it. The proper compound is vitamin D-3 cholecalciferol, which is the natural and much for effective supplement.

D-3 is superior is raising blood levels and is the compound familiar to your body. Its not a prescription, thus the D2 alternative arose. This is more about money and less about common sense.

I recommend Bio Tech vitamin D-3, in the 50,000iu dose. I have used it with hundreds of patients, and I find it to be a must have in my regimen. I seldom recommend specific companies, so that should be something to think about. Have bloodwork done to monitor your vitamin d levels.

male ness... lost

A phenomenon is occurring among the male population, they are in essence becoming more feminine, not because of emasculating TV personalities but due to the affects of estrogenic hormones in the environment.

Xenoestrogens are those chemicals that have estrogenic properties in the body but are not part of normal hormone metabolism.

Here is a well written article and a list about Xenoestrogens.
http://http://endojourney.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/a-list-of-xenoestrogens/

One important thing to note is that many cancers in men and women are estrogen driven. Men develop prostate issues from estrogen and DHT.

High estrogen levels in men contribute to erectile dysfunction, a general softening of the body and accumulation of excess body fat, which in turn further exacerbates the problem.

For men nutritional supplement such as zinc and boron are helpful in mitigating these issues. Nutritional biochemicals such as di-indole methane and indole 3 carbinol both of which are found in broccolli have estrogen modifying properties.

You can also use a compound known as chrysin applied directly through the skin, since absorption is a problem taken orally.

There are a handful of other helpful things to do including calcium d glucarate, nettle root ect that help to maintain a more healthy hormonal balance.

The endocrine system is a chemical ballet that needs to be in balance to serve a person properly. Certain seeminly benign practices such as using a body wash with progestins or estogens in it may be enough to change a persons endocrine system negatively.

Think twice about the chemicals in the world around you.

optimum health

I thought it would be conveinant for friends, family and patients to have an open forum about todays health challenges.

I think we are on a precipice of a health tsunami.

The explosion of childhood illnesses : ADD, ADHD, Autism, auto immune diseases and diabetes has made the simple way to handle the family's health a good bit different then it was just a few short years ago.

There are critical components of health that all families need to know about. There are enormous amounts of data about simple strategies that dramatically improve health, sadly most people have never heard of them, and are even less likely to come across this information on a daily basis.