VITAMIN D3: THE NATURAL FLU BUSTER

Nature’s design of the human body is no more evident than in the function of Vitamin D. Classically considered a vitamin, it also functions much like a hormone. While chemically similar to a hormone in structure, Vitamin D is not excreted from a gland into the blood. Instead, it is miraculously synthesized in the skin from exposure to the sun. What a beautifully designed system!

Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Soram Khalsa on my Blog Talk radio show (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/search/dr.-howard-liebowitz/). Dr. Khalsa is a wonderful, Integrative Physician who recently published a book on Vitamin D called “The Vitamin D Revolution.” His book offers an eloquent and concise overview of the many benefits of Vitamin D as essential to an optimal health program. I wanted to summarize some of the many health benefits of Vitamin D in this post.

Vitamin D serves a variety of functions in the body. A deficiency can be associated with numerous ailments. Though rarely encountered today, the best known is rickets, a metabolic bone disease. Less well-known problems caused by Vitamin D deficiency include increased risk of heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, osteopenia, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune disease, flu, and depression.

Vitamin D deficiency is more common in higher latitudes especially during winter when there is less sunlight. Curiously, these sun-deprived regions also have statistically higher rates of depression, alcoholism, and even diabetes. In addition, we now have also incurred a greater rate of vitamin D deficiency disorders because of our increasing concern about sun damage skin problems such as skin cancer and aging.

The intense concern that our skin needs protection from the perceived harmful rays of the sun is responsible for contributing to many degenerative health conditions. While this approach to “skin care” serves to diminish the risk of some dermatological problems, it can create a new host of other illnesses—all related to Vitamin D deficiency. Another problem results from our industrialized society that requires us to work more indoors. This leads to people getting less sun exposure even in the lower latitudes.

Vitamin D deficiency is so common that I routinely screen all of my patients for Vitamin D levels and rarely find anyone to be in the optimum range. Studies done on children in Finland, for instance, have found 400 times higher incidences of diabetes than children in Venezuela. In one study, when Finnish children were administered 2000 IU per day of Vitamin D3, they demonstrated an eighty-percent reduction in the onset of juvenile diabetes. When pregnant women have their vitamin D levels restored to optimal levels, the incidence of juvenile diabetes was reduced 50% in their offspring.

As discussed, Vitamin D deficiency is more prevalent in winter months due to less sun exposure. This correlates exactly with the time that flu epidemics break out. Evidence supports the position that normalizing Vitamin D levels in winter will significantly reduce the incidence and number of flu cases. Vitamin D deficiency in winter is also correlated with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a type of depression.

Adequate Vitamin D is essential for preventing osteoporosis and osteopenia, which are rampant today in Westernized cultures especially after menopause. Women can significantly reduce this problem and their risk of fractures by maintaining adequate Vitamin D levels along with calcium, magnesium, strontium, and Hormone Replacement therapy. Ideal levels are between 50-100 ng/ml. This level can be maintained by simply taking a supplement of Vitamin D3 of usually 2000-5000 IU/day. Alternatively, just twenty-to-thirty minutes per day of sun exposure 
(without sun block) can accomplish the same optimal levels. However, fair skinned persons may require less than dark pigmented people, and people living closer to the equator need less exposure as well.

Vitamin D toxicity is rare due to its wide therapeutic range. Optimal dosing and monitoring is necessary by a physician who understands the importance of this essential nutrient. Further details about the wonders of Vitamin D can be obtained by reading Dr. Khalsa’s informative book.

In summary, Vitamin D is an essential and inexpensive over-the-counter, simple nutrient for preventing many serious and common ailments. Similar benefits can be achieved by regular sun exposure of well-moisturized skin and not using sunscreen.


Disclaimer: This message is not meant nor intended to diagnose, treat, or otherwise mitigate any health related condition.
 
FDA Compliance: The nutritional information included in this e-mail and our website or any of our documents regarding our products has not been reviewed by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration or any other regulatory body, including state departments of health.
 
While to the best of our knowledge we believe the information is accurate and it is intended to be helpful, no warranty is expressed or implied as to the results obtained from the use of the formulations suggested herein, nor any health risks that may arise from using these products.  Our products are not intended to diagnose, cure, treat or prevent any disease.

OPRAH AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE

June 8th‘s cover story in Newsweek criticizes Oprah Winfrey for recommending alternative medical treatments. It goes still further lambasting Suzanne Somers and implying that she is a wacko. The article pokes fun at her and cynically describes her health routines as ridiculous.

I have a great deal of respect for Suzanne Somers and Oprah. Both are courageous pioneering type women who use their celebrity in positive ways to help others. If they didn’t disclose alternative styles of medical treatments and technology, who would? Newsweek?

Just opening the front cover of the June 8th issue quickly immediately provides a take on who runs THAT show. Four major advertisements by large pharmaceutical companies leap out at you in this issue alone. Not surprisingly, one of them happens to be Wyeth, the pharma-giant which has been spending millions of dollars lobbying Congress to shut down “Mom and Pop” compounding pharmacies. “And why”? you might ask.

Could it have anything to do with the plummeting sales of their notorious products Premarin and Prempro, the drugs shown in the Women’s Health Initiative study to increase the incidence of stroke, heart attack, and breast cancer in users? In fact, this is the only hormone product that has been proven to cause these diseases, yet this is the same company working diligently to have Estriol, the only hormone shown to PROTECT women from breast cancer, removed from the market.

How confusing! Why would a drug company want to remove a drug from the market that helps women, while still promoting and marketing their own product which has been shown in scientific studies to be harmful? Now this would be a really good question to ask the editors of Newsweek magazine. A magazine that accepts large amounts of advertising dollars from Wyeth while publishing articles criticizing women who want to take bioidentical hormones is certainly suspect. Could there be a connection here?

I cancelled my subscription to Newsweek years ago for similar reasons. This is not a news magazine. While news items may infiltrate the periodical, it is a mainstream media platform for advertisers with deep war chests of dollars to express their opinions and influence public sentiment. There is virtually nothing in their cover story about Oprah that I agree with. There is not enough room here on my blog for me to fully express my opinions.

But, I will say this—there has never been any data to prove that bioidentical hormones are harmful, like Prempro, for example. Bioidentical hormones are not “synthesized” as the article contends. I would even question the use of expert references such as Dr. Nanette Santoro, who are cited to support the article. A reproductive endocrinologist, Dr. Santoro specializes in helping women get pregnant. It would certainly be of interest to qualify how many women she sees in her practice specifically for menopause-related conditions. She is quoted as stating that menopause is a hormone deficiency disease is “discredited”. It might follow then, that she thinks menopause is an antidepressant, sleeping pill, and pain medication deficiency disease.

One major point that the writers, Weston Kosova and Pat Wingert, are insistent about is that hormones—especially as described by Suzanne Somers—are used to “restore youth”. This is absolutely not the intention of replacing missing hormones. It is actually to restore health.

It is well known that the incidence of major illnesses like heart disease, cancer, autoimmune disease, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, and once again—did I say “Cancer”—all increase dramatically after menopause. Young women with super high hormone levels are virtually immune to these diseases. Just the incidence of heart disease rises so dramatically after menopause that the risk to women equals that of men.

My orientation to replacing postmenopausal hormones in women is not to keep them young, but to keep them healthy. Aging does not have to be synonymous with disease. We cannot stop the aging process, but we have more options to preventing disease than ever before. Despite the efforts of Big Pharma and their media mouthpieces like Newsweek magazine, the truth will be told by courageous, intelligent women like Suzanne Somers, Oprah Winfrey, and Robin McGraw. A pioneering, innovative spirit informs the bedrock on which this country is founded and is still alive today. Big advertisers and publishers may have the loudest voice that money can buy right now, but I am confident that the facts will continue to become public knowledge and the search for truth will win out. History shows that it always works out that way.

BIOIDENTICAL HORMONE REPLACEMENT DONE RIGHT

I speak to many women every day who have their hormones replaced by doctors in the most random ways. Most traditional doctors treat menopause and hormone replacement based only on symptoms, and with no consideration of what is happening in women’s bodies physiologically. I’ve seen some pretty frightening things in my time.

One of the worst is when a woman starts having menopausal symptoms and the doctor never checks her hormone levels. Women tell me quite often that they’ve reported having irregular periods to their gynecologists. This usually occurs with women who are close to 50-years-old. Gynecologists are supposed to be experts in women’s health and especially with issues like menopause. I have even seen a few women in this situation being put on birth control pills to regulate their periods.

The most common scenario for replacing women’s hormones is to put them on a static dose of hormones. The only time in a woman’s life that she would have hormones continuously would be during pregnancy. And this is when women gain a lot of weight, develop high blood pressure, and insulin resistance.

Many times, menopause symptoms are treated with anti-depressants, anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills. All of these treatments could and should be eliminated. Simply restoring a hormone balance would resolve all the problems associated with menopause—and without the use of any toxic, prescription drugs. The only hormone replacement approach that makes sense to me is to administer hormones in a dosage as close as possible to the pattern existing in a patient before menopause. This pattern should be rhythmic and suited to the individual.

I also don’t believe that women with hysterectomies should be treated with a different hormone schedule. Many doctors feel that if a woman doesn’t have a uterus, then she doesn’t need progesterone. The question to ask then is: “What about the rest of her body?”

Progesterone doesn’t just go to the uterus. It travels throughout the body where it plays an important function in balancing women’s hormones. Ultimately, I believe that putting women’s hormones back as close to the way they were before menopause has the greatest benefit for maintaining health. It can also prevent disease as well as age-related declines in health. It is vital to support normal body function as long as possible for optimal healthy aging in both women and men. Have you had any experiences like the ones I’ve described in this post? I’d like to know.

NEW YORK STEM CELL SUMMIT

Last week, I was in New York City attending a Stem Cell Summit. Also attending were over 50 Stem Cell Company CEO’s from all over the world as well as a number of venture capitalists, investors, researchers, and medical practitioners. The conference, itself, was a fascinating look into what is in store for us in the future from the world of Stem Cell Therapy. In my last post, I wrote about some of the potential for Stem Cells. What is on the horizon is truly mind-boggling.

In particular, there are major developments in the areas of Orthopedics such as regenerating joint cartilage, shortening recovery time for fractures by two-thirds, and options for herniated vertebral disc sufferers. There is a tremendous amount of work also being done for Diabetes, many forms of Cancer, congestive heart failure as well as for heart attack and stroke victims. I even heard from Veterinarians who are already using stem cells for racehorses and pets with great success.

The future potential for many more health benefits is vast. All of the CEO’s present admitted that we are only just beginning to scratch the surface of what stem cells may be able to accomplish. One area I found particularly fascinating was in the regeneration of bone and cartilage in degenerated joints and fractures. Stem cells are already being used to avoid amputations in diabetics with severe peripheral vascular disease. The stem cell procedure actually helps them to grow new blood vessels, which supply blood to extremities threatened by lack of oxygen. All of the presentations focused on the thrilling work of finding cures for conditions that are currently incurable. Still, no one is even talking yet about my interest in the potential of stem cells with respect to prevention, anti-aging and life extension.

I have been working with a company called Neostem, which is a stem cell collection service. We collect stem cells from healthy, relatively young people, and then store them in a cryobank for future use. The beauty of this unique approach is that the stem cells are available on an as-needed basis. Stem cells are generally only given to the person who donated them. This is the other reason that our approach is so powerful. These stem cells are in better shape than the individual recipient because they were collected when the person was younger.

In other words, they are not used like blood donations. So, there is no risk of rejection, and since the individual will only receive his own cells, there is also no risk of transmissible disease. In a way, it is a form of “Bio-Insurance”. You can imagine that the process can provide a great sense of security when an individual knows that his stem cells are safely stored away in a cryobank if needed at some future date.

I should know. I have already put mine away and it makes me feel really good. What we are now discussing is the possibility of re-infusing them back into the donor every year or so, as a way to help maintain the equivalent, youthful age as when the cells were originally collected. I have also spoken to researchers about using them to treat women after menopause. In theory, we would inject them into the ovaries to “wake them up” as a way to start producing female hormones again. No one knows if this is possible. But, can you imagine what kind of breakthrough it represents if the procedure works?!