Author Archives: Mark Pegram

Methylfolate Deficiency Disease and Testing

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We have established that folic acid was developed in the laboratory in the 1940’s.  It is a man made and not a natural substance – the oxidized form of folate.  It has been fortified in our foods to reduce neural tube defects starting in 1998.  Suggested disease increase from folic acid fortification: – autism, depression, breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer (why didn’t our scientist and doctors recognize this as an issue before fortification of our foods?).  A large percentage of the population has genetic mutations which slows the conversion of food folates and folic acid to the needed form of the folate – methylfolate.  The mutation:  MTHFR or methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (confused yet? – yes it’s difficult).  Free folic acid circulating in our blood suppresses the immune system.  The free folic acid in combination of not enough methylfolate to complete the methylation cycle for genetic expression can result in many diseases: pulmonary embolisms, addictions, fibromyalgia, miscarriages, schizophrenia, severe depression, cancer, diarrhea and digestive disorders, and autism to name a few.

What should you do?

Avoid foods that have been fortified with folic acid.  Avoid supplements that have folic acid and not methylfolate.  Do not allow your medical professional to confuse folic acid with methylfolate – they are not equals!  If you decide to supplement, the amount required is less than 800 micrograms per day.  I suspect that with your food, 400 micrograms of methylfolate is adequate (other names metafolin or L-methylfolate – do not supplement with other folates they may not be biologically active or worse cause unnatural biology that may be toxic).

In having discussions with your doctor about what you suspect may be the cause of your illness may require you to challenge your doctor for the test of MTHFR mutations.  How do you determine if the test is required?  First your doctor is skeptical.  Second – if you have had chronic disease, particularly the ones listed above, and you have supplemented with the other nutrients in which you are deficient and tried all the prescriptions your doctor has described without relief, this may be the problem.  Third – As much as seventy percent of the population has some form of mutation and it is severe in ten percent of the population.  Remember, the practice of medicine is an art by definition.  Great art is only created after much study, trial, and error.  Of course you could just start supplementing with methylfolate and other methyl donors like betaine (trimethylglycine or TMG ) to see if you find relief.  In my research I have found the price for the test to range from $56 dollars to over $600 dollars.  I suspect the actual cost to the laboratory at $15 dollars – the rest is fully absorbed cost and mark-up for sampling and consultation.  One hundred to two hundred dollars should be the expected price to you.

The test for normal vitamin panels will just say folate.  In discussions with two different laboratory specialists, I could not get a definition of what folate was being tested in the blood.  Was it folic acid, methylfolate, or a total of all forms?  This sounds a lot like the confusion of what to test for with vitamin D and its many forms.  With something as critical as methyl donors for RNA/DNA expression, you would think there would be more clarity – art claiming to be science once again.

Here is a comment from one of my readers, Dr. Ros, and her experience with MTHFR:  “I asked my doctor to test me for MTHFR deficiency, an enzyme responsible for converting food folates to methylfolate, the form the body actually uses. (The body cannot convert folic acid to methylfolate with the mutation either) This enzyme is also required to detoxify the body.  I tested positive for two copies, mutations, homozygous. I am now taking methylfolate and I can tell this is something I needed. As I age, I was noticing that I had trouble healing from a cold and subsequent sinus infection (DNA and RNA replications issues) and even had surgery in an attempt to ameliorate my sinus issues. Vitamins and herbs have most important in my healing. Vitamin D and glycine have been essential. The genome project was responsible for bringing this issue to the light of day but many doctors are not informed. I am lucky I was educated enough to ask for the test. My family history was an indicator there was probable cause to test.”

Again, it is never just one nutrient or vitamin.  It is the combination of all nutrition, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that give us health from a food source and environment that has not been compromised by poor science and distasteful art.   Practice life with great love, peace, and joy – do not get this confused with art and science.  – Pandemic Survivor

Health is an ONOFF Issue

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At one point in my career, I had responsibility for many engineers, forty mechanics, and associated support staff in a large industrial plant.  When a major maintenance issue would arrive and there was difficulty in trying to find a solution, I would try to release the tension by saying it was an ONOFF problem.  Of course I would spell out the letters very quickly.  There would be moments of silence as the mechanic raced through his mind trying figure out which control or mechanical part I was referring.  Then a slow smile would cross the face as the knowing became realization.  Every situation with equipment is whether the equipment or some component is on or off – ONOFF – especially true with computers.  This is the case with human biology as medicine turns to gene switches for disease cures.  This has become commonly referred to as epigenetic.

Foods that are available for consumption routinely turn off and on genetic switches.  This is because there are many “parallel” systems in the body for the major biological processes to occur depending on what the environment presents.  This type of robustness in our physiology has allowed us to survive in many different environmental conditions.  Stress, temperature, food, and even how you think, all act to turn on and off our genes.  Modern science is now using this understanding to make drugs to cure disease.  Unfortunately, the focus has been on drugs and not on optimizing nutrients for gene switching to prevent disease.  I guess the old saying, ‘you are what you eat,’ has now been given more significance.

Just in the last decade, the gene map was completed.  It was much smaller than originally thought with less than about 30,000 genes for the human body.  Interestingly enough the rest of the genetic material, about eighty percent, are switches that are use to either express the gene or make it go silent.  The largest question for health professionals at this point should be; what turns the switches on or off?

Methyl groups seem to be the primary players in this epigenetic switching maze.  How simple that a carbon atom and three hydrogen atoms grouped together can determine your health and well being.  Of course many methyl groups combined with other compounds is an organic molecule.  What controls the use and availability of the methyl groups is another matter.  We have long known that certain materials are essential to health.  These items have been reduced to the following: water, air, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals.

First it was the major groups of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates we considered for health.  Think of the 1910 Antarctic expedition by Captain Scott where the food was too low in fat.  The members of the group started to get sick and starved to death because they did not have fat to consume.  The Inuit people know that whale blubber and seal fat are the staples of life in the cold for its energy and nutrients.  The recent emphasis on fats (omega-3 good, trans-fat bad) is critical to health.  I suspect we have made the similar errors in protein and carbohydrates (too many carbs –especially wheat, not enough protein) that are yet to be discovered.  Then throw in genetically modified foods – ouch!

We are now in the trial and error stage of understanding where to use micronutrients versus the use of drugs to heal disease.  The money of course is in the drugs and this is where the focus will continue to be for our large research organizations.  However, all government research funded projects for genetic switching should solve the problem of optimum nutrition (GMO foods, nutrient switching) before any money is spent on drugs for healing, curing, diagnosing, and preventing disease.  After all, it is our money.  Sustaining large organizations without empathy for the individuals it serves is just plain evil.  If the money is first spent on researching micronutrients for epigenetic healing, the need for research of drugs will be significantly diminished because of less disease.  Of course we are where we are; a nation ailing with large amounts of chronic disease.  How ironic that our economy is suffering from so much chronic disease when the major motto of Health and Human Services is ‘markets before mandates’ with the belief of a strong medical economy is more important that the health of the individual.

We know that the sun through the production of vitamin D3 is very significant.  Close to ten percent of the genome is controlled by vitamin D and its co-factors.  I don’t know how large the percentage of the genes is controlled by methyl groups, but I am sure that it is significant and most likely larger than the group for vitamin D.  Since all organic molecules are a combination of methyl groups, then all genes have some switches controlled by methyl groups in combination with cofactors (I never was much for logic, I am more of a links and connections kind of guy).  The complete control of genetic switching is made by all the proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, environment (light, temperature, air, and water), and yes your state of mind.  Could it be that methyl folate from spinach and betaine from beets is all we need for the methyl donors for health?  Life in all its complexities is really just a matter of ONOFF.

Don’t worry, be happy, eat your beets and spinach, and spend lots of time in the sun.  – Pandemic Survivor

Folic Acid – the Horror Story

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We as the population of the world have suffered through many chronic diseases.  We are no different than people, especially people that claimed to be medical professionals, from two centuries ago.  Medicine is still practiced as an art with some science thrown in end to give credibility to our claims.  Now has the medical industrial complex once again deceived us with the introduction of folic acid to make up for our L-methyl folate deficiency?  A qualified answer to this question is yes.

Folic acid is not a naturally occurring molecule.  It was first processed in the 1940’s in a laboratory.  In 1998, folic acid was added to ‘fortify’ foods, especially grains.  The reasoning was that the population and especially pregnant mothers were deficient.  This was causing neural tubes defects.  It is true that neural tube defects have been reduced and this is a good thing.

Now researchers are saying that folic acid that remains in the blood stream is causing an increased incidence in several cancers including breast, colon, and prostate cancer.  It seems that at least ten percent of the population has the MTHFR polymorphism and keeps folic acid from quickly being converted to methyl folate, the natural occurring substance in foods that our body uses.  Others have said that at least seventy percent of the population has some form of polymorphism that slows the process.  The excess folic acid circulating in the blood causes a reduction in the action of our natural killer cells.  This is believed to be the issue of increased cancer rates.

Also, the methyl folate is the primary contributing nutrient to the genetic switching that occurs from the methyl cycle.  How the methyl cycle is controlled in the body by methyl folate is extremely important and second only to the action of vitamin D.  Genetic switching is what keeps you healthy.  Whether the gene is properly turned on or off is critical to your health.  Dr. Randy Jirtle in his work at Duke University has shown this to be the case with his study on mice and methyl donors.  There is a host of chronic disease that you may review at the MTHFR.net website.

If you consider that fortification begin in 1998, I believe this is about the same time the incidence of autism significantly increased.  The importance of folate to the neural system is that it acts directly in the mitochondrial body in the sulfur cycle.  Here the various sulfate molecules that the body needs are created.  The ones related to the neural system is the molecule that is created for the myelin sheath that covers the nerve pathways.   Without the integrity of this sheath, the neurons cannot appropriately fire because the sodium, potassium, and magnesium are not held closely to the neurons.

Also a study in Italy that was designed to show the effect of folate on heart disease, it was found that there was thickening of the cartilage in patients with higher amounts of folate.  I am sure this effect is caused by genetic switching with cofactors like B6, B12, and vitamin D.

I have not been able to find a vitamin B complex supplement that has methyl folate and not folic acid.  In the practice of medicine, folic acid and folate are considered to be the same compound.  Folic acid is the oxidized form of L-methyl folate NOT A NATURALLY OCCURING COMPOUND.  This is the same error that was made with vitamin D when vitamin D2 was said to be equal to vitamin D3.  In the 1930’s when the substitution was made to vitamin D2 is when the cases of vitamin D toxicity started to occur in the medical literature.

What can you do?  Stop supplementing with all forms of folic acid.  Be careful in how much food you consume that has been fortified with folic acid.  Maybe this is one of the primary issues with wheat.  Dr. William Davis in his book, “Wheat Belly”  says there are many issues with wheat.  Fortification of our cereal with folic acid may have exacerbated the situation and is causing more chronic disease.  Methyl folate is available in many foods, especially dark leafy greens like spinach.  A boiled half cup of spinach has about 134 micrograms of folate.    In the consumption of beans, black-eyed peas are the highest at 105 mcg per one half cup.  Liver has the highest amount in the meats at 215 mcg in one half cup.

There many brands of methyl folate supplements on the market.  Try to get at least 400 mcg per day from your foods, if not supplement.  As I was writing this my wife called to see what I wanted for dinner.  I suggested boiled spinach, black-eyed peas, and liver cook with onions (for the sulfate).  She hung up the phone.  I did actually get turnip greens, black-eyed peas, and steak.  Not the best but close.  Maybe the popular attitude of the 50’s and 60’s was correct.   “I’m strong to the finish ‘cause I eats me spinach, I’m Popeye the sailor man!”  Sing along! What a medical professional – Popeye!   – Pandemic Survivor

All Chronic Disease is from Poor Nutrition

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I was given several tape cassettes on this subject some years ago by a friend.  The fact that it was a cassette should tell you that it was in the eighties.  I listened to the speaker as I drove to displace the boredom.  He was all about the fact that all chronic disease was created by poor nutrition.  At the time I thought that he was just trying to sell supplements and he was. Now after several decades of dealing with the philosophy of medicine, it has become apparent that our medical industry is more interested in selling their product than they are with your healing.  Supplement seller or medical industry – who has your wellness in mind?

Last week my work took me into seven pharmaceutical plants.  Some of the plants made prescription meds, some made over the counter meds, and others made supplements.  The purpose of meds versus supplements was stark when considering chronic disease.  I have no problem with the meds made to heal infections, pain, or other quick onset diseases.  However, when treating chronic disease, supplements are far superior for resolving the illness.

One of the most disquieting statistics that I have come across in my research is the number of prescription meds used by people on Medicare and Medicaid.  People over sixty-five on the government plans average over seventeen prescription meds.  The thought of the side effects that are generated is frightening.  Several of the meds are to treat symptoms of chronic disease, but the rest of the meds are to treat the side effects caused by the meds.

The use of supplements to make up for poor nutritional value in our food is a necessity.  Processed and genetically modified foods are most of what we consume.  With the new approach to creating large agricultural yields and drugs that are genetic switches, I suspect we don’t have a clue to what we are doing to our health.  But, you say that our life expectancy has increased and that is true.

It is my belief that the thought of making money instead of wellness, otherwise known as having a strong medical economy by our government, has moved from snake oil salesmen into the medical industry.  Science is available to show proper nutrition is far superior to using drugs for treating chronic disease.  However, no one is willing to pay for the studies that are necessary to overcome the laws created to sustain the FDA and other agencies of Health and Human Services.  This is the responsibility of HHS, but that does not get politicians elected.

If you are suffering from chronic disease, it is time for you to do your own research.  There are a few excellent practitioners out there with your wellness in mind and know how to treat, cure, heal, and diagnose disease by being sure that you are getting proper nutrition.  How do you determine if that person has your wellness in mind?   – Pandemic Survivor

Disability – A System Issue

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There are multiple things in our present society that are causing a rise in disability rates.  In a recent article for NPR “Unfit for Work: The Starling Rise of Disability in America” Chana Joffe-Walt writes: “The federal government spends more money each year on cash payments for disabled former workers than it spends on food stamps and welfare combined.”   Where have we gone wrong?

Personal Responsibility

Our leaders have failed us as it has happened in the past history of the US.  When settlers first came over on the Mayflower, it was thought that everyone should share equally whatever the community provided.  This system failed miserably because of human nature.  That is if someone is willing to give you something and you don’t have to work; you take it.  Work is the thing that gives added value and increase.  The leaders saw what the issues were and changed it so that everyone was on their own.  If you didn’t work you didn’t eat.  At some point, hopefully not too late, our current leaders will see the error of their ways and change.  There is no something for nothing.

Food Causing Illness

There has been a false science permeating the US solely for the purpose of creating markets.   This has been particularly dangerous in the food industry.   Under the guise of generating large yields to stave off world hunger, our grains and other foods have been genetically modified.  This would not be an issue if the foods had been properly tested for health consequences.  Since the early 1980’s, I have not been able to eat wheat without getting indigestion.  Also, my joints ache; I lose focus, and in general feel miserable.  The wheat you eat today is not your grandfather’s wheat.  Dr. William Davis in his book, “Wheat Belly” believes that the change in wheat is the cause of the obesity problem in the US and many other types of disease.

We can consider the five major things that have created problems in the food industry and it always seems to be about creating markets instead of the best benefit of mankind.  GMO (genetically modified organism) wheat, GMO corn, processed and GMO soy, concentrated juices and the consumption of two much sugar, and trans-fat as in margarine have all lead to serious generalized pain and illness.  Avoid these things and you will not believe how much better you will feel.  You may even feel like you want to go back to work.

Corn seems to be another issue that will ultimately cause severe damage to the population.  In a recent study released from Australia, hogs that were feed GMO corn had severely inflamed guts.  Also rat studies have shown huge tumors being formed in GMO fed animals. I have a friend that lives in central Piedmont North Carolina.  He has always raised corn for both animal feed and for his own food supply.  He remarked to me recently that years ago he had to constantly scare the crows away from his sweet corn.  Now with GMO corn, the crows will not even bother to eat it.  If the crows want eat it why should we?  After all the EPA has given corn a number as a registered pesticide. This has been a major help in the shelf life of the corn by inserting a gene that creates a pesticide, but the next morning you are having that bowl of corn flakes, think pesticide.

Nutrients

And then there are nutrients: Vitamin D, Iodine, magnesium, and sulfate are recent deficiencies that have been made worse in the last fifty years.  Over seventy percent of healthcare spending is for chronic disease.  I believe science has been manipulated for the purpose of having a large population with chronic disease to support a large health economy.  After all, when your Secretary of Health and Human Services writes the nine principles of government intervention into healthcare with four being “markets before mandates” and number nine “to value life”, then what would you expect.

So Many Wrongs – Where to Start

After two failed back surgeries, severe sleep apnea, and many years of chronic severe pain, my doctor offered to write a letter for disability.  He suggested seventy percent disability because of my apparent mental and physical impairment.  However, I was reared to understand that we are responsible for our own provisions.  I did not have my legs shot off in the war or was born with severe disability.  My problems have been because of a government system of creating markets over the health of the population.  We have simply become nothing more than cows for the profits of the medical insurance industry.  Regardless of recent commercials that have been run by that industry saying they are not the bad guys, I ask you this – would you buy insurance so that you could have regular oil changes.  This is exactly what you are doing when you pay an insurance company for preventative care.

Start by repelling the affordable healthcare act.  We passed it to see what was in it.  IT is now time to send it away.  Take away the monopoly of the insurance companies by state and make your insurance national.  Allow all health insurance companies to compete in all markets. Take away groups and force insurance companies to put everyone in the same group with the exception of a high risk group like car insurance.  Health insurance for preventative care should not be allowed or at least closely controlled.

Restructure the Health and Human Service agencies so that there is real science and not science pointed to a healthy economy, but pointed toward health of individuals.

Allow doctors to practice their art and not be simply technicians that do the biding of HHS and large pharmaceutical companies.  Remove all forms of pharmaceutical advertizing and leave that to the professionals.

Clean up our food sources.  Train the population in nutrition.

That should about do it.  Have a good day!  – Pandemic Survivor

Living Phat in Mexico

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No, not living at a resort in Cancun or on the Baja Peninsula, but a condition of the Mexican people – obesity and overweight.  Mexico has now overtaken the US as the most obese population in the world. How could this happen?

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that I got to the understanding of vitamin D deficiency by making a correlation between air conditioning and obesity.  When I looked for a cause and effect, I eliminated air conditioning as the cause immediately because I thought – how foolish.  Looks like the foolishness is truly on my part by not letting the facts show what is happening with obesity.  Yes it is true that process foods have a denser concentration in calories because of high fat and sugar contents.  These two components are added to make food irresistible to our appetites. But it is the environment that is making us fat.   Yes that is right, being cool and phat makes us fat.

So how did it happen that Mexico became the most obese population in the world?  In some things it is not good to be number one.  Here in the US, we are glad that someone has taken over the number one position.  In the research for the cause of obesity, not enough sleep has been shown to take a lead role in making us overweight.  Of course eating too many calories and not enough exercise is the primary reason.  Air conditioning causes us to do both of the former.  There have been numerous papers written about animals and how they get fatter when living in the comfort zone of temperature.

In Mexico in 1999, fifty-nine percent of women and fifty-five percent of men were either overweight or obese.  By 2011, the percentage had grown to over seventy percent.    In 1995 there was air conditioning in only ten percent of the homes.  In 2011 that number had grown to over eighty percent, edging very close to the eighty-seven percent that the US now claims.  The other amazing thing that happened in 1999 is that Mexicans observed their last official siesta.  That’s right, it was abolished by law.  This forced people to continue to work through their normal nap time and to work in the heat of the day in air conditioning instead of at night when the temperatures were cooler or a natural cycle.  I suspect that this also changed their eating habits.  “What Does It Mean to Be Comfortable?” – NY Times 12/15/13 

Just look at the anecdotal drive of the appetite in your environment.  I lost weight in the summer and gained it back in the winter before air conditioning.  When it was hot, my appetite was significantly reduced because eating made me hotter.  And the poor devils in Mexico also had their eating habits significantly changed by taken away officially sanctioned siestas.  This is to say nothing of sleep loss that was created.  And by-the-way, why in the heck would you want to exercise if you had a nice cool environment?  Getting hot and sweaty is very uncomfortable and you deserve to be comfortable because the government took away your siesta and forced you to spend money on air conditioning so that you could continue to work.

Yes living phat in the comfort zone will cause you to become overweight and perhaps obese.  I don’t have any suggestions unless you are willing to turn off or up the air conditioning.  Air conditioning not only has a direct correlation to obesity, it is the primary cause in the general population.  – Pandemic Survivor

Deficiency Disease in a Modern World – Part II Minerals

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We don’t usually think about minerals having a significant effect on disease the way we do with vitamins.  However, minerals are crucial to life.  I remember a professor that I had second semester of my freshman year for chemistry labs.  He is a brilliant man with a perfect memory.  He suggested that organic chemistry was going out of fashion.  The study of minerals was going to be the future of organic chemistry.  Well, he did not calculate man’s desire for wealth at the cost of health.  He was always optimistic; I believe the correct attitude.

Consider that iodine deficiency is the number one cause of brain damage throughout the world.  Given this and the understanding that children that don’t get enough iodine will have a significant reduction in IQ; it makes you wonder why our required daily intake is as low as specified by the government.  The suggestion that 150 mcg is adequate does not allow for mass balance according to WHO (World Health Organization).  That is unless you are small enough to where you don’t generate two liters of urine a day. WHO says that sufficiency occurs when your urine iodine level is measured at 100 mcg per liter.  I am large enough to where two liters or about two quarts is not an unusual amount of urine in twenty-four hours.  That would require at least 200 mcg of iodine per day for sufficiency.  Is this just ineptness on the part of the medical community?

If you take iodine deficiency to its furthest extreme during pregnancy, you end up with cretinism.  Cretinism is a very serious life threatening disease with both physical and mental malformation.  Goiter is another very serious disease caused by iodine deficiency.  What happens is the area around the thyroid in your neck enlarges to trap as much iodine as possible to prevent you from dying. Most likely the causes of several of the mental dysfunctions have their roots in iodine deficiency.  Then consider the thyroid makes T4, but it is each cell with an adequate amount of iodine that produces T3.  T3 is four to ten times as powerful in cellular differentiation as T4.  With each cell making its own T3, it reminds you of the way vitamin D3 works for genetic expression where each cell makes the active form as needed.   Of course the T3 will not be made in each cell if there is not an adequate amount of iodine and selenium.  Yes, selenium is needed as a catalyst for the production of T3.  Notice I said catalyst.  It is more correct to say enzyme with selenium as its cation.

So what other diseases arise from mineral deficiency?  The list is long.

Boron: Consider this abstract

Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 43(2):219–231 (2003)

The Physiological Effects of Dietary Boron
Tara A. Devirian and Stella L. Volpe*
Department of Nutrition, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Referee: Dr. Susan Meacham, Associate Professor and Department Head, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, College of Health Sciences, Room 329, Rod Lee Bigelow Building, 4505 Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV 89154-3019

ABSTRACT: Boron may be an essential nutrient for animals and humans. Dietary boron influences the activity of many metabolic enzymes, as well as the metabolism of steroid hormones and several micronutrients, including calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D. Boron supplementation in rats and chicks has been shown to increase bone strength. Boron may also play a role in improving arthritis, plasma lipid profiles, and brain function. Additional research is necessary to further clarify boron’s influence in human and animal physiology, as well as determine a dietary requirement for humans.

An adequate intake has not been established, but most multiple vitamins have 3 mg.  Without boron in each cell, it is likely that vitamin D as 25(OH)D will not adequately be converted to the steroid as needed in each cell.  Symptoms of boron deficiency mimic symptoms of vitamin D deficiency and we know how severe a disease state that will create.

Calcium: The body very tightly controls serum calcium levels.  The calcium acts almost like a steroid in cell signaling and is necessary for neural transmitters to be released as the voltage gated calcium channel opens to allow the flow of transmitters at the end of the action potential in neurons.  Deficiency (low serum levels) usually only occurs when you have parathyroid malfunction (caused by vitamin D deficiency or renal failure) because of the large reserve in the bones.  Deficiency includes diseases: osteomalacia and osteoporosis as the body destroys the bones to have adequate calcium for biological functions.   Low serum calcium or hypocalcemia will result in muscle cramps and fatigue.  Very low levels will result in seizure as neurons are not properly firing.

Chromium:  Deficiency of this mineral will result in abnormal glucose utilization and increased insulin requirements. This may lead to type II diabetes.  Of course the body uses chromium III and chromium VI or hexavalent is recognized as a carcinogen.

Magnesium:  This mineral is absolutely necessary as it is involved in over 300 essential metabolic reactions.  The most critical is through its choice as the cation for the energy cycle of ATP/ADP which keeps potassium, sodium, and calcium in balance.  Deficiency symptoms are a long list and may be clinically associated with the following: ADD/ADHD, Alzheimer’s, Angina, Anxiety disorders, Arrhythmia, Arthritis- Rheumatoid and Osteoarthritis, Asthma, Autism, Auto immune disorders- all types, Cavities, Cerebral Palsy- in children from magnesium deficient mothers, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Congestive Heart Disease, Constipation, Crooked teeth- narrow jaw- in children from magnesium deficient mothers, Depression, Diabetes- Type I and II, Eating disorders- Bulimia, Anorexia, Fibromyalgia, Gut disorders- including peptic ulcer, Crohn’s disease, colitis, food allergy, Heart Disease- Arteriosclerosis, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, Heart Disease- in infants born to magnesium deficient mothers, High Blood Pressure, Hypoglycemia, Impaired athletic performance, Infantile Seizure- in children from magnesium deficient mothers, Insomnia,  Kidney Stones, Lou Gehrig’s Disease, Migraines- including cluster type, Mitral Valve Prolapse, Multiple Sclerosis, Muscle cramps, Muscle weakness, fatigue, Myopia- in children from magnesium deficient mothers, Obesity- especially obesity associated with high carbohydrate diets, Osteoporosis- just adding magnesium reversed bone loss, Parkinson’s Disease, PMS- including menstrual pain and irregularities, PPH- Primary Pulmonary Hypertension, Raynaud’s, SIDS- Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, Stroke, Syndrome X- insulin resistance, Thyroid disorders- low, high and auto-immune; low magnesium reduces T4.

Manganese: The primary importance of manganese is its necessity for the conversion of the water soluble sulfate ester that is your body’s primary waste remover.  Without proper waste removal, many diseases may result.  I suspect the manganese sulfate chemistry malfunction to be a cause of ALS.  Manganese can be toxic at relatively low levels.  Most multiple vitamin supplements provide an adequate amount.  Adequate intake for adults is 1.8 to 2.3 mg/day with the tolerable intake at 9 mg/day.

Molybdenum is a necessary for life as a co-factor in many enzymes that catalyze global transformation of the carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur cycles. Adequate intake is 45 mcg/day and tolerable intake is 2 mg/day.  Deficiency may result in cancer of the esophagus.  There is an area in China where the soils are deplete in molybdenum with an incidence 100 times higher than in the US of this particular type of cancer.  The deplete soils cause a higher exposure to nitrosamines because the molybdenum is necessary for conversion of nitrates to amino acids in plants.

Potassium:  Deficiency results in stroke, heart failure, fatigue, muscle weakness and cramps, and intestinal paralysis, which may lead to bloating, constipation, and abdominal pain.  Of course it depends on the degree of deficiency.  I know that after a hard workout, a class of low sodium V-8 juice (about one gram of potassium) makes the cramps disappear in minutes.

Zinc:  Severe deficiency as reported by the Linus Pauling institute results as follows: “The symptoms of severe zinc deficiency include the slowing or cessation of growth and development, delayed sexual maturation, characteristic skin rashes, chronic and severe diarrhea, immune system deficiencies, impaired wound healing, diminished appetite, impaired taste sensation, night blindness, swelling and clouding of the corneas, and behavioral disturbances. “    The main concern with mild deficiency is reduced immune system response.

Sulfate:  It is interesting to note that no one considers sulfate deficiency as an issue.  However, without adequate vitamin D3 the sodium sulfate co-transporters do not work as required.  Consider the following sulfate requirements of the human body:

  • Both organic sulfur from amino acids and from sulfur compounds in the cruciferous (cabbage, broccoli, etc.) and allium (garlic, onions, etc.) vegetables and inorganic sulfur from sulfates in foods and our water supply are critical to human physiology.
  • Sulfate is needed for the formation of glycosaminoglycans (GAGS i.e. glucosamine sulfate, chondroitin sulfate, etc.) or amino acids necessary for joints, skin, connective tissues, and joint lubrication through synovial fluid.
  • Sulfate is needed to start the cascade of digestive enzymes.
  • Sulfate is necessary to line the gut wall with mucin proteins.
  • Sulfate is needed for the formation of neurons where neurons are laid down on a platform of sulfated carbohydrates.
  • Sulfation is a major pathway in detoxifying from drugs, environmental toxins especially in the brain (aluminum), liver (i.e., acetaminophen), and removing waste from cells after the mitochondrial processes.
  • Sulfur is most abundant element (approximately one half percent by weight) in our body after calcium and phosphorus and is the fourth most abundant anion in our plasma.  It helps to maintain the balance of anions (bicarbonate, chloride, and phosphate) to effectively carry oxygen to the cells. Interestingly enough, sulfates are not normally measured in serum analysis.

Wow, so here we are with a list of deficiency diseases and symptoms that is much longer than the one for vitamins. When I used to take my minerals in the morning before going to the gym, I would tell my gym partner that I had eaten my bucket of dirt for the day.  We get our minerals from many sources but primarily from food.  If you choose to eat a bucket of dirt (supplements) be sure that you supplement with the correct amount.  Not enough and you have diseases and too much will result in toxicity.  – Pandemic Survivor

Deficiency Disease in a Modern World – Part 1 Vitamins

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The suggested vitamins are not meant to treat, cure, diagnose, prevent, or mitigate disease.  If the substance is so stated by a doctor, then it must be considered a drug and follow all the rules for drugs by the FDA.  Have you ever known a doctor to prescribe a vitamin to treat your disease symptoms?  I do believe this is a significant mistake by the medical community.  Please consider the following diseases and the associated cause.  If you had one of these, would you not want your doctor to tell you how to overcome them without prescribing a drug?

Pellagra:  cause vitamin B3 niacin deficiency and tryptophan deficiency

Blindness and night blindness: vitamin A deficiency

Beriberi: vitamin B deficiency or thiamin B1

Scurvy:  vitamin C deficiency

Rickets:  vitamin D deficiency

Anemia:  iron deficiency

Goiter:   and interesting disease caused by iodine deficiency

Malnutrition:  deficiency in fats and proteins

If we look at all of the vitamins and take deficiency to the worst case then we can find the following deficiency diseases and the use of vitamins for treatment of disease.

Biotin – a B complex vitamin: Hair loss, brittle nails, and scaly red rash, neurologic symptoms of depression, lethargy, hallucination, and numbness – birth defects of abnormal development of the embryo known as teratogenesis

Folic Acid – B complex vitamin: megablastic anemia or fewer large red blood cells reducing oxygen carrying resulting in fatigue weakness and shortness of breath – during pregnancy because of rapidly dividing cells folic acid deficiency leads to neural tube defects that result in spina bifida or anencephaly, both are devastating and sometimes fatal – Other birth defects that are prevented is certain types of heart defects and limb malformations.  Important roles in DNA and RNA synthesis

Niacin:  B3 or nicotinic acid has already been mention for pellagra – symptoms of pellagra include dementia, diarrhea, dermatitis, and death.  In the skin thick, scaly dark pigmented rashes.

Pantothenic acid or B5:  Numbness and painful burning in the feet.  Use of a pantothenol ointment has shown accelerated wound closure

Riboflavin or B2:  Deficiency may impair iron absorption – redness and swelling of the lips and mouth, sore throat, cracks and sores outside the lips and may include formation of blood vessels over the eyes or vascularization of the cornea – other associated diseases include – cataracts and migraine headaches

Thiamin or B1: Beriberi affects the cardiovascular, nervous, muscular, and gastrointestinal systems.

Vitamin A: Deficiency in vitamin A is the leading cause of blindness in children in developing countries.   Immune system impairment resulting in a higher incidence of infectious diseases Implicated in disease prevention of cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer – used medically to treat retinitus pigmentosa acute promyelocytic leukemia, and various skin disorders.

Vitamin B6:  severe vitamin B6 deficiency include irritability, depression, and confusion; additional symptoms include inflammation of the tongue, sores or ulcers of the mouth, and ulcers of the skin at the corners of the mouth

Vitamin B12:  Deficiency symptoms include tingling of the arms and legs, difficulty walking, memory loss, disorientation, dementia with or without mood changes.

Vitamin C: prevents Scurvy, and to some degree cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, gout, lead toxicity, and plays a role in immunity.  Has been used to treat vasodilatation, hypertension, cancer, diabetes mellitus, common cold,

Vitamin D:  Deficiency can best be described by saying that vitamin D controls in some part over 2700 genes.  Whether they are off or on can significantly impair your health in disease states that have many descriptions.  Muscle weakness, immunity, cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, bone growth, cartilage growth and cellular differentiation.

Vitamin E: including impaired balance and coordination (ataxia), injury to the sensory nerves (peripheral neuropathy), muscle weakness (myopathy), and damage to the retina of the eye (pigmented retinopathy). Has been used to prevent clots and too high dosage may result in hemorrhage.

Vitamin K:  Deficiency results in poor bone mineralization and impaired blood clotting.  Symptoms include, nose bleeds, bruising, bloody stools, and life threatening intracranial bleeding or another form of stroke.  Used to treat osteoporosis (Japan monitors serum levels for this purpose)

So the next time you go see your doctor with tingling feet and neuropathy, would it be better for your doctor to suggest that you get an adequate amount of B vitamins in particular B12, B6, and B5 first before prescribing a calcium channel blocker to relieve the pain?  Has the snake oil salesmen of the early twentieth century put on pharmaceutical cloths and are now protected by the government’s FDA?  Why is it necessary for senior citizens to have an average of seventeen prescriptions to treat symptoms without first being sure they are getting an adequate amount of vitamins to treat the disease?

And this is just the vitamins.  What about diseases from mineral deficiencies?  – Pandemic Survivor

REF: Most of the info on deficiencies were taken from the Linus Pauling Institute Oregon State University

For more information on vitamin D deficiency and hair loss, click here.

Grassroots Health Webinars on Vitamin D

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The scientist, researchers, and doctors at Grassroots Health have been presenting webinars on vitamin D and various topics.  This is a wealth of information about how a given disease works with vitamin D as well as the interaction of calcium.

I highly encourage you to go to the website and watch and listen to the webinars.  There is a new one every Tuesday at 1PM eastern time.  Also after becoming familiar with the information, I encourage you to ask your doctor to watch, if he is giving you a hard time about supplementing with vitamin D.  It is important that you maintain your 25(OH)D level above 40 ng/ml.

If you don’t watch and listen to any of the others, I highly suggest that you watch – Why Test Vitamin D!?  The question is always – How much should I take?  This gives you and understanding that everyone responds differently to amounts.  At the Grassroots Health home page you can find a table of how to start supplementing before testing.     There is also a downloadable chart as a PDF.

Here is the link to the Video Page http://www.grassrootshealth.net/index.php/videos

  • Diabetes & Vitamin D
  • The Sun & Vitamin D I and II
  • Pregnancy & Vitamin D  I and II
  • Upper Respiratory Infections & Vitamin DI and II
  • Ethic Disparities & Vitamin D
  • Premenopausal Breast Cancer & Vitamin D
  • The Cost of Vitamin D Deficiency: In Dollars & Disease
  • Vitamin D & Calcium, Fractures, & Kidney Stones  What do we know?
  • Why Test Vitamin D!?
  • Prostate Cancer Positive Core Biopsies Reduced with Vitamin D
  • Prostate Cancer Lesions Reduced with Vitamin D
  • Vitamin D Stops Breast Cancer
  • Vitamin D & Gene Expression
  • Vitamin D & Treatment of Autism
  • Pregnancy & Vitamin D Interview
  • Alzheimer’s Prevention & Vitamin
  • Interaction of Vitamin D and Calcium
  • Vitamin D Requirements for Breast Feeding Mothers
  • Vitamin D & Breast Cancer
  • Vitamin D & Cardiovascular Disease
  • Vitamin D & The Immune System
  • Vitamin D & Cystic Fibrosis

Be well and stay healthy – Pandemic Survivor

ADD, ADHD, Autism, and Cretinism – Deficiency Diseases

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Bad parenting, video games, television, poor schools, and on and on have all been blamed for disorders in children.  Add to that the claims of environment toxins from mercury in vaccines to additives in plastics leaves us grasping at straws as families deal with the ever growing issues.  However, I believe the real bad actors in all the array of mental and physical malfunction is primarily caused by deficiencies of critical nutrients.  The primary players in brain function and physical formation are iodine, vitamin D, and vitamin A.  Depending on the level of deficiency of nutrients will give a varying degree of malfunction.  Not only are the deficiencies important, it is also during the period of development of the child that the deficiency occurs that is critical.

A minor deficiency in iodine and vitamin D during the year of three to six or older may lead to ADD or ADHD.  A severe deficiency of iodine during pregnancy will lead to Cretinism or severe mental and physical malformation.  A deficiency of iodine during the first two years of life will lead to 10 to 15 points loss of IQ.  The array and severity of various diseases are endless.  It all depends on the nutrition of the person involved.

The solution for parents to relieve the worry of rearing children is relative simple.  Be sure that the mother during pregnancy and the child during developmental years get enough of the required nutrients.  You cannot sit back and expect government and your doctors to be all protective.  Their goals are not necessarily a healthy developing child which conflicts severely with the goals of the parents.

The question then becomes how much of what nutrient do I need to be sure my children are healthy.  Here is where the real conflict comes into play.  The science is not limited in providing the correct understanding of what is needed.  However, the needs of the child come in direct conflict with the needs of the institution’s economic health.  I recently heard a doctor on Fox News describe the supplementation with vitamins and minerals as not necessary.  Of course this would be true if you lived in the Garden of Eden.  With today’s food processing removing nutrients and destroying the integrity of organic molecules, the need of supplementation is every present.

To keep it simple, I would suggest that you get the following amounts from all sources:

Vitamin D3 approximately 40 IU per pound of body weight per day
Vitamin A the same as D3
Iodine approximately 1 milligram for every fifty pounds of body weight should be adequate.

Otherwise, try to maintain a healthy diet by eating a wide variety of foods.  Keep the amount of dense carbohydrates to a minimum.  Avoid wheat and corn if possible and especially if it is GMO.  Keep sugar to a minimum.

With that being said, I will leave you with two thoughts:  “Food is Medicine.”  – Randy Jirtle  and don’t give up freedom for security.  – Pandemic Survivor