IOM Reports on Vitamin D and Calcium

Posted on December 1, 2010 by Mark Pegram

The Institute of Medicine, a division of the National Academy of Science has presented their report on vitamin D and calcium. They choose to not ‘rock the boat’. They made it perfectly clear in the report summary and at the report presentation at 10 AM EST this morning that they considered bone health only. I viewed the presentation online and noticed that attendance at the meeting was sparse. I suspect this was because of their news release on Monday stating that they were considering bone health only and that the DRI’s were not changed significantly.

Highlights of the report included:

Bone health only was considered for setting the DRI’s
The ‘one size fits all’ remains in place because they considered bone health only
The amounts of vitamin D is from all sources with the idea that sun exposure is limited
Serum 25(OH)D was considered as adequate at a level of 20 ng/ml
Vitamin D from all sources at 600 IU per day should achieve this level
Suggested range for 25(OH)D was from 20 to 50 ng/ml
No improvement to bone could be found above 50 ng/ml
They felt that regular serum testing was not necessary
The upper limit of daily intake was doubled to 4,000 IU of D3 per day
They were excited about the new research on vitamin D but decided there was too much uncertainty to increase levels
They encouraged continue research
There was emphasis of damage that could occur from an excess of vitamin D with fear about kidney damage and increased pancreatic cancer at higher levels among smokers
The amount of calcium intake was left about the same at approximately 1000 mg per day
They only considered 1000 papers (this seems odd as there will be more than 2500 published this year – I would suppose this is because they considered bone health only)
Treatment and prevention of disease with vitamin D was left firmly in the domain of health care providers

The only really good thing that happened was that the upper limit of daily intake from all sources was increased to 4000 IU per day from 2000 IU per day.

After further digestion of their statements, I will give you my thoughts on Thursday.

NIH Response: IOM Report on Vitamin D

Posted on November 6, 2010 by Mark Pegram

As we speculate on the many options of institutions to respond to the Institute of Medicine report on vitamin D, the most important is how the NIH and its various departments respond. Driving the response most likely will be the Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act of 1994. This act does several things, but the most important is to limit the authority on dietary supplements by the FDA. As long as a dietary supplement makes no claims about healing or preventing disease, then preapproval for sale by the FDA is not required. So is vitamin D a nutrient or a drug. The DSHEA states that anything shown to prevent or cure disease most be defined as a drug and regulated as such. This is where the language on vitamin and nutrient labels gets tricky. You can suggest that the nutrient may help your body to heal, but you cannot state outright that the nutrient will cause you to heal or prevent a disease.

I really think that Dr. Robert P. Heaney, MD had this in mind when he did the presentation on the physiological action of vitamin D. The title is “Vitamin D: Nutrient, not a Drug.” But by definition according to DSHEA, vitamin D does prevent and treat disease, therefore is a drug. You can watch the presentation through Grass Roots Health and UCSD tv. Dr. Heaney makes the argument that vitamin D does not heal disease. The vitamin D allows the body to respond with its natural healing processes or innate immunity. Vitamin D does this by opening the DNA library that is contained in every cell. This was confirmed in August this year by a report from Oxford University saying that there are over 2700 genes or more than ten percent of the genome with vitamin D pathways.

There is a mountain of research that shows that vitamin D does cure and prevent disease. The only reason that the FDA may not be able to step in and regulate this nutrient as a drug is because of the history of this nutrient and the general safety that has been shown through the use of cod liver oil over many decades. Of course the drug manufacturers will not like the fact that they could have large market losses because of the reduced amount of disease. The other issue of course that must be considered by government is the impact on the economy with a healthy population.

I know the statement above may be counter intuitive when thinking about health and the economy. However, the largest segment of our economy is the health segment. If disease were reduced by twenty five percent then most likely the health segment of the economy would be reduced accordingly. With the present state of the economy in general this could be disastrous. You will not get to decide if you would rather be healthy or have a healthy economy. The government or more specifically, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of Health and Human Services will decide this for you. I suspect through the guidance of the President since she reports directly to him. Is there any evidence that the government considers the economy more important than your health? Yes the predecessor of Sebelius was Michael Leavitt and his number four principle was ‘markets before mandates’. His last principle of nine was to ‘value life.’

With the economy more important than mandated health, I suspect that there will be an attempt to limit the understanding of vitamin D for the general population. However, there may be significant guilt because of the length of time that this information has already been suppressed. Or if you prefer, the understanding of vitamin D has been ignored. Saying that it has been ignored is a much nicer way to say that we have maintained a medical economy of trillions of dollars from your bad health over the last fifty years. In other words, you had jobs, but your health could have been much better – a true conundrum! Mandate serum testing of the entire population or let them remain in a much worse disease state to maintain the medical economy. I’m glad that is not my decision. You can make your own personal decision about maintaining your vitamin D at a summertime level all year. – Pandemic Survivor

Reaction to the IOM Report on Vitamin D

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Mark Pegram

In email communications with Heather Breiner, information contact for the FNB on vitamin D, the most likely release date for the report on vitamin D and calcium is November 30, 2010. I am sure that many institutions are prepared to react to whatever the report suggest. It is almost a certainty that daily required intakes will be increased. However, there are some reactions that would definitely benefit the economy and not the health of the individual. We need plain language to better understand what can happen.

Over the last fifty years there have been two major concerns associated with vitamin D. Both of these concerns kept the general population from getting an adequate amount. First there was the issue of toxicity. I remember when I told my doctor that I was going to supplement with enough vitamin D so that I would have the same serum level that you would maintain in the summertime. He was startled at the 8,000 IU per day that I was suggesting and said that he thought my organs ‘would turn to stone’. This biblical warning really scared me, but I felt that my reading of the peer reviewed medical journal articles was enough assurance that I was on sound footing. This same conversation will happen billions of times around the world over the next years. No large institution will be willing to admit to being so wrong for so long without extreme fear of legal action. There have really been no major incidences of vitamin D toxicity. The issue of death from acetaminophen toxicity with the associated liver failures is the major concern of any substance available for general use of the population. Of course the use of acetaminophen would not be so large if everyone had enough vitamin D which would significantly reduce chronic pain.

In my reading of the literature and comments of toxicity by the researchers on D, the major bad actor has been vitamin D2, the most prescribed form of vitamin D by the medical practitioners. Vitamin D2 is made from the sterols of fungus that is irradiated. Why do they prescribe D2 and not D3? You cannot patent D3. In medical practice D3 and D2 have always been considered as equal in there action in the body. This is somewhat true at very low levels required to prevent and to heal rickets. However, at higher levels of D2 because of the thousands of genetic pathways for vitamin D, D2 causes serious issues and leads to failure of many systems. This has been the major issue of toxicity over the years. Doctors have seen the bad results of D2 and associated all vitamin D with toxicity.

The use of the steroid form of vitamin D has caused misinterpretation that all vitamin D is toxic as well. In trials where the steroid form was given instead of D3 there usually appears to be issues with too much calcium in the blood. It turns out that the body’s mechanism is to produce a substance that destroys the steroid form at the same time the steroid form is produced to keep it from over acting in the body. Vitamin D should never be supplemented as a nutrient or as a substance to heal disease unless it is vitamin D3. Vitamin D3 is what your body makes in the skin from exposure to the sun.

The second concern that has caused the population to have low levels of vitamin D has been the issue with sun exposure and skin cancer. When using sunscreen, almost all vitamin D production in the skin is stopped. As it turns out, the melanoma rate in the US has increased by a factor of four since the 1960’s and the increased use of sun block. So does sun block cause more skin cancer? We will let the courts decide that if sense can be made of the convoluted research that has been presented to date. There is too much money involved for clear thinking. Some manufacturers of sunscreens have taking action to protect them from extreme liability in fear of the existing class action suit that is presently in the California courts. The manufacturers of sunscreen skated by in the legal actions taken by the FDA and FTC in 2000 with good luck over the ruling by now Chief Justice John Roberts. It seems the real truth in the matter is that the amount of skin cancer caused by too much sun exposure is nothing compared to the deaths that result from all the chronic disease that is created by vitamin D deficiency.

All that the researchers are suggesting is for the population to maintain a serum level as if it was summer all year. How could having summer all year be a bad thing? Only for the medical economy- We will try to address this issue next post.

The IOM Report on Vitamin D – What Then?

Posted on November 4, 2010 by Mark Pegram

The Institute of Medicine is a part of the National Academies which places itself as the “advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine.” When Food and Nutrition Boards are established by the IOM, they are to review the latest information available on the study item and give a comprehensive report of the findings. For nutrients, this includes the daily required intake or DRI. Ten years ago the FNB on vitamin D left the DRI, as it had been for years, as the amount required to keep children under one year old from getting rickets. This really does not make sense for adults, but that is what we got. So what can we expect from the November report?

Scenario One: The IOM finds that there is not enough research to make a change to the DRI’s so that the present DRI’s are maintained. This would mean that no doctor would be able to tell you that you should take more than 2000 IU per day without violated standard practices or guidelines. This would also mean that anytime a research project would like to use larger amounts then special permission would have to be obtained. Over a million people in the US alone would continue to die every year from vitamin D deficiency.

Scenario Two: The IOM decides based on the current research that adults should be sure to get 2000 IU per day with a maximum daily intake of no more than 5000 IU. I do not know how they could come to this conclusion based on the science as I have just chosen that number out-of –the air. However, this falls in line with what happened ten years ago. It was a number pulled out of the air for adults. If they did decide to do this the good news would be a significant reduction in chronic disease and 350,000 less deaths per year in the US.

Scenario Three: The IOM finds based on the research that everyone needs a minimum of 75 IU/kg/d to maintain the healthy functions of the body. They then translate this to a DRI of 35 IU/lb/d from all sources. This would be difficult for the average person understand and maintain an intake at this level because of the creation of vitamin D through sun exposure, a very complicated process to estimate the amount created. The DRI would most likely be set at 5000 IU per day for adults in the winter and 2000 IU per day in the summer with a maximum intake of 10,000 IU per day supplemental. The board would then recommend that everyone have their serum 25(OH)D tested once to twice per year to maintain adequate intake for health or the level of people in a sunny country of 54 ng/ml to 90 ng/ml. Of course this would be the ideal.

The response by governments and health institutions would be difficult to determine. You can bet that the various institutions have already decided how they will react depending on the recommendations of the IOM. There are huge changes in health results of the general population to be considered with associated socioeconomic outcomes. One example would be that most medical studies would become invalid as there has typically been no control on vitamin D. We will try to explore the possibility of reactions in the next post.

Vitamin D Testing – O Canada

Posted on October 19, 2010 by Mark Pegram

Not often do you find a true ‘elephant in the room’ but I believe that Canada’s effort to reduce the amount of vitamin D testing is a rogue elephant. Of course it may be more like ‘hidden in plain’ site as the majority of people are not aware of the benefits of vitamin D. Ontario Ministry claims that it has nothing to do with the cost in their desire to go back to 2004 testing levels. The medical practitioners are very upset with the proposal by the Ontario Ministry of Health. Here is the article in the Globe and Mail – “Ontario considers curbing vitamin D testing.”

I believe that the truth is a major concern for reducing the amount of total services. Income will be lost when people become vitamin D replete and disease is reduced. Let’s take one minor example. Last year the Canadian health authorities encourage parents to increase the amount of vitamin D per day for children. There were a grand total of 10 pediatric deaths (as of May 1, 2010) in Canada during last year’s flu season. That is for everyone under eighteen years of age. Less than sixty percent of that population had the flu shot. The US pediatric deaths for the 2009-2010 flu season was 281. The population of Canada is about 35MM and the population for the US is about 300MM or a per capita pediatric death rate for the US that is 3.5 times higher than Canada. Is it because of less vaccination and more supplementation with vitamin D or both?

I do truly believe that the Ministry is earnest about its statement that the testing for vitamin D has nothing to do with the cost. I do believe that it has everything to do with the lost income from a healthier population. Given that in August, Oxford University reported that there were 2,776 genes that interact with vitamin D, why would you not want to test. Genetic Influence of Vitamin D. The report states that there are over 200 genes that affect directly- heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.

It is going to be really interesting later this year when the Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board finally issue their long awaited report on vitamin D and calcium. What will the recommendations be and how will that report be treated? In the last fifty years there have been 25,000 peer reviewed medical journal articles about vitamin D and disease. If the reports states there is not enough research then there is a large gray wrinkly animal just waiting to stump on you. The researchers are basically saying that everyone should have the serum level of vitamin D of people that live in a sunny country. Why are the skeptics calling these MEGA-doses of vitamin D? I don’t know about you, but I feel really good when traveling in sunny countries.

In most of North America we have reach a season where the sun no longer provides an adequate amount of vitamin D. That is if you are not afraid of getting cancer and you go into the sun. Have your serum 25(OH)D tested and try to maintain it at the level of a sunny country or 54 to 90 ng/ml. – Pandemic Survivor

Bone Fractures Suspected with Anti-Osteoporosis Drug

Posted on October 15, 2010 by Mark Pegram

What do bone fractures, damaged jawbones, and esophageal cancer have in common? It is possible that they may be caused by the anti-osteoporosis drug, bisphosphonates. The FDA has just released a warning that you should review the usage of these drugs with you health care provider. Here is the FDA warning and information

Here is a comprehensive article on the issues at Food Consumer.

You know, this is not really news. There have always been concerns about the effectiveness of bisphospohonates. Typically the increase in bone density over a year is less than three percent. I have a friend that was taking the bisphosphonates. I suggested to her that she may want to start supplementing with vitamin D. It would not only help her bone density but would simulate her endocrine system in many ways. She talked with her health care provider and stopped taking the anti-osteoporosis drug and starting taking 5000 IU of D3 per day. After a year she reported that her bone density had increased by 23%. So you are asking is there any science to support such an increase.

Paul Stitt, (now deceased, is a champion of the Vitamin D Revolution and we honor him) Natural Ovens in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, sponsored a study for supplementing the diet of nursing home patients with 5000 IU of vitamin D per day in their bread. He could not get the study accomplished in the US because of the 2000 IU maximum and had the study done in Romania. Endocrinologist Veronica Mocanu of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Iasi, Romania did the work. She reported at the 2005 Experimental Biology Meeting in San Diego that the vitamin D deficient patients achieved a healthy level of vitamin D. What was also amazing is that she reported the bone density increase for their hips at 28 percent. Here is an article by Janet Raloff that is archived at Direct MS on this presentation: I find it extremely interesting that just after the report, Merck petitioned the FDA to add vitamin D to their popular osteoporosis drug, Fosamax, spring of 2006. Now we see on all the biphsophonate commercials to be sure to get enough vitamin D and calcium – huh?

Mocanu has finally had the research paper published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2009. Here is the link; Long-term effects of giving nursing home residents bread fortified with 125 µg (5000 IU) vitamin D₃ per daily serving

The medical profession has done us a real disservice in promoting these drugs when all that we needed was some sunshine. By taking the drug, it appears that the side effects are worse than the ‘supposed’ treatment. How many other chronic diseases are results of sun phobia?

Go talk to your health care provided now if you are taking biphosphonates! – Pandemic Survivor

Frustration and Hope for Autism

Posted on October 6, 2010 by Mark Pegram

Amanda is truly frustrated that she cannot find a solution for her child’s autism. She finds out about the vitamin D relationship to autism for this important nutrient from the sun. However, she cannot find a medical person locally that will help her with how much vitamin D the child needs. She then contacts John Cannell, MD of the Vitamin D Council and their conversation over months is recorded in the October newsletter by Dr. Cannell. It is truly sad that our medical profession is not moving faster and yet very hopeful because children with autism are responding to just plain vitamin D3 and sunshine.

Yet Another Autism Case Report

Dr. Cannell: I have a three and half year old child who was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, verbal apraxia of speech, and hypotonia. I knew something was wrong very early on in that he was extremely late in gross motor skills, such as sitting independently and walking.

Although he eventually was able to sit and walk, his speech was severely delayed. Despite months of speech therapy, he was still unable to complete words. His speech though is very infrequent and is monotone and robotic like when he does speak. He has trouble with social language (engaging in conversations, asking questions and initiating communication). He also engages in stimming behaviors, like hand flapping, vocalizing, and throwing himself on the floor.

I have read your website about autism and vitamin D deficiency, and I am desperately trying to find a doctor in the NY metro area who is knowledgeable about treating children like this with vitamin D. I have been to so many doctors who keep telling me if he takes 400 IU’s per day in his vitamin and drinks milk, then he is not deficient. I would be so grateful for a recommendation.

Please help me. Thank you so much for your time, Amanda Smith, New York

I know of no such doctor in the NYC area but print out this article in Acta Paediatrica (PDF format) and take it to him; your pediatrician will know this journal, as it is the largest pediatric journal in the world.

The belief that a good diet, together with a standard multivitamin and milk three times a day, will prevent vitamin D deficiency in older children, teens, and adults is common in the medical profession.

In reality, two ways exist to obtain enough vitamin D, the sun or a pill containing thousands of units. In the complete absence of both, vitamin D deficiency will occur 100% of the time — unless cold water fish is consumed eight times a day. Next time you hear someone say that all vitamins can be obtained from a good diet, know that person to be misinformed on the subject.

His self-stimulation (stimming), how often does he do it or how many hours per day?

By the way, you can easily treat him yourself. How much does he weigh?

Dr. Cannell: Thank you so much for responding to my email. I am desperate. This autism is not what I had in mind for my child’s life or my family’s life. He spends about 1–2 hours a day stimming, mostly hand-flapping.

Does he need routine monitoring while on the vitamin D to check his 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels?

I am willing to travel if you know of a doctor affiliated with Boston’s Children’s Hospital, or anywhere else on the east coast.

He weighs about 30 pounds. He is currently taking: 3200 mg of fish oil, 400 IU’s of vitamin E, 3,000 mg of phosphatidycholine, and a standard daily dose of a Poly Visol vitamin (with 400 IU’s of vitamin D).

If he starts vitamin D, should he continue with his current regimen of E, fish oil and choline? I am not sure which combination of supplements and vitamins would be appropriate. I do not want to give anything that is contra-indicated or toxic.

This is why I was looking for a doctor who is knowledgeable, but cannot seem to find one. My pediatrician just sneered and returned your autism and vitamin D paper to me without reading it.

Thank you so much for your help. Amanda

I do not believe that all these supplements are needed, but I doubt they do any harm, except the Poly-Vi-Sol, which contains retinol. Stop it.

Go to the health food store and get some Ddrops, 1,000 IU per drop, not 400 IU per drop. They are marketed in the United States by Carlson.

Dr. Cannell: The dosage then would be 1,000 IU’s for him? I already bought capsules with 2,500 IU per capsule.

Does he also need the magnesium, zinc and vitamin K as cofactors? What about the vitamin E, B6, amino acids and fish oil?

Thanks so much for your help. Amanda

No, his dose is not 1,000 IU/day; his dose is 4,000 IU/day. Thus, as each capsule contains 2,500 IU, one day give him two capsules and the next day one capsule, and keep repeating. This is close enough to 4,000 IU/day. You want his 25(OH)D around 100 ng/mL to start.

Yes, those are the cofactors he needs, along with iron as he is a child. If he regularly eats red meat, he can get his iron from his diet. He needs seeds and nuts (like a nut butter) for magnesium and zinc, milk for calcium, and a vitamin K2 supplement, about 100 micrograms. Forget the vitamin E, amino acids, and fish oil pills. Feed him salmon several times a week.

Dr. Cannell: Thanks very much.

The problem is that I don’t have a doctor to check his blood.

If I told my pediatrician that he was taking 4,000 IU’s per day of vitamin D, he’d start screaming. He told me not to give him anything beyond the 400 IU’s in his multi- vitamin.

Are there medical doctors using vitamin D to treat autism? I have checked with several major children’s’ hospitals and cannot find any. Amanda

No, I know of no pediatrician in the NYC area who knows anything about autism and vitamin D, in spite of the fact that I first thought about this in 2006 and first published it in May of 2007 on the website and in a medical journal on October 24, 2007. I now believe that many autism researchers think my theory is true but they also know they may be out of work if it is shown to be so. If you Google autism and vitamin D, you will get almost half a million hits. Someone is reading about it, apparently not the pediatricians.

Within the Google results you will find a Scientific American article, written by Gabrielle Glaser. I worked with Gabrielle on the story, supplying her with all the evidence and the citations. After Gabrielle was finished, the editors at Scientific American told her to remove all references to me as the one who first proposed the theory and to credit someone else, anyone else.

I have since learned that one of the Scientific American editors has a child with autism, believes vaccinations caused the autism, and was angry with me for ridiculing the vaccination theory. If you want to know how it really happened, read:

Julius Goepp, MD. The Link Between Autism and Low Levels of Vitamin D. Life Extension Magazine April 2009.

If his pediatrician will not check his 25(OH)D, simply buy an in-home vitamin D test and have a neighbor or relative, who is a nurse, do a heel stick to obtain the little bit of blood needed to complete the test. Or, you can join Life Extension Foundation and get the vitamin D blood test through them.

Dr. Cannell: I would greatly appreciate it if you could please let me know what the optimal blood level 25(OH)D should be for him, (he’s three and a half).

Thanks so much Amanda

For now, give him enough vitamin D to obtain a 25(OH)D of around 100 ng/mL. We may want to increase his dose high enough to obtain a level of 150 ng/mL in the future, which is perfectly safe in the short term, so as not to miss a treatment effect or to be sure we are seeing the full treatment effect. Six months after he fully responds, you can begin to slowly lower the dose to obtain levels of 70–80 ng/mL.

The reason to seek the very upper limits of normal in your child is simple, your child has a serious — very serious — illness. A brain disease, one that may destroy his life, and yours. For reasons I do not yet understand, many autistic children first start responding to vitamin D only when their blood level reaches 90–100. In fact, I know of a case where the mother made a mistake and gave ten times the suggested dose and the autistic child had a miraculous and rapid response. How could that be? I do not know.

Nor do I know how a genetic disease could be cured with vitamin D. That makes no sense to me but enough mothers have written to me that I believe that it will routinely happen if retinol is stopped and enough vitamin D is given. It reminds me of Thomas Huxley who said, “Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.”

Dr. Cannell: Thanks so much.

At this level is there any risk of premature closure of the epiphyses? My son is only three and a half.

Thanks again, I really appreciate all of your help. How do you have the time to help me for nothing? Amanda

No, no risk of premature epiphyseal closure. Here is my cell phone number, give me a call on a Monday; I have Mondays off from work at the hospital. You are too worried and your anxiety may upset your child.

While I have proposed a number of vitamin D theories, my heart is with these children. If I didn’t have to work at the hospital four days a week, I would see autistic children five days a week. I daydream that a rich guy makes that happen and the autism clinic he sponsors is free for the families. For now, I do what I can with the limited time I have available.

Dr. Cannell: Thank you so much for speaking with me this past Monday regarding my son with autism.

I had his 25-hydroxyvitamin D level checked this week as a baseline and to my surprise his level was 51.7 ng/mL. I had been taking him out in the sun with no sunscreen about a week and a half prior to the test, and I am wondering if this could have impacted his levels that quickly if he was initially deficient. I had also started the 4,000 IU’s two days prior to the test, but this should not have had an impact.

My question is at this point whether I should continue the 4,000 IU’s of vitamin D or if I should reduce the amount to 2,500 IU’s per day.

His metabolic panel also showed a high BUN/creatinine ratio of 55, and lower levels of protein (4.8 g/dL) and albumin (3.2 g/dL). We have to take him back next week to have his amino acids checked. I am wondering if the D affects these levels as well.

Thank you so much for all of your help, Amanda

Keep him on 4,000 IU/day together with the sunshine and plenty of fluids. Make sure he eats dairy three times a day (calcium), salmon (omega-3), red meat (iron), and vegetables (multiple vitamins), nut-butter (magnesium) with an otherwise varied diet. If he had trouble in the past with dairy, he may not have such trouble on the vitamin D. Don’t worry about these other blood tests, they did not need to have been obtained and these mild abnormalities will correct themselves in time.

Also, remember, if the healthiest person in the world repeatedly had 100 different blood tests, some would eventually be abnormal. That’s simple math. I have little patience for the “autism doctors” who find well-insured or wealthy parents, draw 100s of blood tests on the child, find the few that are abnormal, do something (anything will work) and then repeat the blood test next month and say to the mother, “look, the test is better, your son is improving under my care.” One of the few things worse are the academics who say, “Nothing can be done. It is a genetic disease. Here is a prescription for an antipsychotic if he starts beating on his sister.”

Dr. Cannell: My son has started on 4,000 IU’s of D and over the last several days we have noticed and increase in hitting, biting, and temper tantrums. I was wondering if other parents have reported this kind of behavior during the initial days of vitamin D supplementation, and whether it means we should stop the vitamin D?

Thank you so much for your help, Amanda

This too shall pass; just keep giving him 2 capsules one day (5,000 IU) and one capsule (2,500 IU) the next. Is he still going into the sun?

Dr. Cannell: My son’s 25 (OH) D level was only 64.8 ng/mL, (this was after 2 weeks of being in the sun without sunblock and supplementing him with 4,000 IU’s of vitamin D/day). I try to take him out 20–30 minutes on sunny days without sunblock. He may be a little better.

Also, how often should the blood work be done to check his 25(OH)D level? As the autumn is coming, his sun exposure will probably be decreasing.

Thank you so much for all of your help. Amanda

Yes, the sun and 4,000 IU/day together is fine for now.

Check his 25(OH)D every month.

Dr. Cannell:

My son has been on Vitamin D for a month now and I wanted to report back to you that we have seen repeated bursts of spontaneous language. He has also started asking questions, and is initiating conversation with us. It has been truly remarkable; the teachers at school cannot believe it.

Additionally he is pedaling on his tricycle, just like a regular kid, whereas before, he was struggling just trying to pedal. We are very impressed with his progress and I do not know how to thank you so much for all of your help. I’d give the Vitamin D Council a million dollars if I had it.

About a month ago, we had a metabolic panel done on him and his protein, calcium and albumin levels were a little low. We followed up two weeks later with an amino acids plasma test (this was done when he was on the D for only two weeks). I just received the results and several of these levels are high-in umol/L: proline (396) alanine (605), valine (337), methionine (51), tyrosine (119), lysine (299), and histidine (136).

The high alanine level was of most concern because the lab added the following footnote: “In this sample, the concentration of alanine was elevated. This finding could be indicative of secondary lactic acidemia, acute illness, and reduced caloric intake”.

My son’s height is in the 75% percentile and his weight is in the 50th, he has never been failure to thrive. Also, his copper, carnitine, and B vitamin levels, (B1, B6 and B12) were normal-I know these are generally deficient in autistics, Actually his B12 level was high 1029 pg/mL. Given these levels should I continue giving him the vitamin D? Could the other supplements he is taking cause these abnormalities in the amino acids?

Thanks so much for your help. My mother can’t believe it; neither can my husband, neither can I. How long will this improvement last? Amanda

I am so glad to hear of your son’s improvement. I woke up last night with a nightmare that I had told you to stop the vitamin D when he seemed worse.

This improvement in his autism should be permanent, if you continue the vitamin D with the cofactors and avoid the retinol. This improvement will include his coordination and physical ability, not just his autism.

You still need to measure his 25(OH)D every month as you may have to adjust the dose (either up or down). For example, say his next vitamin D level is 90 ng/mL. My immediate question is “would his autism improve even more rapidly if his level was 100 ng/mL?”

You want to keep increasing his level (by increasing his dose) up to 150 ng/mL, until it is clear that the extra dose had no additional effect. Then back down until he seems a little worse, then go up until he is better again and then you will know the correct vitamin D dose for him.

Stop having all this other stuff measured and stop worrying about it. Someone, whoever is ordering all these blood tests, is defrauding you and your insurance company. Stop all these supplements except the vitamin D, vitamin K2, and maybe a little pediatric iron.

As an aside, one of the special masters in the autism/vaccine court recently ruled for the child’s family, awarding the child an initial sum of $1.5 million, with an additional $500,000 per year. However, the judge acted on the child’s petition because the petition filed by the other side, the Justice Department, agreed completely with the child’s lawyer. In other words, when this case came in front of the judge (special master), both sides had already agreed on the award:

Sharyl Attkisson, CBS News, September 9, 2010. Family to Receive $1.5M+ in First-Ever Vaccine-Autism Court Award.

If you are waiting in the vaccine/autism court, now is the time to change the diagnosis of your child from autism to “mitochondrial disorder and encephalopathy” and hope you are next in line. However, I worry this award will result in another ten year delay in accepting that maternal vitamin D deficiency causes autism, like the bogus vaccine research did.

Sharyl Attkisson. September 14, 2010. Vaccines, Autism and Brain Damage: What’s in a Name?.

Unlike autism, encephalopathy has long been recognized as a rare but dreaded result of vaccination. Such encephalopathy is an immune phenomenon, undoubtedly caused by the most common cause of acquired immune deficiency syndrome: vitamin D deficiency.

If you think the vaccination/anti-vaccination debate is a new one, read the article Mr. Pomeroy on vaccination in the British Medical Journal, published 100 years ago on 22 January 1910!

Getting back to your son, what he needs now is time, time for the vitamin D to do whatever it is doing, time for his brain to repair itself, time for the inflammation to stop, time for his brain to learn, time to make up what he has missed so far in life. Keep obtaining a 25(OH)D every month and keep adjusting the dose. You will be surprised how quickly he progresses. The key is high doses of vitamin D and no retinol.

If you do as I say, I predict that in one year you will deny that your son ever had autism.

John Jacob Cannell MD Executive Director

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Iodine – A Necessity for Life

Posted on September 28, 2010 by Mark Pegram

As I was researching iodine, I was amazed at the similar path of deficiency to vitamin D that I found. Here is an absolutely necessary mineral for a healthy life that has not been given enough emphasis. One of the really interesting things was the DRI that is specified by our health organizations. The amount of 100 to 150 micrograms per day (depending on sex and age) defies the mass balance of iodine output in the urine as defined by the World Health Organization.

WHO defines deficiency as less than 100 micrograms of iodine per liter of urine. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that with one to two liters of urine output per day that this value is too low. It is no wonder that women in particular have such a large problem with healthy thyroids. Iodine is easily depleted during pregnancy as the fetus uses large amounts for cellular differentiation of developing cells. One common disease is cretinism when the fetus does not get enough iodine. Iodine deficiency as stated by WHO is the leading cause of preventable brain damage. For more information on this here are the specifics from Oregon State University.

Iodine is responsible not only for cellular differentiation but also for cellular death and is very important for people who have cancer to help reduce tumor growth. Tumors are immature cells that continue to grow because the mechanism for cellular death has failed. Iodine and vitamin D in combination assist or provide the mechanism for this action to occur.

The thyroid uses iodine to make very powerful neural transmitters and hormones that drive the energy cycle of the body. For more on this read what Dr. William Davis that writes the Heart Scan Blog has to say about iodine.

Depression, brain damage, heart disease, obesity, cancer, and many other diseases are related to iodine deficiency. We are awash in a world of toxic halogens that displace the important actions of iodine. Whether fluorine that is put into our water or bromine that is placed in our bread, these toxins displace the iodine needed for health. Before immediately going on a course of very powerful substitutes for thyroid hormones, be sure that you are replete in iodine and vitamin D.

My heart breaks at the seriousness of these diseases and the modern treatment procedures that typically ignore the basics of nutrition. My prayers are for you – Pandemic Survivor

Solving Obesity – Magnesium

Posted on September 17, 2010 by Mark Pegram

Taking one substance will not make you well either nutrient or pharmaceutical. Having a complete balanced nutritional diet will go a long way to protect you against the many intrusions to health. Environmental factors that we deal with whether man made or natural occurrences can create serious disease issues regardless of how healthy you are and how well you maintain nutrition. In general if you consume a diet that is an abundance of vegetables, fruits, nuts, and enough protein and fats (please note grains in moderation) you will be among the healthiest. Not having enough of the nutrients that our bodies require will lead to disease states whether there are environmental factors or not.

In my many years of researching the essential nutrients, I have found that the balance of the nutrients is the necessity for health. These items work together in ways that are so complex that we most likely will never be able to completely define all the interactions. However, there are some essentials that we do not get with our present diets in the US. These are vitamin C, vitamin D, iodine, and magnesium. You can add potassium to this list if you do not eat enough leafy green vegetables.

Magnesium is extremely important in our biological reactions. There are more than 350 biological reactions that magnesium has been identified with. I believe that two of the most important are the control of cellular membrane potential and magnesium as the molecule of choice for our energy storage – ADP to ATP.

About twenty five percent of the energy that is used for our bodies is the balance of calcium and magnesium and another twenty five percent is for potassium and sodium balance. This leads directly to how important the minerals are for maintaining a healthy weight. These important ions maintain the body electrochemical functions. If we are deficient in any of these then the ‘body electric’ starts to short circuit. I know an unusual term to describe what is going on with biological health but yet very accurate.

The balance of these minerals is extremely important for the electrical function of the heart. The heart is made up of over sixty percent neural cells just like what is found in the brain. These cells function through a cascade of reversing potentials by a balance inside and outside various membranes of potassium, sodium, magnesium, and calcium. Magnesium deficiency is one of the leading causes of sudden heart failure in young healthy adults.

Magnesium can be used up at a significant rate when you become vitamin D replete. It is extremely important to be sure to get enough magnesium when increasing your vitamin D levels.

How much magnesium is ill defined but falls in a range of 2.5 to 4.5 mg per pound of body weight per day. The good thing about supplementing with magnesium is that you reach bowel tolerance before you reach a level that is too much for the body. Magnesium is an excellent laxative. Nuts and beans appear to be the richest in magnesium of anything that we consume. A quarter cup of almonds contains 99 mg of magnesium and 257 mg of potassium.

For more information on magnesium check this nutritionist website: http://www.krispin.com/magnes.html

For the science this excellent website shows the diseases and gives you an opportunity to review the many papers on magnesium: www.mgwater.com

Vitamin D Deficiency Survivor

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