Pregnancy Not Included for Serum Vitamin D Testing

Posted on July 14, 2014 by Mark Pegram

The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force has an opportunity for Public Comment for vitamin D testing. In the draft proposal, pregnancy is not listed. Based on the work of Bruce Hollis of the Medical University of South Carolina and others, this is a very serious error. According to this work, higher vitamin D levels prevents very serious conditions during pregnancy and improved birth weight of the baby. Please take the time to read the drafts and make comments.

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Opportunities for Public Comment

Draft Recommendation:

Under Importance, the Draft Recommendation states that ”low levels of vitamin D are associated with increased risk for fractures, functional limitations, cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression, and mortality.”

The USPSTF is working in conjunction with the Health and Human Services AHRQ’s Effective Health Care Program. This group writes the medical guidelines for medical care.

Following is a paper that was written by the Endocrine Society Task Force in 2011:

Evaluation, Treatment, and Prevention of Vitamin D Deficiency: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline (pdf)

Authors: Michael F. Holick, Neil C. Binkley, Heike A. Bischoff-Ferrari, Catherine M. Gordon, David A. Hanley, Robert P. Heaney, M. Hassan Murad, and Connie M. Weaver

First published in Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, July 2011, 96(7): 1911–1930

Conclusions: Considering that vitamin D deficiency is very common in all age groups and that few foods contain vitamin D, the Task Force recommended supplementation at suggested daily intake and tolerable upper limit levels, depending on age and clinical circumstances. The Task Force also suggested the measurement of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level by a reliable assay as the initial diagnostic test is patients at risk for deficiency. Treatment with either vitamin D2 or vitamin D3 was recommended for deficient patients. At the present time, there is not sufficient evidence to recommend a screening individuals who are not at risk for deficiency or to prescribe vitamin D to attain the noncalcemic benefit for cardiovascular protection.

Note in the Endocrine Society guidelines that it includes D2 as being equal to D3. This was considered good practice since the 1940’s at resolution of the US government law suit against seventeen multinational corporations for conspiracy to manipulate the vitamin D market. According to Bruce Hollis research, pregnant women should take at least 4000 IU of vitamin D3 per day to reach sufficiency. Most vitamins for pregnancy only contain 1000 IU of D3.

It is my belief that the serum 25(OH)D level should be tested for any chronic disease, syndrome, or other conditions. There are some very serious diseases that were not included like tuberculosis. Vitamin D Wiki shows that vitamin D works on 47 health issues as of May, 2014 . Please take the time to comment. Women that I know that have taken serious consideration for vitamin D testing have had very successful outcomes. – Pandemic Survivor

On Mother’s Day

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Mark Pegram

My mother was a lovely beautiful woman who had nine children. She worked both hard in the kitchen and hard in the fields. She promoted the characteristics of commitment, integrity, and character. We celebrate mother’s all over the world for without them, we would not be. Mother’s effort:

It is important to remember the children as well on this day. Sometimes infants are born with hearts that do not thrive. It is important, along with standard treatment to be sure they are getting enough vitamin D. Read about this at he Vitamin D Council, Infant Heart Failure.

As we forgive and ask for forgiveness for the number one cause of death in the US, a mother’s right to choice, we celebrate life. – Pandemic Survivor

Grassroots Health Webinars on Vitamin D

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Mark Pegram

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

Open Letter to Mothers

Posted on February 16, 2013 by Mark Pegram

This post was originally a note to my medically inspired daughters and mother of my grandchildren and loves of my life:

The art of medicine has now been overcome with the snake oil salesmen of the early twentieth century taking over the industry through manipulation of published papers, lobbying efforts in congress to make obscene regulations, manipulation of all the government authorities under HHS, and egregious greed. This has become apparent by looking at the fact that we spend 2.4 trillion on health care and 1.5 trillion on food. A complete reversal of how health should be considered. We spend twice as much per capita for health care as other industrialize countries in the world thus totally upsetting the ratio of food to health care. In the words of Dr. Randy Jirtle, an extraordinary pioneer in epigentics and genomics imprinting in his work at Duke University, “Food is medicine.”

Medicine has gone out of it way to diminish the effects of nutrients on our health for the sole reason of maintaining a large medical economy to enrich the pockets of the greedy. The only way that this large segment of the economy can be maintained is to have a large unhealthy population. We have the best medical system in the world when it comes to acute illness. When it comes to chronic disease, we rank about fifty in the world’s health care systems. The manipulation of medicine and food is atrocious. We continually wonder and worry about why the rate of chronic disease continues to rise and the health of our children degrades. GMO foods, the use of sugar and other compounds to drive our appetites, and drugs instead of nutrition have lead us down a road of much pain in our society.

There are many nutrients you must be concern about for the health of your families and the success of your medical practices. The most important are (not in order of significance): Vitamin A – not beta-carotene, vitamin D3, vitamin C, magnesium, iodine, sulfate. Understanding how these nutrients interact with the nutrients from our diet is important as well.

I believe that the onslaught of disease in our children, in particular mental degradation with ADD, ADHD, and autism, is cause not by any one nutrient deficiency, but the combination of deficiencies. If we consider autism, I believe this is a response to the reduction of vitamin D3, iodine, magnesium, and sulfate. With iodine being the leading cause of mental retardation according to WHO, it is a must that you and your children get enough. Iodine does not act alone. It is in combination with vitamin D3, vitamin A, and iodine that cellular differentiation works at the optimum levels.

Your grandfather and grandmother assured that we got enough of these nutrients in eating liver, consuming cod liver oil, spending time in the sun, and sulfured black strap molasses(loaded with minerals as the grass is cooked down). This practice has fallen out of favor as being just ‘old wives tales.’ It is very difficult in today’s world with its peer pressure to reach a reasonable compliance in these nutrients. You are very creative women and I know that you will develop your own procedures to reach a nutritionally rich diet for your families. Disease in our family can be traced directly to your grandmother’s concern for over exposure of her children to the sun.

I appreciate in how you women have developed your love of God, your success with beautiful families, and success in your medical practices. Live your life in pursuit of love, joy, and peace and all of your desires will be met. The light, the truth, and the way of God will find you.

Love, Dad -Pandemic Survivor

Vitamin D Replete Baby!

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Mark Pegram

This is what a vitamin D replete baby born to a vitamin D replete mother (6500 IU/d D3 during pregnancy) looks like at two weeks old. It is a yawner! – Pandemic Survivor

Low vitamin D in womb linked to more weight at age 6 Vitamin D Wiki

Baby – Vitamin D!

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Mark Pegram

In last post, I berated the researchers for only using 400 IU of vitamin D as an amount to study. My reasoning was your body can make this amount in only a couple of minutes in the midday summer sun. However, the reason this amount has been used; it is the amount required for a baby to not get rickets. Think about a ten pound baby needing 400 IU or about 40 IU per pound of body weight per day. Since vitamin D is used throughout the body then the more your body weight the more you need. Ratio of body weight to the amount required should be carried out as the baby increases with weight.

I just rechecked the amount suggested by the governments NIH dietary fact sheet. This states that an infant 0-1 year old should get 400 IU per day for health. It then says that a lactating mother needs only 600 IU per day. So I guess they think that the mother can pass on 400 IU per day if she gets 600 IU? The idiots! Where is Dr. House when you need him? If we follow the rule of thumb, then a one hundred twenty five pound mother should be getting – 125 lb x 40 IU = 5000 IU per day of D3. At this level the mother may be able to pass along close to the requirement of the baby at 400 IU per day. Actually Dr. Bruce Hollis actually states that a lactating mother should be getting at least 6400 IU to assure that the baby gets the required 400 IU.

The NIH guidelines are made up out of the minds of the IOM Food and Nutrition Board. The tolerable upper limits for a baby is 1000 IU per day until six months and for the next six months the upper limit is 1500 IU per day. If we follow our rule of thumb, then the tolerable upper limit for a lactating mother would then be 12500 IU per day. This seems right to me. However, the guidelines state that the tolerable upper limit is 4000IU per day. This number is used for anyone over nine years old. It is like the government thinks when we hit nine, our body does not use anymore vitamin D with increased size – WOW! I think the researcher’s brains just stopped growing when they reached nine.

My daughter consistently took 7500 IU of D3 per day during lactation. She took five thousand IU’s one day and the next she would take 10,000 IU. The baby thrived. When she weaned the baby, she did not check to be sure the baby was getting vitamin D. The baby started to have colds. After two trips to the doctor, I convinced her to give the child supplements to assure the baby was getting between 400 to 1000 IU per day. When that happened the child got well and once again thrived. To accomplish this, she used vitamin D drops and put it in whatever liquid the child was consuming.

Always be sure that your baby is getting at least 400 IU per day throughout the first year of life. Or better, be sure the baby gets at least 40 IU per pound of body weight per day throughout its life. – pandemic survivor

How Much Vitamin D during Pregnancy

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Mark Pegram

The proper question to ask is not how much vitamin D during pregnancy, but what is the proper serum level of vitamin D during pregnancy. The reason for this is that every woman responds differently with serum level versus the amount of vitamin D they are getting from all sources. This has to do with the response of the body to various life processes that are ongoing.

Dr. Hollis in one study on pregnancy and vitamin D reported that a woman taking 6400 IU of D3 per day had a measured serum level of vitamin D of 20 ng/ml instead of the expected result; more than 50 ng/ml. The woman came down with the flu the next day. Whether it is a highly active need for vitamin D or a more long term need the body uses vitamin D at different rates. The only way to tell for sure is to have your serum level tested. The work of Dr. Hollis and Carol Wagner at MUSC has shown that in general pregnant women need around 4000 IU D3 per day to have a healthy baby and reduced complications.

What is the proper serum level? This has become the sticky issue. The IOM says that a level of 20 ng/ml is enough for 25(OH)D or the storage from of vitamin D in the body. The Society of Endocrinology has stated that everyone should have a minimum of 30 ng/ml. Grassroots Health has stated that the best level should be between 40 to 60 ng/ml. Dr. John Cannell of the Vitamin D Council says that the level should be above 60 ng/ml to get the best health effects. Are you confused yet?

The long established normal range for serum vitamin D, 25(OH)D, has long been used as 20 to 100 ng/ml. This is what is expected from the general population. People in a sunny country typically have a value in the range of 54 to 90 ng/ml (Grant and Holick). I suspect that the best that you can do for your body and maintain health is to be as if you lived in a sunny country. The studies that used only 400 IU of vitamin D and those that recommend this amount as adequate are well, quite frankly in the words of Dr. House –TV character, idiots. The value of 400 IU D3 only represents about two minutes in the sun and most likely will not affect your health one way or another. It disturbs me that we have spent huge amounts of money to study this amount of intake – we have been played by the researchers just so they have research money from the government.

Henry Lahore who has spent a great deal of time trying to put the facts together about vitamin D, has develop this web page specifically for mom’s and baby’s needs. This is really a great resource – thanks Henry! Overview Moms babies and vitamin D = Vitamin D: Before, During, and After Pregnancy Also the home page index so that you may explore other vitamin D specifics – VitamindWiki Home Page or www.vitamindwiki.com

Hormonal balance is the key to a happy pregnancy. Adequate vitamin D3 is the key to this balance. I love to be around women that are pregnant with a proper hormonal balance because they are so happy and full of love – the primary ingredient needed for health – pandemic survivor

Children – How Much Vitamin D

Posted on May 7, 2011 by Mark Pegram

Children and vitamin D will be the discussion for the next several decades as we try to discover the true importance of how sunshine interacts with growth and disease states. We have spent the last fifty years figuring out ways to keep children from going into the sun. The sun, we were told is going to be very bad for your skin and will lead to skin cancer if you get burned as a child. We were also told even if you do not burn that too much exposure to sun is not a good thing. We have never been told that low or no exposure to sun is a not good and even a very bad thing because of infections and chronic disease.

Growing up in the fifties and sixties, there were never any of my friends that had trouble with their backs unless they had hurt themselves in some fashion. Spine issues were minor of course except for the few cases of spina bifida or scoliosis. I truly believe that both of these diseases are from the mother being vitamin D deficient in combination with other nutrients like folic acid for spina bfida. Now it is impossible to talk with a teenager that does not know someone their age that has had back surgery. This is just the beginning of a host of chronic diseases for children of the 1980’s, 90’s, 10’s that will result in mass illness of many forms.

To prevent the most of diseases, both chronic and infectious, vitamin D is a necessity. So then the question arises how much vitamin D should we get and how should we maintain a healthy exposure to the sun. Let me first say that exposure to the sun is still a growing science and we do not know all of the biochemical activity that is happening when we expose ourselves to the sun. Our relationship to the sun has changed forever with the development of sunscreens and sun block. Only with a consistent effort to redevelop this relationship will health be achieved. I maintain that the best approach is to just use common sense. The best common sense approach is to maintain a vitamin D level as if it is summer all year round. If you read the medical research while using common sense you will discover that is really what the researchers that are proponents of vitamin D are saying. From your personal perspective you do not get colds in the summertime and the reason is sun exposure. By maintaining your level of vitamin D in the winter time to the summer level you will most likely not get colds then either. I have not had a cold since 2004 when I started this effort.

Babies with colds and congestion?- mothers tell me your experience. I suspect that your child will have significantly less issues if enough vitamin D is made available.

How much vitamin D does it take to achieve this summertime level? From all that I have read a good rule of thumb is to get about 40 IU of D3 from all sources for each pound of body weight. So it does not make any difference if you are a ten pound baby or a two hundred pound senior citizen. For the baby this would give it 400 IU’s per day and for the two hundred pound senior citizen that would be 8000 IU per day. This level of vitamin D intake or production in the skin should maintain your vitamin D level above 60 ng/ml, which is the bottom of the range for vitamin D for person living in a sunny country. Work done by Grant and Holick have shown the 25(OH)D level for sunny country people to be 54 ng/ml to 90 ng/ml.

Of course the only way to know if your serum level of vitamin D is above sixty is to test!

If your total level of intake or production is not 40 IU of D3 per pound of body weight and you do not test to maintain your level above 60 ng/ml then expect disease states. – Pandemic Survivor

Vitamin D Deficiency Survivor

Changing the Face of Health with Vitamin D

Category Archives: Babies