Tag Archives: H1N1

Defend Against Viral Diseases—Including Zika

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zikaMuch of the tropical world is being attacked by insect- and otherwise-transmitted diseases.  This includes diseases like Ebola, chikungunya, dengue fever, West Nile, and leishmaniasis (A disease from a parasite carried by sandflies that is showing up more in America.).  Significant fear is now in the American medical community for the surge of cases reported without significant available treatment and prevention. Per the CDC, Zika is now considered a level 2 threat (practice enhanced protection and some are calling it a full blown infection with transmission by mosquitos and sexual activity) in Puerto Rico. The US Congress is so concerned that it recently approved a $1.1 billion Zika funding bill.  With the struggle to find immediate effective prevention and treatment, the nutraceutical Metadichol® may provide a solution.

Metadichol®, a nanoemulsion of policosanol has been found to be effective in vitro of eliminating the infections from cells.  It has also been found effective in two case studies of patients with dengue fever.  Policosanol is long chain lipid alcohols found in many foods like rice, sugar cane, wheat, and peanuts.  The reason that Metadichol® is so effective is because it is better absorbed as the nanoemulsion.

With the favorable findings for other tropical diseases, Metadichol® was tested against the Zika virus with very positive results. Link here for published paper in Journal for Immunological Techniques in Infectious Disease:  In vitro Inhibition of Zika Virus by Metadichol®, A Novel Nano Emulsion Lipid   From the abstract: “Conclusion: Metadichol® is a safe and effective inhibitor for enveloped viruses in humans. Since it is known to bind to the vitamin D receptor (VDR), its action mechanism likely involves the competitive displacement of virus particles from VDR’s on host cell membranes. Metabolism studies of long chain alcohol in fibroblasts suggest that very long chain fatty alcohols, fatty aldehydes, and fatty acids are reversibly interconverted in a fatty alcohol cycle [3]. Metadichol consists of natural components of common foods (classified as GRAS), Metadichol has no known negative side effects. The inhibition of Zika virus by Metadichol® is not surprising, given that we have recently published the results of Metadichol® which showed broad-spectrum antiviral activity against Dengue, Ebola, H1N1, SARS, Chikungunya and other enveloped viruses. (4)”

Discoverer of Metadichol®, Dr. P. R. Raghavan, believes that Metadichol® could be used as a preventive for the many diseases.  He states in his conclusion at the end of the paper: “Metadichol® could serve as a preventive agent for Zika given that it strengthens the innate immunity through VDR binding, and represent the first key step in preventing diseases. Metadichol® is ready for large scale testing in areas which are ravaged by viruses. Once proven on large populations, Metadichol® could be used as a preventive nutritional supplement in countries where viral fevers are widely prevalent. Metadichol is being sold as a nutritional supplement in a few Asian countries for the last two years and is extremely well tolerated. So far, there have been no reports of any adverse side effects.”

In discussions with Dr. Raghavan, Metadichol, through binding to nuclear receptors, allows the physiology of the human body to act at its highest level.  This is especially true of the immune system.  I believe that we are headed to a new and ancient understanding of how food is critical to health.  It is interesting in how the lipid alcohols act along vitamin D pathways.  It is well established how infections tend to block the action of the VDR.  With Metadichol allowing the body to operate at its optimum, it is even more critical that we have the nutrients necessary to raise our immune system.  The short list is Vitamin D, Vitamin A, vitamin C, Vitamin E, zinc, and magnesium.

It is now time to stop the insane madness of trying to create only synthetic drugs with the many destructive side effects to treat disease. The medical community should look to nutrition first through food and supplementation for the treatment of chronic and infectious disease.

©2016 Mark Pegram

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The Sun, Infectious Disease, or What Happens in the Dark

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Gen: 1:2 NIV, “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep…”

We have been scared out of the sun for the last fifty years. It has been constantly screamed at us about the danger of sun exposure. We have slathered huge amounts of sunscreen on our bodies when we do go into the sun. Also, with the invention of TV and computers, we have spent significantly more time inside than out during the recent decades. This has presented the question, “Have we created an opportunity for a major pandemic because of the reduction of vitamin D from low sun exposure?”

I thought a unique way of determining the answer to this question is to look at past pandemics. I also decided to look at just bubonic plague outbreaks as this is well documented over the last fifteen hundred years. There have been three major outbreaks.

First Outbreak

The first outbreak of bubonic plague began in Europe, Constantinople, in approximately 542. There was a significant event just prior that cause the solar incidence to be significantly reduced. This event occurred in approximately 536. The reduced sun and resulting cold and crop failures went on for many years. Michael the Syrian, who wrote “the sun became dark and its darkness lasted for one and a half years… Each day it shone for about four hours and still this light was only a feeble shadow…the fruits did not ripen and the wine tasted like sour grapes.”

Robert A. Dull of the University of Texas believes that this reduce solar incidence occurred because of a volcanic eruption in El Salvador. The volcano is named Llopango and its caldera forms Lake Llopango that is 11 x 17 km near the city of San Salvador. There is enough scientific evidence that Dull is certain the ash cloud from this eruption was the cause.

It is interesting to note that the disease was carried by rats, a nocturnal animal. It is easy to understand that nocturnal animals would have a much lower opportunity to receive vitamin D from any source. It is estimated that the plague killed approximately 50 million people in the Roman Empire alone.

Second Outbreak – The Black Death

This outbreak was believed to have begun in Mongolia in the earlier 1330’s. It then spread to Europe as merchant ships arrived from the Crimea in approximately 1347. It is reported that approximately a third of the population was killed in Europe. In looking for volcanic activity, I found that Mount Tarawera (New Zealand) erupted around AD 1315. The ash thrown from this event may have dropped temperatures around the globe and precipitated the Great Famine of 1315–1317 in Europe. This was also the start of the Little Ice Age. Again, we find significant reduction in solar incidence. Also, I would imagine people started to wear more clothing because of the cold. It is interesting to note that the world’s population increased in areas other than Europe.

Third Outbreak

The third outbreak started again in Eastern Asia in approximately 1855. It was mostly localized. It then spread to the rest of China and India in the 1890’s where approximately 12 million people died. I found volcanic activity from another major eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1886 and Krakatoa in 1883(Sunda Arc). Again the eruptions occurred just a few years before a major outbreak.

Are we a population of sun deficient, vitamin D deficient people waiting for another major pandemic to occur? This is a very unnerving scenario. We can only hope that the current outbreak of Ebola is localized to West Africa. Ebola is a disease that is believed to have originated with bats, a nocturnal animal. Have we discovered enough science to arrest the disease? With this concern, the incidence of sun cancer should be the least of your worries. Responsibly spend time in the sun. Don’t let your skin burn, but stay long enough to build your vitamin D3 stores. If you live in northern latitudes or stay inside, then supplement. It is not as good as the sun, but better than no vitamin D3. – Pandemic Survivor

NOAA “A New Look at the 1918/1919 El Nino Suggest Link to Flu Pandemic”
Earth Magazine   AAG: Eruption of El Salvador’s Llpango Explains A.D. 536 Cooling
Wiki Timeline of Volcanic Eruptions
Wiki Mount Tarawera (New Zealand)

And Pigs Will Fly Out of My B***?

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In early September, 2009 headlines read that 90,000 people could die in the US this flu season.  Get your flu shot!!!  Like this CNN reports that sites this number as well as the worn out typical of 40,000 deaths per year from the seasonal flu.

The swine has truly flown.  We had a very unusual flu season this year.  The peak for the seasonal flu usually occurs sometime between the last of January through the middle of March.  However, this year with the 2009 H1N1 we had a peak that occurred in October and then by the first of January the incidence of all influenza like illness dropped to below the baseline.  You can check out the graph of the hospitalizations for the US here.  http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/updates/us/#iligraph There is more detailed information and graphs on this page: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/ for week 11/2010.

The question arises what happened to the normal spike for the regular flu.  I can see the spike occurring for the H1N1 for people who were susceptible to the virus and it occurring early in the winter.  However, how did that affect the seasonal flu that should have peaked in late February?  Every year up until now the spike has typically occurred in late winter.  What is different?

Perhaps what happened was the fear of people dying from the H1N1 motivated more people to get the regular flu vaccination.  Also if you think about it the H1N1 vaccine was not readily available until November.  People got vaccinated and the flu stopped?  I wonder when President Obama will make a speech taking credit for getting more people taking the flu vaccine and this is what caused the significant reduction and how as you read the following.

More confusion!?  The really interesting thing is that the table for total influenza like illness for hospitalizations shows 41, 551 with 2, 077 deaths. (table below the graph: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/updates/us/#iligraph).  How do you rationalize these numbers with the totals of what the CDC claims as typical at over 200,000 hospitalizations and 36,000 deaths.  The insurance companies should really be happy this year as they had to pay significantly less to providers because of the low incidence of illness or have we just been lied to by the CDC.  It is truly confusing.  Do hospitals not report death?  I do not believe the federal guidelines would allow this.  Here is what the CDC has been telling you: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/keyfacts.htm

Since the drug companies or Obama have not taken credit, I think that I will just jump right in.  It is my hope that what really happened was that there was enough in the press about the antiviral affects of vitamin D that people in general took more.  It would not take a lot to make a huge impact in the population.  The one thing that did change this year is that for the first time, CVS, Walgreens, and the local Kerr Drug all carried vitamin D3 in 5,000 IU capsules.  Thank you Dr. Cannell!

I tried to find the percent of the population that took the vaccination for the H1N1 and for the seasonal flu without success.  This seems to be a closely held number.  I know that there are some reports that more than half of the H1N1 vaccines that the US ordered were not used but I cannot confirm.

Taking my D3 and getting a tan in the winter and the blues and flu just fly away.  I just love flying pigs  – Pandemic Survivor

Sunday Morning Musings

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So what is going on with influenza like illness?  We have seen a significant drop in the rate after a spike in September and October.  We are now at rates that are very similar to last year in late January.  Given that we see a 33% Fibonacci return in this chaotic statistic, the knee will mirror 2009 February and March results or just another normal flu season. Graph at this link.

There has been much chatter about the efficaciousness of the H1N1 vaccine.  The EU in particular is taking on the large pharmaceuticals over this issue.  I believe that the H1N1 is a none-mutating virus to date and has effectively played havoc with people that were susceptible.  The reason that the spike occurred in September and October instead of later is because this is the first drop in serum levels of vitamin D in the northern latitudes.  A similar type of occurrence happened in the southern hemisphere in our summer which makes me wonder at the push by our government over the vaccine.  We have been much more effective is getting the message out about vitamin D.  If the spike in February is not similar to last year and also make a Fibonacci return then people in the US have blunted the virus by taking vitamin D.  I know that this is a very technical mathematical predication, but if you deal with stocks or currency trading, you know this analysis is correct.  The technical changes are very predictable in chaotic markets as long as there is not a fundamental change like an economic news such as an increase in the number of lost jobs.  In our case the fundamental change is increased use of vitamin D.

I have been keeping up with people that I have casual conversations about vitamin D and whether their doctor has ask to check their serum 25(OH)D levels.  I am happy to say that approximately 1 out of 6 of the people that I have talked with has had their serum level checked.  This is up from zero 5 years ago.  Dr. John Cannell of the Vitamin D Council goal is to have every one’s serum vitamin D routinely check by their physician.  John, I believe that we are starting to reach a tipping point.   However, even at this low rate we could see as much as a 5% drop in the rate of total cancer in the US over the next two years.  I know that this is a bold prediction but the research is there.  If the Food and Nutrition Board on vitamin D comes out with a favorable report in May saying that everyone should take more, the amount of reduction in cancer will amaze you as well as heart disease and diabetes in more time as these diseases take longer to respond.  The manufacturers of cold remedies will start to feel the pinch as people start to use significantly less.  They will simply create other products to fill the voids.

Interesting article at Boots WebMD saying that increased levels of vitamin D could reduce the incidence of colorectal cancer by 40%.  I do not know what the big deal is.  In November of 2007 the National Cancer Institute came out with a report as a rebuttal to the Lappe finding at Creighton University.  The Lappe finding showed a 60% ( or 77% when taking out the tumors not found in the initial screening that occurred in the first year of the trial) reduction in total cancer in a placebo control double blind study.  NCI did an epidemiological study based on flawed data (questionable and two few actual test data on serum levels of vitamin D) and even then as you read through the abstract it said something to the effect that there was no relationship between higher vitamin D levels and cancer except that there was a 75% reduction in death from colorectal cancer in the higher quintals of vitamin D.  Well dang NCI isn’t this enough to trigger treatment trials with people with cancer and not just prevention trials.  Maybe they are not just ignoring the facts but acting with disdain.  Given these numbers you can see why I think that just a modest improvement in supplementation and (trips to the Caribbean or Hawaii in the winter for you rich people) will have significant impact on cancer.

You know one of the things that I have notice when talking with people is the lack of consistency in taking vitamin D.  They typically take two small an amount when supplementing or they just skip days while taking this small amount.  Remember the serum half life of vitamin D at 30 ng/ml is approximately three weeks.  This means that after three weeks with no supplementation or exposure to tanning that your serum level is 15 ng/ml.  At higher rates this half life is much reduce.  I need to do more reading on this, but I found one study that said that the half life at 100 ng/ml was only 5 days.  This seems like two short amount of time but if it is correct then compliance when supplementing is extremely critical.  This also explains why people at latitudes close to the equator catch viruses more easily in the rainy season when there is not much sun.

Ah, for a two week repose on the garden island of Kauai that would drive away the winter blues and chronic disease.  Maybe I can make that happen if I were president.  I would certainly declare a national emergency for vitamin D deficiency.  Living easy with the sun in my mind and vitamin D supplements at hand –  Pandemic Survivor

Sunday Morning Musings

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This week there on the ever present drugs ads (there were no people in bathtubs this time) was the story that bone density improvement drugs could reduce breast cancer.  How outrages is this claim when vitamin D and calcium is significantly more effective in treating bone density issues than any drug on the market.  To try to pick up a new market for some drug that should not even be used is just criminal.  Billions of dollars in fines is just not sending the drug industry an adequate message.

This is to not even consider that Dr. Cedric Garland has shown that vitamin D could reduce breast cancer by a whopping 75%.  “Breast Cancer Going Rogue”

The first thing that should happen is that all commercials for prescription meds should be removed from modern media.  Of course I am sure that the US is the only country in the world that has this made readily available because the drug companies are buying their way into government policy by campaign contributions and other ways that we do not even want to think about.

If we cannot get the hands of our policy and lawmakers out of the pockets of the drug and medical insurance companies long enough to stop drug commercials, then it should be law that if a nutritional change gives the same or more significant impact that the drug cannot be advertized.  This would mean there would be no bone density drugs on the market.  Vitamin D and calcium have been shown to give an improvement in bone density of 3 to 28 percent in one year where bone density drugs are about 2-3 percent per year if you take your calcium and vitamin D with them.  This is not to mention the impact on breast cancer of vitamin D.

On another front that I was reminded of in my last post is the comment that all medicine and test that have been done in the last fifty years or more in the US have been done on a vitamin D deficient population.  Considering the metabolic effect of vitamin D on the body’s processes, this is a very scary issue.  I would suspect that the majority of drugs that we use to treat chronic disease could be eliminated or reduced significantly.  How would this affect the medical economy?  It is obviously to a very large extent considering former HHS Secretary Levitt’s number-four principle of ‘markets before mandates’.  We would not want to do anything that would kill the cash cow even at the deaths of millions of Americans.  Last on his list of nine principles was to ‘value life’.  Don’t make me take my hand out of that pocket or I will kill you!

And on the swine flew it is bye-bye birdie.  According to the CDC Update the percentage of medical visits for influenza like illness has dropped to about 2-1/2 percent or about normal for this time of year down from over 8 percent.  This is just like the experience of the southern hemisphere countries that are currently just entering their summer.  So are we just trying to sell vaccine?  Let’s hope that we continue to mirror these southern hemisphere countries and there is no second spike.

I am pleased to report another survivor story of a lady that started to take 5000 IU of vitamin D3 per day almost two years ago.  She told me that all of her aches and pains are gone.  She is about 70.  This seems to be a regular comment on pain from people that become replete in vitamin D. You just get well. –Pandemic Survivor

Sunday Morning Musings

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“And it’s easy, –  like Sunday morning.”  Everyday should be easy like Sunday morning with time for reflection.  What a wet week it has been and that turned into glorious sunshine yesterday and today.  I understand most rain gauges showed 6 inches of water ( that’s 15.7 cm for you metrics) for this week.  Now that is wet!

And the swine flew or I should say that the swine sxxx flew .  The numbers reported on deaths for the swine flu or H1N1 went from less than 700 confirmed deaths through the end of October to 4000 as reported in the NY Times and AP.  So what does this mean that we had 3000+ new deaths in less than two weeks.  Lets take a couple of minutes and see what the numbers show from CDC.  Here you can go look for yourself: CDC Update for H1N1  http://www.cdc.gov/H1n1flu/update.htm and the total deaths:  http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/updates/us/#totalcases So the deaths from August through November 7 is 877 for all confirmed influenza cases.  That’s right that is all flu deaths with some portion of that being from the H1N1.  You know the CDC claims that 30 to 40 thousand people die each year in the US from flu related illness.  The numbers do not make sense.  The data also showed that for the second week in a row that hospitalizations for influenza like illness has decreased.  Does this mean that we have already reached a peak for the flu or is this just statistical variation and we can expect another peak around week 10 for 2010 or mid-March when the peak normally occurs.  In checking the update from WHO it looks like worldwide there have been 6250 deaths as of November 8.  http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_11_13/en/index.html So WHO knows, maybe the AP was just trying to sell vaccine or maybe justify their scare headlines from August which claimed there would be 100,000 deaths from the swine flu in the US.

I just can’t wait until everyone gets replete in vitamin D and see what happens to the illness numbers and deaths in the winter.  Will it be like it is summer all year?  It will be startling to those that make a business in treating disease.  I know that this just really sends fear into the ‘powers of money’.  The seasonal variation in disease is due to change in control of body temperature which is a large pathogen fighter and variation in serum levels of vitamin D from change in UVB variation.  These are the two prime factors – temperature and innate immunity.

I stumbled across an interview with Christopher Buckley, political satirist, (or maybe you know him as William F. Buckley’s son and speech writer for H W Bush, Vice President) this past week at UCSD tv online and that man is hilarious.  He says that his main competition is the USA Today headlines.  You know he is right.  I thought that the headline about Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize was the start of a satire until I read it in a second paper.  What we need is someone to write satire on the medical industry or maybe we already do and we just have not recognized the medical reporting as satire.

I also found a quotation from the great philosopher Woody Allen and it sent chills into my understanding: “We are at a crossroad, one road leads to hopelessness and despair and the other annihilation – choose wisely.”  Ah come on it can’t be that bad Woody.  Boy, that fear can be used to sell some products or worse ideologies.

Headlines of the future:

Annual Deaths Drop by 400,000 in the US

Medical Economy Shrinks by 600 Billion in 2012

Five Million Medical Insurers Looking for Work

Breast Cancer Incidence Down 90%

Multinational Manufacturers Have no Sales for Cold Remedies

Stay warm and go into the sun as you know I love you and God loves you.  You truly are a beautiful person!  -Pandemic Survivor

Vitamin D and the Doctor

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“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”–Arthur Schopenhauer.

This nineteenth century German philosopher had it right.  I believe that we are still in the ridicule stage and that the violent opposition stage will be played out in the courts as awareness becomes more public about the negative impact of vitamin D deficiency.  The politicians will allow the court cases because of the masses of people that start become aware of their own disease and the dying and suffering of their friends and family from vitamin D deficiency.

I apologize for not writing more because I had become bitter and downcast.  This has not been a more pleasant side of my recovery.  Even though I have been through the trials and hard times of serious disease I am now grateful for how it has strengthen my faith and now better understand my responsibility to you to bring you education and understanding.  I do praise the spirit of hope, love, and acceptance.  I have been trying to write about the emotional recovery side of the disease and it has brought back a lot of ‘emotional’ pain.

So how are doctors reacting to the publicity about vitamin D and its impact on general health.  It is a very ‘mixed’ bag.  Many have recognized the research and are starting to treat their patients with testing and supplementation of vitamin D.  Others are just sure that their patients are all ‘idiots’ after the fashion of the TV character Dr. House.  The attitude is, “I have been trained and know much better than you ever will and this stuff in the press is just ‘junk science’.”

I have really been alarmed as we have moved into ‘vitamin D winter’ in the northern latitudes and there has not been a large national discussion about the benefits of vitamin D and its affect on the immune system in particular with the seasonal outbreaks of the flu.  See what Dr. John Cannell has to say at the Vitamin D Council. Vitamin D and the Flu. Here you can plainly see an example of a doctor that has reacted and one in the same family practice that has not in Georgia.

Also please read Dr. Cannell’s May newsletter about the flu and vitamin D:  I know that I have repeated this many times but it breaks my heart to think about the needless death of children and pregnant women.

I will relay this story of a pregnant woman that I know that is a medical professional.  She has been one of the few that has not had flu like symptoms in the large hospital where she works and she has been taking enough vitamin D to be replete.

During one of her regular visits to her doctor, she decided that she should have her vitamin D level tested.  She was chastised by her physician for falling into the ‘trap of something not in the medical guideline’.  Remember now we are talking about two doctors talking to each other and the person in responsible charge for the health of her patient tells the other doctor that she just does not know what she is talking about.  My friend had read the many research papers on vitamin D in particular those by Dr. Bruce Hollis of the Medical University of South Carolina.  This is a professor of pediatrics and has done extensive research on pregnant women and vitamin D.  Here is some of his work at Google Scholar:   Also she is familiar with this newsletter from the Vitamin D Council on pregnancy and gestation.   She decided not to engage and just left the office visit steaming mad.  She has decided to have another doctor order her vitamin D test.

So here we have two doctors that just results in ridicule of current research.  How is this suppose to work with just plain everyday folk that put their trust in the medical profession.  You know it makes me think of two things.  First consider how long we struggled with the understanding of tobacco and how it affected health.  It was ridicule and then finally submission under the weight of government court battles with that industry.  With vitamin D there have been large cohort studies and many more epidemiological studies. With tobacco to my knowledge there have not been cohort studies and just a few epidemiological studies.  The government acted because of the rich reward that they saw in tax and penalty income from the tobacco companies.  Also here there was a substance being put into our bodies and not just the withholding of knowledge by our professionals on research that dates to early part of the twentieth century.  If we had been a vitamin D replete population I wonder how the tobacco trials would have played out.

Second it is like an episode of House being played out in real life.  I am sure that we will never see an episode of House where the patient is found to have vitamin D deficiency and that is the cause of the failure of their immune systems and endocrine system.  Modern medicine has been practiced on a population deficient in vitamin D and this includes all testing, research, and practice guidelines.  If this ever plays out on House then we will know as a society that we have overcome this certain tragedy.  Also the government will definitely be slow to act because as some researchers have stated that a vitamin-D-replete population would cause a reduction of twenty five to fifty percent of our medical economy. What would happen to all that tax income and how would we pay for all of the older folks that did not die when ‘they were suppose to’.

Hold onto your chairs folks because if this change starts to play out in the courts then it will be just like the tobacco trials except there will many more people affected as in everyone.  Just think you can tune into the TV every night and watch your favorite news channel as the court battles are engaged.  I am sure the lawyers are just licking their chops, but they are also slow to act because there have not been any trials of significance where a substance was withheld that caused the death and suffering of millions.

More likely the large institutions will control the media and it will be bloggers and face to face conversations with friends that result in a replete population over many decades.  However, medical professionals that I know say that this is now moving through the systems faster than any change they have seen previously.

With great hope I look forward to that stage of great health for everyone when we begin to accept the truth of sunshine and vitamin D as being ‘self-evident’.

We are in ‘vitamin D winter’ in the northern hemisphere so take care to be sure that you are replete.  Follow the instructions on the home page of the Vitamin D Council.

– Be sure to supplement!!!  – Pandemic Survivor

H1N1 and Vitamin D

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H1N1 and Vitamin D

It seems to be medical fact that we get more cases of the flu in the winter than in the summer.  I have never had the flu in the summer or personally know anyone that has had the flu in the summer.  However, everyone that I know has had the flu in the winter.  It only seems logical that there is a seasonal occurrence that is driving this real phenomenon.

Dr. John Cannell of the Vitamin D Council has designated a complete newsletter to the understanding back May, 2009, H1N1 Flu and Vitamin D.  I referred to this newsletter in my first article on the flu and vitamin D, Another Pandemic, H1N1, Protect Yourself. Now Dr. Cannell gives us an update about children in his September 2009 Newsletter and how it is that children that are deficient with vitamin D are most likely at risk of getting the flu.  Vitamin D Studies of Interest

I am totally with Dr.  Cannell.  How can we simply just stand by and watch children suffer from this disease when we know that more than fifty to seventy percent of children are deficient depending  on which study you chose to read.  If you have children, be sure to keep them replete in vitamin D by following Dr. Cannell directions in this October 2008 newsletter Vitamin D in Pediatrics. Under vitamin D and dosage he states that in general that children need about 1000 IU of D3 for every 25 lbs of body weight per day.  I found this amount to be effective in adults as well.  I weigh 235 lbs and take 10,000 IU each day that I do not go into the sun and every day between the end of September and the end of March when we are in ‘vitamin D winter’.

So what are our country and the health organizations doing about this vitamin D deficiency and the relation to the flu?  Not much!  There is hope however as the Public Health Agency of Canada has decided to take the vitamin D level of people having the H1N1 virus.  This is really encouraging as Canada takes its lead for supplementations levels from the Institute of Medicine, IOM, here in the US.  If Canada confirms this finding that low levels of vitamin D are significant in relation to the flu then maybe the US will take action.  But here again, I am with Dr. Cannell, how many children have to die before we stop depending on just acquired immunity through flu shots and build our innate immunity through doing what is natural to us.  We must remember that the US is slow to act as the Canadian Cancer Institute requested all Canadians take a minimum of 1000 IU of D3 per day and the US did not follow.

You may read the story on the website of the Vitamin D Society of Canada:  http://www.vitamindsociety.org/

Story from the Globe and Mail.  http://www.vitamindsociety.org/news_article.php?id=26

The story broke here in the US by Nutraingrediants-usa.com and emaxhealth.com:  http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Research/Canada-examines-vitamin-D-for-swine-flu-protection

http://www.emaxhealth.com/1275/83/33165/vitamin-d-might-protect-against-h1n1-flu.html

And then there is this article in how the US should follow Canada’s lead from the Health Sciences Institute in Baltimore:  http://hsibaltimore.com/2009/08/24/h1n1-prevention/

You know the thing that is most interesting is one of the references that is driving the Canadian study is a report from 1946 that shows evidence that persons with low vitamin D levels were more likely to have the flu.  Why have we waited so long to investigate!!??

On the heels of this comes the study from Oregon State University that states that primates have kept the vitamin D innate immunity system in place for 60 million years!  Here is the story, “Key feature of immune system survived in humans, other primates for 60 million years”, from Eurek Alert.  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-08/osu-kfo081809.php

Now what pops into my mind as I read this is Linus Pauling’s writings on vitamin C.  It was very clear that only primates and guinea pigs do not make their own vitamin C.  So why is it that the vitamin D immune system has survived in primates and not other mammals?  Maybe this is the system that has taken the place of the vitamin C system in primates.  So what do we do about it?  We tell people for the last fifty years to get out of the sun!!!!  I know that this may be somewhat of a leap, but I do not think it is much of one considering the research on vitamin D immunity.

You should read again this paragraph about vitamin D immunity from my post, A Tale of Two Women:  “Vitamin D3, it seems works, along several pathways to help heal disease.  Number one it helps at a genetic level to tell immature tumor cells that they are just that and to stop growing or cellular apoptosis. The D3 also helps the blood supply network that is feeding the tumor to stop growing from a genetic level because this is not the normal design of the body or angiogenesis.  Also it raises the level of innate immunity so the body develops appropriate defensins such as cathelicidin antimicrobial peptides, phagocytes, and neutrofil granulocites that help destroy and adsorb ‘bad cells’ and ‘foreign bodies’ in the blood system.  There is also an aid to T-cell regulation in this complex system of immunity.  And if you are taking chemo one of the problems is thrombosis and vitamin D3 helps to control this issue as well.”  What this paragraph says is that vitamin D raises the innate immune system to fight all pathogens including viruses.  This reminds me that I need to do a post on the immune system and vitamin D.  There is really some fascinating research out there – coming soon.

So maybe the true magic in healing comes from a balance of giving the body what it needs.  I believe that Dr. Cannell and Dr. Pauling are both correct and that in primates that vitamin D is a greater fighter of viruses than vitamin C.  This may be just the opposite for non-primate mammals where vitamin C immune system is more important than the vitamin D system. Non-primates make their own vitamin C and primates and guinea pigs do not make vitamin C.  This article from WebMD seems to support my understanding:  http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/news/20090223/low-vitamin-d-levels-linked-to-colds You know Dr. Pauling was reported to have taken between 12 grams to 20 grams of vitamin C per day.  His contention was that the less colds and other infections that you have the longer you live.  He lived to be 93.  Imagine how long he may have lived if he had taken 5 to 10 thousand IU’s of D3 as well.  What a headache that we may cause for government to solve in a population of healthy ‘really’ old people!!!  I am sure that as soon as the government makes a proclamation to take more vitamin D that the retirement age will be raised at least 10 years.

Anyway, what should we do for ourselves and our children.  Be sure that they get enough of vitamin C and vitamin D this winter and I suspect if you do this we will have many happy endings.

Go into the sun this winter through supplementation!!!!!!!!!!!   Pandemic Survivor

Heart Disease, Cholesterol, and Vitamin D3

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I have written several post of vitamin D and heart disease and there is so much more.  There is an exciting article about heart disease and the effect of vitamin D at WebMD.

By Dr. Michael Richman, MD, FACS on Cardiovascular Disease and Vitamin D.  Part 1 and Part 2.

As we begin our plunge into vitamin D winter then heart disease that has been arrested by getting an adequate amount from the sun will become more active.  As you can see from this Harvard news article, it is important to start supplementing with vitamin D.  However, here again we find that mainstream medicine is too conservative in the amount of vitamin D.  It is better to follow the directions from the home page of the Vitamin D Council to assure that your level of 25(OH)D3 is above 50 ng/ml to have the best effect on heart disease and the upcoming expectation of a serious flu season from the H1N1 virus.

As we have discussed in other post, vitamin D is made from cholesterol.  So the marketing of statin drugs and their use in lowering cholesterol may not be beneficial to your health.  The article, “Vitamin D is Synthesized From Cholesterol and Found in Cholesterol-Rich Foods” by Chris Masterjohn from May 2006 will give you a better understanding of how this works.  His comments on vitamin A are also important to the understanding of how A and D work together in your body.  Here is the research page from the Vitamin D Council on heart disease.

Going into the sun is not enough if you live above about 35 degrees North latitude after September.  Start supplementing to the directions of the Vitamin D Council.    – Pandemic Survivor