By Frank Lipman, MD on November 10, 2009

Part I: Vitamin D & You

Hardly a day goes by without some groundbreaking news about Vitamin D. Originally known for it’s crucial role in maintaining calcium levels for bone health, it is rapidly becoming apparent that we have vastly underestimated Vitamin D’s significant importance for our overall health and wellbeing. In short, judging by what I see in my practice and speaking with colleagues around the country, it’s looking very much like we’re facing an epidemic of Vitamin D deficiency, with potential grave consequences. This Vitamin D FAQ will help to get you up to speed on this important topic.

What diseases are associated with Vitamin D deficiency?

-Vitamin D deficiency has been shown to play a role in almost every major disease, including:
-Osteoporosis and Osteopenia
-17 varieties of Cancer (including breast, prostate and colon)
-Heart disease
-High blood pressure
-Obesity
-Metabolic Syndrome and Diabetes
-Autoimmune diseases
-Multiple sclerosis
-Rheumatoid arthritis
-Osteoarthritis
-Bursitis
-Gout
-Infertility and PMS
-Parkinson’s Disease
-Depression and Seasonal Affective Disorder
-Alzheimer’s Disease
-Chronic fatigue syndrome
-Fibromyalgia
-Chronic Pain
-Periodontal disease
-Psoriasis

What is vitamin D?

Although it’s called a vitamin, vitamin D is really a hormone not a vitamin. Vitamins cannot be produced by your body, we get them from dietary sources, whereas hormones like vitamin D are made in your body. It’s your body’s only source of calcitrol (activated vitamin D), the most potent steroid hormone in the body.

What does vitamin D do?

Like all steroid hormones, vitamin D is involved in making hundreds of enzymes and proteins, which are crucial for preserving health and preventing disease. It has the ability to interact and affect more than 2,000 genes in the body. It enhances muscle strength and builds bone. It has anti-inflammatory effects and bolsters the immune system. It helps the action of insulin and has anti-cancer activity. This is why vitamin D deficiency has been linked with so many of the diseases of modern society. Because of its vast array of benefits, maintaining optimal levels of D is essential for your health.

Where do I get vitamin D from?

The only 2 reliable sources of vitamin D are the sun and supplements. Sunlight exposure is the only reliable way for your body to generate vitamin D. Vitamin D is produced by your skin in response to exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun. In fact, this is such an efficient system that most of us make approx. 20,000 units of vitamin D after only 20 minutes of summer sun without suntan lotion (or clothes!) That’s 100 times more than the government recommends per day! There must be a good reason why we make so much in so little time.

You do not generate vitamin D when sitting behind a glass window, whether in your car or at home because these UV rays cannot penetrate glass to generate vitamin D in your skin. Also sunscreens, even weak ones, almost completely block your body’s ability to generate vitamin D.

The other reliable source is vitamin D3 supplements (not vitamin D2)

Only about 10% of your vitamin D comes from diet, so it is nearly impossible to get adequate amounts of vitamin D from your food.

What are the food sources of vitamin D?

1. Fish liver oils, such as cod liver oil. Fatty wild fish like mackerel, salmon, halibut, tuna, sardines and herring
2. Fortified milk, orange juice and cereal
3. Dried Shitake mushrooms
4. Egg yolks

But to get adequate amounts of vitamin D from food, you would have to eat at least 5 servings of salmon a day or drink 20 cups of fortified milk.

My Doctor told me to avoid the sun, what do you think?

There is an old Italian saying “Where the sun does not go the doctor does.”

For about the last 25 years, doctors (dermatologists in particular) have demonized sun exposure and repeatedly told us it is bad for you and causes cancer. But is that true? In the last few years, numerous studies have shown that modest exposure to sunlight may actually be good for you, helping the body produce the vitamin D it needs to keep bones healthy and protect against cancer, including skin cancer. Though repeated sunburns–in children and very fair-skinned people–have been linked to melanoma, there is no credible scientific evidence that moderate sun exposure causes it. Since it’s almost impossible to get adequate amounts of vitamin D from food alone (including fortified milk and fatty wild fish), the sun is your best source. I’m not suggesting you go bake in the sun with your suntan oil or go to tanning salons. But getting some sun without getting sunburned makes healthy sense.

We evolved in the sun; we were made to get some sun, not to live our lives indoors and slather on sunscreen every time we go outside. If the sun is shining where you are today, get out and enjoy it, talk about a free natural treatment! All you need is a little common sense when heading outdoors, do it gradually and always avoid sunburn.

Special Note: Remember to take antioxidants when you sit in the sun, as these can help prevent skin cells from sun damage.

How much sunshine do I need?

All living things need sun, the key is balance. Too much sun exposure can cause melanoma and skin aging, while too little creates an inadequate production of vitamin D. The amount needed depends on the season, time of day, where you live, skin pigmentation and other factors. As a general rule, if you are not vitamin D deficient, about 20 minutes a day in the spring, summer and fall on your face and arms or legs without sunscreen is adequate. It doesn’t matter which part of the body you expose to the sun. Many people want to protect their face, so just don’t put sunscreen on the other exposed parts for those 20 minutes.

If you live north of 37 degrees latitude (approximately a line drawn horizontally connecting Norfolk, Virginia to San Francisco, California) sunlight is not sufficient to create Vitamin D in your skin in the winter months, even if you are sitting in the sun in a bathing suit on a warm January day! The further you live from the equator, the longer exposure you need to the sun in order to generate vitamin D.

Part 2 of Dr. Frank Lipman‘s blog will be posted tomorrow!

Originally posted at HuffingtonPost.com.

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By Wayne Pacelle on October 19, 2009

Many Faces of E. Coli Infection

Recently, The New York Times ran a detailed front-page investigative story from reporter Michael Moss about pathogens in ground beef and the consequences for public health. The piece led with the tragic details of Stephanie Smith, a former dance instructor from Minnesota who ate a hamburger at age 20 and is now paralyzed. It is a chilling report that shatters the assumption that government is carefully monitoring the integrity of the food supply, especially in a global economy where a single hamburger may be pieced together from parts of different cows from throughout the world.

I asked The Humane Society of the United States’ director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture, Dr. Michael Greger, for his thoughts…

E. coli O157:H7, the strain that nearly took Stephanie Smith’s life, is a relatively new pathogen. First discovered in 1982, its emergence and spread has been blamed on three factors: the beef industry’s transition to factory farms, the routine mass feeding of antibiotics to cattle, and the stress associated with trucking these animals as many as a thousand miles to slaughter.

E. coli O157:H7 remains the leading cause of acute kidney failure in U.S. children. Tens of thousands of Americans are sickened every year from this bacteria. And dozens die. But shockingly, the devastation caused by this pathogen is far from the worst of what emerges from today’s factory farms and food processing system.

By comparison, millions of people contract “extraintestinal” E. coli infections—urinary tract infections (UTIs) that can invade the bloodstream and cause an estimated 36,000 deaths annually in the United States. That’s more than 500 times as many deaths as E. coli O157:H7. We know where E. coli O157:H7 comes from—fecal matter from the meat, dairy, and egg industries—but where do these other E. coli come from?

When medical researchers at the University of Minnesota took more than 1,000 food samples from multiple retail markets, they found evidence of fecal contamination in 69 percent of the pork and beef and 92 percent of the poultry samples. Half of the poultry samples were contaminated with the UTI-associated extraintestinal E. coli bacteria.

Scientists now suspect that by eating chicken, women infect their lower intestinal tract with these meat-borne bacteria, which can then creep up into their bladder. In addition to the traditional hygiene measures aimed at preventing urinary tract infections, now women can add avoiding poultry as a way to help fend off UTIs.

In chickens, these bacteria cause a disease called colibacillosis, now one of the most significant and widespread infectious diseases in the poultry industry due to the way we treat these animals. Studies have shown infection risk to be directly linked to overcrowding in chicken factory farms. In caged egg-laying hens, the most significant risk factor for flock infection is hen density per cage.

Researchers have calculated that affording just a single quart of additional living space (about equivalent to a 4-inch cube) to each hen would be associated with a corresponding 33 percent drop in the risk of colibacillosis outbreak. This is one of the reasons our efforts to improve the lives of farm animals are critical not only for animal welfare, but for the health of humans and animals alike.

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