The Vitamin D Newsletter June/July 2006
Ultra-violet Irradiation
Dr. Liu and colleagues at UCLA, publishing in this March's edition of the prestigious journal Science, showed that vitamin D might be, in effect, a potent antibiotic. Vitamin D increases the body's production of naturally occurring antibiotics: antimicrobial peptides. Antimicrobial peptides are produced in numerous cells in the human body where they directly and rapidly destroy the cell walls of viruses and bacteria, including tuberculosis. Furthermore, Liu showed that adding vitamin D to African American serum (African Americans have higher rates of TB) dramatically increased production of these naturally occurring antibiotics. Science. 2006 Mar 24;311(5768):1770-3.
Plenty of you have e-mailed me that high (pharmacological) doses of vitamin D (1,000 to 2,000 units per kg per day for three days), taken at the first sign of influenza, effectively reduces the severity of symptoms. However, has anyone ever studied giving 100,000, 200,000, or 300,000 units a day for several days to see if vitamin D induces antimicrobial peptides to help fight other life-threatening infections? (By the way, doses up to 600,000 units as a single dose are routinely used in Europe as "Stoss" therapy to prevent vitamin D deficiency and have repeatedly been shown to be safe for short-term administration.) No, you say, studies of "Stoss" therapy in serious infections have never been studied or reported in reputable journals. Well, maybe such treatment has been studied � and reported in the best journals � by way of the weirdest medical invention ever patented in the USA.
Before I get into that, I want to compliment the English for their sense of fair play. Last month I pointed out that the English discovered activated vitamin D (calcitriol) before the Americans. It's important because I suspect the Nobel Committee will get around to awarding a Prize for vitamin D sometime in the next several decades, especially if vitamin D turns out to function like an antibiotic. Well, I got an email from an English scientist who pointed out that it was an American who first discovered calcitriol � but none of the ones I listed. He pointed out that Dr. Tony Norman was actually the first to discover calcitriol � in a series of experiments starting in 1968. Too often, we only think of Dr. DeLuca's and Dr. Holick's lab when we think of vitamin D, while Dr. Norman's lab at UC Riverside is overlooked. He has authored 486 papers about vitamin D beginning in 1963 when he was a student in Dr. DeLuca's lab (by the way, Dr. DeLuca also trained Dr. Holick as he has many vitamin D researchers). When a Nobel Prize is awarded, how will they choose? I don't know � perhaps they should all share it. I do know that I love the English sense of fair play.
* J Biol Chem. 1968 Aug 10;243(15):4055-64.
* Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1969 Jan;62(1):155-62.
* J Biol Chem. 1970 Mar 10;245(5):1190-6.
Before I get into this, be warned that what follows is bizarre. It might not make much sense in the beginning. However, if you'll bear with me, you'll see where I'm going. Remember how Professor Reinhold Vieth has written about the complete absence of studies using pharmacological doses of vitamin D (100,000 to 300,000 units a day for several days) in serious diseases. Are there frequently fatal illnesses, such as peritonitis (generalized infection in the abdominal cavity), septicemia (infection of the blood), pneumonia (the Captain of the Men of Death), etc, in which pharmacological doses of vitamin D may be clinically useful when added to conventional treatment?
We know that vitamin D has profound effects on human immunity. Quite recently, three independent groups have reported that vitamin D triggers the release of these powerful natural antibiotics called antimicrobial peptides. If you gave someone large doses of vitamin D, would their bodies make large amounts of antimicrobial peptides?
My attempts to answer that question led me to some very strange research. Did you know that when some people get an infection, they go to an alternative health care provider and have their blood irradiated? I'm not kidding. About 300 cc of their blood is removed, irradiated with UVB and UVC, and then returned to their body. Today, alternative health practitioners call it "Photoluminescence Therapy." When results appeared in the best American medical journals, it was called the "Knott Technic." By the way, I'm not talking about "photopheresis," Dr. Richard Edelson's irradiation of some blood components to treat cutaneous T cell lymphoma, used today in 150 medical centers around the country. I'm talking about Knott's irradiation of whole blood to treat life-threatening infections, used in hospitals around the country in the 1930's, 40's and early 50's. In the 1940's, at least one prestigious American hospital even had a "Department of Blood Irradiation."
Knott EK, Hancock VK. Irradiated blood transfusion in treatment of infections. Northwest Med.1934; 33: 200-204.
It began in the 1920's. Seattle scientist Emmett Knott knew that sunlight and UV light was being used to successfully treat infectious diseases. The 1903 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Dr. Niels Finsen for his discovery that artificial UV radiation of the skin cured tuberculosis of the skin. If skin infections could be treated by irradiating the skin, Dr. Knott thought blood infections might be cured by irradiating the blood! Knott built an apparatus that would remove about 5% of the blood volume, anti-coagulate it, expose it to UVB and UVC radiation, and then pump the irradiated blood back into the body. Depending on the patient's weight, about 300 cc of blood is removed and circulated in thin glass tubing while being irradiated by ultraviolet light. The blood is then returned to the patient and the process is repeated a number of times, depending on the seriousness of the condition being treated. Sounds crazy?
Knott EK. Development of ultraviolet blood irradiation. American Journal of Surgery 1948; 76(2): 165-171.
However, a couple of things caught my eye. First, the "Knott Technic" didn't really work on test animals until Knott began using ultra-thin quartz glass tubing. (Regular glass blocks UV radiation but quartz glass does not.) Second, Knott added a series of baffles to ensure all the blood came in direct contact with the interior surface of the quartz tube. (The heme molecule would absorb UV light if the blood was not agitated). Third, according to a book by Dr. William Douglas, the procedure rapidly cured both rickets and tetany. (Of course, a common cause of rickets and tetany is vitamin D deficiency.) Fourth, according to Douglas, Knott's early animal studies showed this procedure could maintain serum calcium in animals whose parathyroid glands were surgically removed. (We used to use pharmacological doses of vitamin D in humans who have had their parathyroid glands removed in order to maintain serum calcium.) Finally, when Knott experimented on dogs, he found that irradiating 100% of their blood volume (10 sessions with 10% of the blood removed and irradiated each time) cured experimentally induced infections, but all the dogs died 5�7 days later with cardiac arrhythmia, low blood pressure, respiratory depression, loss of reflexes, loss of muscle tone, followed by coma and death (this is the clinical course in fatal hypercalcemia � the cause of death in severe vitamin D toxicity). If the "Knott Technic" cured rickets and tetany, maintained serum calcium in parathyroidectomized animals, and caused hypercalcemia with over-irradiation, it must have delivered pharmacological amounts of vitamin D into the circulation. See where I'm heading? Into the Light, Tomorrow's Medicine Today
Some of you may know that many substances develop vitamin D activity when irradiated. Milk used to be irradiated to fortify it with vitamin D, now the vitamin D is just added. The famous Harry Steenbock of the University of Wisconsin, found many things develop vitamin D activity when irradiated, including olive oil, cereal products, orange juice, and egg yolk. (He patented the procedure of irradiating things, including ergosterol to make ergocalciferol or vitamin D2, and gave the proceeds � which were enormous � to the University of Wisconsin.) However, I couldn't locate a study that sought to discover if human blood makes vitamin D when it is irradiated. To find out, I looked in what must be the first vitamin D textbook ever published in English (Blunt and Cowan, 1930). I learned two interesting things. One, wavelengths between 250 and 280 nm (UVC) were more effective in curing rachitic rats than was the UVB range (pp. 74). Two, recrystalized red blood cells made lots of vitamin D when irradiated (pp. 135). However, to my knowledge, no one has ever directly tested the theory that irradiating blood delivers vitamin D to the circulation. The entire idea is so weird, who would ever do that?
Blunt K, Cowan R. Ultraviolet Light and Vitamin D Nutrition. 1930; The University of Chicago Press, Chicago Illinois.
About now, you may be wondering if I've lost my mind. Why would anyone care if irradiating blood triggers vitamin D production when vitamin D supplements will do the trick? The reason it's important is that hundreds of studies have been published, many in the best journals, describing clear-cut antibiotic-like actions following blood irradiation. Remember when I said Dr. Reinhold Vieth has complained that pharmacological doses of vitamin D have never been tested in clinical trials. Well, maybe they have, and on lots of frequently fatal infections � but no one knew blood irradiation was actually delivering hundreds of thousands of units of vitamin D to desperately ill patients. That is, no one knew it was pharmacological doses of vitamin D actually being tested.
I'll concentrate on just a few of the published studies. In 1942, Professor George Miley at Hahnemann Hospital in Philadelphia reported using the "Knott Technic" on 103 patients with life-threatening infections. Remember, all they had at the time was sulfa drugs so most of these patients usually died. He classified the patients as early, moderately advanced, and moribund (close to death). The diagnosis included sepsis, septic abortion, peritonitis, pneumonia, appendicle abscess, pelvic abscess, wound infection, septicemia, and similar conditions. He treated all of them with ultraviolet blood irradiation and reported that all 20 of the early patients, 46 of 47 of the moderately advanced patients, and 17 of 36 moribund patients fully recovered � such results were unheard of at the time.
Miley GP. The Knott Technic of Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation in Acute Pyogenic Infections. New York State Journal of Medicine. 1942;42(1):38-46.
Miley and Christensen went on to report what might be the largest case series ever published by The American Journal of Surgery. They reported treating 445 patients with a variety of life-threatening infections over six years. All of the early, 98% of moderately advanced, and 45% of moribund patients recovered after treatment with Knott hemo-irradiation � results that would rival those obtained today. The only side effect noted was a curious flushing of the skin that occurred in most treated patients and lasted up to 30 days. They also noted that treatment of staph aureus septicemia with sulfa drugs reduced effectiveness of hemo-irradiation.
Miley GP, Christensen JA. Ultraviolet blood irradiation therapy: further studies in acute infections. American Journal of Surgery 1947; 73: 486-493.
Miley and Rebbeck also reported on 40 patients with generalized peritonitis (a usually fatal infection of the abdominal cavity). All 23 moderately advanced patients and 9 of 17 moribund patients recovered after blood irradiation.
Miley GP, Rebbeck EW. The Knott Technic of Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation as a Control of Infection in Peritonitis. Review of Gastroenterology. 1943;10:1.
In 1948, Miley and Christensen reported the technique had near miraculous results on viral pneumonia, including influenza. Within a few days of one treatment, fever disappeared and symptoms abated. For those of you who haven't tried it, 1,000 to 2,000 units per kg per day of vitamin D, early in the course of influenza or influenza-like illnesses, has very similar effects.
Miley GP, Christensen JA. Ultraviolet blood irradiation therapy in acute virus-like infections. Review of Gastroenterology 1948; 15; 271-277.
Dr. Rebbeck, from the "Department of Blood Irradiation," at Shadyside Hospital in Pittsburgh went on to independently confirm Miley's reports of successful treatments in acute peritonitis, puerperal (childbirth) sepsis, post-abortion sepsis � even 6 of 8 patients survived E-coli septicemia, a routinely lethal infection. Of interest, the two patients who died from E-coli septicemia had autopsies: one had a sterile bloodstream and the other showed the E-coli was gone but staph aureus was present.
* Rebbeck EW. Ultraviolet Irradiation of Auto-transfused Blood in the Treatment of Escherichia coli Septicemia. Archives of Physical Therapy. 1943;24:158-67
* Rebbeck EW. Ultraviolet Irradiation of Auto-transfused Blood in the Treatment of Acute Peritonitis, General. The Hahnemannian Monthly, April, 1941
* Rebbeck EW. Ultraviolet Irradiation of Auto-transfused Blood in the Treatment of Puerperal Sepsis. American Journal of Surgery. 1941;54:691
* Rebbeck EW. Ultraviolet Irradiation of Auto-transfused Blood in the Treatment of Postabortional Sepsis. American Journal of Surgery. 1942;55:476-86
* Rebbeck EW. Further studies with ultraviolet blood irradiation therapy (Knott technic) in septic abortions. Am J Surg. 1951 Dec;82(6):736-40.
* Rebbeck EW. Use of ultraviolet blood irradiation (Knott technic) in biliary tract surgery. Am J Surg. 1950 Jul;80(1):108-12.
In the late 40's and 50's, articles in the American Journal of Surgery reported that the technique was useful in a variety of ailments. Olney reported that viral hepatitis responded.
* MILEY GP, DUNNING PM. Ultraviolet blood irradiation therapy (Knott technic) in thrombophlebitis. Am J Surg. 1949 Dec;78(6):892.
* NEFF FE, ANDERSON CM. Use of ultraviolet blood irradiation in the treatment of bursitis and tendinitis calcarea. Am J Surg. 1951 Jun;81(6):622-8.
* SCHULTZ IT. Use of the Knott technic of blood irradiation therapy in cases of threatened and inevitable abortion. Am J Surg. 1954 Sep;88(3):421-4.
* OLNEY RC. Treatment of viral hepatitis with the Knott technic of blood irradiation. Am J Surg. 1955 Sep;90(3):402-9.
Let me say again, I'm not advocating blood irradiation. I'm only interested in the research because it may mean pharmacological doses of vitamin D acts as a broad-spectrum antibiotic by ramping up production of the body's own antimicrobial peptides. If the "Knott Technic" creates pharmacological amounts of vitamin D, then maybe that's its mechanism of action. If so, thousands of desperately ill patients with life-threatening infections in ICU's all over the world might be saved if short pharmacological courses of vitamin D were added to standard treatment with conventional antibiotics.
So what ended research on ultraviolet blood irradiation in the United States? First, more antibiotics became available, with much improved results (that was before many bacteria developed resistance to antibiotics). Second, Knott's proposed mechanism of action � directly killing bacteria in the irradiated blood or sterilization of the blood � was proven wrong. When you think about Knott's reasoning, it never made any sense. Only a small portion of the blood volume is irradiated so bacteria in the un-irradiated blood would be free to reproduce inside the body. No, direct sterilization of the blood was never a reasonable mechanism of action. However, without a viable mechanism of action, the procedure was doomed, at least in America.
* J Bacteriol. 1944 Jan;47(1):85-96.
* Archives of Physical Medicine 1948;19:358-65
Another critical study was funded in part by the American Medical Association and appeared in its journal. Again, they found that blood irradiation didn't sterilize the blood. They also administered Knott hemo-irradiation to 68 patients with a wide range of diseases and found it safe, but ineffective, although none of the treated patients died. Although the JAMA article was its death knell in the USA, the authors concluded with the sentence, "A longer and more extensive program of study is warranted before in vivo ultraviolet irradiation of blood can be finally either accepted or rejected." J Am Med Assoc. 1952 Jul 26;149(13):1180-3.
After its death in the USA, the Germans revived it, then the Russians. One of the German studies was exceptionally well controlled, finding ultraviolet blood irradiation compared favorably to infrared and sham ultraviolet blood irradiation as well as whole-body skin irradiation � which will produce physiological amounts of vitamin D. Therefore, if it works by a vitamin D mechanism, it is producing pharmacological amounts of vitamin D. To this day, it remains a treatment modality in Russia where it is often added to standard treatment of severe infections. Russian scientists have reported it helps improve standard treatment of numerous infections including tuberculosis, just what the UCLA group recently suggested about vitamin D. I've only included the few Russian studies with abstracts; hundreds more have been published without abstracts, so many my wife refuses to read anymore of them to me.
* Kariakin AM, Kucher VV, Susla PA, Kofman BL. [Hemosorption and ultraviolet irradiation of the blood in the treatment of acute septicemia] Vestn Khir Im I I Grek. 1983 Apr;130(4):109-12.
* Petukhov VA, Perekokin NN, Gorelenko AG, Koloda AS. [Ultraviolet irradiation of the blood] Vestn Khir Im I I Grek. 1987 Jan;138(1):66-7.
* Butylin LP, Volobuev NN, Tikhonov KS, Sinani MB. [Ultraviolet irradiation of the blood in the complex treatment of suppurative-inflammatory diseases] Klin Khir. 1989;(1):27-9.
* Scherf HP, Baumler H, Meffert H, Turowski A, Schmidt HH, et al. [Serial infrared and ultraviolet whole body irradiation and placebo and ultraviolet irradiation of autologous venous blood in peripheral arterial occlusive disease. 1. Treadmill ergometry, metabolic, rheologic and hemodynamic parameters] Z Gesamte Inn Med. 1989 Apr 1;44(7):201-7.
* Riabtsev VG, Gorbovitskii EB, Myslovatyi BS, Masiukevich AV, Ronami VG. [Hemosorption and ultraviolet irradiation of the blood in the complex treatment of peritonitis] Vestn Khir Im I I Grek. 1989 Apr;142(4):84-7.
* Kibirev AB, Kochulanov AN, Strelets BM, Grebenkina LA. [The ultraviolet irradiation of autologous blood and endolymphatic antibiotic therapy in treating pneumonia in patients with craniocerebral trauma] Zh Vopr Neirokhir Im N N Burdenko. 1990 May-Jun;(3):11-4.
* Zalesnyi SA, Khankoev IM, Grechishkin AI, Krasnopol'skii IS, Sitnik SD. [Hemosorption and ultraviolet irradiation of blood in the complex treatment of suppurative and septic diseases in children] Vestn Khir Im I I Grek. 1990 Jun;144(6):79-81.
* Piksin IN, Atiasov NI, Kiseleva RE, Romanov MD, Dorofeeva LS, et al. [Ultraviolet irradiation of blood in surgery] Khirurgiia (Mosk). 1990 Nov;(11):100-4.
* Paleev NR, Cherniakov VL, Vetchinnikova ON. [Ultraviolet irradiation of the blood in the treatment of pyo-inflammatory complications in patients with terminal renal failure] Vestn Akad Med Nauk SSSR. 1991;(3):15-20.
* Sukhodub LF, Tertyshnyi NG, Duzhyi ID, Pliskachev VM. [Ultraviolet irradiation of blood in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis] Probl Tuberk. 1991;(7):65-8.
* Kalinkin VN, Mezentsev GD, Kashuba EA, Konovalova LA, Shatilovich LN. [Autotransfusion of ultraviolet-irradiated blood in destructive pneumonia of young children] Khirurgiia (Mosk). 1991 Aug;(8):14-20.
* Sychev MD, Manucharov NK, Tomaev KB, Litvin AA. [Extracorporeal methods for detoxification in the combined treatment of gunshot peritonitis] Voen Med Zh. 1992 Jan;(1):44-5.
* Potashov LV, Reshetov AV, Tone RV, Vismont VG. [The efficacy of the ultraviolet irradiation of the blood in the combined treatment of erysipelatous inflammation] Vestn Khir Im I I Grek. 1992 Jul-Aug;149(7-8):84-8.
* Zhadnov VZ, Mishanov RF, Kuznetsov AA, Shprykov AS, Ryzhakova TM. [Effectiveness of chemotherapy in combination with electrophoresis and ultraviolet irradiation of blood in newly diagnosed patients with destructive pulmonary tuberculosis] Probl Tuberk. 1995;(3):20-2.
* Kuvshinchikova VN, Shmelev EI, Mishin VIu. [Effectiveness of extracorporeal ultraviolet blood irradiation in treatment of chronic obstructive bronchitis in pulmonary tuberculosis] Probl Tuberk. 1998;(3):48-50.
* Kravets VP, Kravets AV. [Extracorporeal ultraviolet irradiation of blood in combined treatment of patients with peritonitis] Klin Khir. 2002 Jul;(7):19-20.
Perhaps I've lost my mind and need to see one of my psychiatric colleagues. Another possibility is that pharmacological doses of vitamin D (via hemo-irradiation) have been tested in life-threatening infections and found to be safe and remarkably effective, first in the USA, then in Germany and finally in Russia. We will never know until the Food and Nutrition Board starts living in the 21st Century. Their Upper Limit of 2,000 units a day effectively prevents vitamin D researchers from testing pharmacological doses of vitamin D, while drug manufacturers test pharmacological doses of vitamin D analogs all the time.
What we really need are some intrepid volunteers, some readers interested in donating their body to science. The study would be simple. Just contact an Alternative Health Care Provider that practices Photoluminescence Therapy and see if they use the German-made Euphoton EN 600 NT hemo-irradiator. If so, arrange for a course of ultraviolet blood irradiation. But have your 25(OH)D levels checked the day before you begin treatment and again about a week after the course of treatment is finished. Then we will know if Dr. Knott was � and Dr. Cannell is � out of their minds. Actually, if I had a serious infection, I wouldn't hesitate taking 200,000 units of vitamin D a day for three days, but I wouldn't have my blood irradiated on a bet.
I have read several articles about vitamin D, and there seems to be a wide divergence of opinion on just what normal levels of vitamin 25D ought to be. There is also a controversy over what the ratio between 25D and I25D ought to be.
Some things I've read say any vitamin 25D level over 22 is OK. Some say it should be above 45, and some even say it should be between 80 and 100 for optimum health. (Mine was 43 when last tested).
I am curious about this controversy, since I have a disease (Lyme) in which differing treatment protocols either push vitamin D and say we should be in the sun for an hour a day and take 4,000 units of D daily, or alternatively, they ban it entirely, making patients wear sunglasses, even indoors, use blackout curtains, cover themselves completely when outdoors, and eat no vitamin D foods.
It's enough to make your head spin. To me it seems logical that we evolved in the sun, and we need some reasonable amount of sun exposure to be healthy.
Since you seem to be well read on this subject, what do you think?
I'm certainly no expert, but after reading John Cannell's
writings for a long time, we have changed our attitudes
toward the sun.
In the summertime, when we have high sun, we get as
much as we can. (It's free! )
We don't use sunblock, watch our skin for redness, and
cover if we get pink, or get out of the sun.
In the fall, like right now, we start to add Vit D to our
dailies and continue for the winter. The sun is very low
in the winter at our lattitude and, given the low output
of Vit D, we supplement with 2000 units/day. We up the
ante if we get sick. Seems to be working. We've not
been bothered with normal wintertime baloney in the
past couple years. We buy at Walmart. They seem to
have very competitve pricing here, but there is another
outlet, a grocery chain, that has similar pricing. Depends
on where we are when we run out.
Hi JPS,
I read an article at the link you provided, and he thinks the ideal 25D level is about 75. That is pretty high.
I have read also that the norms for vit. D were originally set by measuring an already deficient population, and that is where the problem started.
I am trying to eliminate synthetic supplements to see if we feel better, so we have switched from a multi-vitamin and mineral formula to using a lot of chlorella, and instead of taking vit. D, we are going to take cod liver oil. I was surprised at the relatively low level of D in the cod liver oil though, after reading warnings about only taking it in winter so your D level does not go too high. In order to get your 2,000 units, we'd have to drink a whole bottle, and you know what that would do to our bowels!
I got my 15 mins. of sun today. Down here, that is about all I can stand without starting to burn.
If you get your D levels tested before and after taking the extra D for a couple of months, please post. It would be interesting to see how much difference it made.
Roxie
JPS,
Wow! I am impressed at anyone who can stay outside all day down here without those poisonous sunscreens. And Florida sun is much more intense. I could stay out all day in Wisconsin without burning. Here 20 mins is my limit. I used to take 1,700 units of vit. D and it did not help me stay out. I got 700 in my multi and took another 1,000. I am glad it helped you. I just added cod liver oil, trying to get a natural source of vit. D, but was surprised that one dose only has 250 units.
I just don't have time to be out any longer, and sometimes not to be out at all.
Despite my Lyme disease, I have messy, shedding animals and a home and garden to care for, and a corporation to run for my DH, and exercises I must do each day to keep my muscles from freezing and keep my heart working,and keep me from being even fatter than I already am. The exercises mean a shower, which means a hair wash, since Florida humidity means I am soaked after even minimal effort, and I have a ton of hair, which takes forever to untangle, and which I cannot cut unless I want to pay for a divorce lawyer. I am expected to cook the kind of meal most folks only cook on holidays now, every night, and cooking healthy food takes a lot longer. Living in Florida and exercising, plus having a DH who does blue collar work, means tons of laundry, and so on, etc. blah, blah.
I need to sleep until 9 am, or I can't function at all. So, before I know it, there is no time left in my day, unless I give up the computer completely. Since I spend 95% of my time all alone, I need this outlet. Hence, no more time to be outside.
I also risk death every time I go out, due to life-theatening allergies to wasps, hornets, bees and ants, courtesy of Lyme having messed up my immune system. I had six reactions last year, only one so far this year. Last yr. I went to the ER twice for really bad ones that closed up my throat and chest. I gave up wearing sandals and always wear thick gloves when gardening now, but was still stung 3 times by a baby wasp that flew up my sleeve, about a month ago. Being outside, I am always on alert for bugs and where they are....not very relaxing, though I love the fresh air and breezes.
I am glad you have that time to relax as well as get more sun, and the health to enjoy the great outdoors. It is the thing I miss most about having LD, even more than my lost career.
Roxie
As crazy as this sounds, you might INCREASE your
vit D intake. There is a lot of studies in this area that
show some remarkable results. His site has them.
JPS,
OK, I will go back there and do some more reading, just as soon as I get done with my friggin' aerobics!
I envy you your cool fall weather. We have at least another month of awful heat to endure.
Thanks,
Roxie
More interesting information about vitamin D that I ran across.
~~~~~~~~~~~
09-15-06
Every winter, as the nights draw in and the weather grows cold, people start to cough, sniffle and run a fever. Patients crowd doctors' surgeries and sales of painkillers, hot lemon drinks and cough syrup soar. Flu is back.
But why? What is it about flu that means outbreaks only occur in the winter? Isolated cases occur throughout the year, as reported to the Royal College of GPs' Flu Monitoring Unit in Birmingham, proving that the virus is in constant circulation year-round.
Now a group of researchers has come up with a novel answer to the conundrum. The "seasonal stimulus" behind the annual winter flu epidemics is a lack of vitamin D due to shorter days and lack of sunlight.
And they have even suggested that by taking a mega-dose of the vitamin at the first sign of the illness, its worst symptoms might be alleviated - which could prove to be a potential life-saver in the event of the threatened avian flu pandemic.
Flu kills 3,000 to 4,000 mainly elderly people in the UK in a mild year, 20,000 to 30,000 in an epidemic year, and could kill tens or even hundreds of thousands more in the case of a pandemic.
The traditional explanation for the winter flu epidemics is that we tend to crowd indoors in the winter months, which aids the spread of the virus. Fifty years ago, when millions of manual labourers earned their living working outdoors, that may have been true.
But in the modern world, where most people work in offices and factories, travel on buses and trains, and share the same indoor spaces in summer and winter, the explanation rings hollow. Some of the people most vulnerable to flu - elderly people living in nursing homes - are there all year round yet are at greatest risk from the virus in winter, much like everybody else.
The seasonal nature of flu has puzzled scientists for decades. Twenty-five years ago, a British researcher called Edgar Hope- Simpson, who won fame after discovering the cause of shingles (he was the first person to link the painful condition to the chickenpox virus) proposed that an unknown seasonal factor lay behind the winter surfeit of flu.
He observed that countries lying on the same latitude, which have short winter days and long summer ones, tended to experience flu outbreaks at the same time. Epidemics that took place in Great Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries also occurred simultaneously across the country - long before modern transportation could explain its rapid dissemination.
Dr Hope-Simpson published his findings in a book which suggested that the missing link could be "solar radiation". Almost a quarter of a century later, in April 2005, an outbreak of influenza swept through Atascadero State Hospital in California, which is a maximum- security institution for the criminally insane similar to Broadmoor in England.
John Cannell, a psychiatrist at the hospital, watched as one ward after another ended up being quarantined at the hospital and more and more inmates fell ill with the chills, aches and fever that are typical of influenza. Then he noticed something unusual.
"First the ward below mine was infected, and then the ward on my right, left, and across the hall - but no patients on my ward became ill," he said. "My patients had intermingled with patients from infected wards before the quarantines. The nurses on my unit cross- covered on infected wards. How did my patients escape infection?"
While pondering this puzzle, Dr Cannell came across a paper published in Nature by a team of researchers from the University of California at Los Angeles showing that vitamin D stimulated the body's production of antimicrobial peptides which have been shown to attack bacteria, fungi and viruses, including the influenza virus, and which play a key role in keeping the lungs free from infection.
Dr Cannell had a long interest in vitamin D and had offered his patients large daily doses in the belief that they would ward off a range of illnesses from cancer to depression. He believes, along with a growing body of experts on the matter, that vitamin D deficiency is widespread and unrecognised because current recommended levels are too low for optimum health.
"A single, 20-minute, full-body exposure to summer sun will trigger the delivery of about 20,000 units of vitamin D into the circulation of most people within about 48 hours. Compare that to the 100 units you get from a glass of milk or the several hundred daily units the US government recommends as adequate intake," he said.
Throughout evolutionary history, humans obtained tens of thousands of units every day from the sun. Even after migrating to temperate latitudes, where skin colour rapidly lightened to allow for more rapid vitamin D production, humans worked outdoors. Only in recent decades as we have increasingly lived and worked indoors, travelled in cars and lathered on sunblock have levels of vitamin D sunk chronically low, according to Dr Cannell.
All the patients that were on Dr Cannell's ward were taking 2,000 units of vitamin D every day. Could that be why they avoided getting the flu? Although unknown to Dr Hope-Simpson, vitamin D not only increases production of antimicrobial peptides, helping the body fight infection, it simultaneously acts to "damp down" the immune system, which prevents it from releasing too many inflammatory cells - the cytokine response - into infected lung tissue.
Scientists who were studying the victims of the 1918 flu pandemic, the worst in history in which an estimated 40 million people died around the world, were shocked to find that in some cases their lungs were destroyed. Inflammatory cytokines triggered the complete destruction of the normal epithelial cells which lined the respiratory tract. In effect, the flu virus triggered an overwhelming response from the body's defences that ended in death. Vitamin D has since been found to prevent this severe inflammatory reaction, Dr Cannell said.
"I subsequently did what physicians have done for centuries. I experimented, first on myself and then on my family, trying different doses of vitamin D to see if it had any effect on viral respiratory infections," Dr Cannell said. "Sev-eral of my medical colleagues experimented on themselves by taking three-day courses of pharmacological doses (2,000 units per kilogram of body-weight per day) of vitamin D at the first sign of flu. I also asked numerous colleagues and friends who were taking physiological doses (which was 5,000 units per day in winter and fewer or none in summer) if they ever got colds or flu and if so how severe the infections were."
The results of this personal research convinced Dr Cannell that vitamin D did indeed confer protection against the virus. "Physiological doses reduce the incidence of viral respiratory infections and pharmacological doses significantly ameliorate the symptoms if taken early in the course of the illness," he said.
However, he added that the observations were too personal and anecdotal to qualify as scientific evidence. Instead he contacted Professor Rhein-hold Vieth, from the Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, and Ed Giovannucci from the Harvard School of Public Health and suggested his hypothesis that vitamin D could be the "seasonal stimulus" for winter flu that was first put forward 25 years ago by Dr Hope-Simpson.
Together with five other experts, who included Professor Michael Holick of Boston University and Professor Cedric Garland of the University of California, they drew up the paper that was published online last week in the journal titled Epidemiology and Infection, where Dr Hope-Simpson had published most of his work three decades previously.
"We propose that annual fluctuations in vitamin D levels explain the seasonality of influenza. Although our paper also discusses the possibility that [high] doses of vitamin might be useful in treating some of the one million people in the world who die of influenza every year, this is only a theory, like all theories it must betestedin well controlled scientific experiments.
However, as vitamin D deficiency has repeatedly been associated with many of the diseases of civilisation, it is not too early for physicians to aggressively diagnose and adequately treat it." Professor John Oxford, who is an expert on influenza and a professor of virology at Queen Mary College, London, welcomed this theory. "This is a reasonable hypothesis with some scientific underpinning but it needs putting to the test. Vitamin C has been discussed in relation to flu and had its ups and downs for years. It is interesting to put vitamin D in the frame for people to take a look at."
"However, I wouldn't advise anyone to rely on vitamin D to protect them-selves against flu. People should think about anti-flu vaccination first, followed by anti-viral drugs, good personal hygiene and then vitamin D," he said.
"We could test the theory by getting some young volunteers, whacking up their vitamin D levels in one group while holding it down in the other and then giving both groups a dose of flu. It could be carried out quite easily and it would not be a silly thing to do."
'A 20-minute exposure to summer sun will trigger 20,000 units of vitamin D into the circulation within 48 hours'
Sunlight, skin and vitamin D: the facts
About 90 per cent of the body's supply of vitamin D comes from the action of sunlight on the skin, but grey skies and short days between October and March mean that 60 per cent of the UK population are deficient in the vitamin.
Vitamin D is essential for healthy bones and skin and protects against rickets in children and osteoporosis in the elderly.
The vitamin cuts the risk of pancreatic cancer by almost half (43 per cent) when taken at the recommended daily dose of 400IU (international units), according to a study of 46,000 men and 75,000 women by researchers from the University of Wisconsin that was published this week.
A daily dose of Vitamin D could cut the risk of cancers of the breast, colon and ovary by up to half, a 40-year review of research concluded last year.
Doctors writing in the American Journal of Public Health proposed a daily dose of 1,000 international units, two and a half times the current recommended dose in the UK.
Countries around the world have begun to modify their warnings about the dangers of sunbathing, as a result of the growing research on vitamin D. The Cancer Council Australia said for the first time last year that some exposure to the sun was healthy.
Vitamin D lowers insulin resistance which is one of the major factors leading to heart disease.
The vitamin influences the growth of a variety of cell types and plays a role in the repair and remodelling of lung tissue.
It acts as an immunosuppressant and may help protect against the development of type 1 diabetes.
It influences production of a hormone that regulates calcium levels, in the body which in turn help to regulate blood pressure.
Lack of vitamin D in the months before birth may affect the developing foetus in the womb and increase the risk of schizophrenia.
Lack of the vitamin has been linked with the development of multiple sclerosis.
Vitamin D article. REALLY GOOD Read
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