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Outreach Please listen to an interview about vitamin D with Meg Mangin, RN.
To facilitate attendance for interested people across the USA, our Patient Workshops will be offered in any locality for a gathering of 10 or more. If you are able to organize a group for a workshop, please contact us.
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Science Behind Inflammation Therapy Our peer-reviewed article
has been published in the October 2014 issue of Inflammation Research.
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Therapy Tip
When taken every six to eight hours to maintain a stable serum level Benicar appears to up-regulate the vitamin D receptor (VDR). This is evidenced by Jarisch-Herxheimer reactions (a temporary increase in inflammatory symptoms due to the immune system response to dying bacteria) which suggest VDR transcription of anti-microbial peptides and destruction of bacterial pathogens. People taking Benicar just once a day (the standard dose) rarely experience any significant symptoms attributed to the drug. This indicates that more frequent dosing is necessary to up-regulate the VDR and activate the immune system.
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CIR Library Access
Our free, extensive, easy-to-read
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is available to anyone.
Please email for a
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Greetings!
We seem to be making some progress toward changing the perception of low vitamin D as a cause of poor health, to a better understanding that it is a consequence of illness. For the past several years, the incidence of people with low vitamin D has been linked to a broad supposition that vitamin D supplementation might have wide-ranging health benefits, potentially able to prevent diseases of all sorts. Clinical evidence was lacking and there was a dearth of random-controlled trials to confirm the effects of vitamin D supplementation beyond increasing the metrics.
Now some assessments to determine the efficacy of vitamin D supplements are being completed. A paper published August 3, 2015 in JAMA Internal Medicine reports that no dose of vitamin D supplementation for post-menopausal women showed any benefit better than a placebo and supported the Institute of Medicine's vitamin D goals. "Study results do not justify the common and frequently touted practice of administering high-dose cholecalciferol to older adults to maintain serum 25 (OH) D levels of 30 ng/mL or greater," the team concluded, "Rather, study results support the Institute of Medicine's conclusion that vitamin D repletion is a serum 25(OH)D level of 20 ng/mL or greater."
This paper adds to a growing collection of evidence challenging both the push for ever-increasing goals for vitamin D results in blood tests as well as the widely-touted benefits of vitamin D supplementation.
In case you missed them, here are two more studies:
We look forward to further results of randomized controlled trials for vitamin D and we hope the scientific evidence will be as widely distributed as the conjecture about the effects of vitamin D supplementation.
To good health, |
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About Inflammation Therapy
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Does Clothing and Sunscreen Prevent Adequate Vitamin D Photosynthesis?
Clothing is a barrier to ultraviolet radiation but this is an issue only for people who cover themselves from head to toe (e.g., woman who wear a burka may not be exposed to sufficient sunlight). [1] It takes relatively little sunlight exposure to acquire adequate stores of vitamin D and few people wear enough clothes to prevent that from happening. Ten to 15 minutes of sunlight or daylight exposure to a small area of skin (e.g., the forearm or face, etc.) twice a week (without sunscreen) supplies all the vitamin D necessary for health. [2]
The belief that sunscreen lotion blocks vitamin D production is based on a 1987 study funded by the ultraviolet foundation, which is supported by the tanning bed industry. [3] Contradictory information was provided by a 2010 study which concluded that although sunscreens are effective, many may not actually be blocking UV-B because they are improperly or inadequately applied. Thus, sunscreen use may not actually diminish vitamin D synthesis in real world use. [4, 5] Prolonged unprotected sun exposure should be avoided to reduce the risk of developing skin cancer. [6] As reported by ABC News on May 21, 2009, (according to a survey of 1,000 adults by the Consumer Reports National Research Center) 31 percent of Americans reported not using sunscreen, while 69 percent were occasional users. In the ABC News report, Dr. Michele McDonald, a dermatologist and assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., stated that recent concerns about regular sunscreen use limiting vitamin D intake are unfounded. "If you're out and you're getting sun, you're getting vitamin D; after 30 to 40 minutes, it's getting through [sunscreen]." Although dermatologists express concern about UV radiation leading to skin cancer, the amount of sun exposure required to produce adequate vitamin D is unlikely to damage skin cells. [7] Vitamin D compounds have a protective effect against DNA photo damage. [8] Dr. Robyn Lucas,an Australian epidemiologist stated, "Far more lives are lost to diseases caused by lack of sunlight than by those caused by too much." [9, 10]
References
- Matsuoka LY, Wortsman J, Dannenberg MJ, Holis BW, Lu Z, Holick MF. Clothing prevents ultraviolet-B radiation-dependent photosynthesis of vitamin D3. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. Oct 1992;75(4):1099-103.
- Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet: Vitamin D. National Institutes of Health. Jan 24, 2011. Available at: http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-HealthProfessional/?print=1.
- Matsuoka LY, Ide L, MacLaughlin JA, Holick MF. Sunscreens suppress cutaneous vitamin D3 synthesis. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. Jun 1987;64(6):1165-8.
- Diehl JW, Chiu MW. Effects of ambient sunlight and photoprotection on vitamin D status. Dermatol Ther. Jan-Feb 2010;23(1):48-60.
- Wolpowitz D, Gilchrest BA. The vitamin D questions: how much do you need and how should you get it? J Am Acad Dermatol. Feb 2006;54(2):301-17.
- Youl PH JMKM. Vitamin D and sun protection: the impact of mixed public health messages in Australia. Int J Cancer. Apr 2009(124(8)):1963-70.
- Dixon KM, Deo SS, Wong G, et al. Skin cancer prevention: a possible role of 1,25dihydroxyvitamin D3 and its analogs. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. Oct 2005;97(1-2):137-43.
- Lucas RM, McMichael AJ, Armstrong BK, Smith WT. Estimating the global disease burden due to ultraviolet radiation exposure. Int J Epidemiol. Jun 2008;37(3):654-67.
- Mead MN. Benefits of sunlight: a bright spot for human health. Environ Health Perspect. Apr 2008;116(4):A160-7.
- 10.Lucas RM, Ponsonby AL. Considering the potential benefits as well as adverse effects of sun exposure: can all the potential benefits be provided by oral vitamin D supplementation? Prog Biophys Mol Biol. Sep 2006;92(1):140-9.
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Quotes
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"There is a light at the end of the tunnel. So glad I have found you guys, there is much hope for my future. Thank you." Jessie
"Thank you for getting my life back." Mary
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Recovery Reports
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We are contacted daily by people with chronic illnesses who are looking for an effective treatment. Many ask us to provide evidence of efficacy in the form of statistics or stories. If you have recovered your health or had significant symptom improvement with Inflammation Therapy, please help us 'pay it forward' by telling your story. We will post it in the public section of our website to encourage others. Any report, short or long, with or without objective data (e.g., lab results, imaging reports) would be helpful. Please email your story to us. Thank you!
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HONcode
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Health On the Net Foundation has certified that the Chronic Illness Recovery website and forum conform to the principles of HONcode for the dissemination of trustworthy health information for patients
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