Matters sunny and bunny

[Guest guest]

" WC Douglass " <realhealth

Daily Dose - Matters sunny and bunny

Fri, 15 Jul 2005 07:30:00 -0400

Daily Dose

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July 15, 2005

 

Sunlight key to surviving surgery?

 

In the last few months, I've reported quite a bit (Daily Dose, 4/29

and 6/13) about the medical establishment's grudging concession that

vitamin D from SUNLIGHT (I love rubbing that in) is a powerful disease

fighter - especially for cancer.

 

But earlier this spring, a news item caught my eye that adds yet

another telling wrinkle to the vitamin D/cancer saga. According to a

recent Reuters Health article, there's new evidence suggesting that

vitamin D and plenty of sunshine may help patients survive longer

after lung cancer surgery.

 

The Harvard Medical School/Harvard School of Public Health study

reviewed data from the histories of 456 patients who were treated

between 1992 and 2000 and found this startling correlation: Patients

who had higher levels of vitamin D in their blood and had undergone

surgery in the sunnier months were more than 2.5 times more likely to

be alive after 5 years than those who had the lowest levels of vitamin D.

 

The study's lead researcher theorized that the vitamin somehow

inhibits the proliferation of cancerous cells. Wow - what a

revelation, and from Harvard no less! A powerful antioxidant stops

abnormal cells from multiplying? You don't say!

 

I could have told them that - three decades ago!

 

The author also mentioned that other studies have proved vitamin D's

worth in the fight against cancer, and that fortifying your body with

D supplements soon after a diagnosis of lung cancer could provide a

survival advantage.

 

Of course (no doubt in the name of " balance " ), the Reuters article

also goes on to quote the researchers as saying that they wouldn't

suggest that people schedule cancer surgeries around seasonal or

location factors.

 

Of course, I'd try to avoid the surgery at all costs, attempting an

aggressive course of natural therapies first - including vitamin D

therapy. Heck, just skipping the scalpel might increase my odds of

living five years post-surgery more than any vitamin, if today's

medicine's track record for surgical errors is any indication.

 

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Break bread, not bones

 

Leave it to mainstream medicine to package one of the most powerful

cures nature ever gave us in one of the most harmful edibles mankind

has ever developed...

 

Still, it's far better than drugs, it seems.

 

According to a recent study presented at the Experimental Biology

convention in San Diego, researchers claim that elderly subjects who

ate a specially formulated bread fortified with vitamin D and calcium

carbonate experienced a 28% increase in lumbar spine bone density in

one year.

 

This beats the 8% increase bone-building drugs typically yield by more

than 300%.

 

While this is good news, I can't help but wonder: Why couldn't they

have found something other than BREAD - the killer carb that's

responsible for more inches of American waistline than anything but

sugar - to mix these beneficial compounds up in? I mean, why not milk

(especially raw), or some kind of ground meat, or even certain grains

like whole oats or flaxseed?

 

Perhaps it has to do with bread being more or less a universal (though

hideously unhealthy) food - both vegetarians and carnivorous test

subjects are all likely to eat it. This is the only thing I can think

of that makes any sense.

 

Oh, well - I'd rather see people eating loaves of

osteoporosis-fighting bread than popping side-effect-riddled pills...

 

The irony here is that any bone-strengthening effects this bread

fosters will likely be offset by the extra foot-pounds of force those

who eat it will be exerting on their bones if they take a spill. Extra

weight does equal extra impact.

 

Always " rising " to give you the truthful daily bread,

 

William Campbell Douglass II, MD