Murder your husband

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Murder your husband

Fri, 9 Sep 2005 21:12:42 -0700

 

 

 

 

 

The Vitamin D Newsletter

 

9-10-05

 

Another quiz

 

 

 

This is a periodic newsletter from the Vitamin D Council, a non-profit

trying to end the epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. If you don't want

it, hit reply and let us know. This newsletter is not copyrighted.

Please feel free to reproduce it or post it on internet sites. Haven't

signed up for the newsletter yet? Go to the Vitamin D Council's website.

 

 

Question: How can I use vitamin D to murder my undeserving husband?

 

Answer: By starting early in the morning.

 

 

Last month we learned vitamin D is used as a rat poison. If it will

kill a rat, it will kill a husband. How much would it take? The

Institute of Medicine's (IOM) 1997 report says anything above 2,000

units a day may be toxic. Let's see.

 

 

 

This month we learned how much it takes to sicken a child. Doctors at

the University of Maryland School of Medicine report a case of

accidental overdose of ergocalciferol - a vitamin D like drug.

 

Pediatrics. 2005 Sep;116(3):e453-6.

 

 

 

(Ergocalciferol is not vitamin D; it is a vitamin D analog whose

patent expired years ago. Trader Joe's sells it as a vegetarian

vitamin D. It is usually obtained by radiating fungi, a fact the

health food crowd ignores. Ergocalciferol does not occur naturally in

the human body, nor do its numerous metabolic byproducts. It was nice

to see the authors refer to ergocalciferol as a vitamin D analog.

Ergocalciferol is not vitamin D. Cholecalciferol is vitamin D.)

 

 

 

Anyway, mom was giving her 32-lb son a liquid preparation of

ergocalciferol made in Latin America. The direction stated adults

should take one drop (2,500 units) per day but mom mistakenly gave

junior four bottles (2,400,000 units or 60 mg) over four days. The

child developed abdominal pain, mild high blood pressure, and high

blood calcium but made an uneventful recovery once the correct

diagnosis was made.

 

 

 

So, we still don't know how much it takes to murder a husband. The

authors say 21 mg/kg is the lethal dose. If the same is true in

humans, a 220-lb death deserving husband would require about 200,000

pills. Ladies, to get that much down him you'll have to start lacing

his beer early in the day.

 

 

 

However, this child got quite sick taking one-fifth that amount (4

mg/kg). His calcium peaked at 15 mg/dl, high enough to be concerning.

Vitamin D kills rats by causing high blood calcium. A 110-lb adult

would have to take 200 bottles (20,000 of the 400 unit capsules) to

match the child's intake.

 

 

 

So, don't take 200 bottles at a time; don't take 50 bottles at a time;

don't take 25 bottles at a time. I would say don't take 15 bottles at

a time but:

 

 

 

1. This month doctors at the University of New South Wales reported

giving 50 elderly patients the equivalent of 15 bottles (600,000

units) in a single injection and concluded it was a good idea to do it

every year.

 

 

 

a) True

 

 

 

b) False

 

 

 

True. Due to sun scare, vitamin D deficiency is sunny Australia is now

quite a problem, so the authors were looking for an easy, cheap way to

maintain blood levels for an entire year. It worked pretty well but I

wouldn't do it. It is not physiologic.

 

Med J Aust. 2005 Jul 4;183(1):10-2.

 

 

 

Remember, a 25-hydroxy-vitamin D is the blood test you should have at

least twice a year - spring and fall. Take enough cholecalciferol to

maintain normal levels of around 50 ng/ml (125 nmol/L), year-round. It

will take about 5,000 units/day from all sources (sun, supplements,

and diet) to do so.

 

 

 

2. Professor Kay Colston, of St. Georges Hospital Medical School in

London, was the coauthor of two remarkable vitamin D papers over the

last few months.

 

 

 

a) True

 

 

 

b) False

 

 

 

True. Dr. Colston was senior author on that dramatic paper that showed

breast cancer was five times more frequent in the women with the

lowest blood levels.

 

Eur J Cancer. 2005 May;41(8):1164-9. Epub 2005 Apr 14.

 

 

 

Dr. Colston helped Dr. Kelly Townsend, of the University of

Birmingham, write a review of the ability of cancerous tissues to make

activated vitamin D or calcitriol. Calcitriol is a remarkable

anticancer agent, but no one knows for sure if higher levels of

vitamin D in the blood will increase calcitriol levels in tumors. The

take away point is that some tumors still have the ability to make

calcitriol while other tumors may get calcitriol from nearby cells,

especially immune cells. The amount of calcitriol in your tumor may

depend on the amount of vitamin D in your blood.

 

J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2005 Aug 1; [Epub ahead of print]

 

 

 

We don't yet know if vitamin D will help fight cancer. It looks as if

will help. Until we know more, the real question is: Should

oncologists allow their cancer patients to die vitamin D deficient?

Most do.

 

Endocr Pract. 2004 May-Jun;10(3):292-3.

 

 

 

Some cancer patients tell me they are taking 10,000 units of vitamin D

a day in hope it will retard their cancer's growth. If you e-mail me,

asking me if vitamin D will help your cancer, I will e-mail you back

saying I don't know. 10,000 units a day has never been shown to cause

high blood calcium in healthy people, lifeguards get about that much

every day. There is no known reason to take more. If you have cancer

and take vitamin D, remember to get your calcium checked periodically

as a few cancers can activate too much vitamin D and cause high blood

calcium.

 

 

 

3. In July, researchers at the University of Quebec showed that breast

density (associated with malignancy) is lower in women with higher

vitamin D intakes.

 

 

 

a) True

 

 

 

b) False.

 

 

True. The authors speculated that even 400 units of vitamin D, when

taken with calcium, reduce breast cancer risk more than Tamoxifen.

 

Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2005 Jul;14(7):1653-9.

 

 

 

4. Researchers recently reported patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma live

longer if they are diagnosed in sunny weather.

 

 

 

a) True

 

 

 

b) False

 

 

 

True. The authors implied it is time to stop testing the expensive

vitamin D analogs in cancer patients and start testing plain old

vitamin D. So we add Hodgkin's' lymphoma and colon cancer to lung

cancer, breast cancer and prostate cancer, all of which have a better

prognosis if diagnosed when vitamin D blood levels are the highest.

These papers are important because they strongly imply a treatment

effect with vitamin D.

 

Br J Cancer. 2005 Sep 5;93(5):571-4.

 

J Photochem Photobiol B. 2005 Mar 1;78(3):189-93.

 

5. One makes quite of bit of vitamin D in the shade.

 

 

a) True

 

 

 

b) False

 

 

 

True. At least in the subtropics, vitamin D producing UVB light was

only 50% less under umbrellas or shade trees owing to the fact that a

lot of UVB light is reflected. This study was conducted at latitude 27

degrees, and the authors were quick to point out the amount made in

the shade at higher latitudes, such as U.S. and Europe, will be less.

 

J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2005 Jul 5; [Epub ahead of print]

 

 

 

6. You are much more likely to die from a heart attack in the winter

than the summer.

 

 

 

a) True

 

 

 

b) False

 

 

True. The dramatic decrease in deaths from myocardial infarction over

the last 20 years is only partially explained by improved medical care

and remains something of a mystery. The reason for the large seasonal

variations in death rates (you are much more likely to die from a

heart attack in the winter) is more of a mystery, although many

experts believe that colder temperatures cause heart attacks. If cold

weather causes heart attacks, then people who live at higher

altitudes, where it is generally colder, will be more likely to die

from heart attacks. Let's see if this is so.

 

QJM. 2003 Jan;96(1):45-52.

 

 

 

7. Greek researchers recently confirmed that those who live at higher

altitudes are much less likely to die from heart disease.

 

 

 

a) True

 

 

 

b) False

 

 

 

True. Both the men and women living at 950 meters, where vitamin D

producing UVB light is much more intense, had significantly lower

total and cardiac mortality than their lowland cousins. The lowland

men were more than twice as likely to die from a heart attack in spite

of having lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol.

 

J Epidemiol Community Health. 2005 Apr;59(4):274-8.

 

 

 

Three epidemiological facts about heart attacks cry out for a simple

explanation, a single theory that explains all the facts. The three

facts: heart attacks are less common closer to the equator, less

common in the summer, and less common at higher altitudes. Three more

facts: vitamin D producing UVB light is higher closer to the equator,

higher in the summer, and higher at higher altitudes.

 

8. After getting 50,000 units of ergocalciferol twice a week for eight

weeks (800,000 units), 100% of vitamin D deficient patients with

cystic fibrosis remained vitamin D deficient.

 

 

a) True

 

 

 

b) False

 

 

 

True. Unfortunately, ergocalciferol is not vitamin D and we will never

know if these patients with poor absorption would have absorbed real

vitamin D, probably not. 50,000 units of ergocalciferol a week for 8

weeks is common treatment of vitamin D deficiency in the USA because

ergocalciferol is the only vitamin D like drug available in

prescription strength. Real vitamin D, cholecalciferol, is not

available in prescription strength.

 

Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2005 Jul 15;172(2):212-7. Epub 2005 Apr

 

9. Researchers have repeatedly found lower 25(OH)D levels in demented

patients.

 

 

a) True

 

 

 

b) False

 

 

 

True. At least four studies have incidentally found that demented

patients have lower 25(OH)D levels. The obvious explanation is that

demented patients don't go outside as much. However, Dhesi found

associations between 25(OH)D and cognition within a narrow range of

cognition, harder to explain by outdoor behavior. Flicker found the

association, even after adjusting for outdoor exposure.

 

J Am Geriatr Soc. 1995 Oct;43(10):1088-91.

 

J Bone Miner Res. 2002 May;17(5):891-7.

 

J Am Geriatr Soc. 2003 Nov;51(11):1533-8.

 

Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2005 Mar;86(3):576-81.

 

 

 

Recently the Australians showed that multiple areas of the human brain

contain both the vitamin D receptor and the ability to activate

vitamin D into the powerful steroid hormone, calcitriol. This has

implications for a wide variety of neurological and psychiatric illnesses.

 

J Chem Neuroanat. 2005 Jan;29(1):21-30.

 

 

 

Of course all this is more interesting after Irish researchers

announced last month that vitamin D reverses the inflammation

associated with age related dementia. Should we add dementia to the

list of diseases caused by vitamin D deficiency?

 

Biochem Soc Trans. 2005 Aug;33(Pt 4):573-7.

 

10. Researchers gave African Americans women 2,000 units of

cholecalciferol a day for a year and found no effect on bone mineral

density.

 

 

a) True

 

 

 

b) False

 

 

 

True. A New York group treated 81 healthy African American women with

800 units/day for two years and then with 2,000 units/day for another

year. They found no effect on bone loss. Examination of their data

showed that more than ninety-five percent of the women were still

vitamin D deficient (<40 ng/ml) at the end of three months of

treatment with 2,000 units. It looked as if forty percent still had

levels less than 32 ng/ml at the end of the three years. That said,

this was a good study.

 

Arch Intern Med. 2005 Jul 25;165(14):1618-23.

 

 

 

Some authors have suggested African Americans have developed decreased

sensitivity to vitamin D. For example, low blood levels were strongly

associated with diabetes (one-fourth the risk with the highest levels)

in whites, but not in African Americans.

 

Diabetes Care. 2004 Dec;27(12):2813-8.

 

 

 

Perhaps adequate doses (4,000 units a day) would have had an effect on

African American women - we will never know because the researchers

followed the archaic guidelines from the Institute of Medicine (IOM).

The 1997 IOM guidelines state anything over 2,000 units may be toxic.

Those same IOM guidelines for daily supplementation recommend 200

units/day for those less than 50 years old, 400 units/day between 50

and 70, and 600/day units above age 70.

 

 

 

Not only have these guidelines kept undeserving husbands alive, they

have hindered research by forcing scientists to use inadequate doses

of vitamin D in scientific studies. More importantly, they are

inadequate to maintain healthy blood levels. To paraphrase Professor

Robert Heaney, the 1997 IOM recommendations are both irrelevant and

inadequate. Every month, the scientific literature makes the IOM

recommendations look more and more dangerous to your health. The

longer it takes the IOM to correct their mistake, the grosser their

error becomes.

 

 

 

John Cannell, MD

 

9100 San Gregorio Road

 

Atascadero, CA 93422

 

The Vitamin D Council

 

 

 

 

 

This is a periodic newsletter from the Vitamin D Council, a non-profit

trying to end the epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. If you don't want

to get the newsletter, hit reply and let us know. This newsletter is

not copyrighted. Please feel free to reproduce it or post it on

internet sites.

 

 

 

Haven't signed up for the newsletter yet? Go to the Vitamin D

Council's website.