Posted on 12/06/2009 9:00:19 AM PST by STARWISE
The claims have been sensational. Martin Mittelstaedt checks up on the research behind the hype
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In the summer of 1974, brothers Frank and Cedric Garland had a heretical brainwave.
The young epidemiologists were watching a presentation on death rates from cancer county by county across the United States.
As they sat in a lecture hall at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore looking at the colour-coded cancer maps, they noticed a striking pattern, with the map for colon cancer the most pronounced.
Counties with high death rates were red; those with low rates were blue. Oddly, the nation was almost neatly divided in half, red in the north and blue in the south. Why, they wondered, was the risk of dying from cancer greater in bucolic Maine than in highly polluted Southern California?
*snip*
Exposure to sunshine varies dramatically depending on the latitude. What if that's what was behind the varying cancer rates?
Their hypothesis, painstakingly developed and published six years later in the International Journal of Epidemiology, was that sunlight has a powerful anti-cancer effect through its role in producing vitamin D in bare skin.
Those living at northern latitudes, they theorized, receive less sunlight and make less of the vitamin, which in turn increases their risk of dying from cancer.
Today, with vitamin D so much in the news, it's hard to believe that it took decades for the Garlands' hypothesis to gain traction in the mainstream medical community.
But the benefits of vitamin D are no longer restricted to cancer prevention:
Studies have linked a shortage of the compound to such serious, chronic ailments as multiple sclerosis, diabetes, heart disease, influenza and schizophrenia.
Rest @ link
(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...
Welcome ... ;)
BTT
;)
I didn't know anyone else had noticed that! Works great for me.
I was also almost bald but now I have a full head of hair. I had grown so used to the baldness I decided to return to it and now I have to shave my head every other day. What a pain!
And virility!! This is a family forum so I won't even talk about that!
,
How? Does warming change the axis of the earth or its orbit around the sun?
Thank you ma’am... good stuff
Welcome ... ;)
Thank you for pinging me to this thread!
I have had a seasonal allergy for about 20 years now. It is nothing that is debilitating.....just an annoying nuisance more than anything else.
I read your thread Sunday night.
First thing Monday morning I went to the supermarket and bought some Vitamin D3 gelcaps.
Now, just three days later, the allergy is all but gone.
My wife is a teacher and always exposed to every disease on the planet that the students give to her and she brings it home to me. She is now taking it, too.
Thank you, again! :-)
bookmark
I’ve been sharing the news with everyone I know.. Preacher, garden club, neighbors, family.....Shame we can’t buy stock?
Bump for later
I also started taking D3 after reading this thread.
I live in Cleveland OH. It’s getting to the point in the season where I’m getting to work just as the sun is rising and it’s dark before I leave - I will hardly see the sun until March unless we go somewhere else.
I started taking 10k IUs of D3. I know that’s on the high side, but I figured I should see if it has any effect and can always cut back. I’m monitoring myself and have read up on the possible side effects to watch for.
Here’s my experience after 1 week...
First of all, after smoking on and off for many years, I finally quit in June. It’s been about 170 days since I’ve had a cigarette.
I have been trying to exercise regularly since then without much success.
Back when I was smoking, if I got on a treadmill, I couldn’t jog for more than 1/10 of a mile without stopping from either exhaustion or pain. Over the last few months, I might be able to go 1/4 mile on a good day.
So Monday, along with the D3, I started up on the treadmill. Did 1/4 mile - not too bad. I managed to do a bit more every night. Last night, I did 3/4 of a mile. If I’ve ever run that far continuously in my life before last night, it was when I was a freshman in high school (I’m 42). Along with that, I did a few minutes punching a bag, and a full weightlifting workout. Today, despite the workout and it being <20 degrees outside, I feel really good.
I have just this anecdotal evidence, and we’ll see what happens in the coming weeks. For me, it seems like the vitamin D took the “edge off” that little voice that says “I’m too tired” to exercise. Frankly, if that’s all it does, well it’s more than enough for me.
It’s not like I’m wired, but I just seem to have this low level and constant extra energy. It’s just enough to get me off my posterior and once I start moving, I seem to have more stamina than before. Hard to describe, but I like it.
I also have pretty bad allergies. Pets (we have a dog), dust and pollen. I’m pretty much sniffling and sneezing at various levels all year long. My allergies are better also, but I have also been taking Biotin along with the D3 and Biotin has always seemed to depress my allergy symptoms. I also have been using Nasalchrom spray at night to sleep better starting last week, since last week I was sneezing quite a lot when at home.
I can’t say for certain if the D3 helped with the allergies. Its encouraging to me that you have had some success with it.
I have had some possible side effects - I seem to get up every night wide awake at about midnight, then can’t get back to sleep for a few hours. Getting up then is a bit more difficult. That said, I never sleep well and it is actually better than my usual - which is restlessness for hours when going to bed that continues most of the night. Now I’m sleeping hard for a few hours, then getting up wide awake, then sleeping hard for the rest of the night.
This could be the D3, or it could be that the Nasalchrom wears off and my breathing starts to get restricted. Also, when I run on the treadmill, I start to get wheezy towards the end and that last for most of the evening afterwards. Since I’ve never been able to run so long in my recent history, I can’t say if this is “normal” for me, or allergies, or from my past smoking, or from “exercise induced asthma” - which is apparently pretty common. The side effects are more of a nuisance than anything else but are something I’m watching closely.
I think all this is preliminary, but I’m so far optimistic. I used to drink a lot of milk as a child (between one and two quarts a day if Mom would let me) and spent much time in the sun. I don’t do much of either these days.
BTW, I’m also taking Calcium supplements with the D3.
I’ll try and follow up in a few weeks with some longer term rsults.
Very interesting.
Based on what I’ve heard and read, I
do think the 10K a day is high. I’d
check with an informed doc; from my
info, that’s apparently more of a short
term choice when fighting off a cold,
flu, etc., but
Congratulations on all your progress.
Would love to hear your opinions on
your status in a couple of weeks..
;) ... I guess you could buy stock in
the vitamin companies that sell it.
Just a another thought ... that energy
increase is likely because you’re not
not smoking ..... more oxygen to the
brain .. ;)
Couple of week update:
I’m your slave. I’ll let you do anything you want to do me or I’ll do whatever you say! :-)
I actually had to cut back on the amount of D3 I was taking. I’m down to 2,000 IU per day from 4,000 IU per day. That seems to be the happy medium and I have to take that in the morning. Higher than that and I actually have too much energy. If I take the 2,000 at night then I’m too energetic and don’t want to get in bed. On top of that, the seasonal allergy is a thing of the past.
I didn’t want to sleep. I would roam around the house at 3 in the morning just knowing that there was something that I just had to do.
Thank you for the heads-up on D3!
Book
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