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 ...
The niacin (he also said non flushing) uped my good cholester over 20 points. I take 1500 mg a day and no statins. I need to get another blood test soon but have been reading about a non statin that shows promise in lowering cholesteral and am going to talk to him for his opinion on it at my next visit...
One of my son's had severe muscle problems with statins and is on the non statin drug (forgot the name, but its written down someplace on my messy desk). and he said its also dropping his cholesterol...
I guess it boils down to what exactly works for each individual.
Thanks for the links....interesting...
Pharmboy,
Do you have any info on how much vitamin D a person might store and for how long? Given when cold/flu season begins, I’m guessing that’s not much and not for long.
I have bought the raw sugar several times, (brown granulated) but find I use twice as much to get the sweetness I use in my coffee. Thats the only thing I use sugar in...Don’t know why it doesn’t have the same sweetness as granulated. Have you had this problem with raw sugar?
You’re not of European ancestry?
I live for the sun and always have since I was a young kid spending the summers in the water and on the beach. I'm talking every day......
Even thru adult life I would spend as much time as possible laying in the sun or golfing or whatever.
And now for the past 3 years that I've been retired, I'm outside almost every single day in the summer either playing softball or lying on my deck in the sun.
With all the bad hype about sun exposure, I should have died a withered up prune years ago.
Maybe its heredity or the lifelong exposure to sun that has allowed my skin to adapt to all those bad ultra violet A or B or whatever rays. Whatever it is, my skin is great, I tan real easy and at 59, folks say I don't look a day over 45...........if that.
Thanks...I’ll check it out.
Thanks for the correction!
Fortunately, we don't eat much Polar Bear liver where I come from!
:)
Is your son taking CoQ10? Muscle pain is usually a problem in statins because it depletes (or does something to) the CoQ10 the body needs...
Bump for later.
Off hand I could not tell you, I will get the name of what he is taking before my next appt. I wrote it down someplace, but my desk is a mess....I have a sign that says “a neat desk is the sign of mental illness”. it makes me feel better about my desk problem..:O)
Global warming should mean more sunlight in these northern states and thus reduce cancer deaths.
I only tried raw sugar several years back and didn't particularly like it. I now use stevia (liquid) for most purposes, and sweeten coffee with part stevia and part a product called Natra Taste Gold (Dextrose, Maltodextrin and Sucralose). That comes very close to a sugar flavor, and is the only thing I use that product for.
I'm mildly hypoglycemic so avoid most all added sugar. And, it is harder to find a good sugar substitute for coffee than for most other things.
bump
...I guess it boils down to what exactly works for each individual...
That it does. I have tried every statin on the market and all of them had the muscle & joint pain side effects. No fun in those. If you find what your son is taking I would appreciate the name. I have a doc appt next week and I’ll ask about it. Thanks.
Have you ever been told to take CoQ10 while you’re taking the Statins???? If not, you probably should have been told!
There are some new products that contain stevia and some other natural sweeter. I tried the one called Truvia and liked it for coffee. Got that at Wal-mart, but haven’t remembered to buy more. If you’re looking for a sugar sub that taste like sugar in coffee, one of these might work for you:
Those products are doing what I’ve been doing: mixing stevia with some other sugar sub to get a more sugar like flavor with little or no actual sugar. - You can Google and find others, as I think stevia was recently approved as a sugar sub.
I am a firm believer in direct sunlight for 15 to 30 minutes per day. I don’t believe that’s long enough to hurt anyone, and the sense of well being after laying out is unmistakable.
Skin cancer is a real problem, but people can modify the length of exposure depending on the type of day it is. If it’s a real scorcher, only lay out for ten minutes or so. If it’s a moderate day, go for 15 to 20 minutes. If it’s on the cool side go for the thirty minutes.
I don’t think people were meant to eliminate their exposure to the sun. I do think people should moderate their exposure to it, with the beach type of full exposure limited a lot more than most people do when they are young.
My thoughts on vitamins is that they are a good supplement. The natural way to obtain them is much better.
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