Well, it’s NOVEMBER and I’m starting to see this COVID nonsense fire up. Friends calling to tell me they just tested positive, people donning ineffective masks etc. That’s right, I said NONSENSE!
As a natural health care practitioner, when the CDC and His Majesty, Dr. Fauci started giving their advice on how to handle COVID, I listened with some trepidation as I realized that what they were suggesting was counterintuitive. Not only to what I know about viruses and how they behave, but also about how to combat it. Natural practices that we use in the case of colds or flu are totally different than what was being suggested at first and later commanded.
I don’t want to get into an argument, but I’m truly over it. I’ve seen people get sicker and sicker by following the guidelines given out by the “experts” and having a worse time of it once they contracted the virus. Also, everyone I know who got the vaccine, has had “COVID” multiple times.
Please understand, I am not negating the fact that this virus exists or that it can be serious in SOME cases. But so can the common flu. So I’m just going to keep on offering sensible, logical ways to deal with this from a natural standpoint. One of the supplements I take regularly is Vitamin D. There are several reasons for this, and I’ll explain it.
A meta-analysis of 18 randomized controlled trials has found that supplemental vitamin D significantly reduces mortality from all causes. Not just Flu. The analysis emphasizes the medical, ethical, and legal implications of promptly diagnosing and adequately treating vitamin D deficiency.
Not only are such deficiencies common, but vitamin D deficiency is implicated in most of the diseases of civilization. Vitamin D's final metabolic product targets more than 200 human genes in a wide variety of tissues. One of the most important genes vitamin D up-regulates is for cathelicidin, a naturally occurring broad-spectrum antibiotic.
I was not shocked to find out that here in the UP, vitamin D deficiencies are common. The winters tend to be long and overcast, and of course, the days are shorter, so sunshine is at a premium. Sunshine is the greatest form of natural vitamin D because our bodies will make it when exposed to sun on a regular basis. Understand, when I say “exposed” I mean your skin. If you are sitting outside in subzero temps and only your eyes are visible, you’re wasting your time. It is manufactured in the skin, so you MUST have exposed skin for at least 20 minutes, as much as you can comfortably do.
Since vitamin D deficiency is both endemic and is associated with numerous diseases, it is one of the most important medical problems in modern society. Treatment of vitamin D deficiency in otherwise healthy patients must be individualized due to the numerous factors affecting vitamin D levels. Steps should be taken to keep patients with chronic diseases associated with vitamin D deficiency, especially internal cancers, in the higher normal range of vitamin D blood levels.
I don’t know ANY single physical factor that could improve your health more than reviewing, understanding, and finally applying this information. Especially important will be to get your blood levels tested so you can obtain all the thousands of well documented benefits.
In my view, one of the most impressive vitamin D researchers is Dr. Cannell. Although he isn’t a hard core scientist, like most of the other experts, and is a practicing physician, he has done an absolutely masterful job of reviewing and compiling the research and coming up with powerful observations and recommendations. Without a doubt, he has been my most important mentor in this area of study.
The number of diseases found to be impacted by your vitamin D levels is rising rapidly. As Dr. Cannell points out in his meta-analysis, vitamin D appears to reduce your risk of dying from virtually ANY disease. And it’s no wonder, really, when you consider what vitamin D really is.
It’s not “just a vitamin,” but rather the only known substrate for a potent, pleiotropic (meaning it produces multiple effects), repair and maintenance seco-steroid hormone that serves multiple gene-regulatory functions in your body.
Just one example of an important gene that vitamin D up-regulates is your ability to fight infections. It produces over 200 anti microbial peptides, the most important of which is cathelicidin, a naturally occurring broad-spectrum antibiotic. And, when you consider the fact that you only have 30,000 genes in your body, and vitamin D has been shown to influence more than 2,000 of them, the bigger picture of its true impact on your health can be easily understood. It may, in fact, have literally thousands of health benefits! So it’s likely we’re just beginning to scratch the surface of its true potential for reversing the modern disease state.
It’s absolutely tragic that dermatologists and sunscreen manufacturers have done such a thorough job of scaring people out of the sun – your optimal source for natural vitamin D.
Dr. Cannell believes, and I agree, that this is one of the major influences that has contributed to the vitamin D epidemic we’re now facing, and also the autism increases we have seen.
Their widely dispersed message to avoid the sun as much as possible, combined with an overall cultural trend of spending more time indoors during both work and leisure time, has greatly contributed to the widespread vitamin D deficiency seen today -- which in turn is fueling an astonishingly diverse array of common chronic diseases, including:
Cancer, Autism, heart Disease, Rheumatoid arthritis, Obesity, Hypertension, Diabetes, MS, Colds and Flu and a host of others. You can add COVID to that list. When your immune system is depleted, it makes you a better host for the virus.
Researchers have calculated that simply increasing levels of vitamin D3 could prevent diseases that claim nearly 1 million lives throughout the world each year! The evidence is very clear that the farther away from the equator you live, the higher your risk of dying from cancer becomes, for example. In other words, those who live in higher latitudes have significantly higher cancer rates than those living in lower latitudes; directly correlating to the amount of available sunshine you have in your area. That means us, Yoopers!
For example, according to Dr. William Grant -- one of the top vitamin D researchers in the world – the cancer rate in Iceland is 90 per 100,000 people per year. Those in the tropics, meanwhile, have rates of 25 per 100,000! And, he points out, the majority of cancer deaths in the United States are from vitamin-D-sensitive cancers. An estimated 150,000 cases of cancer could be prevented in the United States alone by increasing vitamin D levels throughout the population.
I still firmly believe that the best way to raise your vitamin D level is not with supplements, but by exposing your bare skin to sunshine. However, getting sun exposure is not always practical or even feasible, depending on where you live. Children are no longer going to school and getting out in the sun to play. We are covering our faces, and limiting our exposure even further.
During the winter, or during other times of the year when sun exposure is not a possibility for you, then supplementation with vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) is an option that should be seriously considered.
I have often warned my readers to use extreme caution when taking oral vitamin D supplements in order to avoid overdosing. However, more and more research is showing that my fears of toxicity may have been overly cautious.
That said, the way to proceed is to get your vitamin D levels tested before you begin, and then at regular intervals so that you can tell when you reach the optimal level, because the amount of vitamin D required (whether from sun exposure or supplementation) to reach this level is different for everyone.
It’s thought that 85 percent of the American public is deficient in vitamin D and over 95 percent are African American or deeply pigmented individuals. And, in the United States, the late winter average vitamin D is only about 15-18 ng/ml, which is considered a VERY SERIOUS deficiency state.
You can find out what your levels are by asking your doctor for a blood test called a 25(OH)D, also called 25-hydroxyvitamin D. (Please note, there are two types of vitamin D tests, and this one is the one you want.) There are also two primary labs in the U.S. and you ONLY want to use Lab Corp, NOT Quest, to perform this test.
The OPTIMAL value of vitamin D that you’re looking for has recently been raised to 50-65 ng/ml, with even higher recommended levels required for more serious disease prevention.
This is one case where keeping on top of the rapid discoveries can be truly challenging.
So get out there and enjoy the beautiful sunshine. Uncover your face and let the sun shine down on it. Cod liver oil is a wonderful, natural source of Vitamin D, though many don’t like the taste. Krill oil and fish oil are other great sources. Any oily fish like cod, mackerel, sardines, and salmon are good food choices.
As we look at different ways to build up our immune systems, make sure Vitamin D is part of your regimen. To quote my favorite President, “What have you got to lose?”
LET'S GET BETTER!
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