From 2001 to 2020, diabetes prevalence significantly increased among those over 18s
37.3 million people have diabetes (11.3% of the US population).
28.7 million people have been diagnosed with diabetes.
8.5 million people who have diabetes have not been diagnosed (do not know they have it)
Peter is Swedish and his English is not perfect yet. Wiki says he is a fave of the Right Wing movement in Europe. I have been following him on Twitter and did not know that. I don’t care what Wiki thinks, I’ll make up my own mind. Lou
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-24053-4
It turns out that the higher the vitamin D dosage, the lower the risk of infection. Interesting.
https://petersweden.substack.com/p/vitamin-d
Do you remember when years ago at the beginning of the pandemic, some people said it would be a good idea to take vitamin D and that it could possibly help against covid?
Of course, they were called conspiracy theorists and vilified. Especially those who talked about a certain “horse paste” were very much attacked by the media. No, only crazy people would take something like that. The science had spoken!
We would have to wait for some official new medicine from Pfizer to safely treat covid they said, a treatment that also happened to be very expensive and would make a lot of money…
As you probably know, more or less the only treatment we have been offered for covid is the mRNA vaccines, a technology that hasn’t been widely used before. Take the vaccine and you would not get covid they said.
It turns out there is in fact a very cheap, safe and effective thing that protects against covid – That thing is called vitamin D!
By the way, this article is so important that I will not be putting any kind of paywall on it even though it took me a long time to write, as the information here can help save lives. So please take a few seconds to make sure you follow me (it’s free) here on Substack, and share this article everywhere you can! Or if you want to support my work and help me write more important articles like this, please consider becoming a paid subscriber 🙂
A new study published in the prestigious Nature magazine has indeed found that vitamin D not only reduced your risk of getting infected with covid but also lowers the risk of death.
This study is no small study either. Over 600 000 U.S veterans took part in the study, so we are getting good reliable data here. And they used different versions of vitamin D, one called vitamin D2 and the other vitamin D3 and they both produced different results.
For the participants who got vitamin D3, there was a nice 20% reduction in getting infected with covid. For those who got vitamin D2, there was a large 28% reduction in covid infections.
Meaning that if you took vitamin D2, you would be almost 30% less likely to be infected by covid to begin with. That is huge.
But for those who took a very high-level dose of vitamin D, the reduction in covid infections was even higher. At an average daily dosage of 50 000 IU of vitamin D in people who had low levels to begin with, there was a 49% reduction in covid infections.
It turns out that the higher the vitamin D dosage, the lower the risk of infection. Interesting.
Here is where things get very interesting indeed. Let’s begin by saying that among the untreated group, only 0.35% died from covid. So the death rate is pretty low to begin with. But there is a way to lower this death rate significantly…with vitamin D
For those who took vitamin D3, there was a massive 33% REDUCTION in deaths within 30 days after a covid infection.
Not only that but there was actually another study done in Andalusia which saw the exact same 33% reduction in deaths. Two different studies done in different places giving the same result? I think that is what we call real science!
So you reduce the risk of getting covid. You reduce the risk of dying after covid by taking vitamin D, a safe, effective and very cheap treatment. Why isn’t this all over the news? HELLO!?!?!
And it turns out that the effectiveness is dose-dependent, meaning that those who received higher doses had greater benefits than those who got smaller doses. But the group that saw the largest decrease in infection and mortality, was those who got a low dose of vitamin D compared with those who got no vitamin D at all. Now that might sound a little confusing, so let me explain. It means that taking even just a low dose of vitamin D gives you protection compared with not taking any at all. But taking even higher doses gives you even more benefits.
And get this, the people who had the most benefit from taking this were black people. The reason being is that dark-colored skin means it takes longer time to produce vitamin D from the sunlight compared with pale skin, so people with darker skin are more likely to be deficient in vitamin D. So it is especially important for black people to take vitamin D supplements.
It turns out that in the USA in just the year 2020 alone, there would have been 4 million fewer infections with covid, and a whopping 116 000 deaths could have been avoided – If only the politicians and the media had told us to take vitamin D to begin with.
Imagine how many deaths could have been avoided worldwide!
But no, those who talked about such things was called crazy conspiracy theorists and science deniers.
Not only does vitamin D work against covid, but it seems like it helps protect against other infections and viruses as well.
Read here what the authors of this study had to say in their conclusion.
“As a widely available, inexpensive, and safe treatment, vitamin D3 could be a helpful tool for reducing the spread of COVID-19 infection and related mortality”
In Norway where I live, the doctors are pretty good and almost at every visit they have wanted to take blood tests for vitamin D levels. And they even prescribed me vitamin D! But elsewhere, it does not seem like doctors have been very interested in doing this. Now I wonder why…
In Britain, doctors got paid £15 (almost $18) from the government for each covid vaccine they give patients, and it only takes a few minutes to give a jab. That kind of money for a few minutes work, why would they prescribe vitamin D instead? Follow the money.
In fact, we have known for a long time that vitamin D has been effective against covid, yet nobody in the media has been talking about it. Also, vitamin D has long been KNOWN to improve the immune system, so it makes perfect sense that it would protect against covid.
Yet nobody in the media told us this. No politician went out and informed us of this. Doctors didn’t tell us this. It was the so-called conspiracy theorists that first started talking about this. Only now, years later has the scientists finally admitted to what we knew from the beginning.
Instead, they have been pushing us all to take a new mRNA technology that hasn’t been in widespread use before, of course making billions in profit for Big Pharma. Not only that, but they pushed other treatments like Remdivisir. Meanwhile, the very cheap vitamin D has been completely overlooked.
I have been taking vitamin D in the winter ever since covid came and I’m doing fine. And I think it would be wise for everyone to get their vitamin levels checked in a blood test, the thing is, many people are deficient in vitamin D so it is likely that it would be smart to take some.
And please make sure to share this article everywhere you can, you never know. It might save someone’s life!
In unrelated news… A cruise ship in Australia just had 800 people onboard get infected with covid. What the media isn’t telling you is that everyone onboard had to be fully vaccinated AND tested. Very effective!
https://www.newstarget.com/2022-08-31-corporate-media-attacking-vitamin-d-natural-remedies.html
08/31/2022
Fake news giant Forbes has published a propaganda piece declaring vitamin D to be “worthless” and even “dangerous” for humans.
Steven Salzberg, a professor of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University and the article’s author, argues that people need to “Stop Taking Vitamin D Already!” – this being the title of his piece.
Salzberg is so against vitamin D that he added it to his top five list of vitamins that people should never take, making it a top six list of “useless vitamin supplements,” as he calls them (the other five are vitamin C; vitamin A and beta carotene; vitamin E; vitamin B6 (pyridoxine); and multivitamins).
Even though upwards of 75 percent of the American population is deficient in vitamin D, Salzberg argues that people should avoid it like the plague because a paper published in The Lancet supposedly found that it “did not help to prevent heart disease, weight gain, mood disorders, multiple sclerosis, and metabolic disorders, all of which had been linked to lower vitamin D.”
Since vitamin D has gained a lot of traction due to the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) – check out the evidence showing that vitamin D works against infectious diseases – Salzberg and others like him are trying to nip it in the bud and scare people away from taking it.
“The only prophylactics the corporate media ever apparently want to promote are masks and vaccines – tools of social control and biomedical profiteering, respectively,” writes Ben Bartee for The Daily Bell.
“Johns Hopkins is the undisputed Heart of COVID-19 Darkness – the progenitor of lockdown policies and the most-cited authority for the corporate media and government to justify mask and vaccine mandates.”
While it may be true that vitamin D supplements are not the most optimal form of intake – natural sunlight, without sunscreen, is your best option – Salzberg is of the persuasion that the vitamin is useless and even harmful, which is laughable.
Johns Hopkins, it turns out, is Big Pharma central. The school touts the “benefits” of nanobot “theragrippers” that latch onto the intestines like parasites in order to deliver pharmaceuticals to the bloodstream, all while denigrating natural vitamins.
It is no surprise, in other words, that Salzberg is writing hit pieces against natural vitamins on behalf of Johns Hopkins, which is an enemy of natural remedies and health freedom, which don’t make Big Pharma any money.
What Salzberg conveniently failed to address in his hit piece is the fact that vitamin D deficiency is linked to a host of health problems, not the least of which include chronic fatigue, muscle twitching, confusion, nausea, weakness, constipation, paresthesia and poor appetite.
A lack of vitamin D also makes a person more prone to developing an infectious disease, as well as multiple sclerosis, autoimmune rheumatic diseases (ARD), cancer, osteoporosis, arthralgia, myalgia and type 1 diabetes.
“But that’s all golden for Big Pharma,” Bartee further writes. “They’ve got vaccines for acute infections and drugs to hook you on for life to treat chronic illnesses.”
“They’ll drain you of your life savings as you slowly die, all the while never getting to the root cause of your illness – which, in many cases, might well be a vitamin D deficiency. Cured patients don’t pad Pfizer’s bottom line.”
In the year 2022, it is simply astounding that any media outlet, no matter how corrupted, would be so foolish as to publish anti-vitamin D propaganda. The cat is long out of the bag, and Forbes, Salzberg and Johns Hopkins are unsuccessfully trying to stuff it back in.
The latest news about natural remedies for optimal health can be found at Cures.news.
Sources for this article include:
by: Cassie B.
Sunday, February 06, 2022
This article may contain statements that reflect the opinion of the author
Many people choose to get vaccinated against COVID-19 because health authorities insist they reduce a person’s risk of experiencing a more severe case of the virus. However, data from Israel indicates this may not be the case.
In fact, most of the severe cases of the virus at one of the country’s biggest hospital complexes are being found in people who have received at least three doses of the vaccine. This is according to the hospital’s coronavirus ward director.
Israel is an interesting place to study this type of data because it has one of the greatest rates of vaccination in the world at around 90%. Moreover, many of the country’s high-risk patients have even received a fourth shot.
Professor Yaakov Jerris of the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center – Ichilov Hospital, the country’s second-biggest hospital, said that between 70 and 80 percent of the serious cases they are currently seeing are among vaccinated individuals.
He added: “So, the vaccine has no significance regarding severe illness, which is why just 20 to 25 percent of our patients are unvaccinated.”
Moreover, despite Israel’s high vaccination rate, there were more cases of COVID-19 identified in the country in January of this year than in all of 2021, according to the Times of Israel.
Last month, the preliminary results of a major study in Israel found that getting a fourth booster of the Pfizer vaccine is only partially effective when it comes to protecting against the omicron variant. This is consistent with a report from the German government, which revealed that more than 95 percent of omicron cases in that country were among vaccinated individuals.
However, Israeli scientists have revealed one very helpful piece of information. They say they have now obtained the most convincing evidence yet that vitamin D supplements can help patients with COVID-19 to reduce their risk of serious illness or death.
Using research that was carried out during the country’s first two waves of the virus, which was before the vaccines were available, the peer-reviewed study by researchers from the Galilee Medical Center and Bar-Ilan University said the impact of vitamin D was so strong that they could actually predict just how well infected patients would fare simply by looking at their ages and vitamin D levels. The study was published in the journal PLOS One.
One of the researchers, Dr. Amiel Dror, said: “We found it remarkable, and striking, to see the difference in the chances of becoming a severe patient when you are lacking in vitamin D compared to when you’re not.”
According to Dr. Dror, vitamin D’s ability to strengthen the immune system allows it to address viral pathogens attacking the respiratory system in an effect that is just as relevant for omicron as it was for previous variants.
Preliminary findings that were published by the researchers in June showed that 26 percent of COVID-19 patients who were deficient in vitamin D shortly before hospitalization ended up dying, compared to just three percent of those who had normal vitamin D levels. Moreover, hospitalized COVID-19 patients who had a vitamin D deficiency were 14 times more likely than other individuals to end up in critical or severe condition.
The researchers also addressed the common question among scientists of whether any recent health conditions in patients could have skewed the results. To determine whether vitamin D deficiency was a symptom or a contributing factor, they looked at the patients’ vitamin D levels during the two years prior to being infected by the virus.
Dror said: “We checked a range of timeframes, and found that wherever you look over the two years before infection, the correlation between vitamin D and disease severity is extremely strong.”
The study’s wide scope means it can provide the world with compelling evidence that boosting your levels of vitamin D can be highly advantageous during the pandemic.
Sources for this article include:
Source: Magnesium and vitamin D: The perfect pair? – NaturalNews.com
by: Michelle Simmons
Tuesday, March 05, 2019
(Natural News) Magnesium is more than an essential mineral: It’s responsible for over 300 biochemical reactions needed by the body to function well. According to a study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, this essential mineral can even regulate vitamin D levels in the body, increasing it in people with deficient levels and reducing it for people with elevated levels. This study is the first to provide evidence of magnesium’s crucial role in optimizing vitamin D levels and preventing adverse conditions from having too much or too little of it.
Carried out by researchers from the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, the study looked at whether supplementation with magnesium would affect vitamin D metabolism. The study’s researchers also gained interest in the effects of magnesium when some people failed to increase their level of D even after taking a higher dose of supplements. Earlier studies have also shown that enzymes that produce and metabolize vitamin D are dependent on magnesium. (Related: Are you getting enough vitamin D? If you don’t take magnesium, you may not be absorbing your “D.”)
“Magnesium deficiency shuts down the vitamin D synthesis and metabolism pathway,” explained Qi Dai, the lead author of the study and a professor at Ingram.
In conducting the study, the researchers recruited 250 participants who were between 45 and 85 years old. The participants were considered at risk for developing colorectal cancer based on their risk factors or had precancerous polyps removed in the past. The researchers then gave them either magnesium doses or placebo based on baseline dietary intake. The doses of magnesium used in the study were in line with the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) guidelines.
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The results of the study indicate that optimal magnesium status may be essential for optimizing vitamin D status. These findings are important because unlike vitamin D deficiency, magnesium deficiency is an under-recognized health problem.
“Up to 80 percent of people do not consume enough magnesium in a day to meet the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) based on those national estimates,” said Martha Shrubsole, one of the researchers of the study.
This study is part of an ongoing effort to determine the link between vitamin D and colorectal cancer, as well as other chronic diseases.
To avoid deficiency and optimize your magnesium status, simply follow these tips:
Experts recommend getting about 2,000 milligrams (mg) of magnesium every day for people leading an active life.
Sources include:
There is a lot of conflicting advice out there about vitamin use, and the insistence by a few vocal “experts” that multivitamins are a waste of money has led many people to falsely believe that […]
Source: Maintaining optimal vitamin D levels is key to preventing cancer – NaturalNews.com
by: Isabelle Z.
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
There is a lot of conflicting advice out there about vitamin use, and the insistence by a few vocal “experts” that multivitamins are a waste of money has led many people to falsely believe that not getting enough vitamins is not such a big deal. However, when it comes to vitamin D, maintaining optimal levels could mean the difference between developing cancer or not.
Our bodies need vitamin D to maintain proper calcium levels for bone health, along with muscle functioning and neuronal communication. It is also needed to help our immune system function properly.
Scientists have known for many years that higher serum levels of vitamin D are associated with a significantly lower incidence of breast, pancreatic, colon, renal, aggressive prostate, ovarian, and other cancers, and studies continue to show how useful it can be in this regard.
A study published in the Annals of Epidemiology concluded that raising the minimum serum levels of vitamin D to 40 to 60 ng/mL could prevent as many as 58,000 new breast cancer cases and 49,000 new colorectal cancer cases in the U.S. and Canada each year, in addition to preventing three fourths of the deaths caused by these cancers. They also say such an intake could decrease the case-fatality rates of those with prostate, breast and colorectal cancer by half.
The study’s authors emphasize that there aren’t any “unreasonable risks” from taking as much as 2,000 IU of vitamin D3 per day or achieving the levels recommended, and they called for a national effort to raise people’s intake of vitamin D as well as calcium.
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In another study that involved more than 33,000 Japanese participants aged 40 to 69 and a follow-up period of 16 years on average, researchers discovered that the participants with the higher vitamin D levels enjoyed a 20 percent lower risk of all types of cancer when compared to those who recorded the lowest levels of vitamin D. The finding held true even after accounting for factors like body mass index, smoking and alcohol intake, physical activity, and age. In particular, they found an association between higher vitamin D levels and a 30 to 50 percent reduced risk of liver cancer, and the effect was particularly pronounced in men.
Driving the point home is a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that found higher levels of serum vitamin D was associated with a lower risk of colorectal cancer. This finding was based on data from 17 prospective studies involving more than 12,000 people. The researchers found that those who had a vitamin D deficiency were 31 percent more likely to develop colorectal cancer than those who had vitamin D levels that were higher than recommended.
Getting enough vitamin D is easier than you think
Given vitamin D’s ability to prevent cancer, should you run out and buy supplements right away? The truth is that many people can get all the vitamin D they need simply by heading outdoors while the sun is shining with some of their skin exposed – and without sunscreen. Lots of factors influence how long it takes, including your skin tone and location, but online calculators can help give you a rough idea of what is right for you.
If this isn’t an option for you for some reason, supplements may indeed prove useful as it can be very difficult to get the amount you need from food alone. While you can find vitamin D in fatty fish like tuna, salmon, and trout, as well as mushrooms and eggs, you’d need to eat a lot of these foods to reach the levels mentioned in the study. Keep in mind, however, that experts advise against getting too much vitamin D. Blood tests can help guide your decision.
Sources for this article include:
A large U.S. study designed to gauge the health benefits of vitamin D and fish oil supplements concludes that the omega-3 oil can dramatically reduce the odds of a heart attack while vitamin D’s benefits seem to come from lowering the risk of death from cancer.
Thomson Reuters
Vitamin D tablets are displayed in New York on Nov. 9, 2016. The results of the latest U.S. study were published online in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Mark Lennihan/Associated Press)
A large U.S. study designed to gauge the health benefits of vitamin D and fish oil supplements concludes that the omega-3 oil can dramatically reduce the odds of a heart attack while vitamin D’s benefits seem to come from lowering the risk of death from cancer.
Neither vitamin D nor fish oil lowered the odds of stroke or of getting cancer in the first place in the trial, whose participants did not know whether they were taking the real supplements or a dummy pill.
The heart attack rate in fish oil recipients was 28 per cent lower than among those who got the dummy pill, or placebo, and it was 77 per cent lower among African-American participants — although the lead author of the study told Reuters that this dramatic drop in risk among black participants needs to be confirmed.
These findings may help people decide if the benefits are likely to outweigh the risks for them.
– Dr. JoAnn Manson, study’s lead author
For people taking vitamin D who developed cancer, the death rate from cancer was 25 per cent lower, possibly because the vitamin “may affect the biology of the tumour so it’s less likely to spread and become metastatic,” said lead author Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of the division of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
“Therefore, you may see a reduction in cancer death but not see a reduction in the first diagnosis, which might take a much longer trial,” she said in a telephone interview. “If you’re talking about prevention of cancer, that may take treatment for well over a decade.”
It took a few years of vitamin D use for the reduction in cancer deaths to become clear.
The results were reported Saturday at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions meeting in Chicago and online in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Both supplements have a reputation for being beneficial based on animal tests and observational studies involving large diverse populations or ethnic groups. But large studies that directly test the benefits of vitamin D and fish oil in supplement form have given inconsistent results.
The new study, known as VITAL, is the first large test of both in the general population. Most previous research has focused on volunteers with an elevated risk of heart attack, stroke and/or cancer.
The researchers gave 2,000 international units of vitamin D per day, 1 gram of marine omega-3 fatty acids, or placebo supplements to 25,871 volunteers aged 50 or older. None had a history of cancer, heart attack or stroke. At least half stayed in the study for more than five years.
Professor of Genetic Epidemiology, King’s College London
We are still in love with vitamins a century after they were discovered, with half the US and UK population taking a supplement. Vitamin D – the sunshine vitamin – is the favourite and is believed to have the most proven benefits. Governments, including the UK government, have said that the evidence for vitamin D’s health benefits is so overwhelming that every adult should take it as a supplement for at least six months of the year.
It was first used to cure rickets in Victorian children living in urban poverty and is now routinely given to prevent and treat brittle bone disease (osteoporosis) and fractures. It has been associated with a reduced risk of over a hundred common diseases in observational studies, ranging from depression to cancer.
The largest ever clinical study on the benefits of vitamin D in preventing fractures is now reported in the BMJ, with over 500,000 people and around 188,000 fractures from 23 cohorts from many countries. As vitamin D levels are strongly influenced by genes, the researchers used genetic markers for vitamin D blood levels (called Mendelian randomisation or MR) to avoid the normal biases of observational studies, such as confusing cause and consequence of disease and the effects of other related health behaviours (so-called “confounders”).
The results showed no association between vitamin D levels over a lifetime and the risk of fracture. This latest study contradicts the UK government’s recent view, but not a host of earlier clinical trials.
In 2014, a review and meta-analysis of 31 vitamin D supplement trials found no effect on all fractures. Much of our strong belief in the benefits of vitamin D came from studies of supplements in care homes in the 1980s, which were never replicated and were probably flawed.
In a more recent meta-analysis of 33 randomised trials of over 50,000 older adults, supplementation with calcium or vitamin D had no effect on the incidence of fractures. There were also no clear benefits on muscle strength or mobility.
So, if all the data points to vitamin D failing to prevent fractures, why worry about all the people with low blood levels of the vitamin? Vitamin D deficiency has become a modern epidemic with a fifth of the UK and US populations reported to have low levels. Will they be more susceptible to other diseases and cancer?
There is little agreement on what vitamin D deficiency is. Deficiency levels are arbitrary with no international consensus and confusion caused by different units in the US. A “normal” level can vary from 50 to 80 nanomole per litre of blood, but recent studies suggest 30nmol is quite enough.
While clinical deficiency (<10nmol) is often clear cut, wrongly labelling millions of people as vitamin D deficient causes stress and over-medicalisation. Most people assume calcium and vitamin D are safe, and the more you take the better. My clinical practice changed when studies showed calcium supplements, as well as being ineffective against fractures, may cause heart disease. Prescriptions are now dropping.
Vitamin D is fat soluble, so high levels can build up in the body. While recommendations for supplements are usually with modest doses (10 micrograms or 400 international units (IU)), these will inevitably be overdone by some people taking other sources in cod liver oil tablets or in fortified milk, orange juice or bread. More worrying, people increasingly buy high-dose supplements of 4,000-20,000IU on the internet.
Patients with very high vitamin D blood levels (over 100nmol) are becoming routine in my clinic and elsewhere, and toxic overdoses are increasingly being reported. Several randomised trials have shown that patients with high blood levels or taking large doses of vitamin D (above 800IU) had an unexpected increased risk of falls and fractures. Vitamin D is far from safe.
It can no longer be recommended for use in other conditions; the vast majority of the positive published studies in 137 diseases were reviewed as spurious. It was widely believed that vitamin D supplements prevented cardiovascular disease, but meta-analyses and large-scale genetic MR studies have ruled this out.
We have created another pseudo-disease that is encouraged by vitamin companies, patient groups, food manufacturers public health departments and charities. Everyone likes to believe in a miracle vitamin pill and feels “they are doing something”.
Vitamin D, despite its star status, would not be called a vitamin today, as the doses needed are too large, the body can synthesise it from skin, and it is a steroid precursor. Instead of relying on this impostor, healthy people should get vitamin D from small doses of sunshine every day as well as from food, such as fish, oil, mushrooms and dairy products.
We should also trust that thousands of years of evolution would cope with a natural drop in vitamin D levels in winter without us snapping our limbs. About half the population take vitamins daily, despite zero benefits, with increasing evidence of harm. The worldwide trend of adding unregulated vitamins to processed food has now to be seriously questioned.
While vitamin D treatment still has a rare medical role in severe deficiency, or those bed bound, the rest of us should avoid being “treated” with this steroid for this pseudo-disease and focus on having a healthy lifestyle, sunshine and importantly save your money and energy on eating a rich diversity of real food.
preventdisease.com
Marco Torres
Aug 17, 2018
Differences in lifestyle patterns rather than mortality or health outcomes appear to have immense research potential in gauging life expectancy. How do patterns in thought, actions, supplements, and diet interact, synergize, or interfere with one another? Here’s a look at 10 powerful things that influence our aging processes.
By examining how chronological age lines up with biological age across the population, researchers are starting to pin down how these two measures should sync up — and what it means for how long we have left when they don’t.
1. Love: Theories about love’s purpose range from the biologically practical to the biologically complicated. In one study, men who are married or in close relationships have 7% lower mortality than singles. The number is 4% for women. These numbers correspond to less than a year of life expectancy. A different study finds loneliness increases mortality by 50%, corresponding to almost 5 years of life. Choosing a life partner may be one of the most important decisions we can make. Love also increases joy and happiness which can make our hearts healthier, our immune systems stronger, and our lives longer through enhancements of our cellular structure. With more love between couples often comes more sex which too promotes heart health, and balances hormone levels.
2. Empowerment: Staying employed is worth up to 14 years, and it’s often more about being needed than making money. Trumping general intelligence, previous academic achievement and personality, hope “uniquely predicts objective academic achievement,” showed a three-year longitudinal study out of the University of Manchester. A study in elementary schools in Hawaii has found that a focused program to build social, emotional and character skills resulted in significantly improved overall quality of education, as evaluated by teachers, parents and students. Specific methods of internal shifting can lead to incredible self empowerment which changes the way we experience every event in our lives.
3. Natural Anti-inflammatories: Daily supplements of curcumin combined with diet and exercise strategies have been found to be associated with more than a 60% reduction in triglyceride levels. It inhibits inflammatory reactions, has anti-diabetic effects, reduces cholesterol among other powerful health effects. Curcumin exerts anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects. Omega-3s are another powerful anti-inflammatory. They convert into hormone-like substances that decrease inflammation and pain. According to Dr. Alfred D. Steinberg, an arthritis expert at the National Institute of Health, fish oil is an anti-inflammatory agent which acts directly on the immune system by suppressing 40 to 55 percent of the release of cytokines, compounds known to destroy joints. Many other studies also demonstrate that eating moderate amounts of fish or taking fish oil reduces pain and inflammation.
4. High Fiber and Fermented Foods: Our bowel movements are key predictors to our well-being and fiber is truly a proxy for healthy gut flora. Health care of the future may include personalized diagnosis of an individual’s “microbiome” to determine what prebiotics or probiotics are needed to provide balance.Your gut bacteria can reveal whether you suffer from many different diseases such as diabetes and many others. Increased intakes of fermented foods are associated with significantly reduced risks of skin conditions, digestive problems and even autoimmune disease. The potential health benefits of fermented foods like doenjang, chungkookjang, kimchi, kombucha, miso, tempeh, pickles, fermented seafood, makgeolli, and beer may be linked directly to the ingestion of live microorganisms which all have tremendous benefits on the overall functioning of the human body as we age.
5. Meditation: Almost every disease in the body is initiated or aggravated by high cortisol levels which are elevated in people who lack the ability to calm their thoughts and minds. Regular meditation effectively supports mental, emotional and physical health in numerous tangible ways. In building upon this strong body of evidence, researchers are continuing to deepen our understanding of the profound and inspirational benefits of regular meditation practice in everyday life. The data itself is encouraging. Some studies link meditation to enhanced telomerase activity. Most of scientific studies on meditation have shown it benefits our cardiovascular and mental health and wellness. More than 350 peer-reviewed research studies on the Transcendental Meditation technique have been published in over 160 scientific journals.
6. Intermittent fasting: Intermittent fasting allows the body to use fat as it’s primary source of energy instead of sugar and there are many benefits. Extends lifespan and lowers mortality. According to MIT biologists, age-related loss of stem cell function can be reversed by a 24-hour fast. Some studies show that after periods of fasting, insulin becomes more effective in telling cells to take up glucose from blood. Intermittent fasting improves the immune system because it reduces free radical damage, regulates inflammatory conditions in the body and starves off cancer cell formation.
7. Interval Training: One of the most efficient paths towards cardiovascular fitness is interval training. There is now enough documentation to suggest that it does benefit all-cause mortality. By recruiting new muscle fibers and increasing the body’s ability to use fuel, interval training potentially lowers the risk of metabolic syndrome. This type of vigorous exercise cuts deep belly fat and fat around the waist. After interval training, the amount of fat burned in an hour of continuous moderate cycling increased by 36 percent, said Jason L. Talanian, the lead author of the study and an exercise scientist at the University of Guelph in Ontario. Cardiovascular fitness — the ability of the heart and lungs to supply oxygen to working muscles — improved by 13 percent. Results were independent from any type of special dieting or food plans.
8. NAC and Glutathione: N-acetylcysteine is converted by the body into an amino acid called cysteine. Cysteine also helps synthesize glutathione, one of the body’s most important natural antioxidants and detoxifiers of chemicals into less harmful compounds. Glutathione is known to aid in the transport of nutrients to lymphocytes and phagocytes, two major classes of immune cells, and to protect cell membranes. Researchers found that mushrooms have high amounts of glutathione known for immune system boosting propertiesand anti-cancer capabilities. NAC can protect against a wide range of health problems and the science backs up the claim. In one studythere was a 30% increase in lifespan of mice. This powerful metabolite is also used against environmental pollutants including carbon monoxide, chloroform, urethanes, herbicides, pesticides, reducing toxicity of cancer drugs, hangover remedy, damage due to certain X-ray dyes; and for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
9. Decreasing Calories: Calorie restriction leads scientists to molecular pathways that slow aging, improve health. Organisms from yeast to rodents to humans all benefit from cutting calories. Restricting calories can double or even triple lifespan. About 30 percent of the animals on calorie restriction diets die at an advanced age without any diseases normally related to aging. The less you eat the longer you will live. Studies have shown how the lifespan of people in certain cultures increased due to their diets. One of the primary effects of aging is a slower metabolism, the younger your body is, the faster and more efficient your metabolism. The less you eat, the less toll it takes on your digestive system. Aware of the profound influence of calorie restriction on animals, some people are cutting their calorie intake by 25 percent or more in hopes of lengthening lifespan.
10. Vitamin D: In the absence of vitamin D from sunlight, disease increases more than 1000 percent. Vitamin D is lacking in some 70 percent of American children. Data from a systematic review of almost 200 population-based studies shows that more than a third of populations worldwide may suffer from low levels of vitamin D. Researchers have discovered that it’s active in many tissues and cells besides bone and controls an enormous number of genes, including some associated with cancers, autoimmune disease, and infection. It’s been known that vitamin D can prevent that genetic damage. The best way to get vitamin D is getting out in the sun and stop lathering on sunscreen. Researchers at the University of Leeds suggest that people with very pale skin may be unable to spend enough time in the sun to make the amount of vitamin D the body needs — while also avoiding sunburn. So it’s important to have your vitamin D levels assessed by a qualified health practitioner who can order the appropriate tests.
If you are an alcoholic who consciously wants to stop drinking but can’t; a heavy drinker who never gives any thought to whether or not you are drinking too much, or a social drinker who believes that drinking is important, compelling you to continue with the addiction – these 8 reasons will convince you to …
Source: 8 Reasons why You should stop Drinking Alcohol Immediately
anonymous-news.com
If you are an alcoholic who consciously wants to stop drinking but can’t; a heavy drinker who never gives any thought to whether or not you are drinking too much, or a social drinker who believes that drinking is important, compelling you to continue with the addiction – these 8 reasons will convince you to quit drinking the poison right away, come what may.
Alcohol Causes Cancer
American Cancer Society says the amount of alcohol consumed over time, not the type of alcoholic beverage, is the most important factor in raising cancer risk. Alcohol is a known cause of cancers of the Mouth, Throat (pharynx), Voice box (larynx), Esophagus, Liver, Colon and Rectum, Breast, and Pancreas. For each of these cancers, the risk increases with the amount of alcohol consumed.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization has classified alcohol as a Group 1 carcinogen. In its Report on Carcinogens, the National Toxicology Program of the US Department of Health and Human Services lists consumption of alcoholic beverages as a known human carcinogen.
Every year, alcohol causes 4% of cancers in the US and the UK.
Alcohol Contributes To Vitamin D Deficiency
Alcohol interferes with the pancreas and affects the liver – both of which are important to absorb and activate calcium, and vitamin D, which amongst other things, helps build and maintain strong bones.
According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, alcoholism can lead to malnutrition [because alcohol suppresses the appetite], which leads to inadequate intake and absorption of food and nutrients. For this reason, even heavy drinkers who consume high levels of nutrient-rich food, fail to get the full benefit of those nutrients.
Alcohol Affects B-12 Absorption
Drinking alcohol, even in moderation, can have profound effects on the way your body absorbs vitamin B-12, the deficiency of which leads to heart attack and stroke, megaloblastic anemia, fatigue, shortness of breath, tingling and numbness in the extremities, headache, dementia, disorientation, loss of concentration and memory, and even death.
Alcohol Destroys Liver – Forever
Between 10 and 20% of heavy drinkers develop liver cirrhosis – severe scarring and disruption of the normal structure of the liver not reversible with abstinence. Alcohol abuse is one of the three most common causes of cirrhosis of the liver in the US; according to the National Institutes of Health, liver cirrhosis is the 12th leading cause of death by disease.
Alcohol Is A Depressant
Some people use alcohol to calm their nerves, to soothe their anxiety and to relieve stress. But alcohol is not a medication. Alcohol is a depressant, which actually worsens anxiety by changing the levels of serotonin and other neurotransmitters in the brain; that’s why some people feel more anxious after the alcohol wears off.
Alcohol Impairs Memory
Blurred vision, slurred speech, slowed reaction times, impaired memory, and black-outs – these are some of alcohol’s damaging effects on the brain. Men drinking 2.5 or more alcoholic beverages daily at midlife, are more likely to experience more rapid mental losses over the next decade, than light or moderate drinkers.
Alcohol Irritates Digestive System
Alcohol can damage the inner lining of the stomach, the pancreas, liver, and gallbladder; alter the structure and function of the gastrointestinal tract; and lead to abdominal discomfort, stomachaches, heartburn, and acid reflux.
Alcohol Affects Sleep Quality
While many drinkers would argue that alcohol helps them fall asleep a little faster, researchers at the University of Melbourne have found that alcohol just before sleep can lead to poorer quality slumber. You’re more likely to wake up during the night, and may not feel as rested following your sleep.
“People tend to feel that alcohol helps them fall asleep a little quicker, and therefore people associated that with helping them sleep. But when you actually go and look at what is happening while they sleep, the quality of that sleep isn’t good.”
And, just so you know, lack of good quality sleep can mess with your genes – insufficient sleep and circadian rhythm disruption are associated with negative health outcomes, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, and cognitive impairment.
Know Your Limits, BUT Be Sensible
According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, moderate drinking is up to 1 drink per day for women and up to 2 drinks per day for men. But with alcohol, the line between “moderate use” and “dangerous use” can be a thin one.
Summary: A new study reports people living in areas with more sun light have lower rates of OCD.
Source: Binghamton University.
Living at higher latitudes, where there is also less sunlight, could result in a higher prevalence rate of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.
“The results of this project are exciting because they provide additional evidence for a new way of thinking about OCD,” said Meredith Coles, professor of psychology at Binghamton University. “Specifically, they show that living in areas with more sunlight is related to lower rates of OCD.”
To compile their data, Coles and her research team read through many papers that addressed OCD prevalence rates in certain places and then recorded the latitudes of each location.
Individuals with OCD commonly report not being able to fall asleep until later than desired. Often times, they will then sleep in very late in order to compensate for that lost sleep, thus adopting a delayed sleep-wake pattern that may have adverse effects on their symptoms.
Individuals with OCD commonly report not being able to fall asleep until later than desired. Often times, they will then sleep in very late in order to compensate for that lost sleep, thus adopting a delayed sleep-wake pattern that may have adverse effects on their symptoms. NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
“This delayed sleep-wake pattern may reduce exposure to morning light, thereby potentially contributing to a misalignment between our internal biology and the external light-dark cycle,” said Coles. “People who live in areas with less sunlight may have less opportunities to synchronize their circadian clock, leading to increased OCD symptoms.”
This misalignment is more prevalent at higher latitudes – areas where there is reduced exposure to sunlight – which places people living in these locations at an increased risk for the development and worsening of OCD symptoms. These areas subsequently exhibit higher lifetime prevalence rates of the disorder than areas at lower latitudes.
While it is too soon to implement any specific treatment plans based on this new information, future studies are in the works to test a variety of treatment methods that address sleep and circadian rhythm disruptions.
“First, we are looking at relations between sleep timing and OCD symptoms repeatedly over time in order to begin to think about causal relationships,” said Coles. “Second, we are measuring circadian rhythms directly by measuring levels of melatonin and having people wear watches that track their activity and rest periods. Finally, we are conducting research to better understand how sleep timing and OCD are related.”
Additionally, the team of researchers hopes that further study exploring exposure to morning light could help develop new treatment recommendations that would benefit individuals with OCD.
No wonder Ancient Egypt’s Akhenaten proclaimed that the Sun should be the only deity worthy of worship.
Egypt Cult of the Sun God and Akhenaten‘s Monotheism
by: Isabelle Z.
Friday, April 13, 2018
In case you needed any more proof of how essential vitamin D is to good health, researchers have warned that placebo-controlled trials that involve limiting some people’s intake of the all-star nutrient could be considered unethical.
This presents a serious quandary for researchers. Demonstrating the efficacy of vitamin D in studies is essential for boosting awareness and acceptance of its treatment effects, but the very design of many studies could cause some patients to miss out on the vitamins they need.
Writing in the journal Nutrients, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences Integrative Medicine Program Director Dr. Leigh Frame outlined just what could happen if a person known to be deficient in vitamin D was denied it. The potential problems include poor short-term or long-term bone health and a higher risk of chronic disease, cancer, autoimmunity, infection and mental illness.
The researchers involved in the review cited two types of trial design as having potentially conflicting objectives. The first is studies with an active control arm with no placebo group. In this case, they point out that the benefit of such a study could be dampened if the absence of a placebo causes them to get non-significant results. Having an active control could limit the possibility of detecting meaningful effects from the supplement.
In the case of placebo trials, valuable information is often gleaned but the ethical questions could be a deal-breaker. Because vitamin D deficiency is a “known harm” and vitamin D has known benefits, they believe that withholding adequate supplementation from some people in the study could cause them an undue health risk. They believe the potential benefits that can be gained by determining an ideal dose of vitamin D would not necessarily outweigh the harm that could be caused to those who are deprived of supplementation.
They’ve identified two possible solutions to these problems. First, they suggest designing trials that have placebo groups but without supplement restrictions. For example, a study called the Vitamin D and Omega 3 Trial allowed participants to take up to 400 IU per day, which is the recommended daily allowance. The researchers in that study then monitored the vitamin D levels of people in both groups; the control group was effective despite having slightly higher background levels of vitamin D.
Another solution they put forth entails having a placebo group but then giving them a rescue repletion program at the close of the study. Those in the placebo group might have a vitamin D deficiency during the study, but they’d be given doses afterward that could reduce their risk of harm. They say this would not only protect the methodology but would also stay in line with the ethical placebo group guidelines set out by the 2001 Declaration of Helsinki.
Vitamin D continues to be the subject of trials and studies as more and more information comes to light regarding what a powerful tool it is for optimum health. For example, one recent study found that vitamin D has the potential to cut a person’s risk of cancer by 20 percent or even more.
In addition, it plays a vital role in bone health, helping your body absorb much-needed minerals like phosphorus and calcium and reducing your risk of fractures. It also helps reduce your risk of both types of diabetes, and those with sufficient vitamin D intake also have a lower risk of heart disease.
Daily exposure to natural sunlight without sunscreen is the best way to boost your vitamin D levels, but supplementation is a good route when this isn’t possible. Follow more news on Vitamin D at VitaminD.news.
Sources for this article include:
Far too many people are suffering from depression in recent years leading to more people taking antidepressants than ever – with 13 million Americans taking such medications every day. At the same time, people’s diets have declined in quality significantly. While most people don’t tend to think that the two problems are related, some experts say that this is definitely not a coincidence.
It’s easy to see the connection between the poor modern Western diet and problems like obesity or diabetes because of the out-of-control sugar consumption, but depression is related more to what we’re not consuming than what we are.
For example, there is a lot of research showing the link between a Vitamin D deficiency and depression in people young and old. One study found that people whose vitamin D levels were considered deficient were twice as likely to experience depressive symptoms as those who were considered mildly deficient. That’s because the body uses vitamin D to regulate the enzymes needed for dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine production, hormones that are used to regulate your mood and stress as well as energy levels.
Depression is considered a sign of magnesium deficiency, and one Croatian study found that many people who had attempted suicide had dangerously low magnesium levels. A study from the University of Vermont, meanwhile, found that adults with mild to moderate depression noted significant improvements in their depression and anxiety after taking magnesium supplements for just two weeks. A reported 68 percent of Americans don’t get the recommended daily amount of magnesium, with 19 percent failing to even get half the necessary amount. This could well be playing a role in the rising depression numbers.
People with depression also have lower concentrations of the mineral zinc in their blood than those who do not have depression, and studies have shown that zinc supplementation can reverse that depression.
The nutrient connection explains why treating depression with drugs is so ineffective. It simply doesn’t address the underlying cause of many people’s depression. A new study from Zurich University of Applied Sciences concluded that “antidepressants are largely ineffective and potentially harmful,” and it’s one of many studies pointing to the unacceptable track record of these medications.
Making matters worse is the fact that using these drugs over the long term raises a person’s chances of having a relapse of depressive episodes. Then there’s the higher risk of suicide. It’s hard to imagine a worse side effect than that, until you realize just how many mass shooting perpetrators in recent years had been taking antidepressants.
A big part of the problem is that doctors are far too quick to prescribe these drugs, and many patients specifically request them in hopes of an easy fix. It’s understandable that those who are depressed are eager to find themselves in a better frame of mind, but correcting nutritional deficiencies is truly just as easy, and it doesn’t come with any side effects.
Better yet, ensuring you’re getting enough of the nutrients your body needs actually improves your overall health, not just depression, so it’s a win-win situation. While studies have shown that supplementing with vitamin D, zinc and magnesium can all effectively address depression, you can also get these nutrients through your diet. Oysters, cashews, crab, and beef are all considered good sources of zinc, while you can get a magnesium boost from foods like spinach, almonds, Swiss chard, pumpkin seeds, almonds and dark chocolate.
Vitamin D is perhaps the easiest deficiency to correct; you just need to spend some time outdoors without sunscreen to get your body to start producing more of it. The amount of time needed varies depending on your skin tone, the time of day, and your geographic location, but it could be as little as 10 minutes a day a few times per week.
For people with serious depression, it might be hard to believe that something as simple as getting more nutrients could make a difference, but you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying it.
Sources for this article include:
With permission from
preventdisease.com
Joe Battaglia
March 20, 2018
There are now thousands of references in medical literature that show vitamin D’s effectiveness–both for the prevention and treatment of cancer. Another large study shows that Vitamin D levels could have a direct influence in your risk of developing cancer, according to the results of a Japanese cohort study.
“Almost every disease decreases in frequency and duration as we move towards equatorial populations, and the data shows that there is a minimum of a 1000 percent increase for many diseases in countries furthest from the equator, however we have obtained the same results based on data through populations and vitamin D supplementation,” said Dr. Anthony Petaku who studies the effects of Vitamin D2 and D3 on mutating cells.
Blood levels of vitamin D were inversely associated with risk of total cancer and liver cancer, found the multi-institute Japan-based research team writing in the BMJ.
Individuals in the three highest quartiles of serum vitamin D levels showed a risk reduction of between 20-25% for all cancers. For liver cancer, the risk reduction levels ranged from 30% (second quartile) to 55% (highest quartile). In liver cancer cases, the association was stronger in men than in women.
The researchers used data from the Japan Public Health Centre-based Prospective (JPHC) Study of 33,736 adults aged 40-69. Participants were monitored for 16 years, during which time 3,301 new cases of cancer were recorded. The study also included 4,044 randomly selected sub-cohort participants.
The scientists also found a significant inverse trend between vitamin D levels and pre-menopausal breast cancer, but not for prostate cancer and lung cancer.
A ceiling effect was observed for total cancer risk, suggesting that further risk reductions would not arise beyond a certain vitamin D blood concentration. The mean vitamin D level in the highest quartile was 76 nanomoles/litre (nmol/l). However, the researchers were not able to determine the optimal vitamin D concentration to minimise cancer risk.
“We observed that a higher circulating concentration of vitamin D was associated with a lower risk of subsequent cancer in a large Japanese population. Our findings support the hypothesis that vitamin D may confer protection against the risk of cancer,” commented first author Sanjeev Budhathoki, Centre for Public Health Sciences, National Cancer Centre, Chuo-ku, Tokyo.
“Nevertheless, the lower risk associated with higher circulating vitamin D concentration seemed to show a ceiling effect, which may suggest that although maintaining an optimal 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration is important for prevention of cancer, having a concentration beyond this optimal level may provide no further benefit.
“Future studies are needed to clarify the dose-response pattern and the optimal concentrations for cancer prevention,” Budhathoki concluded.
Previous work has shown that higher vitamin D levels are associated lower incidence of colorectal and lung cancers. However, findings regarding total cancer risk reduction have been inconsistent. Additionally, previous studies have mainly examined European or American populations, while those in Asian populations are limited, said the researchers.
Sources:
bmj
NaturalNews.com
by: Aurora Geib
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Because rickets is seldom seen in first-world countries, it’s easy to think that vitamin D deficiencies are a thing of the past. However, new research has recently shed light on other, more subtle, symptoms of a vitamin D deficiency. Many illnesses which, at first glance, seem totally unrelated to something as physically obvious as rickets actually may have their roots in a lack of vitamin D.
The term vitamin D, according to the Mayo Clinic’s Drugs and Supplements site (1), actually refers to several different forms of the vitamin, including D2, which comes from our diet, and D3, which is manufactured by our skin when exposed to sunlight. Vitamin D’s main purpose in the body is to regulate blood levels of calcium and phosphorous.
It’s actually hard to get enough vitamin D from a normal diet. It’s found at the highest concentration in fatty fish such as tuna, mackerel and salmon. Some mushrooms are also high in D, and their level of the vitamin actually increases when exposed to ultraviolet light.
While our skin does manufacture some of the vitamin D that we need daily, sun exposure alone is usually not enough. Factors such as the time of year, the angle of the sun, cloud cover, pollution levels and even the use of sunscreen can greatly limit the amount of D made by our skin.
Some people who have a vitamin D deficiency have no immediate symptoms. Those who do have symptoms may experience restless sleep, muscle cramps, general fatigue, joint pain, muscle pain or weakness, inability to concentrate, headaches, constipation or diarrhea, and bladder problems. Here are nine other serious medical conditions that have been linked to a vitamin D deficiency.
Sources:
The research team examined the individual habitual dietary vitamin D intake of up to 855 women. The experts also conducted graded intake modelling to predict how habitual diet including fish, fortified foods — such as plain yogurt, cheese, eggs and crispbread — and supplements would help increase vitamin D levels in participants. The fortified foods provided 20 micrograms of vitamin D daily, the researchers said.
The results revealed that eating fortified foods and taking vitamin D supplements that provided up to 40 µg/day would enable the participants to attain at least 60 µg/day, which is still below the Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) of 100 µg/day. However, consuming fish, fortified foods, and a vitamin D supplement of 80 µg/day put the women at risk of exceeding the tolerable intake levels.
“The consumption of vitamin D supplements has proven to be effective in increasing vitamin D status, although this strategy is naturally only effective in those who consume the supplements. Low-dose fortification may be a strategy to increase the intake of those individuals in the lower end of the intake distribution range without increasing the risk of the upper end reaching toxic intake levels,” the researchers said.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) revealed that the number of American adults taking vitamin D supplements increased significantly between 1999 and 2014, up to three percent of whom even exceeded the daily upper limit. Researchers pooled data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) with a total cohort population of more than 39,000 participants. (Related: 5 Easy-to-miss signs of vitamin D deficiency: Are YOU getting enough?)
The researchers found that the daily supplemental vitamin D use of 1,000 IU or more grew from 0.3 percent in the 1999-2000 period to 18.2 percent in the 2013- 2014 period. Likewise, the daily supplemental vitamin D use of 4,000 IU or more increased from less than 0.1 percent before the 2005-2006 period to 3.2 percent in the 2013- 2014 period. Women, non-Hispanic whites, and people aged 70 years and older had the highest intake of vitamin D supplements, the experts added.
“Characterizing trends in vitamin D supplementation, particularly at doses above the tolerable upper limit, has important and complex public health and clinical implications,” the experts wrote in a Science Daily article.
Despite vitamin D’s efficacy in promoting the body’s overall health, British researchers cautioned that not all types of vitamin D may produce equal benefits. The researchers explained that vitamin D was categorized into two types: vitamin D2 and D3. According to the experts, vitamin D2 can be obtained from plant sources such as fungi, while vitamin D3 can be found in animal sources.
The scientists examined their efficacy by measuring the vitamin D levels of 335 South Asian and white European women over the course of two winters. The women were divided into five groups. Two groups received vitamin D2 in the form of either a biscuit or a juice drink, while another two received vitamin D3 in the same forms. One group served as the study’s placebo control.
The research team observed that participants who ate the vitamin D2 biscuit increased their vitamin D levels by only 33 percent, while those who drank the juice attained a 34 percent increase. In contrast, those who ate the vitamin D3 biscuit saw a 74 percent increase, while those who drank the juice had a 75 percent increase. The placebo group saw a 25 percent decline during the study period.
“Those who consume D3 through fish, eggs, or vitamin D3-containing supplements are twice as likely to raise their vitamin D status than when consuming vitamin D2-rich foods, such as mushrooms, vitamin D2-fortified bread, or vitamin D2-containing supplements, helping to improve their long-term health,” lead author Dr. Laura Tripkovic told Medical News Today online.
Follow more news on Vitamin D at VitaminD.news.
Sources include:
(Natural News) According to scientists, “winter weight gain” could be partly caused by a lack of sunlight exposure during winter.
Researchers from the University of Alberta have announced that the according to the results of their study, the fat cells under our skin shrink once exposed to the “blue light” emitted by the sun.
Peter Light, the senior author of the study, said, “When the sun’s blue light wavelengths — the light we can see with our eye — penetrate our skin and reach the fat cells just beneath, lipid droplets reduce in size and are released out of the cell. In other words, our cells don’t store as much fat.”
Light, who is a professor of pharmacology and the director of UAlberta’s Alberta Diabetes Institute, explains that the fact that individuals who live in a northern climate are not exposed to enough sunlight eight months in a year could be the reason for winter weight gain.
The professor cautions that the results are an initial observation and that exposing one’s self to sunlight can have a negative effect on one’s health instead of being a guaranteed way to lose weight. Light comments that he and his team have yet to determine the “intensity and duration of light” required to activate this particular pathway.
Light believes that their discovery holds potential and that future studies could be built on the results of their study. It might even result in “pharmacological or light-based treatments” for health concerns such as obesity and diabetes. Light also posits that this mechanism could be one reason why the number of fat cells produced in childhood often “stay with us into adulthood.”
He acknowledges that there is a lot of literature that tries to explain why “our current generation will be more overweight than their parents” and that this could be linked to the debate about what should be considered as “healthy sunshine exposure.” (Related: Sunlight emerging as proven treatment for breast cancer, prostate cancer and other cancers.)
The researchers chanced upon the discovery while they were looking into how they can bioengineer fat cells that can produce insulin when exposed to light. The team is studying this procedure in the hopes of discovering a way to make life easier for type 1 diabetes patients.
The study results revealed that the fat cells stored near our skin could be “a peripheral biological clock.” While Light says that it’s too early to tell, it’s possible that the light we receive through our eyes which regulates our circadian rhythm (that directs sleep-wake patterns), could similarly impact “the fat cells that can be found near our skin.” The molecular pathway the researchers discovered was initially identified as “being activated by the eye” following exposure to the blue wavelengths in sunlight.
The pathway could act “in a sensory manner” and that it sets the amount of fat that we burn as the seasons change. People gain weight in winter and it is burned off during summer. This could be an “evolutionary process,” and there is data that supports this. Unlike other mammals, human fat can be found all over the body, just beneath the skin.
Losing weight requires regular exercise and following a healthy diet, but if you’re looking for food that can help you lose weight, check out the list below:
You can read more articles about vitamin D-rich foods and healthier food options at Food.news.
Sources include:
Neuroscience News
Tales from the Conspiratum 