Re: How much Vit D? (again)

May 13, 2009

There are several levels of vitamin D status that are worth

considering. The traditional one is that required to prevent

rickets. The next is the level that has been shown to be correlated

with good health. There is yet another level that I will call

therapeutic.

Rickets prevention is well understood, and all we need to do to

prevent it is to apply well established knowledge.

The current explosion in vitamin D interest is about the level of

vitamin D required for good health. A considerable amount of

disease occurs when vitamin D status is low, such as in winter and

in northern latitudes. The winter flu season could be eliminated by

adequate supplementation, probably about 2000 IU per day for most

people.

Therapeutic use of vitamin D is a different animal than simply

maintaining average health. When blood levels of 150-200 ng/ml (and

above) are achieved, the health benefits include the reversal of

many health challenges. Things like people who suffer from MS

getting out of their wheelchairs and walking. Lung cancer being

cured. Resistance to viruses multiplied by 5 times. There are

literally dozens of different conditions that have benefited from

such high dose therapy. But if you require double blind crossover

studies of thousands of people before you believe something, I guess

you're not going to believe these reports.

I've had the good fortune of council from Dr. Joe Prendergast. He

has decades of experience using vitamin D, and has observed many of

these recoveries firsthand. His track record includes curing his

own case of major vascular calcification. Over a period of 10

years, he rejuvenated his arteries from those of an 80-year old to

their current condition of a teenager. One third of his type-1

diabetes patients are off insulin completely. The local hospital

called him up to see if he was still in practice. It seems he

hadn't admitted anyone there in the past 10 years. Not bad for an

endocrinology practice with 80% diabetics.

So what are the miracle treatments that Dr. Prendergast uses?

Arginine (5 gm), Citrulline (1 gm), Benfotiamine, and vitamin D3

(150-200 ng/ml blood level). The diabetics get Byetta to rejuvenate

their pancreas. Vascular problems may get an angiotensin blocker

(valsartan) as a temporary (not lifetime) treatment. He has a white

paper on arginine at

http://www.endocrinemetabolic.com/about/press/larginine.pdf .

I don't know if he recommends it, but I also use 90 mcg of MK-7,

a subcomponent of vitamin K2 that improves calcium distribution.

Just what Dr. Prendergast recommends for me in the future is,

as the word says, the future.

My interest in using 50,000 IU of D3 per day is that it is my

current approximation of the optimum quantity. Note that I have

regular blood tests for vitamin D and calcium. Since absorption

varies between people, the quantity that I use may be considerably

more or less than what other people could use. Note also that the

combination of high D and calcium supplementation is a prescription

for problems. If you can't get rid of the idea of calcium

supplementation, don't even think about such a high dose of D3.

The high D invokes all the calcium absorption that is appropriate.

So what do I expect from high D3 therapy? The redistribution of

calcium from inappropriate sites (arteries, bone spurs, kidney

stones, etc.) to beneficial sites like the bone matrix. Improved

immune function is a major effect of having high vitamin D status.

It has even been suggested as the universal vaccine, in that it

doesn't have to be customized for each virus.

Two excellent websites for scientific data on vitamin D are:

http://vitamindcouncil.org (Dr. Cannell)

http://sunarc.org (Dr. Grant)

Side note: Dr. Grant probably started the current rage of interest

in vitamin D with his carefully presented observations of the

medical literature. Since he scrupulously adheres to using the

highest quality scientific data, he has little to say about my

50,000 IU usage. He is aware of Dr. Prendergast, and, more

personally, me. Hi Bill, the canary's still alive!

May 13, 2009

Rob: Thanks for your post. It’s my understanding that the proper amount of Vit D is still debatable. And yes we need evidence that “people with MS are getting out of their wheelchairs and walking” and similar phrases you are making below. Obviously you’re convinced that this is the magic bullet but some of us need actual proof. I would love to see the scientific backing for this as well as cures for lung cancer or other such claims. Sounds too good to be true and usually it is.

Evidence via peer-reviewed studies preferably with many subjects (a few thousand for example) is what is respected here. A doctor’s statement that he has seen many “cures” doesn’t qualify. That’s anecdotal only.

You may all remember just a few short years ago, many doctors were jumping on the bandwagon advocating hormones for post-menopausal women which supposedly cured just about everything under the sun and were the “fountain of youth” . I was one of the guinea pigs, imbibing for 10 years. It’s a wonder I didn’t get cancer.

Such nonsense has gone on throughout medical history. I am old enough to remember Dr Linus ing coming out with his book that Vit C cured just about everything under the sun, including cancer. Does that claim sound familiar? Dr ing was no slouch either; a Nobel Prize winning scientist. Luckily, unlike ingesting hormones, Vit C is fairly harmless because as it happens, people all around the world started popping Vit C like it was going out of style. No doubt many Vitamin company execs got very very rich.

So I’m a bit skeptical. That said, I’ve upped my daily dose (in all but the summer months) of Vit D to 2000IU. But I don’t expect miracles.

From: Rob_Larson <Rob_Larson@...>

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Date: Wed, 13 May 2009 04:50:06 -0000

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Subject: [ ] Re: How much Vit D? (again)