Re: Vitamin D and the Medical Establishment

[Guest guest]

I find it difficult to be very optimistic about how modern medicine is practiced. The closest parallel is the car repair shop who specializes in fixing the car after it is broken, but not preventing it from failing in the first place. One parallel to your management of blood chemistry is SPC, (Statistical Process Control). If you measure and constantly adjust a manufacturing process to be in the middle of it's target range, you never get rejects that fall outside of the tolerance band.This is certainly useful to the extent of our knowledge, but I fear we are still just scratching the surface in many areas of preventative maintenance for our complex machinery. Blood chemistry metrics are often just based on some distribution of the general population measured, rather than based on solid understanding of what is optimal for health. If everyone eats crappy, the typical blood range may reflect that crappy diet. We need to be very careful about speculations in this regard.On the subject of Vit D, it has been studied and the beneficial results of sunlight have IMO been subverted by the competing commercial interests from selling more profitable sun screen, vs, un-patentable common vitamins (like D), or free sunlight.  No profit motive, no tail wind to stand against commercial interests.I wish the current massive expansion of government involvement in US healthcare meant a true reinvention of our approach to health management but I fear any changes will be superficial and more of a power grab than reordering of the process. If we spent a small fraction of the current or future budget on preventive efforts, instead of fixing stuff only after it is broken, we wouldn't go broke from tax increases. They need to put a bathroom scale and BP machine in the line at the post office.. Charge more for stamps if in poor shape... :-)  JR   PS: On a somewhat more optimistic note there are some in the CR community documenting their experience and physiological metrics, so while it is early to draw absolute conclusions, we are learning from this and related larger mammal experiments, but again it's still early days. On Feb 27, 2009, at 4:48 PM, Rodney wrote:Hi folks:I am away from home right now and wanted to get a 25(OH)D test to find out what effect my winter time vitamin D3 supplementation had had.People in my present geographical location are still in the stone age wrt vitamin D. When I asked for a 25(OH)D test the doctor asked if I had osteoporosis. I answered "No", so he then asked: "Then why would you want a 25(OH)D test?" So I had to explain about the reference ranges and that my test result had come out below the low end of the current reference range, and that I have been supplementing and didn't want to go above a safe level. So he said "OK", and went off to get a manual to find out how to fill in the form to order the test (!)He insisted I have all the other tests done too - which is fine by me - and I visited him again to get the results. They were all there except the 25(OH)D. He suggested I call the lab and ask why it had been delayed.The lab's answer was: "That is such an unusual test that we have to freeze the sample, send it off to the university 100 miles away, where they will keep it until they have a large enough number of samples requesting the same test so that they can run them all at the same time."Sigh.If I ever get the result I will report it here.What is extraordinary is that this doctor thought vitamin D only to be relevant if you actually HAVE osteoporosis. He seemed not to even consider that it might be helpful to PREVENT it in those who don't have it yet. And he doesn't seem to be aware of all the other apparent benefits of vitamin D that we have been discussing here for years.From previous experience I have come to the conclusion that it takes about 20 years for research results of major importance to filter down to the people on the front lines of the medical system.Fortunately, my previous doctor was an exception to this rule, and was at the leading edge of the vitamin D issue. She actually was interested in preventive medicine. The vast majority of the others seem to have graduated from the "Pills and Procedures" school. They believe it is better to wait until the patient turns up in their office, or the morgue, complaining of, for example, a pain in their left arm - so that they can prescribe a pill or a procedure - than it is to prevent them from getting it in the first place.Sigh.This really does emphasize for me the enormous benefits of being able to read all the stuff that gets posted here. Rodney.

[Guest guest]

When getting vit d blood tests...make sure the lab is not quest...from what I have been reading, their results are not accurate. Lab Corp is the way to go for this test.

Hi folks:I am away from home right now and wanted to get a 25(OH)D test to find out what effect my winter time vitamin D3 supplementation had had.People in my present geographical location are still in the stone age wrt vitamin D. When I asked for a 25(OH)D test the doctor asked if I had osteoporosis. I answered "No", so he then asked: "Then why would you want a 25(OH)D test?" So I had to explain about the reference ranges and that my test result had come out below the low end of the current reference range, and that I have been supplementing and didn't want to go above a safe level. So he said "OK", and went off to get a manual to find out how to fill in the form to order the test (!)He insisted I have all the other tests done too - which is fine by me - and I visited him again to get the results. They were all there except the 25(OH)D. He suggested I call the lab and ask why it had been delayed.The lab's answer was: "That is such an unusual test that we have to freeze the sample, send it off to the university 100 miles away, where they will keep it until they have a large

enough number of samples requesting the same test so that they can run them all at the same time."Sigh.If I ever get the result I will report it here.What is extraordinary is that this doctor thought vitamin D only to be relevant if you actually HAVE osteoporosis. He seemed not to even consider that it might be helpful to PREVENT it in those who don't have it yet. And he doesn't seem to be aware of all the other apparent benefits of vitamin D that we have been discussing here for years.From previous experience I have come to the conclusion that it takes about 20 years for research results of major importance to filter down to the people on the front lines of the medical system.Fortunately, my previous doctor was an exception to this rule, and was at the leading edge of the vitamin D issue. She actually was interested in preventive medicine. The vast majority of the others seem to have graduated from the "Pills and Procedures" school. They believe it is better to wait until the patient turns up in their office, or the morgue, complaining of, for example, a pain in their left arm - so that they can prescribe

a pill or a procedure - than it is to prevent them from getting it in the first place.Sigh.This really does emphasize for me the enormous benefits of being able to read all the stuff that gets posted here. Rodney.