More on Vitamin D

[Guest guest]

As you are by now aware, I am a strong advocate of Vitamin D. It comes in

several forms, like D-2,3,4 and maybe more, I have not found more. I was

looking at Greg's National CML Society website and he had a link for Vitamin D.

Botta bing, I went to it

and it has more good information about Vitamin D. I know some of you have

expressed some fears about it recently, but if you go to an endocrinologist, he

tests you for any deficiencies. Yesterday, I went to my nephrologist and he

grilled me on Vitamin D and was completely satisfied that I was taking 50,000

units a month. It was only recently that I took note of it also being in the

family or hormones, so of course, you want to take all

precautions. Some of the excerpts are from Web MD and I have come to rely on

them for some of the best articles. I am posting here some of the article from

Greg's site:

*************************

VITAMIN D – THE NEWEST SUPER NUTRIENT

4women.com, Cancer Blogs, News, Opinion — By BeauBeau on December 22, 2010 at

5:13 am

At one of my last endocrinologist visits, the doctor suggested I have my Vitamin

D levels tested, stating that Vitamin D deficiency is nearly universal these

days. What!? This is not Seattle and I don’t just live in the Sunshine State. I

play tennis, golf, run, walk the dogs, and swim, all in our super-strenght UV

rays. I couldn’t possibly be deficient in the so-called “sunshine vitamin”.

Wrong!

Apparently I’m quite deficient. I’m supposed to take 2,000 IU of D3 until I get

my stored levels back up to at least 20 ng/mL. Simple enough right, especially

given I just buy the 2,000 IU capsules, which translates into exactly 1

capsule/day – not a big deal. Oh but it is!!!

I’m lucky if I remember to pop those capsules twice-a-week. When I do, I try to

make up for missed days in one quick series of swallows – 4 or even 5 capsules

with breakfast. The doctor said I can safely double or triple my serving size

to make up for my vitamin pill-popping negligence. I had nearly concluded that

it’s hopeless however, that I am a complete failure at popping vitamins on a

regular basis, the only way they do their intended job. And then the news….

One study (summarized here) conducted by a team of English and Canadian

scientists, revealed a detailed “map” of the molecular interactions between

vitamin D and certain genes. The map showed extensive connections between the

vitamin and certain genes associated with cancer and autoimmune diseases. “Genes

involved in autoimmune disease and cancer were regulated by vitamin D,” study

author Dr. Sreeram Ramagopalan of Oxford University told WebMD.

Vitamin D’s active form is thought to interact with almost every cell in the

body directly or indirectly, targeting up to two thousand genes, or about 6

percent of the human genome. Apparently, almost every cell and tissue in our

body has vitamin D receptors, which tells me this is one important nutrient.

**********************

This is lengthy, so you can read the rest of it at the website I found it if you

are interested.

http://tinyurl.com/47r9tzz

FYI,

Lottie Duthu