All Posts Tagged With: "flu"

Full article: http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Nutrition/Vitamins/vitamin_d_deficiency_is_why_you_get_flu_0703100554.html

Excerpt:

A new study led by researchers at the University of Copenhagen has confirmed that vitamin D plays an important role in activating immune defenses against infectious diseases like flu.

Vitamin D deficiency has already been linked to a wide spectrum of diseases including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, depression, autoimmune disease and many others.

The study published in the latest edition of Nature Immunology discovers that activation of T-cells to fight infections needs definite help from vitamin D.

Carsten Geisler and colleagues, study authors, explained the role vitamin D plays in the immune responses as follows.

First when the naive T cell recognizes foreign invaders like bacteria or viruses with T cell receptor (TCR), it sends activating signals (1) to the vitamin D receptor gene. The VDR gene then starts producing DVR protein, which binds vitamin D in the T cell (3) and becomes activated. Then the vitamin D bound and activated DVR gets into the cell nucleus and activates the gene for PLC-gamma1 (5), which in turn produces PLC-gamma1 protein (6) and “the T cells can get started”.

Linda’s comments:  I would NEVER be without my D-3….This was part of the problems I had with so many Cancers…My D-3 levels were in the toilet….Just a wakeUP call, you don’t get enough VitD from the sun or the toxic MILK you drink either….I take 15 thousand units daily and sometimes more.  When in doubt have your doctor run a blood test on you…while you are add it get your B12 and Magnesium levels checked.

Vitamin D is now essential to lower colon and breast cancer. And short term high dose Vitamin A for infections saves lives. Dr Weil finds Vitamin D long-term use for adults is TOTALLY SAFE at 2000 units a day. The Counsel for Responsible Nutrition believes it is totally safe at 10,000 units a day for adults but what about short term use in massive amounts like 50-100,000 for acute infections. This knowledge has almost been ignored and could have become lost. 

My friend Dr Carl Reich MD in Canada was famous for treating ASTHMA and eliminating frequent hospitalizations in tough cases. He was using up to 50,000 units a week!  Of course they took his license but he changed the lives of nearly 10,000 patients! So it may be a long time until we fully appreciate the medical applications of aggressive Vitamin D therapy.

Vitamin A for treatment of most infections is safe and totally underutilized due to ignorance by medical profession. In the same vein as changing attitudes toward high dose vitamin D there is need to learn more about Vitamin A. The World Health Organization recommends the injections of children with 250,000 units of Vitamin A. This treatment is proven to save children’s lives daily around the world but long term use can affect bone growth so no one uses this fantastically effective therapy proving that a little knowledge is dangerous. No serious side effect of high dose for 5 days therapy up to 500,000 units a day for adults has been reported.

But with a few reports of relatively minor side effects related to long term use nothing serious with the 5 day use of high dose vitamin A is documented other than some increase in intracranial pressure leading to some headaches in perhaps 1-3% of patients but with dramatic recovery from infections. 

So hopefully one day we will realize that the “side effects” incurred with nutritional therapy are rather benign. There are no reported deaths in the USA in 2008 from nutritional supplements yet those who become knowledgeable in Orthomolecular Medicine, as I am, have to be prepared for criticism from less enlightened colleagues who do not understand benefit to risk calculations. They think nothing of their being at least the 4th leading cause of death in the US but are quick to criticize those who use therapies that they know nothing about but which have tremendous potential for really helping patients!!

Garry F. Gordon MD,DO,MD(H)
President, Gordon Research Institute
www.gordonresearch.com

Full article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-weil-md/new-recommendation-why-yo_b_446580.html

Excerpt:

I am raising my recommendation of 1,000 IU of vitamin D per day to 2,000 IU per day. Since 2005, when I raised it from 400 to 1,000 IU, clinical evidence has been accumulating to suggest that a higher dose is more appropriate to help maintain optimum health.
We have known for many years that we need vitamin D to facilitate calcium absorption and promote bone mineralization. But newer research has shown that we also need it for protection against a number of serious diseases. In recent years, scientists have discovered that it may help to prevent several cancers, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, psoriasis, diabetes, psychosis, and respiratory infections including colds and flu. 

To focus particularly on cancer prevention, two recent meta-analyses (in which data from multiple studies is combined) conducted by the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California at San Diego and colleagues suggested that raising blood levels of vitamin D could prevent one-half of the cases of breast cancer and two-thirds of the cases of colorectal cancer in the U.S. Discussing the breast cancer analysis, study author Cedric Garland, Dr.P.H., stated that “The serum level associated with a 50 percent reduction in risk could be maintained by taking 2,000 international units of vitamin D3 daily plus, when the weather permits, spending 10 to 15 minutes a day in the sun.” A 50 percent reduction in breast cancer deaths would have saved the lives of more than 20,000 American women in 2009.

Human leptospirosis can be a difficult infection to describe, as the
symptoms can vary dramatically between patients. Some symptoms are
extremely common, but only a small number of patients will experience
the severe life-threatening illness known as Weil’s disease. The
severity of the infection depends on the age and general health of the
patient, plus the serovar (strain) of bacteria involved and the number
of bacteria that entered the patient’s body. Continued

Yet another tragedy of a young teen becoming paralyzed from taking the H1N1 flu shot!!  Of course the family is devastated from their decision of giving their beautiful 16 yr old daughter the H1N1 flu vaccine.  I strongly suggest that you do thorough research on the devastation that many families are going through. Continued