According to Dr. Willcox, Principal Investor for the Okinawa Centenarian Study that started in 1975, "Among the entire population, which takes a sparing approach to food, there is 90 percent less coronary artery disease than in the wider world, a third less incidence of cancer, and breast cancer is virtually unheard of." HERE. In long-living Okinawan and Japanese, their dietary intake as surveyed in the 1970s was higher in both protein and dietary saturated fatty acids (see below abstract) compared to their shorter-lived peers at that time. When Okinawans move away (like to Brazil) heart disease risk factors appear (see last abstract). Diet is 80-90% of our health I believe because our bodies are designed to express what is dictated by our environment and food macro- micronutrients (foraging/hunting v. lounging; fecundity v. fasting). (These are the PPAR alpha gamma and delta receptors; their role is to 'sense nutrients' and to 'sense energy demand' in order to ultimately balance our energy needs). To me, the observations from blue zones and centenarian data always seem to reinforce that the physically active, low carb mod-high fat Paleo/TYP approach is the most optimal at this time, as it was for centenarians studied in the 1970s.
Putnam SE, Scutt AM, Bicknell K, Priestley CM, Williamson EM.
Natural products as alternative treatments for metabolic bone disorders and for maintenance of bone health.
Phytother Res. 2006 Nov 14; [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 17106868 [PubMed - as supp
Maghbooli Z, Hossein-Nezhad A, Karimi F, Shafaei AR, Larijani B.
Correlation between vitamin D(3) deficiency and insulin resistance in pregnancy.
Diabetes Metab Res Rev. 2007 Jul 2; [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 17607661 [PubMed - as supplied by publish
Prevalence of vitamin d insufficiency in patients with Parkinson disease and Alzheimer disease.\nEvatt ML, Delong MR, Khazai N, Rosen A, Triche S, Tangpricha V.\nArch Neurol. 2008 Oct;65(10):1348-52.\nPMID: 18852350
Independent association of low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin d and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin d levels with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.\nDobnig H, Pilz S, Scharnagl H, Renner W, Seelhorst U, Wellnitz B, Kinkeldei J, Boehm BO, Weihrauch G, Maerz W.\nArch Intern Med. 2008 Jun 23;168(12):1340-9.\nPMID: 18574092
25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and the risk of mortality in the general population.
Melamed ML, Michos ED, Post W, Astor B.
Arch Intern Med. 2008 Aug 11;168(15):1629-37.
PMID: 18695076
Vitamin D supplementation to prevent infections: a sub-study of a randomised placebo-controlled trial in older people (RECORD trial, ISRCTN 51647438).\nAvenell A, Cook JA, Maclennan GS, Macpherson GC.\nAge Ageing. 2007 Sep;36(5):574-7. Epub 2007 Aug 15. No abstract available.\nPMID: 17702768 \ndoi:10.1093/ageing/afm091
Association Between Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Level and Upper Respiratory Tract Infection. \nAdit A. Ginde, MD, MPH; Jonathan M. Mansbach, MD; Carlos A. Camargo Jr, MD, DrPH . \nArch Intern Med. 2009;169(4):384-390\n
Plasma Phosphatidylcholine Docosahexaenoic Acid Content and Risk of Dementia and Alzheimer Disease: The Framingham Heart StudyErnst J. Schaefer, Vanina Bongard, Alexa S. Beiser, Stefania Lamon-Fava, Sander J. Robins, Rhoda Au, Katherine L. Tucker, David
Resveratrol: Isomeric Molar Absorptivities and Stability Brent C. Trela and Andrew L. Waterhouse J. Agric. Food Chem. 1996, 44, 1253-1257 Department of Viticulture and Enology, University of California, Davis, California 95616
Fruit and vegetables: the unexpected natural answer to the question of osteoporosis prevention?
Lanham-New SA.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Jun;83(6):1254-5. No abstract available.
PMID: 16762933
Statins and vitamin D.
Aloia JF, Li-Ng M, Pollack S.
Am J Cardiol. 2007 Oct 15;100(8):1329. Epub 2007 Jul 5. No abstract available.
PMID: 17920383
A total of 208 women were randomized to receive vitamin D3 (n=104) or placebo (n=104). 51 women were on statins. At baseline, the subjects on statins had a significantly higher 25-OHD level than the subjects who were not on statins (51.2 ± 20.1 nmol/L versus 43.2 ± 18.0 nmol/L respectively, p=0.008). This was also true when averaging 25-OHD levels across the 3-year study period and looking at active and placebo patients separately. 185 subjects had follow-up 25-OHD levels drawn every 6 months during the study. Higher levels were seen in the statin use subgroup whether they were on placebo or active vitamin D (Figure 1Figure 1). There was no interaction seen between vitamin D use and statin use, i.e. the impacts are additive (p=0.5502). This significant difference is comparable to the increase in 25-OHD levels seen in Pérez-Castrillón's study (41 ± 19 versus 47 ± 19 nmol/L, p=0.003) [1]. Although Pérez-Castrillón et al found a statistically significant relation between total cholesterol and 25-OHD (r=0.277, p=0.002), we did not find a significant relation between total cholesterol and 25-OHD in our study population.
Matsuoka, L. Y., Wortsman, J., Hanifan, N. & Holick, M. F. (1988)
Chronic sunscreen use decreases circulating concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D: a preliminary study.
Arch. Dermatol. 124:1802-1804
Geographic variation of prostate cancer mortality rates in the United States: Implications for prostate cancer risk related to vitamin D.
Grant WB.
Int J Cancer. 2004 Sep 1;111(3):470-1; author reply 472. No abstract available.
PMID: 15221981
10.1002/ijc.20220
The implications of our results and those of Tuohimaa et al.[1] include the following. Vitamin D supplementation should be undertaken in wintertime, a period when it is impossible to produce vitamin D by solar UVB exposure in northeastern states.[13] Given these new results, the optimal vitamin D intake and production and serum 25(OH)-vitamin D3 levels for prostate cancer appear to be lower than for other cancers. However, when developing guidelines for vitamin D fortification, many factors should be included in the analysis, including all of the potential health benefits and possible risks of vitamin D, as well as age, sex, residence, child-bearing status, etc.[14] Also, the suggestion that daily vitamin D3 supplement doses of 100 g (4,000 IU)/day are safe[15] should be reexamined. Finally, in terms of preventing prostate cancer, more attention should be given to diet, which has the greatest environmental impact on risk of prostate cancer, with animal products being important risk factors and vegetable products, especially onions and other allium family members, being important risk-reduction factors.[16]
Conclusion A low-carbohydrate plant-based diet has lipid-lowering advantages over a high-carbohydrate, low-fat weight-loss diet in improving heart disease risk factors not seen with conventional low-fat diets with animal products.
The Effect of a Plant-Based Low-Carbohydrate ("Eco-Atkins") Diet on Body Weight and Blood Lipid Concentrations in Hyperlipidemic Subjects
David J. A. Jenkins; Julia M. W. Wong; Cyril W. C. Kendall; Amin Esfahani; Vivian W. Y. Ng; Tracy C. K. Leong; Dorothea A. Faulkner; Ed Vidgen; Kathryn A. Greaves; Gregory Paul; William Singer
Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(11):1046-1054.
DOI: 10.1001/archinternmed.2009.115
Demographic differences and trends of vitamin D insufficiency in the US population, 1988-2004.
Ginde AA, Liu MC, Camargo CA Jr.
Arch Intern Med. 2009 Mar 23;169(6):626-32.
PMID: 19307527
Conclusions National data demonstrate a marked decrease in serum 25(OH)D levels from the 1988-1994 to the 2001-2004 NHANES data collections. Racial/ethnic differences have persisted and may have important implications for known health disparities. Current recommendations for vitamin D supplementation are inadequate to address the growing epidemic of vitamin D insufficiency.