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"With daily news reports warning of a swine flu pandemic, members have besieged our health advisors with questions about what they should do to protect themselves against the H1N1 (swine flu) virus. The good news is that Life Extension® members obtain a considerable amount of immune support via the supplements they already use, especially those taking high-dose vitamin D. An important question, however, is what one should do if they develop symptoms of a viral infection? As the days grow colder, the risks of contracting common flu and cold viruses increase. Each year, flu virus infections kill around 36,000 Americans and cause miseries for millions.1 An outbreak of the swine flu virus is expected this winter. While certain supplements (and drugs) purport to shorten the duration of a viral infection, most of them fail to provide significant relief. Over the past 28 years, Life Extension® personnel have experimented with various nutrients, hormones, and drugs in order to minimize the impact of the common cold and typical flu viruses. In this article, I will reveal what has worked for me personally to ward off common cold/flu viruses and what has been validated in the scientific literature to be effective. I will also elaborate on some aggressive prescription drug strategies to consider in the event that you contract a severe form of swine flu or other type of influenza."

Life has no certainty, you never know, when your destiny will turn around and provides you unwanted health trouble. Today if we look into our lifestyle then we can realize it that we are so much busy in our day to day lives that we do not even have time for healthier food, and so the reason we somehow rely on the meals which are not excellent for our health. Perhaps our stressful lifetime don't let us a chance to take in, but still it is always essential that we should give main concerns to our health so that we can do our jobs nicely.

Vitamin D in cancer patients: above all, do no harm. Goodwin PJ. J Clin Oncol. 2009 May 1;27(13):2117-9. Epub 2009 Apr 6. PMID: 19349538

"We are fond of grumbling about Britain's grey skies, but there may be a good medical reason for doing so. It seems the dreary weather is bad for our hearts - worse, even, than raised cholesterol and an unhealthy diet. That's the controversial claim being made by Dr David Grimes, a gastroenterologist from Blackburn. He's been gazing at the sky for 20 years for clues about why his patients get more sick than those in the south of the country. And what he's found turns key assumptions about heart disease on their head. 'It's not diet or cholesterol levels that raise your risk of heart disease,' he claims. 'It's where you live. People in the north are more likely to be ill because they get less sunshine Basically they are suffering from 'latitude' sickness. The link is vitamin D. While we get some from our diet, the main source is the sun - sunlight converts a compound in the skin into vitamin D, so the amount you make is directly related to the amount of sunshine you get. In a new book Dr Grimes argues the higher the level of vitamin D in your blood, the lower your risk of heart disease and a range of other illnesses. If he's right, what we need is not diet and lifestyle advice, but food fortified with vitamin D. For years the vitamin was thought to be useful only for preventing rickets. So how does he treat them? 'You can do it with diet,' he says 'One Bangladeshi woman eats oily fish every day and now has a vitamin D blood level of 40. 'We give supplements of 1,000 international units (IU) a day or we can give an injection of 300,000 IU that lasts for a year. 'The patients respond well,' says Grimes 'but what's needed is a proper controlled, long-term trial and who is going to fund that? Not a drug company.'"

"Do Your Vitamin D Research Here Links to all the Latest Research Studies Welcome to the Vitamin D Research Library. Here you'll find links to all of the latest Vitamin D Facts and Research studies, clinical trials and other scholarly Vitamin D Facts. The Research Library is Open 24/7 and is always growing. I'll be adding more and more links all of the time. Can't find what you are looking for or just don't want to spend the time doing the research yourself? Chances are, I've already done the Vitamin D Research myself and can answer your question."

"Do Your Vitamin D Research Here Links to all the Latest Research Studies Welcome to the Vitamin D Research Library. Here you'll find links to all of the latest Vitamin D Facts and Research studies, clinical trials and other scholarly Vitamin D Facts. The Research Library is Open 24/7 and is always growing. I'll be adding more and more links all of the time. Can't find what you are looking for or just don't want to spend the time doing the research yourself? Chances are, I've already done the Vitamin D Research myself and can answer your question. Read Frequently Asked Questions about Vitamin D OR Ask Your Question About Vitamin D Here and I'll answer your Question about Vitamin D Personally based on the best available Vitamin D Research."

Serum vitamin D concentration and prostate cancer risk: a nested case-control study. Ahn J, Peters U, Albanes D, Purdue MP, Abnet CC, Chatterjee N, Horst RL, Hollis BW, Huang WY, Shikany JM, Hayes RB; Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial Project Team. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2008 Jun 4;100(11):796-804. Epub 2008 May 27. PMID: 18505967 doi:10.1093/jnci/djn152 CONCLUSION: The findings of this large prospective study do not support the hypothesis that vitamin D is associated with decreased risk of prostate cancer; indeed, higher circulating 25(OH)D concentrations may be associated with increased risk of aggressive disease. In summary, results from this large prospective study of men who underwent standardized prostate cancer screening in the context of a screening trial do not support the hypothesis that higher serum vitamin D status is associated with decreased risk of prostate cancer. The study showed no association of vitamin D level with nonaggressive disease; however, it raises the possibility that higher vitamin D level may be associated with increased risks for aggressive disease, although a clear monotonic dose-response relationship was lacking. Along with recent reports of adverse associations for higher vitamin D status and risk of pancreatic (32) and esophageal (33,34) cancer, caution should be taken in recommending high doses of vitamin D or sunlight exposure to the general public for prostate cancer prevention. Future analyses are warranted to confirm these results and to further clarify the effects of vitamin D on aggressive prostate cancer.

"Dr. Jodie Burton is the acting principal investigator (PI) of the dose-escalation trial of oral vitamin D3 with calcium supplementation in patients with multiple sclerosis with Dr. O'Connor. She started the trial as his fellow, while doing an additional 2 years of training in MS specifically after she received her neurology certification. She completed her fellowship training in 2007. Now she is staff doing clinical research and continuing with the vitamin D trial. As of August 2009, she will be Assistant Professor in Neurology in the Department of Clinical Neuroscience in Calgary and at the University of Calgary. She will be part of the MS team there with Dr. Luanne Metz and the MS group. Please scroll down for an abstract of the trial: A Phase I/II dose-escalation trial of oral vitamin D3 with calcium supplementation in patients with multiple sclerosis." Conclusions: High-dose VD3 (~10 000 IU/day, possibly higher) in MS is safe and tolerable, with evidence of clinical improvement."

How much vitamin D3 do the elderly need? Viljakainen HT, Palssa A, Kärkkäinen M, Jakobsen J, Lamberg-Allardt C. J Am Coll Nutr. 2006 Oct;25(5):429-35. PMID: 17031013 Conclusions: A clear dose response was noted in S-25-OHD to different doses of vitamin D3. The recommended dietary intake of 15 µg is adequate to maintain the S-25-OHD concentration around 40-55 nmol/L during winter, but if the optimal S-25-OHD is higher than that even higher vitamin D intakes are needed. Interestingly, subjects with lower vitamin D status at baseline responded more efficiently to supplementation than those with more adequate status

Environmental risk factors for autism: Do they help cause de novo genetic mutations that contribute to the disorder? Kinney DK, Barch DH, Chayka B, Napoleon S, Munir KM. Med Hypotheses. 2009 Aug 20. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 19699591

Zittermann A, Schleithoff SS, Koerfer R. Vitamin D insufficiency in congestive heart failure: why and what to do about it? Heart Fail Rev. 2006 Mar;11(1):25-33. PMID: 16819575 [PubMed - in process]

Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Levels Among US Children Aged 1 to 11 Years: Do Children Need More Vitamin D? Mansbach JM, Ginde AA, Camargo CA Jr. Pediatrics. 2009 Nov;124(5):1404-1410. PMID: 19951983 CONCLUSIONS: On the basis of a nationally representative sample of US children aged 1 to 11 years, millions of children may have suboptimal levels of 25(OH)D, especially non-Hispanic black and Hispanic children. More data in children are needed not only to understand better the health implications of specific serum levels of 25(OH)D but also to determine the appropriate vitamin D supplement requirements for children.

Vitamin D and skin physiology: a D-lightful story. Holick MF, Chen TC, Lu Z, Sauter E. J Bone Miner Res. 2007 Dec;22 Suppl 2:V28-33. PMID: 18290718 doi: 10.1359/jbmr.07s211 Very few foods naturally contain vitamin D, and those that do have a very variable vitamin D content. Recently it was observed that wild caught salmon had between 75% and 90% more vitamin D(3) compared with farmed salmon. The associations regarding increased risk of common deadly cancers, autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases, and cardiovascular disease with living at higher latitudes and being prone to vitamin D deficiency should alert all health care professionals about the importance of vitamin D for overall health and well being. Humans have depended on sunlight for their vitamin D requirement. The impact of season, time of day, and latitude on vitamin D synthesis is well documented.(2,3) We now report that altitude also has a dramatic influence on vitamin D3 production and that living at altitudes above 3500 m permits previtamin D3 production at a time when very little is produced at latitudes below 3400 m. It was surprising that, at 27° N in Agra (169 M), little previtamin D3 production was observed. However, there was significant air pollution that caused a haze over the city. It is likely the ozone and other UVB-absorbing pollutants in the air prevented the solar UVB photons from reaching the earth's surface to produce previtamin D3.

The association of solar ultraviolet B (UVB) with reducing risk of cancer: multifactorial ecologic analysis of geographic variation in age-adjusted cancer mortality rates. Grant WB, Garland CF. Anticancer Res. 2006 Jul-Aug;26(4A):2687-99. PMID: 16886679 CONCLUSION: These results provide additional support for the hypothesis that solar UVB, through photosynthesis of vitamin D, is inversely-associated with cancer mortality rates, and that various other cancer risk-modifying factors do not detract from this link. It is thought that sun avoidance practices after 1980, along with improved cancer treatment, led to reduced associations in the latter period. The results regarding solar UVB should be studied further with additional observational and intervention studies of vitamin D indices and cancer incidence, mortality and survival rates.

Fatigue fractures in military conscripts : A study on risk factors, diagnostics and long-term consequences Ruohola, Juha-Petri University of Helsinki, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Helsinki University Central Hospital Centre of Military Medicine, Helsinki 2007-03-09 Doctoral dissertation (article-based) It seems likely that low vitamin D levels are related to fatigue fractures, and that an increasing trend exists between TRACP-5b bone resorption marker elevation and fatigue fracture incidence. Though seldom detected by plain radiography, fatigue fractures often underlie unclear lower leg stress-related pain occurring in the distal parts of the tibia. Femoral neck fatigue fractures, when displaced, lead to long-term morbidity in a high percentage of patients, whereas, when non-displaced, they do not predispose patients to subsequent adverse complications. Importantly, an educational intervention can diminish the incidence of fracture displacement by enhancing awareness and providing instructions for earlier diagnosis of fatigue fractures

Prospective study of serum vitamin D and cancer mortality in the United States. Freedman DM, Looker AC, Chang SC, Graubard BI. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2007 Nov 7;99(21):1594-602. Epub 2007 Oct 30. PMID: 17971526 doi:10.1093/jnci/djm204 CONCLUSIONS: Our results do not support an association between 25(OH)D and total cancer mortality, although there was an inverse relationship between 25(OH)D levels and colorectal cancer mortality.

Plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D and risk of incident ovarian cancer. Tworoger SS, Lee IM, Buring JE, Rosner B, Hollis BW, Hankinson SE. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2007 Apr;16(4):783-8. PMID: 17416771 doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-06-0981 Overall, our results do not suggest that plasma vitamin D levels are associated with risk of ovarian cancer. However, we observed significant associations in some subgroups, which should be evaluated further in other studies because increasing vitamin D intake is an easy preventive measure to adopt.

In the last post, we talked about the new report on vitamin D and cancer from the International Agency for Research into Cancer (IARC). In this one, we'll summarise what the report has to say on the balance between getting enough vitamin D through sun exposure and reducing the risk of skin cancer by being SunSmart. IARC calls for more trials to really pin down the effects of vitamin D supplements - either positive or negative - depending on how much vitamin D people already have in their system. Until then, they feel that there is no solid basis for changing any existing recommendations about vitamin D.

Prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in Brazilian adolescents. Peters BS, dos Santos LC, Fisberg M, Wood RJ, Martini LA. Ann Nutr Metab. 2009;54(1):15-21. Epub 2009 Feb 5. PMID: 19194104 DOI: 10.1159/000199454 CONCLUSIONS: The present study suggests that even in a sunny climate like Brazil the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in adolescents is high. Most likely this is due to low intakes of vitamin D in this group. Due to the limited extent of natural dietary sources of vitamin D, a policy of vitamin D food fortification should be considered in the future, and in the meantime greater use of vitamin D supplements in this population group should be encouraged to provide the increased amounts of this essential nutrient for optimal health.