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Dietary recommendations for vitamin D: a critical need for functional end points to establish an estimated average requirement. Whiting SJ, Calvo MS. J Nutr. 2005 Feb;135(2):304-9. Review. PMID: 15671232 In summary, vitamin D has emerged as a critical nutrient for which there is a compelling health need to establish adequate dietary guidelines in North America and worldwide given the increasing evidence of vitamin D deficiency and insufficient links to risk of chronic disease. We strongly argue that now there are enough data to consider setting an estimated average requirement for vitamin D and to recognize the crucial need for more research to determine the role of vitamin D in noncalciotropic functions and prevention of chronic diseases

Vitamin D supplementation and total mortality: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Autier P, Gandini S. Arch Intern Med. 2007 Sep 10;167(16):1730-7. Review. PMID: 17846391 Conclusions Intake of ordinary doses of vitamin D supplements seems to be associated with decreases in total mortality rates. The relationship between baseline vitamin D status, dose of vitamin D supplements, and total mortality rates remains to be investigated. Population-based, placebo-controlled randomized trials with total mortality as the main end point should be organized for confirming these findings.

Concentrations of vitamin D3 and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 in raw and cooked New Zealand beef and lamb. Roger Purchas, Maggie Zoua, Philip Pearcea and Felicity Jackson- Journal of Food Composition and Analysis Volume 20, Issue 2, March 2007, Pages 90-98 For lamb, the highest levels of vitamin D3 were in the shoulder chop both before and after cooking, while levels were lowest in the rack muscle. Similar cut differences were shown for 25OHD3 concentrations. For beef there were no significant differences between the cuts for vitamin D3, but concentrations of 25OHD3 were lower in the striploin before and after cooking, Vitamin D3 levels tended to be higher in beef cuts than in lamb cuts, but the opposite held for 25OHD3. Concentrations of vitamin D3 were similar to those in other reports, but the 25OHD3 levels were at the high end of reported ranges. With 25OHD3 being more potent than vitamin D3, it is concluded that meat can make a useful contribution of this vitamin to the human diet.

After much consideration into this blog's new name in the light of my new direction, the decision has been made. "Free the Animal" Why? First, if you read that post linked above, you know that my health and fitness approach is perfectly in harmony with my philosophical approach; and hence, my approach to politics and all that. In other words, a big part of the reason I have discovered something that truly works; and moreover, is the simplest, most natural, downright fun way of living: that gets you lean and fit; gets you feeling and sleeping great; and gets you looking years and years younger is precisely because I don't believe in the gods of heaven or earth, we evolved over millions of years and are conditioned by survival pressures that in no way include all vegetable diets, gorging on bottled water all day, eating ground grass seeds (grains and derivatives) running on a treadmill or elliptical, or involving ourselves in social schemes and cons that leave us powerless, with no influence, and at the mercy of the crowd and collective (the cannibal pot). Some have a lot of the pieces and do good work. I have all of the major pieces, though acquiring all of the specifics is a lifelong and never-ending journey of discovery. I will focus on essentials and specifics that really matter to me and others living a normal life in pursuit of survival, prosperity and happiness. I will point to other sources that provide more depth in specific areas that are of interest to only some

Induction of ovarian cancer cell apoptosis by 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 through the down-regulation of telomerase. Jiang F, Bao J, Li P, Nicosia SV, Bai W. J Biol Chem. 2004 Dec 17;279(51):53213-21. Epub 2004 Oct 12. PMID: 15485861 doi: 10.1074/jbc.M410395200 Overall, the study suggests that the down-regulation of telomerase activity by 1,25(OH)2VD3 and the resulting cell death are important components of the response of OCa cells to 1,25(OH)2VD3-induced growth suppression. Progressive shortening of telomere associated with cell divisions limits the life span of normal cells and eventually leads to senescence. To become immortal, human cancers including OCa are invariably associated with activation of mechanism that maintains telomere length. Approximately 85-90% of cancers show reactivation of telomerase. The present study shows that telomerase in OCa cells is down-regulated by 1,25(OH)2VD3. Down-regulation of telomerase is due to decreased stability of hTERT mRNA rather than VDRE-mediated transcriptional repression through the putative VDRE present in the regulatory region of the hTERT gene. It is known that the inhibition of telomerase may lead to a phenotypic lag during which cells would continue to divide until the point at which the telomeres became critically short. This phenomenon may explain why the apoptotic induction by 1,25(OH)2VD3 needs the treatment for more than 6 days. As mentioned in the results, no detectable shortening of telomeric repeats was observed in parental OVCAR3 cells after 9 days of treatment with 1,25(OH)2VD3 (Fig. 4D). This is likely due to the fact that the short telomere (about 3 kb) in OVCAR3 cells is very close to the minimal length required for survival and that cells with detectably shorter telomere may have been selected against apoptosis. It has been shown that transformed human cells enter crisis once the terminal restriction fragment of the telomere reaches a length of about 4 kb. This is insufficient to protect chro