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http://www.taccuinistorici.it/fotoricette/584.jpg
Hello everybody!
I'm Iko, cofactor and vitamin enthusiastic supporter
and well known cod liver oil maniac around here.
I opened this CLO topic to complement my previous
"Childhood leukemia" topic in Physiol.&Med.
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=4987.msg41687#msg41687
You are kindly invited to read and discuss both topics.
Enjoy
iko
It's about whether to strongly and officially recommend a nontoxic nutrient when data to prove its efficacy are still unconfirmed.
In the case of diseases of unknown cause and poor treatment results
...unsatisfactory results, or 'suboptimal' if you prefer.
It's Philosophy of Science and practical medicine altogether
ikod [^]
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.religiousforums.com%2Fforum%2Fimages%2Fsmilies%2FBow.gif&hash=e482421b150bbc62645cda76cb723d1a) thanks to the >100000 viewers (just unbelievable!)
I'll try to share with you some recent good & bad things about:
cod liver oil (CLO),
an obsolete remedy of the past for some,
number-one superfood for others.
Even if CLO contains large amounts of Vitamin A and D3, Omega-3 fatty acids, it MUST stay here in Complementary Medicine.
You do not need a doctor or a prescription to give a glass of orange juice or a teaspoon/caps of CLO to your kids every day.
Specific topics about Vit.A or D should go to Physiology and Medicine...but I'm sure that you won't mind if I attach some vitamin post here too.
If you asked this fool on the hill which is the most amazing report about Cod Liver Oil (CLO) in the recent past, he would not have any doubt:
Maternal supplementation with very-long-chain n-3 fatty acids during pregnancy
and lactation augments children's IQ at 4 years of age.
Helland IB, Smith L, Saarem K, Saugstad OD, Drevon CA.
Pediatrics. 2003 Jan;111(1):e39-44.
To read the abstract click down here:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=12509593&query_hl=6&itool=pubmed_docsum
Pediatrics 2003, Norwegian research, scientifically sound:
Children more clever at 4yrs
with one spoon of CLO per day
during pregnancy and lactation!
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpediatrics.aappublications.org%2Fcontent%2Fvol111%2Fissue1%2Fimages%2Fmedium%2Fpe0135905001.gif&hash=4db2957fef194bef4a60a29ad4458759)
Fig. 1. Scores on the K-ABC for children whose mothers had taken cod liver oil (n = 48) or corn oil (n = 36) during pregnancy and lactation. Values for the different subtests are shown. MPCOMP, Mental Processing Composite; SEQPROC, Sequential Processing; SIMPROC, Simultaneous Processing; NONVERB, Nonverbal Abilities.
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs-2000.com%2Fhi-iq%2Fimages%2Fhiqw1.gif&hash=a52805c8b3cb705d57fdb7c22629ff36) (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.innovationcanada.ca%2F18%2Fimages%2Frose_8-z.jpg&hash=8eda4ca4c88bf88ad32cf4debea46e61)
http://s-2000.com/hi-iq/images/hiqw1.gif
http://www.innovationcanada.ca/18/images/rose_8-z.jpg
Neat eh?
...when I've got this information my two sons had already grown up!
Some people could still make it with their children.
A good point to start a mini-review and/or discussion.
iko
"Il sole dona la vita, il sole se la riprende" M.U. Dianzani, 1975.
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Well, I was fed cod liver oil as a child – read into that what you will.
George
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You see, unfortunately I was not...and my brain is just a mess.
I knew from a miracle-cure story in my family (grandfather) that it had to be a great thing.
Click above if you want to read my grandfather's story...
Stupid of me, I never gave it to my children (before 1999)
because "I thought" it might be contaminated and all that blablabla...
You can easily check it out these days:
there is no major problem of contamination
(not more than fruit and salad)
but just good golden stuff.
quote:
We may be paying a very high price for our rejection of parental wisdom to take our cod liver oil.
Krispin Sullivan 2002
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcache.boston.com%2Fbonzai-fba%2FGlobe_Photo%2F2004%2F04%2F20%2F1082464098_6093.jpg&hash=85f4c5fc3c259f17f55d6b5c935d9d1c) (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lung.ca%2Ftb%2Fimages%2Ffull_archive%2F006_codLiverOil.jpg&hash=ab69c998b71e9d651a87d5b572202eb4) (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mmaonline.net%2FPublications%2FMNMed2005%2FNovember%2FImages%2Fsun.gif&hash=844fef17c08a93edd025a83988db07bf)
Fish oil over time
1890s Cod-liver oil is used as a home remedy to treat rickets, rheumatism, tuberculosis and other ailments.
1930s Fish oil is used as a key ingredient in shortening.
1950s Dale Alexander publishes a book touting cod-liver oil as an elixir for arthritis, earning him the nickname the "codfather."
1970s Researchers find that Greenland's Inuit have low levels of heart disease, likely because of diets rich in fish.
It is one of the first associations between omega-3 fatty acids and good health.
1990s As studies increase on the benefits of omega-3s, more consumers start taking fish oil pills made from a variety of fish.
2000 Aquaculture demands more and more fish oil.
Today Fish oil begins to be injected into bread and tamales, among other foods.
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg132.imageshack.us%2Fimg132%2F9374%2Fththpiratepenginor4.gif&hash=faed10ea429e5bef91e958238ef07131)
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/9374/ththpiratepenginor4.gif
ikod
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Nothing new under the sun...
...In northern latitudes (Iowa), sunshine is too diminished in the winter for infants to generate vitamin D on their own. At the begining of the last century, it was standard practice to give breastfed infants a teaspoon of cod liver oil which averages 440 IU of vitamin D3 per day.
When the use of formula became popular, enough vitamin D was added to the formula to prevent deficiency.
Then since the 1970s women returned to breast feeding, but they never resumed the practice of giving their babies any dietary supplement...
Brestfed infants living in temperate climates often deficient in vitamin D
Pediatrics 2006;118:603-610.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/542395?src=mp
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You have to look for properly controlled, high quality CLO...
...Values of PCBs and DDTs, although below the range of 1 to 4 pg of TEQ per kg of body weight per day set by the World Health Organization, emphasize the need for strict and continuous monitoring of fish oil contamination to reduce, as much as possible, the risks to human health.
Proper Quality Controls are routinely performed by the majority of tha COD producers.
Polychlorinated biphenyls, hexachlorobenzene, hexachlorocyclohexane isomers, and pesticide organochlorine residues in cod-liver oil dietary supplements.
Storelli MM, Storelli A, Marcotrigiano GO.
Pharmacological-Biological Department, Chemistry and Biochemistry Section, Veterinary Medicine Faculty, University of Bari, Strada Prov le per Casamassima Km 3, 70010 Valenzano (Ba), Italy.
Levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), hexachlorobenzene, hexachlorocyclohexane isomers (alpha, beta, gamma), and chlorinated pesticides (DDTs) in cod-liver oil used as a dietary supplement were determined. Total PCB and DDT concentrations varied from 25 to 201 ng g(-1) lipid weight basis and from 25 to 133 ng g(-1) lipid weight basis, respectively. Hexachlorobenzene contributed very little to the overall contaminant burden of dietary supplement oils, whereas hexachlorocyclohexane isomers were below the instrumental detection limits in all samples. The daily intake of PCBs and DDTs derived by the consumption of cod-liver oil at manufacturer-recommended doses varied from 0.004 to 2.01 microg/day and from 0.004 to 1.24 microg/day, respectively. Relative to some dioxin-like PCB congeners (mono-ortho PCB 105, 118, and 156; non-ortho PCB 77, 126, and 169), the intakes calculated varied from less than 0.001 to 0.74 pg of toxic equivalency values (TEQ) per kg of body weight per day. These values, although below the range of 1 to 4 pg of TEQ per kg of body weight per day set by the World Health Organization, emphasize the need for strict and continuous monitoring of fish oil contamination to reduce, as much as possible, the risks to human health.
J Food Prot. 2004 Aug;67(8):1787-91.
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Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored
Aldous Huxley
...Vitamin D was used to treat a variety of skin diseases including psoriasis in the 1930s. However, it was not until the mid-1980s that the terapeutic potential of vitamin D in skin diseases reemerged.
A dramatic improvement was seen in the psoriatic lesions in a patient receiving oral 1alpha-hydroxyvitamin D3 to treat severe osteoporosis (171).
...from a nice and thick, recent review by Adriana S. Dusso and coll.:
Vitamin D
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=15951480&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum
Comment:
Psoriasis is the most common disease of the skin.
Incidence of psoriasis is about 2% of the population in USA...
http://www.postgradmed.com/issues/1999/09_99/mohla.htm
Now calculate how many patients approximately could have had some benefit from cod liver oil administration in those fifty years (1935-85)...
iko
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.groundfishforum.org%2FProject%2F2006cod.jpeg&hash=cc79e8c856317c363f7dd226e01ad9ba)
http://www.groundfishforum.org/Project/2006cod.jpeg
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Dr. Michael Holick(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uvadvantage.org%2Fportals%2F0%2Fpres%2Fvideo%2Fvideo%2Fslides%2Fslide08.jpg&hash=fd75e40975b6e7be13592212ae6bbafe)
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bumc.bu.edu%2Fbusm-news%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F01%2Fmichael-holick-image-reduced3.jpg&hash=5dda1e21fdb44d623b33ae4ab2ab4a99)
http://www.uvadvantage.org/portals/0/pres/video/video/slides/slide08.jpg
http://www.bumc.bu.edu/busm-news/files/2009/01/michael-holick-image-reduced3.jpg
http://images.livescience.com/images/060328_tanning_bed_02.jpg
Vitamin D deficiency Epidemics in the new Millennium.
...
Adams: It seems like vitamin D is misnamed. It's not really a vitamin in the classic sense, is it?
Dr.
Michael Holick: It's a good point, and the reason for it is as follows. It was recognized in the mid-1800s that if you gave
cod liver oil to children who had rickets, it could cure rickets. And if you gave cod liver oil to children without rickets, it prevented them from getting rickets. So people thought that there was a vitamin present that was necessary for bone health. And that vitamin was finally identified by taking cod liver oil and boiling it, because once you boil cod liver oil, the vitamin A in it gets destroyed. Originally they thought it was vitamin A that was responsible for bone health, but when they boiled it and destroyed the vitamin A, the anti-ricketic activity, that is the bone health activity, was still present in the cod liver oil. And so it was named vitamin D, because there had already been identified a vitamin A, a B and a C, so the next in line was vitamin D.
...more in:
Vitamin D deficiency is widespread among U.S. population, expectant mothers are deficient and giving birth to deficient infants.
January 1st 2005
http://www.newstarget.com/z003205.html
ikod
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Should Vitamin D be Given to Cancer Patients?
The answer is easy when you ask the question another way. Should cancer patients be treated for their vitamin D deficiency? Most people, including those serving on malpractice juries, might think so.
But which vitamin D is the best? Is it the kind of vitamin D one can get from exposure to the sun or fish oil? Or do the scientists who are trying to create more profitable and expensive vitamin D treatment for cancer have the right idea?
The upcoming National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health conference on cancer and vitamin D Nov. 17-19 2004 in Bethesda, Md., (free to the public) promises to be an interesting match with two very different groups of scientists slugging it out.
Why? Vitamin D will greatly increase tissue levels of calcitriol which has remarkable anticancer properties. Moreover, a lot of epidemiological evidence suggests that plain old vitamin D helps prevent normal cells from turning cancerous. Because cancer is a dynamic process, it makes sense to do everything one can do to prevent healthy cells from turning into malignant ones, especially in cancer patients.
from: Medical News Today October 11, 2004
http://www.alternativecancerdiet.com/articles/2004/10/index.html
not so much "alternative" so far, I must say...
iko
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...for a change, here is one of the few negative news about 'cod'.
Fish tale From cod liver to fatty acids, fish oil has long been considered healthy, but some say the current versions may do more harm than good.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/health_science/articles/2004/04/20/fish_tale/
Note:
fish liver oils contain vit.A+Vit.D3+omega-3 fatty acids.
fish oils contain omega-3 fatty acids mainly.
Vit.A&Vit.D3 are fat-soluble and do accumulate in the body: doses higher than reccomended may lead to toxicity.
iko
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Effect of daily cod liver oil and a multivitamin-mineral supplement with selenium on upper respiratory tract pediatric visits by young, inner-city, Latino children: randomized pediatric sites.
...the effect of daily supplementation with lemon-flavored cod liver oil and a children's multivitamin-mineral supplement containing selenium on the number of pediatric visits by young, inner-city, Latino children from late autumn of 2002 through early spring of 2003. Two private pediatric offices with similar demographics, located 1.1 miles apart in upper Manhattan, New York City, were randomized to a supplementation site and a medical records control site. Ninety-four children (47 at each site), 6 months to 5 years of age, were enrolled.
...
The supplements were well tolerated; per parental report, 70% of children completed the 5- to 6-month course of cod liver oil. Use of these nutritional supplements was acceptable to the inner-city Latino families and their young children, and was associated with a decrease in upper respiratory tract pediatric visits over time; this approach therefore deserves further research and attention.
Linday LA, Shindledecker RD, Tapia-Mendoza J, Dolitsky JN.
Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol. 2004 Nov;113(11):891-901.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=15562899&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_DocSum
This after just 5-6 months...can you imagine after one or more years?
Do something 'cod' for your kid!
iko
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So, Dr Iko,
Is it your considered opinion that CLO is a good thing to take for the young and old ?.........Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages ?
Thank you Dr Iko [:)]
Men are the same as women, just inside out !
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Wow! deep breath...one question for me.
I'll quit asking myself questions for a while.
Please call me iko or Enrico if you prefer. I'm here as a parent more than a doc. I was really scared in 1999, I kept this cod-story for myself and used it as a placebo (not to go mad).
Now I feel much better and it's time to send my message in a bottle for other parents like me.
Thanks to this forum: in August I was temporarily alone at home and I found the enthusiasm and the energy (and peace!) to put all these little bits together.
"Is it your considered opinion that CLO is a good thing to take for the young and old ?.........Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages ?
neilep
Of course it is a good point, and I can offer my opinion: I'm not sure about that!
Firstly, there wouldn't be enough for everybody, that's for sure (poor cods!) and so we have to decide a priority list.
I would give it to leukemic children right away, as I tried to explain in the childhood leukemia topic/novel, that should be renamed: engineers&doctors facing statistical analysis...did you read it?
It is a case of neglected evidence that could have been used since 1988 for our patients' sake.
If anybody had wanted confirmed evidence of something like that in a controlled study...
It would have been like dividing airplanes into two groups (red-fluid versus blue-fluid), then
counting the accidents in the two sets until further significant evidence had come out.
Can anybody imagine a placebo group versus cod liver oil in this setting (1/3 die in 5-10yrs)?
Neither that has been done...just nothing.
So I buy it at the supermarket for my younger son (every evening: R. did you take your 'cod'?) and we (wife, older son and myself) take it from time to time as a nutritional supplement. I prefer it as a source of vitamin D because is more historically-proven then any other stuff and combined with other good things like vitamin A and omega-3.
Sometimes it takes years to prove that the natural recipe is better. Do you remember the little story about vitamin A and cancer incidence? I accept all the variables included...fishes and their livers may be different and also vitamin content varies in seasons. Good enough for me.
In the old days CLO had been a remedy for rickets (vitamin D) and a nutritional support (anti-infectious vitamin A) for growing children and it probably was a miracle-cure for undernourished infants.
Today's kids are frequently overnourished, but they might be malnourished paradoxically, eating junk food and keeping away from the sun.
In Northern Europe -where sunshine is a rarity- they used to take cod liver oil in the months with the 'r': from September to April.
Scientific evidence for CLO is lacking: no randomized controlled study, few clinical trials. What I am collecting here in this topic is probably most of the recent "evidence". Old studies are practically rejected by the scientific community because they didn't follow the current standards of clinical investigation.
CLO is out of western medicine now. About 500 citations in PubMed database: almost nothing, in practical terms.
The separate components of cod liver oil will still be used in the near future, but they do not cost enough to support proper clinical studies: vitamin D analogues will probably make it, but it will take years and randomized clinical trials. Trial & error, again.
In my opinion, it should be used just like in the old days.
Many white-haired pediatricians still use it around here.
CLO has certainly been a wonderful placebo for me.
...in 2006 I joined the Wisdom In Medicine Panel (WIMP!) as a junior member. I have been in the Association of Parents Against Leukemia since '99. We are still looking for the Common Sense Committee. It seems a bit difficult to find one though. Then we'll arrange a meeting to revise all these data and take a decision...
Unfortunately, it sounds like a dream right now.
iko
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http://www.outdooralabama.com/images/mainImage2.jpg
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This is wonderful stuff IKO.
THANK YOU
We take it too....based on what you have said we'll continue with it also.
Men are the same as women, just inside out !
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Hi Iko. Is CLO the same as fish oil. I have a bottle of DHA plus Lipase. It has 500 mg of fish oil concentrate and 250 mg of Ogega3 DHA. My mother in law gave this to me for my son. He was diagnosed with ADHD some time ago and she thought this would help. What's your opinion?
Carolyn
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Hi Carolyn! Thanks for calling...
Cod liver oil is not exactly like fish oil
quote:
Note:
fish liver oils contain vit.A+Vit.D3+omega-3 fatty acids.
fish oils contain omega-3 fatty acids mainly.
Vit.A&Vit.D3 are fat-soluble and do accumulate in the body: doses higher than reccomended may lead to toxicity.
iko
So when you give fish oil you are giving omega-3 fatty acids mainly.
Omega-3 may have amazing effects on the human brain and they are currently being tested in patients with bipolar disorder (a type of psychotic depression): there are positive and negative reports, as usual. They just started few years ago...it is a promising field.
There is an interesting book about this by a pharmacology professor, Andrew L. Stoll:
http://www.amazon.com/Omega-3-Connection-Groundbreaking-Anti-depression-Program/dp/0684871386
In proper doses you may be sure to give good nutrients (they come from the sea plankton!) and no toxicity. Even if they don't work, your kid will be safe and well nourished.
I don't know ADHD enough to reccomend anything, but speaking of nutritional supplement and reminding the paper cited at the beginning of this topic, I would suggest to alternate fish oil with CLO.
Vitamin D has also positive effects on the brain.
Check carefully expiring date and storage reccomended conditions: these oils may go rancid quick.
quote:
Control of the nervous system
Vitamin D3 actions in the nervous system include induction of Vitamin D Receptor content (VDR is expressed in the brain and on several regions of the central and peripheral nervous system), the conductance velocity of motor neurons, and the synthesis of neurotrophic factors, such as nerve growth factors and neurotrophyns, that prevent the loss of injured neurons. Vit.D3 also enhances the expression of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor, a potential candidate for treatment of Parkinson's disease.
In addition to increased nerve growth factor, combined treatment with Vit.D3 and 17beta-estradiol in rats elicits neuroprotective effects after focal cortical ischemia induced through the photothrombosis model.
Vit.D3 influences critical components of orderly brain development. In the embrionic rat brain, the VDR increases steadly from day 15 to day 23, and Vit.D3 induces the expression of nerve growth factor and stimulates neurite outgrowth in embryonic hippocampal explants and primary cultures. Low prenatal Vitamin D in utero leads to increased brain size, brain shape, enlarged ventricles, and reduced expression of nerve growth factor in the neonatal rat.
The association of vit.D deficiency and abnormal brain development makes Vitamin D an attractive candidate for tretment of schizophrenia, a disorder resulting from gene-environment interactions that disrupt brain development.
Also, transient prenatal vitamin D deficiency in rats induces hyperlocomotion in adulthood with sever motor abnormalities.
simplified by me from a nice and thick recent review by Adriana S. Dusso and coll.:
Vitamin D
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=15951480&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum
Shortly, there is increasing experimental evidence that vitamin D is just good for the brain.
No negative effects are reported.
Take care
iko
Post Scriptum:
I just found a positive report about ADHD and fish oil. You probably started from this one...let me know. There are so many references to get lost between papers and scientific reports.
It's in another Forum! What a fantastic gigantic basket this Google is...
http://www.feelgoodforum.com/about1564.html
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A jump backwards into the recent past, for a change:
Cod liver oil and industrial absenteeism
quote:
...In the United States, a major concern among industry in the 1930s was the loss of productivity due to illness in the labor force of 36 million. It was estimated that 250 million working days were lost per year of illness.
Arthur Holmes, medical advisor to the E.L.Patch Compant in Boston, calculated that cold and respiratory diseases cost American industries a waste of wages of exactly $494,836,363.68 per year (Holmes et al. 1936). About half of the industrial absenteeism was due to respiratory illness. Holmes and colleagues conducted a trial of cod-liver oil among industrial workers in a factory in the American midwest. Over 300 workers received daily cod-liver oil or no treatment, and the trial included both clerical workers and light- and heavy-machine operators. The outcome of the study was hours of industrial absenteeism due to respiratory illness. Members in the treatment group had 40% lower absenteeism than the control group (Holmes et al. 1932).
A larger trial involving 1800 workers and another with over 3000 workers were reported (Holmes et al. 1936), and these studies suggested that cod-liver oil therapy reduced industrial absenteeism by two-thirds.
Thus cod-liver oil, which was inexpensive, was considered to have tremendous value in saving millions of dollars in lost working days and lost productivity to American industry.
...
From: History of nutrition
Richard D. Semba
Vitamin A as "Anti-Infective" Therapy, 1920-1940.
J.Nutr. 129:783-791, 1999.
Enjoy your free full-text reading here:
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/129/4/783
iko
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.herbsandheirlooms.com%2Fvintagemedicine%2Fpatchol2.JPG&hash=8616434d556c2f60d4febd0a44b29dbc)
http://www.herbsandheirlooms.com/vintagemedicine/patchol2.JPG
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Bone and muscle pain in vitamin D deficiency
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.usatoday.net%2Fnews%2F_photos%2F2008%2F10%2F09%2Fburqax-large.jpg&hash=60a79e634baa0ac02075c6f1ff150f43)
http://i.usatoday.net/news/_photos/2008/10/09/burqax-large.jpg
Short summary from:
G de Torrenté de la Jara, A Pécoud, and B Favrat
Female asylum seekers with musculoskeletal pain:
the importance of diagnosis and treatment of hypovitaminosis D.
Hypovitaminosis D is well known in different populations, but may be underdiagnosed in certain populations. We aim to determine the first diagnosis considered, the duration and resolution of symptoms, and the predictors of response to treatment in female asylum seekers suffering from hypovitaminosis D.
In a network comprising an academic primary care centre and nurse practitioners, in 33 female asylum seekers with complaints compatible with osteomalacia, hypovitaminosis D (serum 25-(OH) vitamin D <21 nmol/l) was diagnosed.
The patients received either two doses of 300,000 IU intramuscular cholecalciferol as well as 800 IU of cholecalciferol with 1000 mg of calcium orally, or the oral treatment only.
We recorded the first diagnosis made by the physicians before the correct diagnosis of hypovitaminosis D, the duration of symptoms before diagnosis, the responders and non-responders to treatment, the duration of symptoms after treatment, and the number of medical visits and analgesic drugs prescribed 6 months before and 6 months after diagnosis.
Prior to the discovery of hypovitaminosis D, diagnoses related to somatisation were evoked in 30 patients (90.9%). The mean duration of symptoms before diagnosis was 2.53 years. Twenty-two patients (66.7%) responded completely to treatment; the remaining patients were considered to be non-responders.
After treatment was initiated, the responders' symptoms disappeared completely after 2.84 months. The mean number of emergency medical visits fell from 0.88 six months before diagnosis to 0.39 after. The mean number of analgesic drugs that were prescribed also decreased from 1.67 to 0.85.
Conclusion
Hypovitaminosis D in female asylum seekers may remain undiagnosed, with a prolonged duration of chronic symptoms.
The potential pitfall is a diagnosis of somatisation.
Treatment leads to a rapid resolution of symptoms, a reduction in the use of medical services, and the prescription of analgesic drugs in this vulnerable population.
BMC Fam Pract. 2006 Jan 23;7:4.
Comment:
Cod liver oil instead of vitamin D3 would have sorted the same effect.
It is impressive how much time it takes (1.4-2.8 months) to reach complete resolution of the symptoms: not even all patient responded, but all of them where vitamin D deficient. One patient required seven months of treatment to be free from symptoms.
Intriguing questions:
- How many times is a vitamin D deficiency suspected in an adult complaining bone and muscle pain?
- How many doctors would refer their patients' improvement to a drug injected or prescribed several months before?
- How many patients would take a drug for such a long time in spite of lack of results?
ikod
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Iko - Thanks for the email and the info. Right now I have a bottle of the fish oil on hand, but getting him to take it is proving to be a difficult task. I'm not sure whether to continue with the fish oil and start the CLO, or to combine the two. I'll have to do more research I guess.
Carolyn
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Carolyn,
I don't know how old your kid is, but it is always a bit difficult to start with these things...later on it becomes a routine, and everything goes fine. I am afraid you'll have to tell stories about plankton and beautiful smelly fishes like Nemo swimming in the sea under the sun, collecting and making wonderful vitamins for him.
And you have to take some caps yourself...and tell him that you like them (!!!). You could even show him the picture in this topic saying that the little boy who had to take 'cod' every day became the smartest guy in the world!
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnewsimg.bbc.co.uk%2Fmedia%2Fimages%2F39503000%2Fjpg%2F_39503968_finding_nemo_203.jpg&hash=07dfd7d4879153c109d7e71e5bd8677e)
newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39503000/jpg/_39503968_finding_nemo_203.jpg
I remember this nice little girl at the hospital who had to take a lot of pills everyday...her younger healthy brother was quite jealous. His sister was going in and out of the hospital, receiving so much attention and care from parents, nurses and doctors. He probably felt neglected. I suggested to give him cod caps. A few weeks later his mother told me that he was the happiest boy, with "his" own medicine at last!
CLO really is the most wonderful placebo in the world!
Even now that he's almost 20yrs old, my younger son forgets about his 'cod'.
That's life.
ikod
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Vitamin D may reduce cancer risk...
quote:
Vitamin D deficiency is associated with an increased risk for cancer, particularly gastrointestinal tract cancer, according to the results of a study of men reported in the April 5 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
What the study found was that with the first incremental increase in blood plasma levels of Vitamin D, compared to a lower baseline, there was an associated 17% reduction in total cancer incidence, a 29% reduction in total cancer mortality and a 45 % reduction in digestive-system cancer mortality. There was also some reduced incidence of leukemia.
The authors were quoted as saying, “The vitamin D supplementation necessary to achieve this (incremental increase) may be at least 1500IU/day.” Current recommendations are adequate only to prevent the disease entity associated with a deficiency of vitamin D, or rickets.
Sun exposure was one of the selected study determinants for calculating the expected serum vitamin D levels and was probably the most important source. The authors state, ” If the promise of vitamin D holds, a brief walk in the sun may turn out to be a step toward cancer prevention.” Further, they state “Although melanomas (skin cancer) account for approximately 7000 deaths annually in males in the United States, 295,000 men die annually of all cancers. We estimate a 29% lower cancer mortality rate (i.e., 85,550 fewer deaths annually) if the predicted (serum vitamin D) levels are increased.”
“What does this all mean, Doc?” It means that while getting a regular dose of UVB via the sun is good, don’t get burned. Repeat; don’t get even a little red. You don’t get to have immunity from stupidity by over doing it. It means that while there are some deleterious effects to sun exposure and some people should minimize their exposure, sunlight (vitamin D) may substantially reduce your risk of certain cancers. And not just a little bit. 45%-decreased death rate is not a little bit. Yes, the rate for skin cancer may rise, but if the overall mortality rate drops even half the estimated amount of 85,550 per year and the mortality rate for melanoma doubles you are talking about a net decrease in the mortality stats of 28,775 men’s lives saved or a net drop from 295,000 per year by almost 10% for all cancer. While this study was directed toward men, a reasonable assumption is there would be some benefit for women as well.
This is big, big news! This journal doesn’t print nutritional studies similar to this often.
And the percentages of decrease in mortality rates are momentous. For me this is the earliest stage of substantiation of sunlight as a powerful preventive measure. Sunlight may not be the best or only way to get your D. And our placement on earth (short days in the winter in our latitude) may not allow us the sun exposure we all need. Some may have to supplement with a tablet or capsule. Those in the high risk for deficiency include vegetarians, couch potatoes, women with closely spaced pregnancies, persons with fat malabsorption syndromes and surgical gall bladder removal, certain medications, diabetes, osteoporosis and the elderly. For those that are in the high risk of deficiency group or don’t get the sunlight you need in the winter, 800 I.U.’s per day from the vitamin form D-3 is best. If you use a cod liver oil, keep track of the D in it and your multiple vitamins. If you have questions about Vitamin D, ask me.
May 3, 2006
from: News For Today's Familes - Eastside Chiropractic Newsletter
http://www.eastsidechiro.org/newsletter/index.php?listid=1&id=24&type=text
Vitamin D big "tsunami" is coming closer and closer...
iko
"Il sole dona la vita, il sole se la riprende" M.U. Dianzani, 1975.
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from: Norwegian Fishing Village Museum
http://www.datadesign.ws/nfmuseum/smithy.htm
COD-LIVER OIL LAMPS
Cod-liver oil lamps are manufactured in the old museum forge, along the lines of the old Nordic cod-liver oil lamps and those found in Nordland from the mid 1800's. The Nordic lamps hang from a wire (or a long hook) attached to the hook on the lamp itself. The Nordland lamps have three wick grooves and require more cod-liver oil than the other type. They can be either be hung up on the wall, or placed on the table.
The cod-liver oil is poured into the upper tray. The slope of the tray can be adjusted by moving the hook along the rail or by placing a suitable object between the table and the lamp. The wick is placed in the tray with the one end in the groove at the front, and can now be lit.
At which point we have "ignited a flame for our ancestors". They did their daily chores in the faint light of these lamps, during the long autumn and winter evenings, for thousands of years.
The flame can be adjusted by pushing or pulling the end of the wick with a stick. If the end of the wick is kept short, the lamp will not smoke or smell. Any cod-liver oil that drips down into the lower tray can be poured back by unhooking the tray.
"...ancient flames to enlight the mistery of leukemia in the new Century..."
iko
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The Cod Liver Oil Factory
...Down by the old harbour, near the beach where they used to haul up the boats, you will find the oldest production plant in Å, the cod-liver oil factory. Here, the fish were braced and hung up on the fish racks to dry, or they were split and salted to make klipfish. The roes were salted in enormous German wine vats of oak, and the cod liver was boiled or steamed into cod liver oil.
In the old days, the liver was just left in the vats and the cod liver oil was skimmed off as the liver fermented in the heat of summer. Later, they began to boil the cod liver in iron cauldrons in order to extract a greater yield of valuable cod liver oil. This was done all year round. The stench was rife all over the fishing village. "You can smell money," people said of both this and the smell of dried fish.
The old Norse name for cod liver oil was "lysi" – light, and the oil was actually used to fuel lamps all over Europe. Moreover, it was used for tanning skins, in the manufacture of paint and soap, and lots more. Cod liver oil and stockfish were for centuries Norway’s most valuable commodity.
Every summer, thousands of barrels of cod liver oil were transported on cargo vessels, the so-called "jekt"s, from Lofoten to Bergen and further on to Europe.
Fish, liver and roes, cooked together and referred to as "mølje", have always been an important and healthy part of the coastal people’s diet. Vitamins A and D and the Omega 3 unsaturated fatty acids in the cod liver oil, helped keep people healthy. It was often said that the cod liver oil makers and other people that took a lot of cod liver oil were seemingly never ill.
Medicinal Cod Liver Oil
Pharmacist Peter Møller wanted to introduce more people to the healthy effects of cod liver oil. In 1854, he built a lined cauldron, filled the space between the cauldron and its lining with water, and steamboiled the fresh cod livers. In this way he greatly improved the quality of the oil. The invention of medicinal cod liver oil was honoured with awards at many trade fairs in Norway and abroad. Later, the cod liver was steamed in conical oak barrels. In order to extract the last remaining drops of precious cod liver oil, the residue of the liver was then squeezed in a liver press before going to the manufacture of cattle feed or fertiliser.
Today, much of the old production equipment can still be seen in the cod liver oil factory at the Norwegian Fishing Village Museum in Å. Cod liver oil is still produced there in the old fashioned manner, and small bottles of it together with cod liver oil lamps are on sale as mementoes from Lofoten.
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lofoten-info.no%2FBilder%2Ftran2.jpg&hash=b6013aedc536cf7ed017bfafb4bc8b7e) (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.worldspirit.org.uk%2Fimages%2Flofoten-1.jpg&hash=9c3d0d839bcdb8a9e87a0586a58ccdd0)
from: Norwegian Fishing Village Museum
http://www.lofoten-info.no/history.htm#5
ikod
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Old News from The New Millennium
quote:
Scientists crack cod liver oil secret
Cod liver oil can help arthritis sufferers
Scientists have identified exactly why cod liver oil is effective in easing the pain and inflammation associated with arthritis.
Researchers at Cardiff University have pinpointed unusual fatty acids, called Omega or n-3 fatty acids, as the crucial factor.
These fatty acids are present in fish oils but not other oils common in the diet.
These findings provide some very interesting explanations as to why granny's cod liver oil therapies have some benefits to arthritis sufferers.
Once incorporated into the cells, the fatty acids reduce the activity of enzymes that are responsible for damaging the cells and causing arthritis.
The fatty acids also cause the "switching off" of another recently-discovered enzyme that causes much of the pain and inflammation in arthritis.
Lead researcher Professor Bruce Caterson said: "This is a particularly interesting finding because there is intense activity in the pharmaceutical industry to find specific drug inhibitors of Cyclooxygenase-2."
Pain and inflammation
The fatty acids also switch off the long-term production of other chemicals known as inflammatory cytokines that prolong the pain and inflammation associated with arthritis.
Professor Caterson said: "These findings provide some very interesting explanations as to why granny's cod liver oil therapies have some benefits to arthritis sufferers.
"The good thing about modern day dietary supplements is that fish oil is available in capsules, thus preventing the most obvious deterrent to this treatment - the smell that precedes the terrible taste!"
Dr Madeline Devey, scientific secretary of the Arthritis Research Campaign, said the research was "terrifically exciting".
She said: "Taking fish oil is something that lots of people do because it makes them feel better, but we had had no idea why.
"Any good science that can be thrown at a common self-medication is a really good idea, and it might enable us to manipulate diet in a slightly more rational way than we do at the moment."
Sunday, 16 January, 2000, 01:03 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/604014.stm
ikod
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Allow me some Cut & Paste from Physiology & Medicine.
Topic: "Many adults with psychiatric disorders may also have undiagnosed ADHD"
by Gaia
Let me give my usual codtribution to this topic.
Rough quick search through PubMed database:
ADHD: 11181 citations
ADHD and omega-3: 15 cit.
I chose 2 recent ones for you
To open the discussion.
(I'm afraid I'm not your expert)
ikod
Omega-3 fatty acids in ADHD and related neurodevelopmental disorders.
Richardson AJ.
Dept.Physiology, Human Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, UK.
Omega-3 fatty acids are dietary essentials, and are critical to brain development and function. Increasing evidence suggests that a relative lack of omega-3 may contribute to many psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. This review focuses on the possible role of omega-3 in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and related childhood developmental disorders, evaluating the existing evidence from both research and clinical perspectives. Theory and experimental evidence support a role for omega-3 in ADHD, dyslexia, developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and autism. Results from controlled treatment trials are mixed, but the few studies in this area have involved different populations and treatment formulations. Dietary supplementation with fish oils (providing EPA and DHA) appears to alleviate ADHD-related symptoms in at least some children, and one study of DCD children also found benefits for academic achievement. Larger trials are now needed to confirm these findings, and to establish the specificity and durability of any treatment effects as well as optimal formulations and dosages. Omega-3 is not supported by current evidence as a primary treatment for ADHD or related conditions, but further research in this area is clearly warranted. Given their relative safety and general health benefits, omega-3 fatty acids offer a promising complementary approach to standard treatments.
Int Rev Psychiatry. 2006 Apr;18(2):155-72. Review.
Omega-3 fatty acid status in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
Antalis CJ, Stevens LJ, Campbell M, Pazdro R, Ericson K, Burgess JR.
Department of Foods and Nutrition, West Lafayette IN 47909-2059, USA.
Lower levels of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, particularly omega-3 fatty acids, in blood have repeatedly been associated with a variety of behavioral disorders including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The exact nature of this relationship is not yet clear. We have studied children with ADHD who exhibited skin and thirst symptoms classically associated with essential fatty acid (EFA) deficiency, altered plasma and red blood cell fatty acid profiles, and dietary intake patterns that do not differ significantly from controls. This led us to focus on a potential metabolic insufficiency as the cause for the altered fatty acid phenotype. Here we review previous work and present new data expanding our observations into the young adult population. The frequency of thirst and skin symptoms was greater in newly diagnosed individuals with ADHD (n = 35) versus control individuals without behavioral problems (n = 112) drawn from the Purdue student population. A follow up case-control study with participants willing to provide a blood sample, a urine sample, a questionnaire about their general health, and dietary intake records was conducted with balancing based on gender, age, body mass index, smoking and ethnicity. A number of biochemical measures were analyzed including status markers for several nutrients and antioxidants, markers of oxidative stress, inflammation markers, and fatty acid profiles in the blood. The proportion of omega-3 fatty acids was found to be significantly lower in plasma phospholipids and erythrocytes in the ADHD group versus controls whereas saturated fatty acid proportions were higher. Intake of saturated fat was 30% higher in the ADHD group, but intake of all other nutrients was not different. Surprisingly, no evidence of elevated oxidative stress was found based on analysis of blood and urine samples. Indeed, serum ferritin, magnesium, and ascorbate concentrations were higher in the ADHD group, but iron, zinc, and vitamin B6 were not different. Our brief survey of biochemical and nutritional parameters did not give us any insight into the etiology of lower omega-3 fatty acids, but considering the consistency of the observation in multiple ADHD populations continued research in this field is encouraged.
Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids. 2006 Oct-Nov;75(4-5):299-308. Epub 2006 Sep 8
...Hey, I just found this in the "Garlic"
topic, GuestBook of this Forum!
...
A double-sided personality? Schizophrenia? Bipolar disorder?
Who knows...
...do you like seefood? [;D] [:o)]
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.astigiano.com%2Fimages%2Fricette%2Fbagnacaoda.gif&hash=e2085ac74e158443437a0bbaa2891c5b) (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.esselunga.it%2Fimg_repository%2FIdea%2520in%2520piu%2FOlio%2Faglio_pag.jpg&hash=91416925cd3ecf8edd225f1c404c1d4e) (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flmnh.ufl.edu%2Ffish%2FGallery%2FDescript%2FBluefinTuna%2Fanchovies.JPG&hash=42cfee6190b607720d9a59fd149b3b03)
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/BluefinTuna/anchovies.JPG
http://www.jerrycott.com/IntegrativePsychiatry.html
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http://jerrycott.com/user/FishBP53.jpg
Not long ago I read that those peculiar omega-3 so good for our brain (EPA & DHA) that
we get from sea creatures, mainly blue-fish, seem to be made by the ocean plankton itself.
Humans and even those fishlets are not able to synthesize them.
It is a wonderful hypothesis: those special unsaturated fatty acids represent a sort of vitamin
for all of us and come directly from where life originated million years ago on this Planet...
Our survival seems to be inevitably bound to the sea and the sunshine.
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F_x0lygOs8SA4%2FRnGs4uIIbmI%2FAAAAAAAAAFw%2FrDgMbS_bplM%2Fs320%2F607230%7ESunset-Beach-Volleyball-Posters.jpg&hash=5745e1bd7943003c0066947d4732264a)
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_x0lygOs8SA4/RnGs4uIIbmI/AAAAAAAAAFw/rDgMbS_bplM/s320/607230~Sunset-Beach-Volleyball-Posters.jpg
Bikod
End of the first CODpage
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http://www.lingshu.org/intollera/pesce.gif
iko
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Interesting info. Iko, thank you.
Love you lots
Helena xx
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Hi Hellena (Grecian),
Thank you for appreciating mycod efforts in this topic!
I apologize for my recent compulsive stick-images-here&there mania...
It will go away, I hope. I know it is a bit childish: I did that with scissors and glue almost half a century ago (what a shame!).
This brand new Forum is too cooool!!!
Ciao
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...Talking about absolute perfection!
ikod
Post Scriptum: did you by any chance read the childhood leukemia topic? Any comment about it? thanks.
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Cod Liver Oil (song)
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod_Liver_Oil_%28song%29
Cod Liver Oil was a traditional medicinal drink for a lot of Newfoundlanders that was also made into a song. Cod liver oil in the traditional way of manufacture was sun cured and served in bottles in its raw form. The song was written by Johnny Burke (1851-1930), a balladeer from St. John's, Newfoundland. It has been recorded by the Irish band The Dubliners and by Newfoundland Folk/Rock Band Great Big Sea on their album The Hard and the Easy.
Lyrics
I'm a young married man that is tired of life
Ten years I've been wed to a miserable wife
She does nothing all day but sit down and cry
And prays up to Heaven that soon she will die
Chorus:
Doctor, o doctor, o dear Doctor John
Your cod liver oil is so pure and so strong
I'm afraid of me life, I'll go down in the soil
If me wife keeps on drinking your cod liver oil
Well a friend of my own came to see me one day
He told my darlin' was pining away
He afterwards told me that she would get strong
If only I'd get a bottle from dear Doctor John
Chorus
It was then that I purchased a bottle to try
The way that she drank it you'd think she would die
I bought her another it vanished the same
O me wife she's got cod liver oil on the brain
Chorus
That me wife loves cod liver there isn't a doubt
And a few thousand gallons has made her quite stout
And now that she's stout it's made her quite strong
And now I'm jealous of dear Doctor John
Chorus
My house it resembles a medicine shop
It's covered with bottles from bottom to top
But then in the mornin' the kettle do boil
O you're sure it's singin' of cod liver oil
Chorus (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.k12.nf.ca%2Fstpauls%2Fgrassroots%2Ffishery%2Ffishgr%2Fcod.gif&hash=30fed6992ef144fb17481b44398bc64e)
http://www.k12.nf.ca/stpauls/grassroots/fishery/fishgr/cod.gif
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I take this every day !!...and it's a bloody long walk to Norway too !!
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Good news for cod liver oil fanatics!
Vitamin D intake and the risk for pancreatic cancer in two cohort studies.
Skimmer HG, Michaud DS, Giovannucci E.
Vitamin D and its analogues exhibit potent antitumor effects in many tissues, including the pancreas. Normal and malignant pancreatic tissues were recently shown to express high levels of vitamin D 1-alpha-hydroxylase, which converts circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D to active 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D. We examined associations between dietary intake of vitamin D, calcium, and retinol and subsequent risk for pancreatic cancer. We conducted prospective studies in cohorts of 46,771 men ages 40 to 75 years as of 1986 (the Health Professionals Follow-up Study), and 75,427 women ages 38 to 65 years as of 1984 (the Nurses' Health Study), documenting incident pancreatic cancer through the year 2000. Diet was ascertained by semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaire. We identified 365 incident cases of pancreatic cancer over 16 years of follow-up. Compared with participants in the lowest category of total vitamin D intake (<150 IU/d), pooled multivariate relative risks for pancreatic cancer were 0.78 [95% confidence interval (95% CI), 0.59-1.01] for 150 to 299 IU/d, 0.57 (95% CI, 0.40-0.83) for 300 to 449 IU/d, 0.56 (95% CI, 0.36-0.87) for 450 to 599 IU/d, and 0.59 (95% CI, 0.40-0.88) for >/=600 IU/d (P(trend) = 0.01). These associations may be stronger in men than women. After adjusting for vitamin D intake, calcium and retinol intakes were not associated with pancreatic cancer risk. In two U.S. cohorts, higher intakes of vitamin D were associated with lower risks for pancreatic cancer. Our results point to a potential role for vitamin D in the pathogenesis and prevention of pancreatic cancer.
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2006 Sep;15(9):1688-95.
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http://www.maverickchartersltd.com/images/cape-cod-ma.jpg
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Quackery...revisited in 2006!
This comes out crossing "cod liver oil" and Quackery on Google Images!
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http://www.lung.ca/tb/images/full_archive/006_codLiverOil.jpg
...Near the beginning of TB treatment in sanatoria, it became known that the sun helped to kill TB bacteria (see heliotherapy). When the Sun's UV rays hit human skin, vitamin D is produced. Naturally, when cod fish were found to be rich in vitamin D, it followed that their oil was sold as "liquid sunshine" (this was a real advertisement in the Valley Echo, March 1944). Cod Liver Oil is still used in "traditional" medicine today, and as an important dietary supplement, but no real evidence exists that it helps to cure tuberculosis.
http://www.lung.ca/tb/tbhistory/treatment/
...NO real evidence? Let's cross quickly "Tuberculosis and vitamin d" on PubMed database...
Toll-like receptor triggering of a vitamin D-mediated human antimicrobial response.
Liu PT, Stenger S, Li H et al.
In innate immune responses, activation of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) triggers direct antimicrobial activity against intracellular bacteria, which in murine, but not human, monocytes and macrophages is mediated principally by nitric oxide. We report here that TLR activation of human macrophages up-regulated expression of the vitamin D receptor and the vitamin D-1-hydroxylase genes, leading to induction of the antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin and killing of intracellular Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We also observed that sera from African-American individuals, known to have increased susceptibility to tuberculosis, had low 25-hydroxyvitamin D and were inefficient in supporting cathelicidin messenger RNA induction. These data support a link between TLRs and vitamin D-mediated innate immunity and suggest that differences in ability of human populations to produce vitamin D may contribute to susceptibility to microbial infection.
Science. 2006 Mar 24;311(5768):1770-3. Epub 2006 Feb 23.
The effect of vitamin D as supplementary treatment
in patients with moderately advanced pulmonary tuberculous lesion.
Nursyam EW, Amin Z, Rumended CM.
Dept.Int.Med.University of Indonesia-dr.Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, Jakarta.
AIM: to compare the vitamin D group of pulmonary tuberculosis patients with a placebo group in terms of clinical improvement, nutritional status, sputum conversion, and radiological improvement. METHODS: sixty seven tuberculosis patient visiting the Pulmonary Clinic, of Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, Jakarta, from January 1st to August 31st, 2001 were included in this study. The subjects were randomised to receive vitamin D (0.25 mg/day) or placebo in a double blind method, during the 6th initial week of Tb treatment. The rate of sputum conversion, complete blood counts, blood chemistry as well as radiologic examination were evaluated. RESULTS: there were more male patients than females (39:28), 78.7% were in the productive age group, 71.6% had low nutritional status, 62.4% with low education level, and 67.2% with low income. One hundred percent of the vitamin D group and only 76.7% of the placebo group had sputum conversion. This difference is statistically significant (p=0.002). CONCLUSION: the sputum conversion had no correlation with the hemoglobin level, blood clotting time, calcium level, lymphocyte count, age, sex, and nutritional status. There were more subjects with radiological improvement in the vitamin D group.
Acta Med Indones. 2006 Jan-Mar;38(1):3-5.
Prevalence and associations of vitamin D deficiency in foreign-born persons with tuberculosis in London.
Ustianowski A, Shaffer R, Collin S, Wilkinson RJ, Davidson RN.
Dept.Infect.Trop.Med.- Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 3UJ, UK. ustianowski@doctors.org.uk
OBJECTIVES: The incidence of tuberculosis (TB) is high amongst foreign-born persons resident in developed countries. Vitamin D is important in the host defence against TB in vitro and deficiency may be an acquired risk factor for this disease. We aimed to determine the incidence and associations of vitamin D deficiency in TB patients diagnosed at an infectious diseases unit in London, UK. METHODS: Case-note analysis of 210 unselected patients diagnosed with TB who had plasma vitamin D (25(OH)D3) levels routinely measured. Prevalence of 25(OH)D3 deficiency and its relationship to ethnic origin, religion, site of TB, sex, age, duration in the UK, month of 25(OH)D3 estimation and TB diagnosis were determined. RESULTS: Of 210 patients 76% were 25(OH)D3 deficient and 56% had undetectable levels. 70/82 Indian, 24/28 East African Asian, 29/34 Somali, 14/19 Pakistani and Afghani, 16/22 Sri Lankan and 2/6 other African patients were deficient (with 58, 17, 23, 9, 6 and 1 having undetectable levels, respectively). Only 0/6 white Europeans and 1/8 Chinese/South East Asians had low plasma 25(OH)D3 levels. Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs all had equivalent rates of deficiency though Hindus were more likely to have undetectable levels (odds ratio 1.87, 95% CI 1.27-2.76). There was no significant association between 25(OH)D3 level and site of TB or duration of residence in the UK. There was no apparent seasonal variation in either TB diagnosis or 25(OH)D3 level. CONCLUSIONS: 25(OH)D3 deficiency commonly associates with TB among all ethnic groups apart from white Europeans, and Chinese/South East Asians. Our data support a lack of sunlight exposure and potentially a vegetarian diet as contributors to this deficiency.
J Infect. 2005 Jun;50(5):432-7.
Those nurses and doctors should be proud and rest in peace.
They gave cod liver oil to their TB patients for years
without any controlled study or scientific evidence,
wisely adopting the old "ex-adjuvantibus" criteria.
They did just the right thing to do in those days
when treatments available were unsatisfactory
and only some patients recovered completely.
Evidence is slowly coming out
more than fifty years later.
ikod
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http://www.lung.ca/tb/images/full_archive/081_sun_treatment.jpg
Before the availability of drugs that successfully cured the body of tubercular infections, a widely accepted treatment for non-pulmonary tuberculosis was sunbathing. The sun had sometimes been blamed for increased activity in tubercular infection of the lungs and was therefore not used to treat this form of tuberculosis. However, the Sun offered several curative properties to those suffering from other types of tuberculosis. Sun treatment was used in the treatment of tuberculosis of the glands, bones, joints, peritoneum, skin, eyes, genito-urinary tract, and others.
There were several reasons for the prescription of sun treatment to tuberculosis patients. First of all, the sun acts as a bactericide, killing the Tubercular bacillus organisms that cause the disease. Exposure to moderately hot temperatures for extended periods of time is sufficient to kill off these bacteria and clear up infections. Furthermore, ergosterol, present in the skin in converted by the sun’s UV rays into vitamin D, which was thought to do further damage to the TB bacilli.
Sunlamps like the ones pictured here were often used to replace natural sunlight in sun-therapy, or "heliotherapy" for tuberculosis (ca. 1925).
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"Il sole dona la vita, il sole se la riprende" M.U. Dianzani 1975.
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Do you think we will ever have a cod liver oil shortage?
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Hi Firemoon!
No idea, no clue about it...but I don't see much of a problem.
I think cod fishlets are still around and the cod industry is actually making some profit out of it. Quality controls seem to be a 'must' for this type of product, so several companies produce it, test it and distibute all sorts of caps and bottles of flavoured oils. They all seem to do fine to me.
My problem is that - sitting here in front of my PC - I am not able to give 'cod' every day to all the leukemic children in the world. I can only manage to remind my 'little' boy (actually he grew up much taller than his older brother) to take his cod in the evening.
More than seven years have past for our family, and eighteen years from the Shanghai report:
it's just about time to move and tell people around.
Thanks to search engines and this www (what-women-want?). [:D]
Anyway, I'm not too pessimistic about it.
I think I can make it, and I will succeed in the end.
I promise.
It takes time. [::)]
Take care
ikod
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you seem to know a lot about cods a. thanks for the info iko
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no sorry i haven't had the chance to read it but i will some time [:)]
Ryan
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...a highly recodmendable nutrient!
The effect of dietary fish oil on survival
after infection with Klebsiella pneumoniae or Streptococcus pneumoniae.
Thors VS, Thorisdottir A, Erlendsdottir H, Einarsson I, Gudmundsson S, Gunnarsson E, Haraldsson A.
Department of Medicine, University of Iceland, Iceland.
Dietary fish oil is believed to have a beneficial effect in various infections and in autoimmune disorders. This effect may correspond to an altered immune response.
In order to discover whether the effect of dietary fish oil is different in various infections, we studied the survival of mice fed fish oil or corn oil supplemented diets and infected in the lungs with either Klebsiella pneumoniae or Streptococcus pneumoniae. 120 NMRI mice were divided into 4 groups, of which 2 groups were fed a fish oil supplemented diet and 2 a corn oil supplemented diet. After 6 weeks the mice were infected in the lungs with Klebsiella pneumoniae (fish oil groups and corn oil groups) or with Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 3 (both groups). The survival rate was monitored. The experiment was performed twice. The survival of the mice fed fish oil enriched diet and infected with Klebsiella pneumoniae was significantly better compared with the mice fed corn oil enriched diet (p = 0.0001 and p = 0.0013). No difference was found between the mice fed corn oil enriched diet or fish oil enriched diet and infected with Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 3 (p = 0.74 and p = 0.15). Our results indicate that dietary fish oil has a beneficial effect on survival of mice after experimental pneumoniae when infected with Klebsiella pneumoniae, but not after infection with Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 3.
Scand J Infect Dis. 2004;36(2):102-5.
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http://www.fooddata.nl/Fooddata_CMS/Database/upload/klebsiella%20pneumoniae.jpg
Quite a good match with the 'historical' piece
you can read free full-text clicking down here:
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/reprint/129/4/783
Vitamin A as "anti-infective" therapy, 1920-1940.
Semba RD.
Dept.Ophthalmol. Johns Hopkins Univ.School of Med., Baltimore, MD 21287, USA.
In the last fifteen years, a large series of controlled clinical trials showed that vitamin A supplementation reduces morbidity and mortality of children in developing countries. It is less well known that vitamin A underwent two decades of intense clinical investigation prior to World War II. In the 1920s, a theory emerged that vitamin A could be used in "anti-infective" therapy. This idea, largely championed by Edward Mellanby, led to a series of at least 30 trials to determine whether vitamin A--usually supplied in the form of cod-liver oil--could reduce the morbidity and mortality of respiratory disease, measles, puerperal sepsis, and other infections. The early studies generally lacked such innovations known to the modern controlled clinical trial such as randomization, masking, sample size and power calculations, and placebo controls. Results of the early trials were mixed, but the pharmaceutical industry emphasized the positive results in their advertising to the public. With the advent of the sulfa antibiotics for treatment of infections, scientific interest in vitamin A as "anti-infective" therapy waned. Recent controlled clinical trials of vitamin A from the last 15 y follow a tradition of investigation that began largely in the 1920s.
1: J Nutr. 1999 Apr;129(4):783-91.
Note:
Fish oil is mainly omega-3 fatty acids.
Fish liver oil is a natural mix of vitamin A, vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids.
All these 3 compounds had been studied for their capability of modulating, at
different levels, the basic mechanisms of infection-inflammation and immune response.
ikod [^] (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi143.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fr133%2Flindsayjemerson%2Fpingouin.gif&hash=07319bd4bc956ed1bd0b885ae4602584) (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpictures.directnews.org.uk%2FLive%2FPhoto4001983.jpg&hash=9abcb6f72d5e435fe45b04642ee340e5)
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...A massive vitamin D 'tsunami' is coming closer,
spinning out of the scientific literature circuit:
will flu vaccination campaigns be the first casualties?
Epidemic influenza and vitamin D.
Cannell JJ, Vieth R, Umhau JC, Holick MF, Grant WB, Madronich S, Garland CF, Giovannucci E.
Atascadero State Hospital, 10333 El Camino Real, Atascadero, CA 93422, USA.
In 1981, R. Edgar Hope-Simpson proposed that a 'seasonal stimulus' intimately associated with solar radiation explained the remarkable seasonality of epidemic influenza. Solar radiation triggers robust seasonal vitamin D production in the skin; vitamin D deficiency is common in the winter, and activated vitamin D, 1,25(OH)2D, a steroid hormone, has profound effects on human immunity. 1,25(OH)2D acts as an immune system modulator, preventing excessive expression of inflammatory cytokines and increasing the 'oxidative burst' potential of macrophages. Perhaps most importantly, it dramatically stimulates the expression of potent anti-microbial peptides, which exist in neutrophils, monocytes, natural killer cells, and in epithelial cells lining the respiratory tract where they play a major role in protecting the lung from infection. Volunteers inoculated with live attenuated influenza virus are more likely to develop fever and serological evidence of an immune response in the winter. Vitamin D deficiency predisposes children to respiratory infections. Ultraviolet radiation (either from artificial sources or from sunlight) reduces the incidence of viral respiratory infections, as does cod liver oil (which contains vitamin D). An interventional study showed that vitamin D reduces the incidence of respiratory infections in children. We conclude that vitamin D, or lack of it, may be Hope-Simpson's 'seasonal stimulus'.
Epidemiol Infect. 2006 Dec;134(6):1129-40. Epub 2006 Sep 7.
Note: ... Vitamin D deficiency predisposes children to respiratory infections .
from: Rickets Today - Children Still Need Milk and Sunshine
Nicholas Bishop,M.D. University of Sheffield
...
Rickets may have severe consequences. It is strongly associated with pneumonia in young children in developing countries. In a case–control study at the Ethio-Swedish Children's Hospital in Addis Ababa,3 Muhe and colleagues demonstrated an incidence of rickets among children with pneumonia that was 13 times as high as that among control children, after adjustment for family size, birth order, crowding, and months of exclusive breast-feeding. The relative risk of death for the children with rickets as compared with the children without rickets was 1.7. Furthermore, bony deformity of the pelvis in women leads to obstructed labor and increased perinatal morbidity and mortality.
...
Children in developed countries need calcium, too. There is clear evidence from prospective studies of dietary supplementation that increased calcium intake during childhood results in increased calcium retention and increased bone mass.8 Young adults with a history of greater milk consumption have a higher total-body bone mass than those with lower intake after the influence of body size is taken into account.9 Calcium, vitamin D, and phosphate are essential nutrients for the growing skeleton. Wherever children live, they should follow Grandma's advice: "Drink up your milk, and go play outside."
N.Engl.J.Med. 1999 341(8): 602-604.
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...odd fever oil! [;D]
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Vitamin D Deficiency Is Associated With Low Mood
and Worse Cognitive Performance in Older Adults.
Wilkins CH, Sheline YI, Roe CM, Birge SJ, Morris JC.
Dept.Med.Div.Geriatrics and Nutritional Science, Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, the Dept.Psychiatry, Dept.Neurol., and the Div.Biostatistics, Washington Univ.School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO.
Background: Vitamin D deficiency is common in older adults and has been implicated in psychiatric and neurologic disorders. This study examined the relationship among vitamin D status, cognitive performance, mood, and physical performance in older adults.
Methods: A cross-sectional group of 80 participants, 40 with mild Alzheimer disease (AD) and 40 nondemented persons, were selected from a longitudinal study of memory and aging. Cognitive function was assessed using the Short Blessed Test (SBT), Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE), Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR; a higher Sum of Boxes score indicates greater dementia severity), and a factor score from a neuropsychometric battery; mood was assessed using clinician's diagnosis and the depression symptoms inventory. The Physical Performance Test (PPT) was used to measure functional status. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were measured for all participants.
Results: The mean vitamin D level in the total sample was 18.58 ng/mL (standard deviation: 7.59); 58% of the participants had abnormally low vitamin D levels defined as less than 20 ng/mL. After adjusting for age, race, gender, and season of vitamin D determination, vitamin D deficiency was associated with presence of an active mood disorder (odds ratio: 11.69, 95% confidence interval: 2.04-66.86; Wald chi(2) = 7.66, df = 2, p = 0.022). Using the same covariates in a linear regression model, vitamin D deficiency was associated with worse performance on the SBT (F = 5.22, df = [2, 77], p = 0.044) and higher CDR Sum of Box scores (F = 3.20, df = [2, 77], p = 0.047) in the vitamin D-deficient group. There was no difference in performance on the MMSE, PPT, or factor scores between the vitamin D groups.
Conclusions: In a cross-section of older adults, vitamin D deficiency was associated with low mood and with impairment on two of four measures of cognitive performance.
Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2006 Dec;14(12):1032-1040.
Good news for Africa? (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.helpage.org%2FWorldwide%2FAfrica%2FKeyprojects%2FSupportingoldercarersaffectedbyHIVAIDS%2Fmain_content%2F6sMZ%3Fdisplay%3Dlarge&hash=54ae2dde2bb551835f55d9ef9637b021)
http://www.helpage.org/Worldwide/Africa/Keyprojects/SupportingoldercarersaffectedbyHIVAIDS/main_content/6sMZ?display=large
A potential role for vitamin D on HIV infection?
Villamor E.
Dept.Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Despite advances in the knowledge of vitamin D's potent immunomodulatory activity, its role on HIV disease progression is unknown. Decreased concentrations of 1alpha,25-hydroxyvitamin D3, or 1,25(OH)2D, the active form of vitamin D, have been reported among HIV-infected people and attributed to defects in renal hydroxylation and increased utilization. A few studies also described low levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3, 25(OH)D, the vitamin obtained from solar synthesis and diet. An inverse association between 1,25(OH)2D concentrations and mortality has been reported from a small cohort of HIV-infected adults, and some cross-sectional studies have indicated positive correlations between 1,25(OH)2D and CD4+ cell counts. Additional observational studies are needed to confirm the associations between vitamin D status and HIV disease progression. These investigations would provide useful insights on the potential role of vitamin D supplementation to HIV-infected persons and the planning of intervention trials.
Nutr Rev. 2006 May;64(5 Pt 1):226-33.
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Revisiting Vitamin D in humans.
just a few clever minds got this point
first, several years ago...
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A hypothesis concerning deficiency of sunlight,
cold temperature, and influenza epidemics associated with
the onset of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in northern Finland.
Timonen TT.
University of Oulu, Department of Internal Medicine, Kajaanintie 50, FIN-90220 Oulu, Finland.
Research to detect new factors contributing to the etiology of acute leukemia (AL) is urgently needed. Located between latitudes 65 degrees and 70 degrees north, the population in northern Finland is exposed to extreme seasonal alterations of ultraviolet-B light and temperature. There is also a seasonal variation of both the 25(OH)- and 1,25(OH)2-D3 vitamin serum concentrations. In the present work, the frequencies of different types and age-groups at diagnosis of AL were compared during the dark and light months of the year, to uncover seasonality. Between January 1972 and December 1986, 300 consecutive patients aged >/=16 years and diagnosed as having AL were enrolled. The observed mean monthly global solar radiation, temperature measurements, and influenza epidemics were compared with the monthly occurrence of AL. Both acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) (p=0.006) and total AL (p=0.015) were diagnosed excessively in the dark and cold compared with light and warm period of the year. There was a tendency for de novo leukemia to increase also in the dark and cold, but for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients the excess was not significant. Age >/=65 was strongly associated with the dark and cold season (p=0.003). Significantly more ALL (p=0.005) and de novo leukemias (p=0.029) were observed during influenza epidemics than during nonepidemic periods. However, a seasonality, i. e., the fluctuation of numbers of AL cases, was not determined, either monthly or during different photo- and temperature periods or influenza epidemics; this might be due to the small numbers of patients studied. Nevertheless, it is hypothesized that sunlight deprivation in the arctic winter can lead to a deficiency of the 1, 25(OH)2D3 vitamin, which might stimulate leukemic cell proliferation and block cell differentiation through dysregulation of growth factors in the bone marrow stromal cells, causing one mutation and an overt ALL in progenitor cells damaged during the current or the previous winter by influenza virus, the other mutation.
Ann Hematol. 1999 Sep;78(9):408-14.
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Messing with synthetic compounds
instead of the natural recipe
may lead to make wrong deductions
and to realize it many years later:
The case against ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) as a vitamin supplement.
Houghton LA, Vieth R.
School of Nutrition and Dietetics, Acadia University, Wolfville, Canada.
Supplemental vitamin D is available in 2 distinct forms: ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) and cholecalciferol (vitamin D3). Pharmacopoeias have officially regarded these 2 forms as equivalent and interchangeable, yet this presumption of equivalence is based on studies of rickets prevention in infants conducted 70 y ago. The emergence of 25-hydroxyvitamin D as a measure of vitamin D status provides an objective, quantitative measure of the biological response to vitamin D administration. As a result, vitamin D3 has proven to be the more potent form of vitamin D in all primate species, including humans. Despite an emerging body of evidence suggesting several plausible explanations for the greater bioefficacy of vitamin D3, the form of vitamin D used in major preparations of prescriptions in North America is vitamin D2. The case that vitamin D2 should no longer be considered equivalent to vitamin D3 is based on differences in their efficacy at raising serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, diminished binding of vitamin D2 metabolites to vitamin D binding protein in plasma, and a nonphysiologic metabolism and shorter shelf life of vitamin D2. Vitamin D2, or ergocalciferol, should not be regarded as a nutrient suitable for supplementation or fortification.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Oct;84(4):694-7.
Comment: (from a reknown website)
http://www.mercola.com/2006/oct/26/beware-of-most-prescription-vitamin-d-supplements.htm
...Supplemental vitamin D comes in two forms: ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) and cholecalciferol (vitamin D3).
They have generally been regarded as equivalent and interchangeable, but that notion is based on studies of rickets prevention in infants conducted seven decades ago.
Recent studies have shown that vitamin D3 is a more potent form of vitamin D. Vitamin D2 has a shorter shelf life, and its metabolites bind with protein poorly, making it less effective. One unit of cod liver oil (containing vitamin D3) has been shown to be as effective as four units of Viosterol (a medicinal preparation of vitamin D2).
However, the form of vitamin D used in prescriptions in North America is almost invariably vitamin D2.
...
from Dr. Mercola's notes:
Basically there are two types of oral vitamin D supplements. The natural ones are D3, and they contain the same vitamin D your body makes when exposed to sunshine. The synthetic ones are vitamin D2, which are sometimes called ergocalciferol.
Once either form of the vitamin is in your body, it needs to be converted to a more active form. Vitamin D3 is converted 500 percent faster than vitamin D2. Interestingly, it was previously thought that the kidney exclusively performed this function, as least that is what I was taught in med school.
However, in 1998 Dr. Michael Hollick, the person who discovered activated vitamin D, showed that many other cells in your body can make this conversion, but they use it themselves, and it is only the kidney that makes enough to distribute to the rest of your body.
While there have been no clinical trials to date demonstrating conclusively that D2 prevents fractures, every clinical trial of D3 has shown it does.
However, nearly all the prescription-based supplements contain synthetic vitamin D2, which was first produced in the 1920s through ultraviolet exposure of foods. The process was patented and licensed to drug companies for use in prescription vitamins. In case you didn't know, the vitamin D that is added to milk is NOT D3 but the highly inferior vitamin D2.
The study linked above concluded that "vitamin D2 should no longer be regarded as a nutrient appropriate for supplementation or fortification of foods."
That being said, optimizing your sun exposure and levels of vitamin D3 may, indeed, be one of the most important physical steps you can take in support of your long-term health. Conventional medicine is finally beginning to get on board the vitamin-D3 bandwagon, using the natural power of sunshine to treat type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis during a woman's pregnancy and even tuberculosis.
It is important to understand that the ideal and STRONGLY preferred method of increasing your vitamin D3 level is through appropriate sun exposure. I really do not advise oral supplements, not even cod liver oil now, UNLESS you can have your blood levels regularly monitored.
It just is too risky. I have seen too many potentially dangerous elevations of vitamin D levels, including my own, from those that are taking oral supplements.
But when you get your vitamin D from appropriate sun exposure your body can indeed self-regulate and greatly reduce vitamin D production if you don't need it, which makes it very difficult to overdose on vitamin D from sun exposure.
Even taking for granted that omega-3 and retinol were not needed together with vitamin D, the alternative to cod liver oil for leukemic children would be driving them for a hike in the sunshine three times a week...for at least 5-7 years after diagnosis.
I'd need a big school-bus and sunny days most of the year. I wouldn't be able to retire right now, and they couldn't miss their classes.
Mission Impossible from my point of view (ask Tom Cruise).
These little patients are tough: they could certainly take a risk of a slight vitamin D intoxication...most of the current treatment protocols are far more toxic.
Moderate use of cod liver oil is harmless, actually good for all of us.
It has always been like that.
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ikod
Addendum:
Vitamin D As Treatment
How much vitamin D should one take if they have cancer? We don't know as the research is far from complete. Although vitamin D may help, it should only be taken in addition to standard cancer treatment. It should not be considered a first, or only, treatment but used in addition to regular chemotherapy or surgery. Oncologists and surgeons work miracles every day. Remember, vitamin D may be toxic in overdose, although one expert recently said, "worrying about vitamin D toxicity is like worrying about drowning when you are dying of thirst". That said, many people think "if a little is good then a lot is better". This is definitely not true about vitamin D.
http://www.vitamindcouncil.com/cancerMain.shtml
...in the meantime, waiting for scientific confirmation, a little bit of 'cod' every day should work just fine. [;)]
Take care
ikod
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...little bits from:
http://www.vitamindcouncil.com/
just a 'basic' website for this topic!
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http://www.nature.com/news/2002/020107/images/oldwive_160.jpg
Bits Of Wisdom: Those 'old wives' might be on to something
For many years, the "old wives" have been ridiculed as superstitious know-nothings.
Now science seems about to vindicate them.
The old wives maintained that a dose of cod-liver oil would do a body good.
Many children dreaded it because it tasted so awful. But come the dark days of winter, mothers and grandmothers insisted that all family members should hold their noses and swallow a spoonful of cod-liver oil.
During the past 20 years, this practice has gone the way of the manual typewriter.
Few children get cod-liver oil these days.
Doctors don't recommend it because it seems like such an unscientific relic of the past.
The vitamin D that is abundant in cod-liver oil has numerous health benefits though, especially in the winter. That's because levels of vitamin D frequently drop when people are not exposing their skin to the sun.
Cold, dreary weather and diminished sunlight can create borderline vitamin D deficiency in a surprising number of people. In Boston, 42 percent of people studied had too little vitamin D in winter. In Calgary, Canada, almost no one maintains adequate vitamin D in the winter.
In 2005, a psychiatrist who treated his patients for vitamin D deficiency noticed something odd. Influenza hit hard at the Atascadero State Hospital, a maximum-security psychiatric hospital. His ward was spared, with not a single person catching the flu, even though they had been exposed to the virus just like everyone else. The psychiatrist wondered whether the vitamin D he had prescribed had anything to do with their immunity.
This question led to an interesting review of research and a credible hypothesis.
Studies in the past 70 years hint at a connection between vitamin D and overall immunity.
The active form of vitamin D greatly increases the body's production of a natural infection-fighting chemical called cathelicidin. Cathelicidin seems to help fight off illnesses caused by bacteria, fungi and viruses, including influenza.
This might help explain why people are more susceptible to colds and flu in the winter. If their vitamin D levels drop, so does their production of cathelicidin and their overall resistance to infection.
Vitamin D also appears to have anti-cancer activity. People who get regular sun exposure are less susceptible to common cancers that affect the colon, breast, prostate, ovaries and lungs. Even conditions like multiple sclerosis, arthritis and Type 2 diabetes are less common in people with ample vitamin D levels.
Vitamin D has long been associated with stronger bones, but there is also research showing that it contributes to stronger muscles and fewer falls in the elderly.
The old wives did not have sophisticated scientific tools or methods, but they were skilled observers.
It's fascinating when the scientists supply the explanation behind their wisdom.
...
from: Winston-Salem Journal, Tuesday, November 28, 2006.
http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149191909636&path=!living&s=1037645509005
Photograph of Old Wives Lake in scenic Saskatchewan Canada
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Circannual vitamin d serum levels and disease activity
in rheumatoid arthritis: Northern versus Southern Europe.
Cutolo M, Otsa K, Laas K, Yprus M, Lehtme R, Secchi ME, Sulli A, Paolino S, Seriolo B.
Division of Rheumatology - Dept Internal Medicine, University of Genova, Genova, Italy.
BACKGROUND:
Greater intake of vitamin D has been associated with a lower risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and low serum vitamin D together with higher prevalence of RA seem common among North European people when compared to Southern Europe.
OBJECTIVES:
To evaluate serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels in female RA patients from North (Estonia) and South (Italy) Europe and to correlate them with the disease activity score (DAS28) during winter and summer.
METHODS:
Fifty-four RA Italian patients (IP) and 64 RA Estonian patients (EP) were evaluated for serum 25(OH)D levels in winter and summer time, as well as for DAS28 score. Normal female controls (C) were 35 (IC) and 30 (EC) age-matched subjects, respectively. 25(OH)D concentrations were measured by a competitive radioimmunoassay. Statistical analysis was performed by "r" Pearson correlation, "t" Student with Bonferroni correction and by repeated ANOVA measures (summer and winter) with two factors (country and clinical status).
RESULTS:
25(OH)D levels were found significantly higher in IP versus EP (p = 0.0116) both in winter and in summer time. Differences were observed also in controls. The variations (increase) of 25(OH)D levels between winter and summer were found significant (p = 0.0005) in both IP and EP. Differences were observed also in controls. No significant differences were found concerning 25(OH)D levels between RA patients and their controls in either country. Interestingly, a significant negative correlation between 25(OH)D and DAS28, was found in summer only in IP (r =-0.57, p < 0.0001) and in winter in EP (r =-0.40, p < 0.05).
CONCLUSION:
Significantly lower 25(OH)D serum levels were observed in RA patients from North versus South Europe with a circannual rhythm in winter and summer time.
In addition, 25(OH)D values showed a significant correlation (negative) with RA clinical status (DAS28) in both North and South European RA patients, suggesting possible effects of vitamin D among other factors on disease activity.
Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2006 Nov-Dec;24(6):702-4.
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A little help for your nerves...
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww-dateline.ucdavis.edu%2F010700%2Fdepression.jpg&hash=079d8ddef9537c75781249be2a02a12a)
http://www-dateline.ucdavis.edu/010700/depression.jpg
Associations between cod liver oil use
and symptoms of depression: The Hordaland Health Study.
Raeder MB, Steen VM, Vollset SE, Bjelland I.
Dr. Einar Martens' Research Group for Biological Psychiatry, Center for Medical Genetics and Molecular Medicine, Haukeland University Hospital, Helse Bergen HF, N-5021 Bergen, Norway; Department of Clinical Medicine and Bergen Mental Health Research Center, University of Bergen, Norway.
BACKGROUND: Clinical trials suggest that omega-3 fatty acids improve the outcome of depression. This study aimed to evaluate the association between intake of cod liver oil, rich in omega-3 fatty acids, and high levels of symptoms of depression and anxiety in the general population. METHODS: We used data from the "The Hordaland Health Study '97-'99" (HUSK), a population based cross-sectional health survey from Norway including 21,835 subjects aged 40-49 and 70-74 years. Symptoms of depression and anxiety were measured by The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). We used logistic regression to study associations.
RESULTS: Among the participants, 8.9% used cod liver oil daily. A total of 3.6% had high levels of depressive symptoms. The prevalence of such depressive symptoms among the subjects who used cod liver oil daily was 2.5%, as compared to 3.8% in the rest of the population. The users of cod liver oil were significantly less likely to have depressive symptoms than non-users after adjusting for multiple possible confounding factors (odds ratio=0.71, 95% confidence interval 0.52 to 0.97). These factors included age, gender, smoking habits, coffee consumption, alcohol consumption, physical activity, and education. In addition, we found that the prevalence of high levels of depressive symptoms decreased with increasing duration (0-12 months) of cod liver oil use (multivariate adjusted test for trend, P=0.04). We were only able to study this latter association in a subset of the population aged 40-46 years.
LIMITATIONS: Data are cross sectional.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that regular use of cod liver oil is negatively associated with high levels of depressive symptoms in the general population.
J Affect Disord. 2006 Dec 18; [Epub ahead of print]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=17184843&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum
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Reading an 'ancient' paper
from Zoey (thanks!)... I found
one of the best cod-citations:
"Cod liver oil is in the forefront of children's remedies.
For long it has been struggling against the scepticism of exact science"
Rosenstern: Berl. klin. Wchuschr. 47;822, 1910.
from: "The history of cod liver oil as a remedy"
Ruth A. Guy M.D.
Dept. of Pediatrics, Yale University School of Medicine
Am. J. of diseases of children 26; 112-116, 1923.
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Historical notes from the same
'ancient' paper (Zoey's copy):
...The introduction of cod liver oil into France, which came a few years later than in Germany, is described by Trousseau (10):
The manner in which M. Bretonneau, of Tours, was induced to give the oil in this disease deserves notice.
He had treated the rachitic child of a rich Dutch merchant with preparations of iodine and other means, for some time, without success.
He was then told by the father that the elder children had previously suffered under the same malady, and had been cured by the cod liver oil, which, in Holland, was a popular remedy.
Bretonneau gave the same substance to his young patient, and was much struck with the very rapid and successful result which followed.
He commenced making researches with it on other patients, and it was only then that he learnt for the first time what had been written by the German authors on this subject.
He has since given it extensively in rachitis, with the happiest results.
This fact was communicated to the Societe de Medicine de Paris, in 1837, by M. Roche.
10. Trousseau: Clinical Medicine, Philadelphia 2: 734, 1882.
from: "The history of cod liver oil as a remedy"
Ruth A. Guy M.D.
Dept. of Pediatrics, Yale University School of Medicine
Am. J. of diseases of children 26; 112-116, 1923.
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Cut and Paste from "Childhood Leukemia" topic (Physiol.& Medicine)
How did the cod deficiency affect the evolution of the culture?
Zoey
Good question, I'd like to know history better than I actually do.
To simplify your difficult question I would start like this:
Cod liver oil is certainly very good stuff for the undernurished, but its components can be found in other nutrients.
Vitamin A for sure, omega-3 in some seed-plant (different type, similar effects).
And vitamin D...here we are: vitamin D can be assembled by the skin itself through sunlight exposure.
That is tricky, so northern countries have a problem and somebody in certain areas found the solution for rickets and osteomalacia using cod.
As with other cofactors, some people eventually need more to counteract their congenital (invisible) metabolic defects, others do just fine with a minimal dose here and there.
We have probably been selected over generations to be 'cod' independent.
Difficult to find, it works after weeks, so the cause/effect link is easily missed.
It is definitely dedicated to our sick children.
To help their growth, brains and strenghten their immune system.
A bit of help from the ocean where we all came from.
Am I corny enough?
ikod
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http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/images/evo/hydrothermal-vent.jpg
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For skeptical people searching for 'gold standard' treatments
here is reported a precious annotation by Dr. Cannell from the
http://www.vitamindcouncil.com
Vitamin D Newsletter
This is a periodic newsletter from the Vitamin D Council, a non-profit trying to end the epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. If you don't want to get the newsletter, please hit reply and let us know. We don't copyright this newsletter.
Please reproduce it and post it on Internet sites.
Remember, we are a non-profit and rely on donations to publish our newsletter and maintain our website. Our pathetic finances are open to public inspections. Send your tax-deductible contributions to:
The Vitamin D Council
9100 San Gregorio Road
Atascadero, CA 93422
Supplement
Some of you didn't get the last newsletter. Here's a link.
http://www.vitamindcouncil.com/newsletter/2007-mar.shtml
Why is athletic performance medically important? If you think for a minute, you'd realize that athletic performance is the same as physical performance. What happens when physical performance is impaired? People fall and break their hips, resulting in death, disability, or nursing home admission. Many people don't realize how fatal falls can be in the elderly. In 2003, the CDC reported 13,700 persons over 65 in the USA died from their falls, and 1.8 million ended up in emergency rooms for treatment of nonfatal injuries from falls. Falls cause the majority of hip fractures, which - if they don't result in death - often result in admission to a nursing home. That's 13,700 deaths, hundreds of thousands of surgeries, countless nursing home admissions, and tens of billions in health care costs every year from impaired athletic performance. That's why it matters.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Fatalities and injuries from falls among older adults--United States, 1993-2003 and 2001-2005. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2006 Nov 17;55(45):1221-4. Link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=17108890&query_hl=9&itool=pubmed_DocSum
The scientific evidence that vitamin D reduces falls in the elderly is quite strong. Some physicians say they must wait for randomized, placebo controlled, interventional trials, saying they need such "gold standard" evidence before they will act to prevent falls. Here are four such "gold standard" studies:
Bischoff HA, et al. Effects of vitamin D and calcium supplementation on falls: a randomized controlled trial. J Bone Miner Res. 2003 Feb;18(2):343-51.
Dhesi JK, et al. Vitamin D supplementation improves neuromuscular function in older people who fall. Age Ageing. 2004 Nov;33(6):589-95.
Flicker L, et al. Should older people in residential care receive vitamin D to prevent falls? Results of a randomized trial. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2005 Nov;53(11):1881-8.
Harwood RH, et al. A randomised, controlled comparison of different calcium and vitamin D supplementation regimens in elderly women after hip fracture: The Nottingham Neck of Femur (NONOF) Study. Age Ageing. 2004 Jan;33(1):45-51.
Some say they require a meta-analysis of such "gold standard" studies, from a top-flight university, published in a respected journal, proving vitamin D reduces falls. Here's a meta-analysis from Harvard, published is the Journal of the American Medical Association, showing vitamin D reduces falls:
Bischoff-Ferrari HA, Dawson-Hughes B, Willett WC, Staehelin HB, Bazemore MG, Zee RY, Wong JB. Effect of Vitamin D on falls: a meta-analysis. JAMA. 2004 Apr 28;291(16):1999-2006.
Will these "gold standard" studies prompt physicians to act? Will older patients finally get a vitamin D blood level and appropriate treatment of their vitamin D deficiency? No, most will not. I wish physicians acted on scientific studies but they do not, no matter how many people are dying. Vitamin D scientists conducting such trials are in for a rude surprise.
No matter how good their studies, no matter how well designed or meticulously conducted, no matter how good the journal, practicing physicians will continue to ignore such studies. Practicing physicians do what they learned in medical school, do what their colleagues do, and do what the drug company salespersons say. Very few keep abreast of medical research, unless a drug company representative puts that research under their nose.
That's why I wrote about athletic performance. If you think about it for a minute, you'll realize that falling is a failure of athletic performance. Anything that improves athletic performance will reduce deaths from falls.
As far as athletic performance in younger people goes, I certainly got some interesting letters. One guy from Tennessee agreed to list his phone number in case the press wanted to call or come by and watch him do chin-ups.
Dear Dr. Cannell:
I've been reading your newsletter for about a year and started taking 5,000 units a day this last fall. I live in Minnesota and play a lot of basketball. I play outside during the summer and inside in the winter. I usually notice a winter slump, my friends have talked about it too. You feel tired, like not being able to jump, like your muscles are dead. This winter was different, I felt great all winter. I didn't realize it might be the vitamin D. I know what he means when he said the ball was "sweeter." it feels that way now.
Greg
Plymouth, Minnesota
Dr. Cannell:
I play tennis inside during the winter. About January, I have always felt different; I couldn't get a jump on the ball or see it as well. Since I've been on 2,000 mg of vitamin D, I've been getting to the ball much faster. Now I feel like I do in the summer. I didn't realize it could be the vitamin D, until your latest newsletter. Thanks. I don't know if I should tell my friends because then they'll are start taking vitamin D and I won't be able to beat them?
Maria
Portland, Oregon
Dear Maria:
I hope that 2,000 units not 2,000 mg. 2,000 mg would be 80 million units or 80,000 of the 1,000 IU tablets. 2,000 IU (.05 mg) per day is enough if you are a small woman and get some sunlight in the sunnier months. Tell your friends, it might save their lives and that's a better feeling than beating them in tennis.
Dear Dr. Cannell:
I'm a weight lifter and most lifters know that you can lift more in the summer than the winter. I never knew why until I saw all those old German and Russian studies. No wonder the Germans and Russians used to do so well in the Olympics. I started on vitamin D yesterday. I found it in Costco for almost nothing.
Tom
Redding, California
Dear Dr. Cannell:
My name is Ed Jones and I have been nuts about doing chin ups for many years. Three years ago when I really got interested in the Vitamin D story in regard to health, I found that I was very low in D, (12ng/ml) I started supplementing and started to raise my level however it came slowly. In April of 2005 I decided to try to break a record on chin ups and in front of several media people, I did 285 chin ups. I quit doing chin ups after this because it was so difficult however I continued to work at achieving 50ng/ml on my blood work. This January I finally got my D over 40ng/ml and started doing chin ups again. I quickly found that chin ups now were easier than ever! Last week, March 8, 2007, I completed 300 chin ups and it was almost easy! I could not believe it. I am training now to do 500 chin ups in the next three months and the only change in my supplements, diet, etc is increasing my D level. I completely agree with the relationship of Vitamin D to strength and stamina.
Ed Jones
Chattanooga, Tennessee
423-892-4085
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http://www.greenigsociety.org/jpg/JoseAndBaby.jpg
The Green Iguana Society
Lighting: Iguanas must have a source of UVA and UVB light! UVA stimulates natural behaviors by providing a component of natural sunlight. UVB is important to iguanas for another reason. Without it, their bodies cannot manufacture vitamin D3 or properly metabolize calcium. Iguanas that are deprived of proper UV lighting suffer from a disease called Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD) which is unfortunately very common in captive iguanas. MBD causes weak bones, jaw and bone deformities and early death.
The absolute best source of UV light is the sun. Allowing your iguana to bask in the sun on a regular basis will provide it with large amounts of natural UV light. The general rule of thumb is - the more real sun your iguana has access to, the better. One thing to be aware of is that glass and plastic filter out the UV components of sunlight. It is for this reason that you cannot just set your iguana in front of a closed window in the sun. The window glass filters out most of the UV light, so your iguana will not benefit from such sunbathing in terms of vitamin D3 production (although he might enjoy this (in)activity immensely).
An additional source of UV light is special fluorescent UV bulbs available in pet stores that sell reptile supplies. Some people feel that if daily doses of real, unfiltered sunlight can be obtained on most days, then the use of artificial UV light bulbs in the iguana's enclosure is not necessary. However, The Green Iguana Society strongly recommends the use of artificial UV in addition to as much basking time in the sun as possible, to ensure that your iguana gets adequate amounts of UV. The effectiveness of real sunlight to stimulate iguanas to produce vitamin D3 varies with the time of year and latitude of your location. Therefore, the additional use of artificial UV lights acts as a safety net - especially in cool, cloudy and/or northern climates. See the Heating, Lighting and Humidity section for specific information on the proper use of UV bulbs in your iguana's enclosure.
from: http://www.greenigsociety.org/habitatbasics.htm
...What about captive humans?
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From Iceland, where most of the
wise cod liver oil people live....
Laufey Steingrímsdóttir, Ph.D.
Cod Liver OIl - How much is too much?
11. nóvember 2004
Ever since Dyerberg and Bang published their pioneering research on Greenlanders, fish oils and the possible health effects of omega-3 fatty acids have been a subject of great interest to researchers as well as the general public. We in Iceland have followed these developments with particular interest. Icelanders have a tradition of considerable fish consumption, but more unique is the widespread use of cod liver oil among all age groups in Iceland. The lack of sunshine during the long winter months has made cod liver oil an important, even indispensable source of vitamin D for the population for centuries. However, even with the advent of vitamin preparations, cod liver oil has continued to be popular in Iceland, and still today over half the population takes cod liver oil regularly. The most common dosage is 10 to 15 ml per day, but some, especially older people, take quite a bit more.
Cod liver oil is a particularly rich source of omega-3 fatty acids, but many researchers have been hesitant to recommend its use, because of its high vitamin A and D content. Both of these fat soluble vitamins are known to be toxic if taken in large doses, but the margin for safety is considered even lower for vitamin D than for vitamin A. One tablespoon of cod liver oil contains approximately 37 mg (microgram) of vitamin D, which is well above the recommended intake of 5 to 10 mg a day.
In spite of high vitamin D intake, overt vitamin-D toxicity has never been reported in Iceland. Still, long term consumption of relatively large quantities of cod liver oil might have some adverse effects on the population. For this reason we decided to perform a small study on a group of 19 adult Icelanders who had taken more than one tablespoon of cod liver oil daily for the last 5 years or longer. Seventeen adults of same age and sex distribution who had not taken any vitamin D preparations during the previous year were chosen for control purposes. Serum vitamin D metabolites, 25(OH)D and 1,25(DH)2D were measured in all subjects, as well as serum calcium. All methods have previously been described.
The results were as follows: Consumers of cod liver oil had significantly higher levels of 25(DH) vitamin-D serum than did the control group, or 34,2ng/ml(+- 9,8 S.D.) compared with 18,0ng/ml(+-6,6 S.D.) amongst controls. All values in the cod liver oil group were in the high normal range, the highest value being 59ng/ml. In the control group most values were in the low normal range, but three individuals were below 10ng/ml, with the lowest value measured at 5 ng/ml. No significant difference was found in serum 1,25 (DH) 2vitamin-D or serum calcium between the groups, and all values measured within normal ranges.
This small study could not detect any indication for even small adverse effects of long term consumption of cod liver oil amongst Icelanders. In fact beneficial effects were observed, as three out of seventeen individuals from the control group showed lowered 25(DH)vitamin-D in serum, bordering on deficiency. We find it unlikely that consumption of cod liver oil can reach such levels as to cause toxicity among adults on Western diets, unless other preparations containing large amounts of vitamin D are taken simultaneously. Certainly more research needs to be done on this subject, but here in Iceland at least, we do not find any reason to warn the public against the hazards of cod liver oil, on the contrary, we continue to encourage its use for all age groups.
Laufey Steingrímsdóttir, Ph.D.
University of Iceland
http://www.lysi.is/lysi/is/newsdisplay_en/?cat_id=23099&ew_0_a_id=97163
Icelandic landscape
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fhomepage.mac.com%2Filyons%2Ficeland%2Fice-panorama.jpg&hash=06f545b5f70c7c476692cbd335929498)
http://homepage.mac.com/ilyons/iceland/ice-panorama.jpg
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Nice picture IKO! Quite a view! I have never really seen pictures of Iceland!
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Thanks Karen,
You get a larger pic if you click down there, do you know?
It's a free picture for you from an italian friendo! [8D]
LOL x LOL !!!
Do you remember our triple misunderstanding with Neil? [:D]
By the way, where is our friendo Neilepus?
ikod
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Curcumin is not alone as a natural
remedy against dreadful Plasmodia:
from 'cod' a little help for malaria too!
The suggestive potentiating effect of cod liver oil
on the efficacy of artesunate in Plasmodium berghei infected mice
O Awodele, MO Araoye,AI Oreagba, SO Kolawole, A Akintonwa.
Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Idi-Araba, Lagos, Nigeria.
The effects of cod liver oil on the potency of artesunate was determined using Plasmodium berghei infected mice. Fifty (50) adult albino mice weighing between 15-25g were used for this experiment. There were five groups of ten animals each per group. Groups I to IV were infected with plasmodium berghei and also received 0.9% normal saline (Group I), Artesunate (Group II), Cod liver oil (Group III) and Cod liver oil plus Artesunate (Group IV). Group V was not infected and was not treated. The parasitaemia level was monitored for eight days post inoculation of the parasites into the animals. The group IV animals that received the combination of both Artestunate and Cod liver oil demonstrated a better clearance of malaria parasite than Artesunate montherapy (Group II) with 48.7%, 90.3%, 98.9% and 99.2% suppression of parasiteamia from days 4 to 5, 5 to 6, 6 to 7 and 7 to 8 respectively.
These findings showed that the combination of Artesunate and Cod liver oil is more effective against plasmodium berghei infection than artesunate alone. This combination may thus be considered as a suitable and cost effective Artemisinin Combination Therapy.
Nigerian Journal of Health and Biomedical Sciences Vol. 5 (2) 2006: 74-78
from: http://www.ajol.info/viewarticle.php?jid=67&id=29728&layout=abstract
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Similar things were found
just about fifty years ago!
Antiparasitic action of dietary cod liver oil
upon Plasmodium berghei and its reversal by vitamin E.
GODFREY DG.
...article too old to get the abstract from PubMed...
Exp Parasitol. 1957 Nov;6(6):555-65.
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Another historical note from the
same 'vintage' paper from Zoey:
When efficacy of cod liver oil began to be widely recognized,
cases of adulteration and fraud contributed to controlling the enthusiasm.
We must keep in mind that vitamin D had not been discovered yet:
...
In each country, the experience was the same: Cod liver oil was used by the fishing people and peasantry; then accidentally observed by some physician, tried by him, and so made known generally to the profession. At first, it was used in chronic rheumatism and gout; then, naturally enough, in other bone and joint diseases, notably rickets, and osteomalacia (which was considered closely allied to gout); then finally in other forms of tuberculosis. It is interesting that its use in tuberculosis should have been by the way of rickets and gout.
It is interesting too, that despite the fact that it was so effective in rickets and despite the fact that this efficacy had beeen observed and carefully recorded by reputable and well-known medical writers, it should have fallen into such widespread disuse. It is well recommended and reported as late as the middle of the nineteenth century; but late in that century and early in this one the textbooks of pharmacology all speak of cod liver oil as being useful in tuberculosis and rickets because, and only because, it is easily digested and easily assimilated fat (Potter, 1902; Stevens, 1903; Penzoldt, 1904; Hare, 1907; Cushny, 1911 and 1915; Sollmann, 1917). At the same time appear numerous notes as to the detection, in samples then on the market, of adulteration or substitution of other oils, and also clinical reports both of success and of failure in its therapeutic use. Heubner, Salge, Baginsky, Biedert and Fishl found it of no use in rickets. Vierordt, Stoltzner and Finkelstein mantained a vigorous defense of it, although they emphasized the importance of combining it with phosphorous. From 1908 to 1912, Schabad published the much-discussed matabolism experiments, which indicated a specific effect in rickets not produced by other oils. He pointed out certain pitfalls in relation to latent period and dosage. In 1910, Rosenstern(12) wrote: "Cod liver oil is in the forefront of children's remedies. For long it has been struggling against the scepticism of exact science." He reported cures in cases of early rickets and tetany with cod liver oil alone, and considered the effect specific. Czerny,(13) in 1912, asserted most positiviely that its only effect was due to easily assimilated fat. No definite reports of its failure in actual use appeared in the literature in this country or in England. However, pharmacologists and chemists were convincedthat its action was in no way specific, and certain noted pediatricians, whose influence was widespread, taught that it was of no particular value. In the 1901 edition of Rotch's(14)"Pediatrics" he says:
The treatment of rachitis is essentially dietetic and hygienic. The infants should be kept in the open air as much as possible, and should live in rooms accessible to sunlight. There does not seem to be any drug which produces specific effect upon the osseous chnages which take place in rachitis. Phosphorus is considered by some observers to be a valuable adjunct in the general dietetic and hygienic treatment, but, according to our experience at the Children's Hospital, it has not proved to be of any special benefit.
He makes no mention of cod liver oil.
Still,(15) in his textbook, in 1912, notes the use of cod liver oil and give the dosage, and adds:
There seems to be no specific virtue in cod liver oil, any other oil will do equally well, provided it can be taken without disturbing digestion or causing nausea by its taste. At one time we used, at the Children's Hospital, Great Ormond Street, olive oil and pilchard oil and cotton seed oil, made into as palatable an emulsion as possible, and these seemed to be as useful as cod liver oil, except that they were more apt to cause nausea or digestive disturbance.
Henoch, 1882;(16) Meiggs and Pepper, 1886;(17) Starr, 1894;(18) Holt, 1896;(19) Kerley, 1907,(21) in their general textbooks, advised the use of cod liver oil, and many physicians were impressed with its obvious benefit in rickets and continued its use. Recently, well controlled experiments both in the rat and in the human infant have demonstrated beyond criticism the efficacy of cod liver oil in the cure and prevention of rickets, and attention may now be directed to the mechanism which brings about this effect.
from: "The history of cod liver oil as a remedy"
Ruth A. Guy M.D.
Dept. of Pediatrics, Yale University School of Medicine
Am. J. of diseases of children 26; 112-116, 1923.
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...from 1923 to 2007, a jump into the new
century millennium!
CodPics...
Vitamin D3
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An estimate of cancer mortality rate reductions in Europe and the US
with 1,000 IU of oral vitamin D per day.
Grant WB, Garland CF, Gorham ED.
Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Center, San Francisco, CA 94109-2510, USA.
Solar ultraviolet B (UVB) irradiance and/or vitamin D have been found inversely correlated with incidence, mortality, and/or survival rates for breast, colorectal, ovarian, and prostate cancer and Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Evidence is emerging that more than 17 different types of cancer are likely to be vitamin D-sensitive. A recent meta-analysis concluded that 1,000 IU of oral vitamin D per day is associated with a 50% reduction in colorectal cancer incidence. Using this value, as well as the findings in a multifactorial ecologic study of cancer mortality rates in the US, estimates for reductions in risk of vitamin D-sensitive cancer mortality rates were made for 1,000 IU/day. These estimates, along with annual average serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels, were used to estimate the reduction in cancer mortality rates in several Western European and North American countries that would result from intake of 1,000 IU/day of vitamin D. It was estimated that reductions could be 7% for males and 9% for females in the US and 14% for males and 20% for females in Western European countries below 59 degrees. It is proposed that increased fortification of food and increased availability of supplements could help increase vitamin D intake and could augment small increases in production of vitamin D from solar UVB irradiance. Providing 1,000 IU of vitamin D per day for all adult Americans would cost about $1 billion; the expected benefits for cancer would be in the range of $16-25 billion in addition to other health benefits of vitamin D.
Recent Results Cancer Res. 2007;174:225-34.
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Just found a recent report from Hungary about UV-B sunlight in seasons:
[Vitamin D forming effectiveness of ultraviolet radiation from sunlight
in different months in Budapest, Hungary] [Article in Hungarian]
Bakos J, Miko P.
Fodor Jozsef Orszagos Kozegeszsegugyi Kozpont, Orszagos Frederic Joliot-Curie Sugarbiologiai es Sugaregeszsegugyi Kutato Intezete, Budapest. bakos@hp.osski.hu
INTRODUCTION: The vitamin D3 formation in skin is the most important natural source of vitamin D demands of humans. The key step of the phototransformation of provitamin D into previtamin D from which the vitamin D3 is formed by thermal conversion. According to studies run at the latitudes of Hungary the UV-B radiation in winter time is not satisfactory to ensure the need of the vitamin D, which can result in vitamin D 3 deficiency and increases risk of osteoporosis.
AIMS: The aim of this study was to verify whether in the Hungarian population the UV radiation from the Sun ensures the daily synthesis of 1000 IU vitamin D3, or Vitamin D deficiency could occur in the winter and spring months which are less favourable in terms of UV exposure.
METHODS: The data of UV-B radiation reaching the Earth's surface were used for the evaluation. These data based on regular measurements in Budapest. According to the average of UV-B radiation of each months the "best case scenario" of vitamin D3 production was estimated by using the most optimal conditions of vitamin D synthesis.
RESULTS: It was calculated, that the effective UV irradiance reaching the Earth's surface at noon in Budapest is the highest in July, while the lowest is in December. The difference between these two months is more than 35-fold for July. In the period between November and March more than 200 minutes have to be spent outdoor to ensure the production of satisfactory amount of vitamin D in skin. From one hand it is irrealisticaly long time because it exceeds the duration of maximum irradiation around noon which was the basis of our calculation. From the other hand if only the face and hands are uncovered then the required radiant exposure exceeds the 1 minimal erythemal dose, i.e. the skin should be burnt.
CONCLUSIONS: Based on our calculations it was found, that in Budapest more than 95% of yearly effective UV-B radiation is measurable in the period between March and October. Therefore it can be assumed that the UV-B radiation would not be sufficient in the period between November and February even if its efficacy would not be limited by the closed clothing and less time spent outdoor which are anyway characteristic and necessary in that part of year.
Orv Hetil. 2007 Feb 18;148(7):319-25.
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http://incentraleurope.radio.cz/pictures/r/mesta_zahranicni/budapest.jpg
http://manorama.1108.cc/images/06rygyer.jpg
Every year, after the Ratha-yatra in Budapest, Lord Jagganatha visits New Vraja-dham, reaches Vrindavana. Here devotees eagerly welcomes Him and have a half day program. Here are a few pictures about the festival:
Smiling faces, wonderful colours! http://manorama.1108.cc/?cat=8
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"Fishy news" from Norway:
Fish oils EPA & DHA (not Vitamin A & D!)
are better absorbed in the natural way.
Enhanced incorporation of n-3 fatty acids from fish compared with fish oils.
Elvevoll EO, Barstad H, Breimo ES, Brox J, Eilertsen KE, Lund T, Olsen JO, Osterud B.
Norwegian College of Fishery Science, Department of Marine Biotechnology, University of Tromso, Norway. edel.elvevoll@nfh.uit.no
This work was undertaken to study the impact of the source of n-3 FA(Fat Acids) on their incorporation in serum, on blood lipid composition, and on cellular activation. A clinical trial comprising 71 volunteers, divided into five groups, was performed. Three groups were given 400 g smoked salmon (n = 14), cooked salmon (n = 15), or cooked cod (n = 13) per week for 8 wk. A fourth group was given 15 mL/d of cod liver oil (CLO) (n = 15), and a fifth group served as control (n = 14) without supplementation. The serum content of EPA and DHA before and after intervention revealed a higher rise in EPA and DHA in the cooked salmon group (129% rise in EPA and 45% rise in DHA) as compared with CLO (106 and 25%, respectively) despite an intake of EPA and DHA in the CLO group of 3.0 g/d compared with 1.2 g/d in the cooked salmon group. No significant changes were observed in blood lipids, fibrinogen, fibrinolysis, or lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced tissue factor (TF) activity, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha), interleukin-8 (IL-8), leukotriene B4 (LTB4), and thromboxane B2 (TxB2) in whole blood. EPA and DHA were negatively correlated with LPS-induced TNFalpha, IL-8, LTB4, TxB2, and TF in whole blood. In conclusion, fish consumption is more effective in increasing serum EPA and DHA than supplementing the diet with fish oil. Since the n-3 FA are predominantly in TAG in fish as well as CLO, it is suggested that the larger uptake from fish than CLO is due to differences in physiochemical structure of the lipids.
Lipids. 2006 Dec;41(12):1109-14.
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http://www.visitscandinavia.or.jp/Gallery/norway/Norway_Aurora%20Tromso%20town.jpg
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http://www.classicistranieri.com/punch/1/6/2/8/16281/16281-h/images/071.png
Golf Enthusiast (urging the merits of the game).
"—and, besides, it's so good for you."
Unbeliever. "So is cod-liver oil."
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http://www.classicistranieri.com/punch/1/6/2/8/16281/16281-h/16281-h.htm
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THE OLD AMERICAN RECIPE
King's American Dispensatory
by Harvey Wickes Felter, M.D., and John Uri Lloyd, Phr. M., Ph. D, 1898.
Oleum Morrhuae (U. S. P.)—Cod-Liver Oil.
Preparation.
—The principal process by which the oil is now prepared is to remove blood and impurities from the carefully sorted livers by repeated washings; then the gall-bladder is removed and the livers, as soon as practicable, are put into iron kettles and subjected to steam heat with constant stirring. The oil separates from the liver tissue, and, after decantation and filtration through a funnel, is drawn off into barrels. In the Newfoundland fisheries, the oil obtained by steam heat is exposed to intense cold until it is partly solidified; the mass is then put into bags and subjected to strong pressure. In this manner the American shore oil is obtained. The residual stearin is sold to soap-makers.
Description.
—Three kinds of cod-liver oil are usually met with in commerce: The white or pale-yellow, which is obtained from fresh and perfectly healthy livers (shore oil). It is the official oil and is described by the U. S. P. as "a pale-yellow, thin, oily liquid, having a peculiar, slightly fishy, but not rancid odor, and a bland, slightly fishy taste. Specific gravity, 0.920 to 0.925 at 15° C. (59° F.). Scarcely soluble in alcohol, but readily soluble in ether, chloroform, or carbon disulphide; also in 2.5 parts of acetic ether"—(U. S. P.). The second form is pale-brown, or brownish-yellow (straits oil); less care is exercised in the selection of the livers and the preparation of the oil. The third kind is dark-brown (banks oil), and is an inferior grade, being derived from putrefied livers; its odor is disagreeable, its taste acrid and bitter; and it has an acid reaction. The best grade is universally preferred in the United States.
Adulterations and Tests.
—Cod-liver oil is subjected to adulterations in several ways. One method is to bleach an inferior, dark oil, it is stated, by exposure to the rays of the sun. The addition of mineral oils can be recognized by saponification which leaves the adulterant unaffected. An oil that has undergone partial putrefaction may be judged by the quantity of free volatile acids in the oil. Such oils also absorb much less iodine than fresh cod-liver oil. Refined seal oil and seed oils are also used as adulterants of cod-liver oil. (For a more detailed consideration of this phase of the subject, see special works on analysis, e.g., A. H. Allen, Commercial Organic Analysis, Vol. II, Part I, 3d ed., 1899, p. 197.) The U. S. P. gives the following tests for the purity of cod-liver oil: "If 1 drop of the oil be dissolved in 20 drops of chloroform, and the solution shaken with 1 drop of sulphuric acid, the solution will acquire a violet-red tint, rapidly changing to rose-red and brownish-yellow. If a glass rod, moistened with sulphuric acid, be drawn through a few drops of the oil, on a porcelain plate, a violet color will be produced. Cod-liver oil should be only very slightly acid to litmus paper previously moistened with alcohol (limit of free fatty acids). When the oil is allowed to stand for some time at 0° C. (32° F.), very little or no solid fat should separate (absence of other fish oils, and of many vegetable oils). If 2 or 3 drops of fuming nitric acid be allowed to flow alongside of 10 or 15 drops of the oil, contained in a watch-glass, a red color will be produced at the point of contact. On stirring the mixture with a glass rod, this color becomes bright rose-red, soon changing to lemon-yellow (distinction from seal oil, which shows at first no change of color, and from other fish oils, which become at first blue, and afterward brown and yellow"—(U. S. P.). The presence of seal oil may also be detected by means of Amagat and Jean's oleo refractometer (see Proc. Amer. Pharm. Assoc., 1898, p. 888).
from: http://www.henriettesherbal.com/eclectic/kings/gadus_oleu.html
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.infonet.st-johns.nf.ca%2Fgreen%2Facrayola.jpg&hash=197f818ec9f9ba1d9d5cd180c8c22f21)
http://www.infonet.st-johns.nf.ca/green/acrayola.jpg
August 1998: The Portuguese tall ship CREOULA returns to St. John's harbour.
The CREOULA, a Portuguese Navy training vessel, sailed from Lisbon (Lisboa) to St. John's to commemorate Portugal's cod fishery heritage.
The Creoula made 37 voyages to the Grand Banks. The Last was in 1973.
The Creoula could carry about 12,800 quintals of "Green Cod" (about 800 tonnes) together with about 60 tonnes of cod liver oil. PHOTO BY H. PINSENT 1998.
from "Terra Nova Greens": http://www.infonet.st-johns.nf.ca/green/historicvessels.html
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Outdoor activities and diet in childhood and adolescence
relate to MS risk above the Arctic Circle.
Kampman MT, Wilsgaard T, Mellgren SI.
Dept. of Neurology, University Hospital of North Norway, P.O. Box 33, 9038, Tromsø, Norway.
BACKGROUND : A relationship between the latitude-related distribution of multiple sclerosis (MS) and exposure to sunlight has long been considered. Higher sun exposure during early life has been associated with decreased risk of MS.
OBJECTIVE : Since Norway is an exception to the latitude gradient of MS prevalence, we tested here whether sunlight exposure or vitamin D-related dietary factors in childhood and adolescence are associated with the risk of MS.
METHODS : Retrospective recall questionnaire data from 152 MS patients and 402 population controls born at and living at latitudes 66-71 degrees N were analysed by means of conditional logistic regression analysis accounting for the matching variables age, sex, and place of birth.
RESULTS : Increased outdoor activities during summer in early life were associated with a decreased risk of MS, most pronounced at ages 16-20 years (odds ratio (OR) 0.55, 95% CI 0.39-0.78, p = 0.001, adjusted for intake of fish and cod-liver oil).
A protective effect of supplementation with cod-liver oil was suggested in the subgroup that reported low summer outdoor activities (OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.31-1.05, p = 0.072).
Consumption of fish three or more times a week was also associated with reduced risk of MS (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.33-0.93, p = 0.024).
CONCLUSION : Summer outdoor activities in childhood and adolescence are associated with a reduced risk of MS even north of the Arctic Circle. Supplemental cod-liver oil may be protective when sun exposure is less, suggesting that both climate and diet may interact to influence MS risk at a population level.
J Neurol. 2007 Apr;254(4):471-7. Epub 2007 Mar 21.
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http://www.v1biz.com.au/totaladventures/pics/picsforpages/kids.jpg
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"Fishy news" from Norway:
Fish oils EPA & DHA (not Vitamin A & D!)
are better absorbed in the natural way.
Enhanced incorporation of n-3 fatty acids from fish compared with fish oils.
Elvevoll EO, Barstad H, Breimo ES, Brox J, Eilertsen KE, Lund T, Olsen JO, Osterud B.
Norwegian College of Fishery Science, Department of Marine Biotechnology, University of Tromso, Norway. edel.elvevoll@nfh.uit.no
This work was undertaken to study the impact of the source of n-3 FA(Fat Acids) on their incorporation in serum, on blood lipid composition, and on cellular activation. A clinical trial comprising 71 volunteers, divided into five groups, was performed. Three groups were given 400 g smoked salmon (n = 14), cooked salmon (n = 15), or cooked cod (n = 13) per week for 8 wk. A fourth group was given 15 mL/d of cod liver oil (CLO) (n = 15), and a fifth group served as control (n = 14) without supplementation. The serum content of EPA and DHA before and after intervention revealed a higher rise in EPA and DHA in the cooked salmon group (129% rise in EPA and 45% rise in DHA) as compared with CLO (106 and 25%, respectively) despite an intake of EPA and DHA in the CLO group of 3.0 g/d compared with 1.2 g/d in the cooked salmon group. No significant changes were observed in blood lipids, fibrinogen, fibrinolysis, or lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced tissue factor (TF) activity, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha), interleukin-8 (IL-8), leukotriene B4 (LTB4), and thromboxane B2 (TxB2) in whole blood. EPA and DHA were negatively correlated with LPS-induced TNFalpha, IL-8, LTB4, TxB2, and TF in whole blood. In conclusion, fish consumption is more effective in increasing serum EPA and DHA than supplementing the diet with fish oil. Since the n-3 FA are predominantly in TAG in fish as well as CLO, it is suggested that the larger uptake from fish than CLO is due to differences in physiochemical structure of the lipids.
Lipids. 2006 Dec;41(12):1109-14.
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.visitscandinavia.or.jp%2FGallery%2Fnorway%2FNorway_Aurora%2520Tromso%2520town.jpg&hash=1025647a807820a9af50d45b29409046)
http://www.visitscandinavia.or.jp/Gallery/norway/Norway_Aurora%20Tromso%20town.jpg
Is that the northern lights again IKO?? It is so beautiful.. I wish to see those one day!!!
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Yes Karen,
those "aurorae borealis" are just
astonishingly beautiful: I never
saw one, of course, but I think
that some perfect pics might even
be better than the original image!
We should go to Scandinavia next September and have a gander...
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2Ff%2Ff7%2FAurora_Borelis_22Jan2004.jpg%2F250px-Aurora_Borelis_22Jan2004.jpg&hash=03531e1ef10da893454892bb66b6ecac) (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2Fa%2Faa%2FPolarlicht_2.jpg%2F250px-Polarlicht_2.jpg&hash=f15fc6555a96ce22412b644be176d8da)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/Aurora_Borelis_22Jan2004.jpg/250px-Aurora_Borelis_22Jan2004.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Polarlicht_2.jpg/250px-Polarlicht_2.jpg
Aurora (astronomy)
An aurora (plural aurorae/auroras) is an electro-static phenomenon, characterised by a bright glow and caused due to the collision of charged particles in the magnetosphere with atoms in the Earth's upper atmosphere. An aurora is usually observed in the night sky, particularly in the polar zone. For this latter reason, some scientists call it a "polar aurora" (or "aurora polaris").
In northern latitudes, it is known as the aurora borealis (IPA /ɔˈɹɔɹə bɔɹiˈælɪs/), which is named after the Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name for north wind, Boreas. Especially in Europe, it often appears as a reddish glow on the northern horizon, as if the sun were rising from an unusual direction. The aurora borealis is also called the northern lights since it is only visible in the North sky from the Northern Hemisphere. The aurora borealis most often occurs from September to October and from March to April. Its southern counterpart, aurora australis, has similar properties. Australis is the Latin word for "of the South".
more From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_%28astronomy%29
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In my Dreams Iko.. Wouldn't that be fun...LOL..I cannot even imagine how beautiful they would be! I know little about them other then they are beautiful. Sorry I am really geographically challenged, so pardon me asking, is Scandinavia where one should go to see these beautiful lights?
You better be careful I might take you up on that! LOL
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In the polar zone of Scandinavia, the northern, the better...
Sweden, Norway: the first picture is actually from Thromso, Norway, home country for the cod liver oil fanatics!
Take care
ikod [^]
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http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/Figures/Loom_Map.gif
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Drive north 1000 miles or more probably.. then fly or take a plane from there! LOL...
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Thanks Karen,
You get a larger pic if you click down there, do you know?
It's a free picture for you from an italian friendo! [8D]
LOL x LOL !!!
Do you remember our triple misunderstanding with Neil? [:D]
By the way, where is our friendo Neilepus?
ikod
I think he has been really busy... Forum is awful slow without him! I guess that's the way it goes..
I did not know about the picture I will click and see it..
Our triple misunderstanding are you referring to the first time you said, I am your friend.. LOL I remember that I was embarrassed! LOL
BTW i also posted in the a#z to try to get it going again ..LOL You did Good Iko! LOL
I will look at the picture and print it for me self! Thanks Iko!
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I am sorry I missed this post a long time ago.. but realize the questions could remain valid today...
Are we all thats left????
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More recent hints on vitamin D and TB protection.
Special antimicrobial peptides called "defensins"
are synthesized thanks to the hormone vitamin D:
IFN-gamma- and TNF-independent vitamin D-inducible
human suppression of mycobacteria: the role of cathelicidin LL-37.
Martineau AR, Wilkinson KA, Newton SM, Floto RA, Norman AW, Skolimowska K, Davidson RN, Sørensen OE, Kampmann B, Griffiths CJ, Wilkinson RJ.
Wellcome Trust Center for Research in Clinical Tropical Medicine, Division of Medicine, Wright Fleming Institute, Imperial College London, United Kingdom.
Vitamin D deficiency is associated with susceptibility to tuberculosis, and its biologically active metabolite, 1alpha,25 dihydroxyvitamin D(3) (1alpha,25(OH)(2)D(3)), has pleiotropic immune effects. The mechanisms by which 1alpha,25(OH)(2)D(3) protects against tuberculosis are incompletely understood. 1alpha,25(OH)(2)D(3) reduced the growth of mycobacteria in infected human PBMC cultures in a dose-dependent fashion. Coculture with agonists or antagonists of the membrane or nuclear vitamin D receptors indicated that these effects were primarily mediated by the nuclear vitamin D receptors. 1alpha,25(OH)(2)D(3) reduced transcription and secretion of protective IFN-gamma, IL-12p40, and TNF in infected PBMC and macrophages, indicating that 1alpha,25(OH)(2)D(3) does not mediate protection via these cytokines. Although NOS2A was up-regulated by 1alpha,25(OH)(2)D(3), inhibition of NO formation marginally affected the suppressive effect of 1alpha,25(OH)(2)D(3) on bacillus Calmette Guérin in infected cells. By contrast, 1alpha,25(OH)(2)D(3) strongly up-regulated the cathelicidin hCAP-18 gene, and some hCAP-18 polypeptide colocalized with CD14 in 1alpha,25(OH)(2)D(3) stimulated PBMC, although no detectable LL-37 peptide was found in supernatants from similar 1alpha,25(OH)(2)D(3)-stimulated PBMC cultures. A total of 200 mug/ml of the active peptide LL-37, in turn, reduced the growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in culture by 75.7%.
These findings suggest that vitamin D contributes to protection against TB by "nonclassical" mechanisms that include the induction of antimicrobial peptides.
J Immunol. 2007 Jun 1;178(11):7190-8.
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http://blogimg.goo.ne.jp/user_image/10/bb/8443c3fe1da06cf70270973db1afbfd7.png
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Isn't there a certain amount of vitamine D we can get from the sunshine.. and isn't it rickets that can be improved with the sun because of the vitamine " D!"
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Isn't there a certain amount of vitamine D we can get from the sunshine.. and isn't it rickets that can be improved with the sun because of the vitamine " D!"
You are certainly right. Cod liver oil helps with vitamin A and D plus 'therapic' fatty acids like omega-3 so good for brain and things. Human skin exposed to sunlight is able to make vitamin D3 in a variable fashion, depending on subcutaneous tissues, age, pigmentation and other factors...
CodPics...
Vitamin D3
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.axxora.com%2Ffiles%2Fformula%2FLKT-C2956.gif&hash=04267daf9ae6202da7f555604f7d00b1) (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.photomed.de%2Fuploads%2Fpics%2Fvitamin_d3_01.jpg&hash=46814f512589b45efe42af167847c3e0)
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mmaonline.net%2FPublications%2FMNMed2005%2FNovember%2FImages%2Fsun.gif&hash=844fef17c08a93edd025a83988db07bf) (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.teridanielsbooks.com%2FStates%2FFlorida%2Fchildren%2C%2520beach%2C%2520sand%2C.jpg&hash=a22b5a748731d3e8b1f9785bea7f3cbb)
http://www.axxora.com/files/formula/LKT-C0145.gif
http://www.photomed.de/uploads/pics/vitamin_d3_01.jpg
http://www.mmaonline.net/Publications/MNMed2005/November/Images/sun.gif
http://www.teridanielsbooks.com/States/Florida/children,%20beach,%20sand,.jpg
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Thanks Iko..What else is a good source of A!hi
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The photobiology of vitamin D--a topic of renewed focus. [Article in Norwegian]
Moan J, Porojnicu AC.Avdeling for strålingsbiologi, Rikshospitalet-Radiumhospitalet, 0310 Oslo. johan.moan@labmed.uio.no
The sun is our most important source of vitamin D. Exposure to solaria, in sub-erythemogenic doses, also gives large amounts of this vitamin. The ultraviolet radiation in these sources converts 7-dihydrocholesterol to previtamin D3 in the skin. Furthermore, heat isomerization to vitamin D3 takes place, then transport to the liver and hydroxylation to calcidiol, which is transported to the kidneys and hydroxylated to the active hormone calcitriol. The vitamin D3 status of the body is supposed to be reliably imaged by calcidiol measurements. Calcidiol levels above 12.5 nmol/l prevent rickets and osteomalacia, but optimal levels are probably higher, in the range 100-250 nmol/l. A daily food intake of 100-200 microg vitamin D3 (50-100 g cod-liver oil), or a weekly exposure to two minimal erythemal doses of ultraviolet radiation (20 to 40 minutes whole body exposure to midday midsummer sun in Oslo, Norway), will give this level.
An adequate supply of vitamin D3 seems to reduce the incidence rates or improve the prognosis of several cancer forms, including prostate, breast and colon cancer, as well as of lymphomas.
Several other diseases are related to a low vitamin D3 status: heart diseases, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and arthritis. The action mechanisms of vitamin D are thought to be mainly related to its known cell-differentiating and immuno-modulating effects. Even though most of the 250 annual death cases from skin cancer in Norway are caused by sun exposure, we should, in view of the health effects of ultraviolet radiation, consider modifying our restrictive attitude towards sun exposure and use of solaria.
Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen. 2006 Apr 6;126(8):1048-52.
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Crossing MS and vitamin D on PubMed Database
you find plenty of studies and experimental
data suggesting a positive effect in such a
chronic, long-lasting and highly debilitating
disease like multiple sclerosis.
Strangely enough, I could not find any clinical
study with vitamin D3 GIVEN to the patients...
I might have missed some report or trial, maybe.
It would not cost much, compared with all the
various expensive new drugs being tested on MS!
We seem to be quite late, approximately 2-3
decades behind with this.
A longitudinal study of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and intact PTH levels
indicate the importance of vitamin D and calcium homeostasis regulation in multiple sclerosis.
Soilu-Hanninen M, Laaksonen M, Laitinen I, Eralinna JP, Lilius EM, Mononen I.
University of Turku, Finland.
BACKGROUND: Past sun exposure and vitamin D3 supplementation have been associated with a reduced risk of multiple sclerosis (MS). There are no previous longitudinal studies of vitamin D in MS.
OBJECTIVES: To compare regulation of vitamin D and calcium homeostasis between MS patients and healthy controls. To study correlation of parameters of vitamin D metabolism with MS activity.
METHODS: We measured 25-hydroxyvitamin D, intact PTH, calcium, phosphate, magnesium, chloride, alkaline phosphatase, albumin and TSH in serum every three months and at the time of relapses during one year in 23 MS patients and in 23 healthy controls. MRI BOD and T2 activity was assessed every 6 months.
RESULTS: Vitamin D deficiency [S-25(OH)D </= 37 nmol/L] was common affecting half of the patients and controls at some time of the year. Seasonal variation of 25(OH)D was similar in the patients and in the controls, but the 25(OH)D serum levels were lower and the iPTH serum levels were higher during MS relapses than in remission.
All 21 relapses during the study occurred at serum iPTH > 20 ng/L (2.2 pmol/L), whereas 38% of patients in remission had iPTH </= 20 ng/L. MS patients had a relative hypocalcaemia and a blunted PTH response in the winter. There was no correlation between serum 25(OH)D and MRI parameters.
CONCLUSIONS: The endocrine circuitry regulating serum calcium may be altered in MS. There is an inverse relationship between serum vitamin D level and MS clinical activity. The role of vitamin D in MS must be explored further.
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2007 Jun 19; [Epub ahead of print]
Maybe something is actually 'moving' !
http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=show&pageid=96
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.accommodationsbc.com%2Fimagesadv%2Fabsoluteheavenbbbeach_sm.jpg&hash=79cfa412eff5b5e00efae0fd97559ada)
http://www.accommodationsbc.com/imagesadv/absoluteheavenbbbeach_sm.jpg
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Link to Multiple Sclerosis Resource Center:
Vitamin D
Below is the latest Research into Vitamin D and MS available.
...
http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=show&pageid=1334
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iangilman.com%2Fbirthdays%2Fescher.jpg&hash=a901bdcb4a62baba5756964ba6a92afd)
http://www.iangilman.com/birthdays/escher.jpg
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I like Escher! He has some really cool images!
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See what too much cod liver oil can do [:)]
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi24.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fc23%2FSUEDONIM%2FFISHHEAD.jpg&hash=0bdf93853b2f0fbf66676d55f6f629f7)
LOL Well I have not seen that piccy for a long while ! LOL! Good Day Iko!
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The "Vitamin D Tsunami" is definitely coming,
spinning out of the restricted scientific circuit.
Finally prof. Michael Holick is in the New England
Journal of Medicine...
and -as usual- lay press will follow pretty soon!
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.starstore.com%2Facatalog%2Ficeberg-poster.jpg&hash=8a80b7748572a0b594be466c1f88744b)
http://www.starstore.com/acatalog/iceberg-poster.jpg
"...rickets can be considered the tip of the vitamin D-deficiency iceberg. In fact, vitamin D deficiency remains common in children and adults."
Michael F. Holick "Vitamin D Deficiency" N Eng J Med 2007;357:266-81.
July 19, 2007 splendid review article in 'Medical Progress'
Unfortunately this one is not available in free full-text...you may go to last year paper published in J Clin Invest for similar refreshing good news:
http://www.jci.org/cgi/content/full/116/8/2062
As far as this topic is concerned, one thing should be noticed: the 'Shanghai Report' is not mentioned, probably because of its unconfirmed data and weak evidence. But decreased lymphoma incidence (40% reduced risk) due to proper sunlight exposure is reported, and a specific reference quoted:
Family history of hematopoietic malignancy and risk of lymphoma.
Chang ET, Smedby KE, Hjalgrim H, Porwit-MacDonald A, Roos G, Glimelius B, Adami HO.
Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. ellen.chang@meb.ki.se
BACKGROUND: A family history of hematopoietic malignancy is associated with an increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), although the magnitude of the relative risk is unclear. We estimated the association between familial hematopoietic cancer and risk of lymphoma using validated, registry-based family data, and we also investigated whether associations between some environmental exposures and risk of lymphoma vary between individuals with and without such a family history. METHODS: In a population-based case-control study of malignant lymphoma, 1506 case patients and 1229 control subjects were linked to the Swedish Multi-Generation Register and then to the Swedish Cancer Register to ascertain history of cancer in first-degree relatives of patients with malignant lymphoma. Multiple logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for associations with the risk of lymphoma.
RESULTS: A history of hematopoietic malignancy in any first-degree relative was associated with an increased risk of all NHL (OR = 1.8, 95% CI = 1.2 to 2.5), common B-cell NHL subtypes, and HL. Relative risks were generally stronger in association with sibling hematopoietic cancer (OR for all NHL = 3.2, 95% CI = 1.3 to 7.6) than with parental hematopoietic cancer (OR = 1.6, 95% CI = 1.1 to 2.3). A family history of NHL or chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) was associated with an increased risk of several NHL subtypes and HL, whereas familial multiple myeloma was associated with a higher risk of follicular lymphoma. There was no statistically significant heterogeneity in NHL risk associations with environmental factors between individuals with and without familial hematopoietic malignancy.
CONCLUSIONS: The increased risk of NHL and HL among individuals with a family history of hematopoietic malignancy was approximately twofold for both lymphoma types. There was no evidence that etiologic associations varied between familial NHL and nonfamilial NHL.
J Natl Cancer Inst. 2005 Oct 5;97(19):1466-74.
Ultraviolet radiation exposure and risk of malignant lymphomas.
Smedby KE, Hjalgrim H, Melbye M, Torrång A, Rostgaard K, Munksgaard L, Adami J, Hansen M, Porwit-MacDonald A, Jensen BA, Roos G, Pedersen BB, Sundström C, Glimelius B, Adami HO.
Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Box 281, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden. karin.ekstrom@meb.ki.se
BACKGROUND: The incidence of malignant lymphomas has been increasing rapidly, but the causes of these malignancies remain poorly understood. One hypothesis holds that exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation increases lymphoma risk. We tested this hypothesis in a population-based case-control study in Denmark and Sweden.
METHODS: A total of 3740 patients diagnosed between October 1, 1999, and August 30, 2002, with incident malignant lymphomas, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and Hodgkin lymphoma, and 3187 population controls provided detailed information on history of UV exposure and skin cancer and information on other possible risk factors for lymphomas. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated by logistic regression. Statistical tests were two-sided.
RESULTS: Multivariable-adjusted analyses revealed consistent, statistically significant negative associations between various measures of UV light exposure and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. A high frequency of sun bathing and sunburns at age 20 years and 5-10 years before the interview and sun vacations abroad were associated with 30%-40% reduced risks of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (e.g., for sunbathing four times a week or more at age 20 versus never sunbathing, OR = 0.7, 95% CI = 0.6 to 0.9; for two or more sunburns a year at age 20 versus no sunburns, OR = 0.6, 95% CI = 0.5 to 0.8). These inverse associations increased in strength with increasing levels of exposure (all P(trend)< or =.01). Similar, albeit weaker, associations were observed for Hodgkin lymphoma. There were no clear differences among non-Hodgkin lymphoma subtypes, although associations were stronger for B-cell than for T-cell lymphomas. A history of skin cancer was associated with a doubling in risks of both non-Hodgkin and Hodgkin lymphoma.
CONCLUSIONS: A history of high UV exposure was associated with reduced risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The positive association between skin cancer and malignant lymphomas is, therefore, unlikely to be mediated by UV exposure.
J Natl Cancer Inst. 2005 Feb 2;97(3):199-209.
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I received this exciting 'vitamin D newsletter'
and I thought I had to put it HERE right away!
Enjoy
ikoD [^]
Vitamin D Newsletter
August, 2007
Dear Dr. Cannell:
I saw an article from a Toronto newspaper about autism and vitamin D. I am currently searching for a vitamin D specialist in the Washington D.C. area to perform a medical work up on my daughter to look for vitamin D-related disorders. The reason I am in search of a vitamin D specialist is that I believe I have stumbled upon a complex relationship in my daughter involving her foot pain, vitamin D, and her autism.
In April 2006, a few weeks after my 3-year-old profoundly autistic daughter began refusing her daily PediaSure drink, she began having excruciating foot spasms lasting from 10-30 minutes at a time, several times a week. She would throw herself on the floor, curl her toes, slam her heels against the floor, and rub the tops of her feet against the carpet, all while screaming the entire time. These were horrible for her to endure, and horrible for my wife and myself to watch. This went on for a year.
From what I read, the symptom was perhaps like foot spasms associated with carpopedal syndrome or tetany. But her blood work did not support that at all. Calcium level was normal (10.2 mg/dL); 25-Hydroxy-vitamin D low (23.5 ng/ml); 1,25 dihydroxy-vitamin D normal (24.7). Despite some vitamin D deficiency, I was assured by medical professionals that nothing supported a vitamin D cause of these particular spasms, so vitamin D was dismissed. Because her calcium level was normal, they told me she did not have tetany, and vitamin D could not be the cause of the pain.
All medical consultants were stymied. I made another research effort and found a 2003 article on WebMD that stated vitamin D has been found to have some link to basic, unexplained muscle and bone pain. By chance, vitamin D was the next supplement we had at home to begin giving my daughter to treat her autism. So, in April 2007 we began giving my 4 year-old profoundly autistic daughter Vitamin D supplements. Her foot spasms which had plagued her for a year diminished within days and disappeared within three weeks. She has not had a spasm in over two months.
In addition, we noted clear improvements in her autistic condition which appear to be from the vitamin D supplements. Eye contact went from zero to fantastic. Her vocalizations increased markedly (still only babbling; she remains completely nonverbal). She appears even happier than previously (she has always been a somewhat happy child). (Please note that my wife and I have tried many dietary supplements over the past 1.5 years guided by a doctor and dietician who both specialize in autism. We honestly state that this is the only thing that has ever had a positive effect on my daughter. We have seen nothing else work.)
My daughter and vitamin D have a complicated relationship. By all counts, looking at her lab work and general condition, vitamin D should have played no role in those excruciating foot fits. And yet it is apparently exactly what is involved in them. And, my wife and I believe at the same time her autistic condition has improved from the vitamin D. The foot fits and her autism appear linked; it was not just a coincidence that this autistic child has those mysterious foot spasms, and the link appears to be vitamin D.
And so I wonder if this is just the tip of the iceberg, if perhaps there is more to know about my child's relationship with vitamin D and what that might mean for her autism. Does she have a specific vitamin D-related disorder? If so, might direct treatment of it also improve her autism further? These are the questions I would like to pose to a vitamin D specialist who could perform a medical work up on my daughter. Please let me know if you know of anyone in the Northern Virginia/Washington DC area. Also, where is the best place to get vitamin D? Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Paul, Washington, D.C.
Dear Paul:
I know of no such specialist in the Washington area, indeed no vitamin D/autism expert exists in the world. As far as a specific "vitamin D disorder," linking her spasms, autism, and vitamin D, the world's English language medical literature contains no description of such a disorder. From your daughter's case, it sounds as if PediaSure was her only regular source of vitamin D. If so, her spasms began two weeks after stopping the small amount of vitamin D contained in PediaSure. The spasms continued for a year, ending a few days after you started giving her vitamin D again, this time in the form of a supplement. Several weeks after restarting vitamin D, both you and your wife noticed an improvement in her autism. To my knowledge, this "case report" - your daughter's - is the first ever published.
As no medical literature has ever been published on any of this, all you can do is give her enough vitamin D to get her 25-hydroxy-vitamin D, known as 25(OH)D, into high normal ranges and then wait and hope. Vitamin D's extraordinary mass-action pharmacology implies that simply providing more substrate ([25(OH)D] will help children with low enzyme activity produce more activated vitamin D (calcitriol) in their brains. The vitamin D theory of autism is not simply that vitamin D deficiency in gestation or early childhood causes the disorder. Instead, the theory holds that a quantitative or qualitative abnormality exists in the enzyme system that activates vitamin D.
It could as simple as the normal variation in the enzyme, an enzyme whose activity would vary in a normal or Gaussian distribution, much like height. Some people are tall, some are short, most are in the middle. The same may be true of the enzyme that forms activated vitamin D (calcitriol), some children have a lot of enzyme and some only a little; most are in the middle. As the substrate [25(OH)D] the enzyme metabolizes fell over the last 20 years with sun-avoidance, more and more children on the low end of the enzyme curve are effected by marginally low 25(OH)D levels, explaining both its genetic basis and exploding incidence.
At this point, all your daughter needs is a physician willing to periodically measure her 25(OH)D. Then you can safely supplement your daughter with doses higher than the current Upper Limit for children (2,000 IU/day). You did not tell me your daughter's weight but, assuming she weighs about 30 pounds, even without 25(OH)D blood tests, you can safely give her 50 mcg/day which is 2,000 IU per day. In fact, the U.S. government says this dose is safe for children over the age of one. Life Extension Foundation sells 250 of the 1,000 IU capsules for about ten bucks with powdered vitamin D inside. The powder is tasteless and dissolves easily in juice. Bio Tech Pharmacal, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, told me they were going to be making a 1,000 IU capsule. Or you can get 1,000 IU capsules in a pharmacy or at Costco and crush them. A Canadian firm is now making vitamin D liquid, called Ddrops, with 1,000 IU per drop, but their mail order web site is not yet easily accessed. Beware of cod liver oil; do not use it because vitamin A inhibits the actions of activated vitamin D, and due to the potential for low-grade vitamin A toxicity.
Remember, more and more researchers now believe autism is a progressive, inflammatory, disorder. That is, the inflammation probably progressively destroys brain tissue as the child ages. As I said in my recent paper, I think there is a chance that vitamin D may have a treatment effect in young autistic children if given in adequate doses, due to its anti-inflammatory properties, and its ability to upregulate glutathione, the master antioxidant that also chelates (binds) and then helps excrete heavy metals like mercury. Unfortunately, I see no way, even if the vitamin D/autism theory turns out to be true, that vitamin D can regenerate brain tissue. However, if it stops the inflammation, and cell death, the brain could then begin to develop and learn. These are big ifs. However, you have nothing to lose by trying, the worst that will happen is that it will not help and vitamin D will be added to the long list of false-hope treatments.
Actually, there is a worse possibility. Say the parents of a three-year-old autistic child decide today that vitamin D is nonsense, another false hope, and that I'm a quack. They decide not to give vitamin D supplement their autistic child, who is probably - like your child - vitamin D deficient. Then, it turns out five years from now that scientific evidence shows vitamin D does indeed help. By that time, the child will be eight and will have suffered additional, irreparable, brain damage. In my mind, that is more tragic than another false hope.
Dear Dr. Cannell:
After that article appeared in the Toronto paper, I started my four-year-old son on 1,000 IU of vitamin D two weeks ago. So far the only thing I noticed is that after about ten days, he didn't seem so miserable. The thing that has always broken my heart is that look of sadness and suffering on his face. After about two weeks of vitamin D, I noticed he seemed less miserable. I wouldn't say he looks happy now but that look of misery seems to be gone. Will it come back? I'm not sure I can take it if it comes back. What else might happen? Also, last summer we noticed he seemed to get better, but then he got worse in the fall. We never thought about it until we read about vitamin D.
Susan, Toronto, Canada
Dear Susan:
I don't know. I think all parents have had their heart pierced by that look at one time or another. I would advise increasing the dose to 2,000 IU per day, making sure it is cholecalciferol and not ergocalciferol, and having your doctor order a 25(OH)D every two months to see if he needs higher doses. You want to get his blood level up to between 50 ng/ml and 80 ng/ml (In many countries outside of the USA, that would be reported as between 125 and 200 nmol/L.) and keep it there, summer and winter, and that may take more than 2,000 IU/day in the winter. If vitamin D has a treatment effect, it will take many months to see its full effect. As you noted, if the theory is correct, autistic children who spend time outdoors in the summer should show some seasonal improvements - if they don't wear sunblock and they expose enough of their skin to generate significant amounts of vitamin D.
Dear Dr. Cannell:
I resent you calling autism a tragedy. My son is not a tragedy and I'm glad he was born and is in our lives. He is our joy. Autism is not a tragedy.
Emma, London, England.
Dear Emma:
I'm glad he is your joy and I believe you. I'm new to the autism field and was not aware how much thought and speech control exists in the discussion of the disease. Nevertheless, I have a few politically incorrect questions. If autism is a joy, I assume you would like other parents to have an autistic child? If autism is such a joy, why is there a huge industry forming to prevent and treat it? At the risk of sounding insensitive - apparently one of the most serious charges leveled in the autism debate - autism is a tragedy. As I pointed out in my paper, research shows that having an autistic child, puts the family under more emotional stress than having a child with a fatal illness.
Dear Dr. Cannell:
Who are you to write an article on autism? You didn't even publish it in a medical journal. You are not with a university. You have not published very much. You have no expertise on autism. No autism experts support your theory. There is no evidence to support the theory. Shouldn't you leave this to experts before you give parents more false hopes?
Mary, Trenton, New Jersey.
Dear Mary:
You are right, I am a nobody; just ask my ex-wife. In the Toronto Globe, I explained why I have not yet submitted the paper. As far as giving false hopes, I've thought about that charge. Right now, regardless of what advocacy groups say, autism is rather hopeless. That is, no treatment, including vitamin D, has been shown to materially affect the clinical course of autism. As a psychiatrist, my observation is that people would rather live with a false hope than with no hope.
Furthermore, if autistic children began taking vitamin D, the worse that can happen is that a period of false hope will followed by dashed hopes and then parents will be back to hopelessness. In the meantime, they will have made their child vitamin D sufficient. Vitamin D deficiency is a serious problem in childhood.
Postgrad Med J. 2007 Apr;83(978):230-5.
The Telegraph, Why is Vitamin D So Vital?
As far as the theory having no support from experts, Dr. Richard Mills, research director of the National Autistic Society in England, was quoted in the Telegraph article on the autism/vitamin D theory: "There has been speculation in the past about autism being more common in high-latitude countries that get less sunlight and a tie-up with rickets has been suggested - observations which support the theory."
Finally, you said there is no evidence to support the theory. I assume you meant there is no proof. The first statement is absolutely false, the second absolutely true. As I detailed in my paper, there is a lot of evidence to support the theory. In fact, if anyone can come up with an autism fact, that the theory cannot explain, I'd like to know about it. Even the announcement of a link between television viewing and autism supports the theory. Furthermore, the TV/autism link is actually evidence of a treatment effect. That is, if autistic children who play outside in the sunshine more - watching less TV - have less severe illness, it may be due to the Sun-God, who bestows her precious gift of calcitriol into the brains of children playing outside in her sunlight but not into the brains of children watching TV inside in the darkness.
Natl Bur Econ Res Bull Aging Health. 2007 Winter;(18):2-3.
As far as proof the theory is true, there is, of course, none. In medicine, proof means randomized controlled human trials, the gold standard for proof. However, proof is the last step, not the first. First comes evidence, then comes a theory, then comes researchers disproving those theories. It works that way. Sometimes we never get to the last step, proof. For example, please point me to a single randomized controlled human trial proving cigarette smoking is dangerous? Instead, the convincing evidence of smoking's dangerousness lies in epidemiological studies, not randomized controlled trials. Proof, or disproof, of the autism vitamin D theory will take years, years during which young autistic brains will continue to suffer irreparable damage. Perhaps vitamin D' powerful anti-inflammatory actions will help prevent that damage, perhaps not.
It's something of a Pascal's wager, betting on vitamin D instead of the existence of God, risking your child's brain instead of eternal damnation. "If you believe vitamin D helps autism and turn out to be incorrect, you have lost nothing -- but if you don't believe in vitamin D and turn out to be incorrect, your child will suffer irreparable brain damage."
John Cannell, MD
The Vitamin D Council
9100 San Gregorio Road
Atascadero, CA 93422
This is a periodic newsletter from the Vitamin D Council, a non-profit trying to end the epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. If you don't want to get the newsletter, please hit reply and let us know. This newsletter is not copyrighted. Please reproduce it and post it on Internet sites. Remember, we are a non-profit and rely on donations to publish our newsletter and maintain our website.
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Ultraviolet radiation exposure and risk of malignant lymphomas.
Smedby KE, Hjalgrim H, Melbye M, Torrång A, Rostgaard K, Munksgaard L, Adami J, Hansen M, Porwit-MacDonald A, Jensen BA, Roos G, Pedersen BB, Sundström C, Glimelius B, Adami HO.
Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Box 281, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden. karin.ekstrom@meb.ki.se
BACKGROUND: The incidence of malignant lymphomas has been increasing rapidly, but the causes of these malignancies remain poorly understood. One hypothesis holds that exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation increases lymphoma risk. We tested this hypothesis in a population-based case-control study in Denmark and Sweden.
METHODS: A total of 3740 patients diagnosed between October 1, 1999, and August 30, 2002, with incident malignant lymphomas, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and Hodgkin lymphoma, and 3187 population controls provided detailed information on history of UV exposure and skin cancer and information on other possible risk factors for lymphomas. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated by logistic regression. Statistical tests were two-sided.
RESULTS: Multivariable-adjusted analyses revealed consistent, statistically significant negative associations between various measures of UV light exposure and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. A high frequency of sun bathing and sunburns at age 20 years and 5-10 years before the interview and sun vacations abroad were associated with 30%-40% reduced risks of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (e.g., for sunbathing four times a week or more at age 20 versus never sunbathing, OR = 0.7, 95% CI = 0.6 to 0.9; for two or more sunburns a year at age 20 versus no sunburns, OR = 0.6, 95% CI = 0.5 to 0.8). These inverse associations increased in strength with increasing levels of exposure (all P(trend)< or =.01). Similar, albeit weaker, associations were observed for Hodgkin lymphoma. There were no clear differences among non-Hodgkin lymphoma subtypes, although associations were stronger for B-cell than for T-cell lymphomas. A history of skin cancer was associated with a doubling in risks of both non-Hodgkin and Hodgkin lymphoma.
CONCLUSIONS: A history of high UV exposure was associated with reduced risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The positive association between skin cancer and malignant lymphomas is, therefore, unlikely to be mediated by UV exposure.
J Natl Cancer Inst. 2005 Feb 2;97(3):199-209.
One thing about this report should be pointed out:
initially the aim of the research was to look for
an eventual INCREASE of lymphoma risk after longer
exposure to UV light...
...but the exact opposite effect has been found!
Talking about serendipity.
Instead of the predicted chain of events:
UV light -- DNA damage -- mutagenic effect -- abnormal clone -- LYMPHOMA
Surprisingly, fewer lymphomas were found in people more exposed to sunlight.
Consequently you may easily hypothesize:
UV light -- higher production of vitamin D -- immunomodulation
-- enhanced anti-infectious plus anti-mutagenic effect -- fewer lymphomas.
Neat!
ikod [^]
"Il sole dona la vita, il sole se la riprende" M.U. Dianzani, 1975.
Thank you Zoey,
for asking about my favourite quote. Well, to explain it properly, in a short 'essay' in english... it will take me more than a few minutes! But translating it is the easiest thing:
"The sun gives life, the sun takes it back"
These words concluded one of the best lectures I attended in my life. At the 3rd year of Medical school, General Pathology course, more than thirty years ago. Professor Mario Umberto Dianzani was our teacher, Dean of the Medical Faculty and a distinguished scientist, totally dedicated to his students. Later on he has been Rector of the University of Turin for several years before retiring.
In those days biochemistry was 'the' thing: new cofactors and vitamins were deeply explored by medical research.
I'm sure I owe to his excellent lectures my following research interest in cofactors.
"Aging of cells and living organisms" was the subject of the lecture.
In less than one hour we went from the origin of life on our Planet to the present time.
Volcanoes and oceans plus UV light to catalyze the synthesis of organic compounds (Miller's experiment), then nucleic acid formation after million years of random combinations.
Primitive organisms, bacteria and algae. Again the sunlight creates energy through photosynthetic processes and here come trees and forests! Different species of primitive life, unicellular, multicellular towards more and more complex forms of life thanks to spontaneous mutations, natural selection and evolution. For the whole 'biosphere' survival is always tightly bound to the origin, to the sunlight.
Sunlight and ultraviolet rays give energy and feed the whole system, nevertheless they are responsible -in the end- for lipid peroxidation and DNA damage. A series of biochemical reactions lead to senescence in multicellular organisms too.
Complex systems are progressively deranged: skin, bones, muscles, nerves, glands and immune cells get older...diseases follow.
The sun itself puts an end to our lives.
Magic
...
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.bootsnall.com%2FChuck%2Ffiles%2F2008%2F01%2F_Beautiful_Sunrise.jpg&hash=f223a1e5bc8fc44fac26a5b2f0212940)
http://blogs.bootsnall.com/Chuck/uploads/_Beautiful%20Sunrise.jpg
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Thats beautiful Iko!
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Thanks Karen,
uhm...do you mean the Lecture or the picture?
ikoD [;D]
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The picture is beautiful also, but your lecture seems to have a way of teaching which is beautiful. To be able to cover so much in one lecture and make it interesting and have your students come away having enjoyed and learned from the lecture is wonderful and not always an easy accomplishment. That in itself is beautiful!
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Origin of life
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rogerwendell.com%2Fimages%2Fevolution%2Fdmns_origin_of_life_09-02-2006.jpg&hash=103b381063eaecf44fdbbfdd26f43551)
http://www.rogerwendell.com/images/evolution/dmns_origin_of_life_09-02-2006.jpg
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rogerwendell.com%2Fimages%2Fevolution%2Fdmns_life_in_a_lab_09-02-2006_thumb.jpg&hash=9fc7d17f9ba4aaf43f29cdcc6bbbc09d)
http://www.rogerwendell.com/images/evolution/dmns_life_in_a_lab_09-02-2006_thumb.jpg
Stanley Miller was a doctoral student working with Harold C. Urey at the University of Chicago, researching possible environments of early Earth. In 1953 he reproduced the early atmosphere of Earth by creating a chamber with only hydrogen, water, methane, and ammonia. Miller used an electric discharge to simulate lightning and, after just a week, had a residue Organic compounds settled in the system.
Most notable of these compounds were the amino acids, the "building blocks of life," that had formed in Miller's system. Amino acids are necessary for the formation of proteins which form the structure of cells. Miller found glycine, alanine, aspartic, glutamic acid, and other amino acids in the system. Fifteen percent of the carbon from the methane had been combined into organic compounds. As amazing as his discovery of amino acids was, it was even more astonishing how easily they had been formed in the system!
Miller's work showed that compounds necessary for life could have been formed in an environment without free oxygen - similar to Earth's early atmosphere. The creation of amino acids from Earth's raw materials may been the beginning of evolution. Miller's results also suggests the possibility that similar amino acids could have formed elsewhere, in the Universe, since the Earth's early atmosphere was based on proportions of elements in the Universe...
more from: http://www.rogerwendell.com/evolution.html
Hey,
but even DNA structure was defined in 1953 by Watson & Crick!
Is not it a fascinating coincidence?
ikoD [;)]
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi26.tinypic.com%2F2cnumgm.jpg&hash=5c4e55fce889103ec68c937c142b03b4) (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.madisonpublicschools.org%2F51495715123440%2Flib%2F51495715123440%2FSPL_E_H400040-Watson_and_Crick_with_their_DNA_model-SPL.jpg&hash=0ec136a8bcc7c464a644fa631f45adb0)
http://i26.tinypic.com/2cnumgm.jpg
http://www.madisonpublicschools.org/51495715123440/lib/51495715123440/SPL_E_H400040-Watson_and_Crick_with_their_DNA_model-SPL.jpg
...even the origin of iko's life was in 1953! [;D]
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For the affectionate readers, here
I attach a free full-text article
about vitamin D and cod liver oil,
a precious historical perspective:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/112/2/e132
Vitamin D, cod-liver oil, sunlight, and rickets: a historical perspective.
Rajakumar K.
Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213-2583, USA. kumaravel.rajakumar@chp.edu
Rickets, a disease of vitamin D deficiency, is rarely confronted by the practicing pediatrician in the United States today. At the turn of the 20th century, rickets was rampant among the poor children living in the industrialized and polluted northern cities of the United States. With the discovery of vitamin D and the delineation of the anti-rachitic properties of cod-liver oil by the 1930s, it became possible to not only treat but also eradicate rickets in the United States. Rickets was a common disease in 17th century England. Frances Glisson's treatise on rickets published in 1650, a glorious contribution to English medicine, described the clinical and anatomic features of rickets in great detail. The exact etiology of rickets had been elusive until the 1920s. During the Glissonian era, rickets was a mysterious disease. By the late 19th and early 20th century, faulty diet or faulty environment (poor hygiene, lack of fresh air and sunshine) or lack of exercise was implicated in its etiology. Animal experiments, appreciation of folklore advocating the benefits of cod-liver oil, and the geographical association of rickets to lack of sunshine were all relevant factors in the advancement of knowledge in the conquest of this malady. In this article, the history of rickets pertaining to the discovery of vitamin D, cod-liver oil, and sunlight is reviewed.
Pediatrics. 2003 Aug;112(2):e132-5.
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http://rickets.stanford.edu/images/vitamin_D_diagram004-300.jpg
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Nice old 'cody' pics here...
No reproduction allowed, so
check them by yourself:
http://www.viewimages.com/Search.aspx?mid=2661468&epmid=1&partner=Google
For more pics you have to search for 'cod liver oil' from this very website
We may be paying a very high price for our rejection of parental wisdom to take our cod liver oil.
Krispin Sullivan 2002
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Fish oil over time
1890s Cod-liver oil is used as a home remedy to treat rickets, rheumatism, tuberculosis and other ailments.
1930s Fish oil is used as a key ingredient in shortening.
1950s Dale Alexander publishes a book touting cod-liver oil as an elixir for arthritis, earning him the nickname the "codfather."
1970s Researchers find that Greenland's Inuit have low levels of heart disease, likely because of diets rich in fish.
It is one of the first associations between omega-3 fatty acids and good health.
1990s As studies increase on the benefits of omega-3s, more consumers start taking fish oil pills made from a variety of fish.
2000 Aquaculture demands more and more fish oil.
Today Fish oil begins to be injected into bread and tamales, among other foods.
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http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/9374/ththpiratepenginor4.gif
ikod
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This is all VERY interesting. [:)]I've read bitts and pieces in the press and here and there but having a thread like this to go through is really great. Cheers IKO.
Can I ask you though, about RDA's, established and proposed (reviewed?) and your take on that?
I've come across figures from anywhere between I.U. 200 (maintenance dose) to I.U. 1200, with also a mention that doses over I.U. 1000 can potentionally be dangerous.
What about people (e.g. like me) that have kidney problems and cannot convert Vit. D properly (or so I've read)?
[love the penguins!!!!! :D ]
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Thanks for your appreciation Alandriel,
you may have a look at Michael Holick's JCI paper previously cited:
http://www.jci.org/cgi/content/full/116/8/2062
Free full-text, easy to read plus lots of references.
This is all VERY interesting. [:)]I've read bitts and pieces in the press and here and there but having a thread like this to go through is really great. Cheers IKO.
Can I ask you though, about RDA's, established and proposed (reviewed?) and your take on that?
I've come across figures from anywhere between I.U. 200 (maintenance dose) to I.U. 1200, with also a mention that doses over I.U. 1000 can potentionally be dangerous.
What about people (e.g. like me) that have kidney problems and cannot convert Vit. D properly (or so I've read)?
[love the penguins!!!!! :D ]
I'll try to answer your questions:
RDA are being revisited and will eventually top to 1-2 thousand units per day.
Like with other cofactors, RDAs may represent only the dosage to prevent deficiency.
The amount needed for perfect health is obviously unknown for lack of clinical studies and because we all have slightly different enzymes and metabolic defects: the optimal daily dose of a specific cofactor needed for optimal metabolism may be consequently different from one person to another.
Toxicity is certainly a serious issue for a fat soluble hormone like vitamin D, so I would keep in mind a few practical recommendations:
- Get your serum vitamin D and calcium tested and talk to your doctor before
taking 2000 I.U. per day; then recheck them after 1-2 months.
- Remember that vit D3 is almost 4 times more effective than vit D2 (cheaper).
You may forget about all this and enjoy a regular dose of cod liver oil every day, with its Vitamins A and D (+some E) plus nice omega-3 fatty acids. Historically safe, it works in the long run as a nutritional supplement of any diet all over the world.
In the evening, you may remind your kids to take some 'cod' too, even if they are perfectly healthy and will never hear the nasty word 'leukemia' in their entire life.
wisekod [^]
P.S. : maybe you already joined vitaminD newsletter at: http://www.vitamindcouncil.com
Cod liver oil is derived from cod livers. It is a nutritional supplement, in the past commonly given to children. Cod liver oil is one of the most effective providers of omega-3 fatty acids, and an excellent source of vitamin A and vitamin D. It is widely taken to ease the pain and joint stiffness associated with arthritis[1] but has also been clinically proven to have a positive effect on heart,[2][3] bone,[4] and brain[5] health, as well as helping to nourish skin,[6] hair, and nails.
...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod_liver_oil
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Short note about daily recommended doses of vitamin D revisited:
Current recommended daily allowances are set at about 200 international units or I.U., yet a recent review in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition concluded that the upper limits should be increased to 10,000 international units.
more from: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=food_coach&id=5675695
ikodnote:
you cannot reach 10000 U.I. per day safely with cod liver oil.
You'd take a risk of getting too much vitamin A and being intoxicated in a few weeks.
A bit of sunlight (or UVA-lamp) plus 'cod' would probably be good and safe enough.
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uvfoundation.org%2Fimages%2F2007HolickLogo.gif&hash=041565ef22426c09e3d90e980632ed47) (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffittseg.hu%2Fimage.php%3Fpath%3Dimages%2F_hirek_upload%2F15556_kicsi.jpg%26amp%3Btype%3D1&hash=04531d14cb20a4d182fb32a0504b43a2)
http://www.uvfoundation.org/images/2007HolickLogo.gif
http://fittseg.hu/image.php?path=images/_hirek_upload/15556_kicsi.jpg&type=1
The UV Foundation is committed to funding educational efforts designed to increase the public awareness of the biologic effects of ultraviolet light.
http://www.uvfoundation.org/about.cfm
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http://photomed.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/frau-strand-sonnenschirm.jpg
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Please allow me a Quote & Paste from the "vitamin supplement" thread:
Attention News/Assignment/Health Editors:
Vitamin D Deficiency Drains $9 billion From Canadian Health Care System
Vitamin D Society Declares November 'Vitamin D Awareness Month' in Canada
KELOWNA, BC, Oct. 31 /CNW/ - Research this year has left no doubt that
vitamin D deficiency - which affects an estimated 97 per cent of Canadians in
the winter - is nothing less than a Canadian crisis and a worldwide problem.
This is why Canada's Vitamin D Society is recognizing the month of
November as the world's first Vitamin D Awareness Month.
...
For more information on vitamin D visit:
- www.vitaminDsociety.org
- www.vitamindcouncil.com
- www.Direct-ms.org.
- www.sunarc.org
Up with Melinda1958 and her wonderful
vitamin D update...Oct.31!!!
It's gonna be tough anyway: vitamin D3
is cheap, already classified as a 'generic'
drug, even toxic when badly used, cod
liver oil seems a relic from the past.
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fjmachdutton.com%2Fimages%2F00218uncorkedelixirs356.jpg&hash=c8a02b734c197a1a1935b180afa36583)
http://jmachdutton.com/images/00218uncorkedelixirs356.jpg
But new, wonderful and properly priced
vitamin D3 analogues are on the way...
it seems that we have to wait just a
minute for a real,"effective" and
powerful commercial DRUG.
Fortunately, old cod liver oil is still
commonly used as a nutrient for pets,
dogs, horses, iguanas ...lucky beasts!
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=5065.75
ikod [^]
...for your horses (if you have any):
BONE, HOOF, JOINT & MUSCLES
COD LIVER OIL
This non-heating oil for energy and mobility is high in fish Omega 3 & 6 essential oils (strictly speaking it is only suitable for carnivores as we do not often see horses fishing!) but it has been used for many years as an additive to equine feeds. Any oil helps lubricate the joints of veterans of any species and Cod Liver Oil also promotes a sleek coat and healthy skin as well as nutritional support for bones and hooves.
Quality: ******* Health Cod Liver Oil is 100% pure and contains no heavy metals, it is important to find out if a cheaper version does.
Feeding: 10 to 20ml (20ml is about 1 tablespoon) per 100kg bodyweight (16.2hh is about 500kg) best divided between 2 feeds daily. Feed the lower rate for general maintenance and the higher for pregnant or lactating mares, breeding stallions, young stock and very hard working animals (eg. racehorses & highly competitive animals) 1Lt will last a general maintenance 500kg horse about 20 days and a high category 500kg horse about 10 days.
more from: http://www.pegasushealth.com/productinfo.php?product_id=48
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http://www.pegasusfirstaid.com.au/images/snuggle.jpg
...and for the birds:
********* COD LIVER OIL is a high energy oil which is palatable to all animals. The oil is derived from a cod's liver (fish), making it a pure natural product. It contains two essential fatty acids and important stabilised vitamins A and D. It is also widely known for its nutritional and therapeutic value and is used extensively on thoroughbred studs, racing, trotting and greyhound establishments and for birds.
VITAMIN A is an essential nutrient for all horses, dogs and cattle. It is necessary for general growth, bone formation and for the formation of visual purple in the eye. A deficiency of it leads to drying of mucous membranes, which makes them more susceptible to bacterial invasion. This also results in increased susceptibility to diseases in the respiratory tract. For females, during gestation and lactation, there is an increased need for vitamin A. For animals that are fed a high concentration of dry, prepared diets, vitamin A is essential as it may be lost during the food processing.
Suggested Dose Rates:
Large Animals ie. horses, cattle Age Small Animals ie. dogs, cats
15 ml Baby 1 ml
30 ml Yearling 3 ml
60 ml Adult 5 ml
VITAMIN D is important for growth of bones and teeth and it ensures the bodies right utilisation of calcium and phosphorus. A daily intake of ******** COD LIVER OIL will provide your animal with a fine healthy coat and skin. Animals housed and rugged are not able to intake natural vitamin D derived from the sunlight. Cod Liver Oil with vitamin D and two essential fatty acids helps overcome this deficiency.
more from: http://www.equinade.com/products/facts-cod_liver_equinade.html
...it's for the birds!
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http://www.seapets.co.uk/gallery/healthybird-thumb.jpg
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...It's for the birds,
and absolutely 'fishy'!
Lebistes reticulatus
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http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=11329&rendTypeId=4
DEFICIENCY DISEASES
Except for vitamin D deficiency, very little is known about fish deficiency diseases.
The very nature of their natural food almost warrants they receive all the known vitamins, but under artificial conditions they could coceivably have a deficiency. Mineral deficiencies are doubtless common, a fact we can determine knowing the inadequate diets often fed to guppies.
Rickets.
A disease caused by a deficiency of calcium or phosphorus or vitamin D; one, two or all three. A crooked spine and the resulting bend in the fish's body is the usual evidence, although the unfortunate humpback can live and even reproduce. It is not a pleasant sight among the fishes of the aquarium.
Proper lighting can prevent deficiency; the active rays affect ergosterol in the skin of the fish and change it to the irradiated form which is vitamin D.
Sometimes whole aquariums will show bent spines but generally only a few of the fishes are affected. There is no treatment; it is all a matter of prevention which is primarily a matter of proper feeding, i.e. feeding of a complete diet, especially frozen brine shrimp.
L.F. Whitney, P Hanhel. in: "All about Guppies" T.F.H.Publications, London. 1964ed. pp 104-105.
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I have had my omega -3 upped to 4000mg a day is that a safe dosage.. It seems like a lot to me?
-
I have had my omega -3 upped to 4000mg a day is that a safe dosage.. It seems like a lot to me?
Ask your doc: it could 'thin' your blood too much
giving easy bruising and tiny spots of bleeding
here and there...
But the anti-thrombotic effect is welcome anyway!
Cheers,
ikod
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(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2F1003%2Fparsellpost%2Fmailman.jpg&hash=bfe8a39dc606174cd1a2a5b0e3e81e45)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/parsellpost/mailman.jpg
...This month's vit.D council newsletter
surely deserves to be posted right here:
The Vitamin D Newsletter
December, 2007
Does vitamin D prevent cancer? If it does, will doctors who ignore the research end up with blood on their hands? The press makes it easy for doctors to believe what they want to believe. Below are six stories about the same scientific study; read the six different headlines. According to your a priori beliefs, you can choose the story you want to believe and read that one. Don't feel bad, we all do it.
As Walter Lippman once said, "We do not see and then believe, we believe and then we see."
Vitamin D cuts colon cancer death risk
Study Finds No Connection Between Vitamin D And Overall Cancer Deaths
Vitamin D protects against colorectal cancer
Vitamin D May Not Cut Cancer Deaths
Vitamin D protects against colorectal cancer
Scientists advise a vitamin D downgrade as there is no real proof ...
Another option is to read the study yourself.
Freedman DM, et al. Prospective Study of Serum Vitamin D and Cancer Mortality in the United States. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2007 Oct 30; [Epub ahead of print]
What Dr. Freedman actually discovered is that when you take a very large group of people (16,818), some as young as seventeen, measure their vitamin D levels, and then wait about ten years to see who dies from cancer, you find 536 die and that a vitamin D level from ten years earlier is not a good predictor of who will die from cancer. However, even a level drawn ten years earlier predicted that those with the lowest level were four times more likely to die from colon cancer, suggesting, as Ed Giovannucci has, that colon cancer may be exquisitely sensitive to vitamin D. Furthermore, 28 women got breast cancer, 20 in the group with the lowest vitamin D level but only 8 in the highest. The breast cancer findings were not statistically significant - even during a very long breast cancer awareness month - but can you imagine what critics at the American Cancer Society would be telling women if the numbers were reversed, if the 20 women who got breast cancer were in the high vitamin D group?
Another large epidemiological study appeared about breast cancer the very next day. This time, the press passed on the story and the American Cancer Society was mum, no editorials by Dr. Lichtenfeld, their spokesman, in spite of breast cancer awareness month.
Abbas S, et al. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and risk of postmenopausal breast cancer - results of a large case-control study. Carcinogenesis. 2007 Oct 31; [Epub ahead of print]
In the above study, 1,394 women with breast cancer were case-controlled with a similar number of women without breast cancer. The women with breast cancer were three times more likely to have low vitamin D levels. That is a lot of women who may be dying during next year's breast cancer awareness month.
Both of the above studies were epidemiological, not randomized controlled trials. Of course a randomized controlled trial has already shown a 60% reduction in internal cancers in women taking even a modest 1,100 IU per day of vitamin D.
Lappe JM, et al. Vitamin D and calcium supplementation reduces cancer risk: results of a randomized trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Jun;85(6):1586-91.
What is interesting is the difference in the response of the Canadian Cancer Society and the American Cancer Society. The Canadian Cancer Society has advised all Canadians to take 1,000 IU per day - not enough but a good first step - and for immediate additional large scale clinical trials. The Canadians simply performed a risk/benefit analysis. What is the risk of treating vitamin D deficiency versus what are the potential benefits? They quote the American Food and Nutrition Board, which says 2,000 IU/day is safe for anyone over the age on one to take, on their own, without being under the care of a physician. If there is little or no risk, then the next question is what are the potential benefits of treating vitamin D deficiency? This is not quantum mechanics.
Cancer society calls for major vitamin D trial
The Canadians acted because the Canadian government knows it could save billions of dollars by treating vitamin D deficiency.
Vitamin D Deficiency Drains $9 billion From Canadian Health Care ...
If wide spread treatment of vitamin D deficiency became the rule, ask yourself, "Who would be helped and who would be hurt." First ask yourself that question about Canada and then about the USA. Remember, in Canada, the government directly pays for its citizen's health insurance; in the USA, private insurance is the norm. In Canada, the government is realizing they could save billions if vitamin D deficiencies were treated. In the USA, a large segment of the medical industry would be hurt, some anti-cancer drug manufacturers would have to close their doors, thousands of patents would become worthless, lucrative consulting contracts between industry and cancer researchers would dry up.
Both Canadians and Americans are shocked to think their doctors care about money, are in the illness business. In some ways people think of their doctors like they do their local public schools. They know medicine is a business and know doctors do things for money but they don't think their own doctors do. Likewise they think public schools are in bad shape but think their local schools are above average. They think their doctor is above average, like their "Lake Woebegon" kids.
Lake Woebegon Effect
The fact is that doctors, hospitals, regional cancer centers, and the cancer drug manufacturers are all in business to make money and all of these businesses make money off the sick, not off the well. Just a fact, but, as Aldous Huxley once observed, "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."
Vitamin D will save the Canadian government enormous amounts of money but will cause widespread economic disruption in the USA. Do the physicians leading the American Cancer Society have strong economic ties to the cancer industry in the form of patents, stock options, and consulting fees? If so, what do you expect them to do? What would you do? It's simple. You would believe what you have to believe, what you need to believe, that is, anything with the word "vitamin" in it is simply the latest Laetrile. Look to Canada, not the USA, to lead the way.
Vitamin D may fight cancer
What about American physicians? They are apparently waiting for the American trial lawyers to smell a tort. After all, the case is quite simple. Doctor, did you advise Mrs. Jones to avoid the sun? Doctor, did you tell her the sun is the source of 90% of circulating stores of vitamin D? Doctor, did you prescribe vitamin D to make up for what the sun would not be making? Doctor, did you measure her vitamin D levels? So you had no way of knowing if your sun-avoidance advice resulted in vitamin D deficiency? Doctor, do you know our expert tested her vitamin D level and it was less than 20? Doctor, did you tell her about any of the studies indicating vitamin D deficiency causes cancer? Doctor, did you know Mrs. Jones has terminal breast cancer and will be leaving behind a loving husband and two young children?
And what about the American Cancer Society? Dr. Lichtenfeld, their spokesman, quickly gave his opinion; from what I can tell the first time he ever commented on a vitamin D study. That is, he has ignored the hundreds of positive epidemiological studies, ignored the incredible randomized controlled trial, but he jumped on this one:
Maybe Vitamin D Isn't The Answer After All
Dr. Lichtenfeld, implied the Canadian Cancer Society has acted precipitously in recommending that all Canadians take 1,000 IU of vitamin D daily. He implied that Americans should placidly wait until more randomized controlled trials, such as Lappe JM, et al (above), accumulate before they address their vitamin D deficiency. That is, nothing should be done until more randomized controlled trials prove vitamin D prevents cancer, one randomized controlled trial is not enough; epidemiological studies are not enough, animal studies are not enough, multiple anti-cancer mechanisms of action are not enough? If that is his position, I challenge him to point to one human randomized controlled trial that proves smoking is dangerous?
If he cannot, then he must admit that the American Cancer Society's position on smoking is entirely derived from epidemiological studies, animal studies, and a demonstrable mechanism of action, not on human randomized controlled trials? Vitamin D not only has hundreds of epidemiological studies, thousand of animal studies, and at least four anti-cancer mechanisms of action, vitamin D deficiency has something smoking does not have, it has a high quality randomized controlled trial. If future randomized controlled trials fail to show vitamin D prevents cancer - and Dr. Lichtenfeld better hope they do - he can have the satisfaction of saying "I told you so." If future randomized controlled trials confirm vitamin D prevents cancer, then he needs to look at his hands, the red he sees is the blood of needless cancer deaths.
John Cannell, MD
The Vitamin D Council
9100 San Gregorio Road
Atascadero, CA 93422
This is a periodic newsletter from the Vitamin D Council, a non-profit trying to end the epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. If you don't want to get the newsletter, please hit reply and let us know.
This newsletter is not copyrighted. Please reproduce it and post it on Internet sites.
Remember, we are a non-profit and rely on donations to publish our newsletter and maintain our website. Send your tax-deductible contributions to:
The Vitamin D Council
9100 San Gregorio Road
Atascadero, CA 93422
Lake Wobegon effect
The Lake Wobegon effect is the human tendency to overestimate one's achievements and capabilities in relation to others. It is named for the fictional town of Lake Wobegon from the radio series A Prairie Home Companion, where, according to Garrison Keillor, "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."
In a similar way, a large majority of people claim to be above average; this phenomenon has been observed among drivers, CEOs, stock market analysts, college students, police officers and state education officials, among others. Experiments and surveys have repeatedly shown that most people believe that they possess attributes that are better or more desirable than average. The term is also used to describe a perceived tendency to treat children as "special" in order to boost their self-esteem, even though the children may only be average or even underperforming.[citation needed]
Studies
Surveying drivers, the Swedish researcher Ola Svenson found that 80% of respondents rated themselves in the top 30% of all drivers.[1] Asking college students about their popularity, Zuckerman and Jost (2001) showed that most students judged themselves to be "more popular than average".[2]
In 1987, John Cannell completed a study that reported the statistically impossible finding that all states claimed average student test scores above the national norm.
One College Board survey asked 829,000 high school seniors to rate themselves in a number of ways. When asked to rate their own ability to "get along with others," fewer than one percent — rated themselves as below average. Furthermore, sixty percent rated themselves in the top ten percent, and one-fourth of respondents rated themselves in the top one percent. Some have argued that more subjective traits like this may be more easily distorted.
The effect has been found repeatedly by many other studies for other traits, including fairness, virtuosity, luck, and investing ability, to name a few. It is similar and may be related to ingroup bias and wishful thinking. In contrast, the worse-than-average effect refers to a tendency to underestimate oneself in certain conditions, which may include self-handicapping behavior. It can be compared to the false consensus effect.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Wobegon_effect
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I have had my omega -3 upped to 4000mg a day is that a safe dosage.. It seems like a lot to me?
Shes the one that upped it.They took me off the lipitor and added the two extra omega three's! Thanks IKO! I am having a lot of bleeding from my gums .. which is odd for me.. I never bleed from there..
Ask your doc: it could 'thin' your blood too much
giving easy bruising and tiny spots of bleeding
here and there...
But the anti-thrombotic effect is welcome anyway!
Cheers,
ikod
-
Shes the one that upped it.They took me off the lipitor and added the two extra omega three's! Thanks IKO! I am having a lot of bleeding from my gums .. which is odd for me.. I never bleed from there..
Bleeding gums?
Enough vitamin C in your diet?
Veggies, fresh fruits and so?
...I know you know it! [;)]
ikod
...
What are the side effects or risks of omega-3 fatty acids?
Omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil dietary supplements are generally well tolerated, but some people may experience side effects.
Some common side effects of fish oil supplements include digestive problems such as nausea, loose stools, stomach upset, and unpleasant "fishy" belching. Not all people will experience these side effects.
Keep track of your caloric intake since the fish oils in supplements and in whole fish provide calories. If you have diabetes or are on a calorie-restricted diet, this is important to prevent undesired weight gain.
No studies have examined the long-term safety of fish oil supplements, so regular use over a long time could pose a risk.
Eating a diet rich in fish may have some associated risks. If you are pregnant or are thinking about becoming pregnant, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends that you limit your consumption of certain fish. Some fish may contain high levels of mercury and other heavy metals that can be harmful to your child's nervous system development. Types of fish that may contain mercury include shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish. The FDA recommends that pregnant women avoid eating these types of fish during pregnancy.
In some people, fish oils may reduce blood clotting and may increase the risk of bleeding.
Who may be at risk of bleeding?
The increased risk of bleeding may be observed in:
people who take high doses -- more than 3 or 4 grams of omega-3 fatty acids per day.
people who take "blood-thinning" medications, such as aspirin, warfarin (Coumadin), clopidogrel (Plavix),
enoxaparin (Lovenox), heparin or other related drugs.
people who are at risk for certain types of stroke or bleeding disorders.
What can I do to minimize the risk of bleeding?
Take no more than 3 or 4 grams of fish oil supplements per day. In some cases, your physician may determine that a higher dose is right for you -- therefore, always follow your physician's instructions.
Watch for signs of bleeding while taking omega-3 fatty acids. Notify your physician if you notice nosebleeds, bleeding gums, unexplained skin bruising, or blood in your urine or stool.
more from:
https://www.blueshieldca.com/bsc/pharmacy/askthepharmacist/browsethearchive/pharmacy_atp_browse_alt_med.jhtml
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I have had some trouble with my appetite the last couple weeks.. am not very hungry.... vitamin c may be problem.. I'll try to boost it some but it seems that all the congestion I just don't have any appetite.. I ordered chicken last night with the coleslaw it tasted good but I couldn't hardly eat... I am sure once they get things treated my appetite will improve..Drinking plenty of liquids so maybe add some more juice.. and see .. I love my fruits and vegetables... just have no appetite for anything..
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A friend gave too much cod liver oil to her developing puppy, this became apparent when she went to the vets with her pup that at the time was experiencing some problems with a back limb. An x ray revealed that the bones on the rear of the dog were too soft for a good image. The vet had not come across this before and could not understand it. Eileen our friend asked my advice. I vaguely remembered two close friends of mine who were very short in stature having severely curved lower limbs telling me that they were told it happened because they were over dosed on cod liver oil when they were children by their mother, who believed at the time cod liver oil could be given in very large doses with no ill effects.
Putting two and two together, I asked if she had been giving the puppy cod liver oil. She said, yes, they puppy has been having plenty of cod liver oil. Asking how much, she was giving a tablespoon full every day.
Recommended dose ¼ teaspoon for a puppy. Interesting I thought, I wonder if cod liver oil could be preventing the bones from becoming solid enough to show an image in the xray?
Discontinued cod liver oil just in case it could be causing the problem and within a few weeks the problem went away. Now this could have been a normal event of a growing puppy but I doubt it was.
It could also be anecdotal evidence but I would hope anyone reading this will appreciate that it is an observation of events rather than an attempt to present a theory.
Regards
Andrew K Fletcher
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Yes Andrew,
toxicity of cod liver oil is usually due to vitamin A overload.
Vitamin A, D and K are fat-soluble and do accumulate in the body.
It's a matter of proper amounts, like with any drug and...food itself!
Vitamin D As Treatment
How much vitamin D should one take if they have cancer? We don't know as the research is far from complete. Although vitamin D may help, it should only be taken in addition to standard cancer treatment. It should not be considered a first, or only, treatment but used in addition to regular chemotherapy or surgery. Oncologists and surgeons work miracles every day. Remember, vitamin D may be toxic in overdose, although one expert recently said, "worrying about vitamin D toxicity is like worrying about drowning when you are dying of thirst".
That said, many people think "if a little is good then a lot is better". This is definitely not true about vitamin D.
http://www.vitamindcouncil.com/cancerMain.shtml
...in the meantime, waiting for scientific confirmation, a little bit of 'cod' every day should work just fine. [;)]
Take care
ikod
...and be careful when you eat polar bear liver! [;D]
Polar-bear liver
The liver of top predators, notably of the polar bear is unsafe to eat because it is extraordinarily high in vitamin A. This danger has been recognized since at least 1597 when Gerrit de Veer wrote in his diary that, while taking refuge in the winter in Nova Zembla, he and his men became gravely ill after eating polar-bear liver.[3]
References
^ Hussey GD, Klein M (1990). "A randomized controlled trial of vitamin A in children with severe measles". NEJM 323: 160-164.
^ Ellison JB (1932). "Intensive vitamin therapy in measles". Br Medical J ii: 708-711.
^ The New England Journal of Medicine : Hypervitaminosis A and Fractures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypervitaminosis_A
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.greenpeace.org%2Fraw%2Fimage_full%2Finternational%2Fphotosvideos%2Fphotos%2Fpolar-bear-in-arctic&hash=818f371bb1de18da31ed542b07b298ac)
http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/image_full/international/photosvideos/photos/polar-bear-in-arctic
Prevalence of Vitamin A DEFICIENCY
GREEN: Vit.A deficiency under control
LIGHT BLUE: No Data Available
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Vitamin_A_deficiency.PNG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retinol
...as you see, human beings take a higher
risk of vitamin A deficiency than overload.
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2F7%2F7d%2FVitamin_A_deficiency.PNG&hash=1e72845fda0a52437a27d1d3ca0da04a)
ikod
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...freshly published good news for diabetic rats! [;D]
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pet-supply-store.co.uk%2Fprodimages%2Fs020.jpg&hash=1142d191dbc172eb4a47eaa39922d91c)
http://www.pet-supply-store.co.uk/prodimages/s020.jpg
Cod liver oil supplementation improves cardiovascular
and metabolic abnormalities in streptozotocin diabetic rats.
Ceylan-Isık A, Hünkar T, Aşan E, Kaymaz F, Arı N, Söylemezoğlu T, Renda N, Soncul H, Bali M, Karasu C; (Antioxidants in Diabetes-Induced Complications) The ADIC Study Group.
Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey.
Abnormalities in the metabolism of essential fatty acids and the results of increased oxidative stress have been implicated in cardiovascular disorders observed in diabetes mellitus. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate the effects of cod liver oil (CLO, Lysi Ltd, Iceland), which comprises mainly an antioxidant vitamin A, n:3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n:3 PUFAs), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), on cardiovascular abnormalities in streptozotocin (STZ)-diabetic rats. Two days after single STZ (55 mg kg(-1), i.p.) or vehicle injection, diabetes was verified by increased blood glucose, and non-diabetic and diabetic rats were left untreated or treated with CLO (0.5 mL kg(-1) daily, by intragastric probing) for 12 weeks. Plasma glucose, triacylglycerol and cholesterol concentrations were significantly elevated in 12-week untreated-diabetic rats; CLO provided better weight gain, entirely prevented the plasma lipid abnormalities, but partially controlled the glycaemia in diabetic rats. In isolated aorta rings, diabetes resulted in increased phenylephrine-induced vasoconstriction and isoprenaline-induced vasorelaxation, impaired endothelium-dependent vasodilatation and unchanged responsiveness to sodium nitroprusside. CLO treatment completely prevented endothelial deficiency, partly corrected the phenylephrine-induced vasoconstriction and did not affect the responses to isoprenaline and sodium nitroprusside in diabetic aorta. Diabetes also produced a marked decrease in the rate of spontaneously beating right atria and a significant increase in basal contractile force of left ventricular papillary muscle. The responsiveness of right atria to the positive chronotropic effect of isoprenaline was significantly decreased in diabetic rats, and was increased in CLO-treated diabetic rats. The positive chronotropic effect of noradrenaline was markedly increased in diabetic atria, but prevented by CLO treatment. Diabetes also resulted in an increased positive inotropic response of papillary muscle to both noradrenaline and isoprenaline, which were prevented by CLO treatment. CLO treatment also resulted in lower tissue sensitivity (pD(2)) to these agonists in diabetic papillary muscle. Ventricular hydroxyproline content was found to be unchanged among the experimental groups. The ultrastructure of diabetic myocardium displayed various degenerations (i.e. intracellular oedema, myofibrillar fragmentation, condensed pleomorphic mitochondria, thick capillary irregular basement membrane, swollen endothelial cells), which were partially prevented by CLO treatment.
We conclude that the supplementation with CLO is effective in preventing cardiovascular disorders observed in experimental diabetes.
J Pharm Pharmacol. 2007 Dec;59(12):1629-1641.
Now then, is this positive effect due to
vitamin A, vitamin D3, omega-3 fatty acids,
or to the combination of all these substances?
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Happy New Year
CLOthread readers! [8D]
Vitamin D as an immune modulator in multiple sclerosis, a review.
Smolders J, Damoiseaux J, Menheere P, Hupperts R.
Department of Neurology, University Hospital Maastricht, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
The role of vitamin D in calcium homeostasis is well known. More recently vitamin D has become a topic of interest in immune regulation and multiple sclerosis. The main reason for this is the observed geographical distribution of multiple sclerosis. Areas with high sunlight exposure, the principal inducer of vitamin D synthesis, have a relatively low prevalence of multiple sclerosis and vice versa. Furthermore, low levels of the principal vitamin D metabolite (25-hydroxy vitamin D) in the circulation are associated with a high incidence of multiple sclerosis. Other epidemiological evidence also supports the view that vitamin D metabolites have an immune and disease modulating effect in multiple sclerosis. Experimental research in vitro and in animal models has further clarified the interaction of vitamin D metabolites with the immune system. The evidence obtained from these studies strongly supports a model in which vitamin D mediates a shift to a more anti-inflammatory immune response, and in particular to enhanced regulatory T cell functionality. In the current review we link the basic knowledge on vitamin D and immune regulation with the vitamin D related observations in multiple sclerosis. We conclude that there is a sound basis on which to initiate double-blind placebo-controlled trials that not only address the effect of vitamin D on the clinical outcome of multiple sclerosis, but also on the regulatory T cell compartment.
J Neuroimmunol. 2008 Jan 3 [Epub ahead of print]
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Vitamin D deficiency?
What a pain without 'cod'! [;)]
from:
Medical Progress: Vitamin D Deficiency.
Michael F. Holick, N.Engl.J.Med. 357;3 July 19, 2007.
...
Osteomalacia can often be diagnosed by using moderate force to press the thumb on the sternum or anterior tibia, which can elicit bone pain. (7,40) One study showed that 93% of persons 10 to 65 years of age who were admitted to a hospital emergency department with muscle aches and bone pain and who had a wide variety of diagnoses, including fibromialgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and depression, were deficient in vitamin D.(41)...
and here is reference number 41:
Prevalence of severe hypovitaminosis D
in patients with persistent, nonspecific musculoskeletal pain.
Plotnikoff GA, Quigley JM.
Department of Internal Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minn, USA. gregory@sc.itc.keio.ac.jp
OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in primary care outpatients with persistent, nonspecific musculoskeletal pain syndromes refractory to standard therapies. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 150 patients presented consecutively between February 2000 and June 2002 with persistent, nonspecific musculoskeletal pain to the Community University Health Care Center, a university-affiliated inner city primary care clinic in Minneapolis, Minn (45 degrees north). Immigrant (n = 83) and nonimmigrant (n = 67) persons of both sexes, aged 10 to 65 years, from 6 broad ethnic groups were screened for vitamin D status. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were determined by radioimmunoassay. RESULTS: Of the African American, East African, Hispanic, and American Indian patients, 100% had deficient levels of vitamin D (< or = 20 ng/mL). Of all patients, 93% (140/ 150) had deficient levels of vitamin D (mean, 12.08 ng/mL; 95% confidence interval, 11.18-12.99 ng/mL). Nonimmigrants had vitamin D levels as deficient as immigrants (P = .48). Levels of vitamin D in men were as deficient as in women (P = .42). Of all patients, 28% (42/150) had severely deficient vitamin D levels (< or = 8 ng/mL), including 55% of whom were younger than 30 years. Five patients, 4 of whom were aged 35 years or younger, had vitamin D serum levels below the level of detection. The severity of deficiency was disproportionate by age for young women (P < .001), by sex for East African patients (P < .001), and by race for African American patients (P = .006). Season was not a significant factor in determining vitamin D serum levels (P = .06).
CONCLUSION: All patients with persistent, nonspecific musculoskeletal pain are at high risk for the consequences of unrecognized and untreated severe hypovitaminosis D. This risk extends to those considered at low risk for vitamin D deficiency: nonelderly, nonhousebound, or nonimmigrant persons of either sex. Nonimmigrant women of childbearing age with such pain appear to be at greatest risk for misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis. Because osteomalacia is a known cause of persistent, nonspecific musculoskeletal pain, screening all outpatients with such pain for hypovitaminosis D should be standard practice in clinical care.
Mayo Clin Proc. 2003 Dec;78(12):1463-70.
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Could cod liver oil use prevent or reduce
incidence of mutations during pregnancy and later on?
Vitamin D compounds: clinical development as cancer therapy and prevention agents.
While 1,25 dihydroxycholecalciferol (calcitriol) is best recognized for its effects on bone and mineral metabolism, epidemiological data indicate that low vitamin D levels may play a role in the genesis and progression of breast, lung, colorectal and prostate cancer, as well as malignant lymphoma and melanoma. Calcitriol has strong antiproliferative effects in prostate, breast, colorectal, head/neck and lung cancer, as well as lymphoma, leukemia and myeloma model systems.
Antiproliferative effects are seen in vitro and in vivo.
The mechanisms of these effects are associated with G0/G1 arrest, induction of apoptosis, differentiation and modulation of growth factor-mediated signaling in tumor cells. In addition to the direct effects on tumor cells, recent data strongly support the hypothesis that the stromal effects of vitamin D analogs (e.g., direct effects on tumor vasculature) are also important in the antiproliferative effects.
Antitumor effects are seen in a wide variety of tumor types and there are few data to suggest that vitamin D-based approaches are more effective in any one tumor type. Glucocorticoids potentiate the antitumor effect of calcitriol and decrease calcitriol-induced hypercalcemia. In addition, calcitriol potentiates the antitumor effects of many cytotoxic agents. Preclinical data indicate that maximal antitumor effects are seen with pharmacological doses of calcitriol and that such exposure can be safely achieved in animals using a high dose, intermittent schedule of administration. AUC and C(max) calcitriol concentrations of 32 ng.h/ml and 9.2 ng/ml are associated with striking antitumor effects in a murine squamous cell carcinoma model and there is increasing evidence from clinical trials that such exposures can be safely attained in patients. Another approach to maximizing intra-tumoral exposure to vitamin D analogs is to inhibit their catabolism. The data clearly indicate that agents which inhibit the major vitamin D catabolizing enzyme, CYP24 (24 hydroxylase), potentiate calcitriol killing of prostate tumor cells in vitro and in vivo. Phase I and II trials of calcitriol, either alone or in combination with carboplatin, taxanes or dexamethasone, as well as the non-specific CYP24 inhibitor, ketoconazole, have been initiated in patients with androgen-dependent and -independent prostate cancer and other advanced cancers. The data indicate that high-dose calcitriol is feasible on an intermittent schedule, no dose-limiting toxicity has been encountered, but the optimal dose and schedule remain to be delineated. Clinical responses have been seen with the combination of high-dose calcitriol + dexamethasone in androgen-independent prostate cancer (AIPC) and, in a large randomized trial in men with AIPC, potentiation of the antitumor effects of docetaxel were seen.
from: Trump DL et al.
Anticancer Res. 2006 Jul-Aug;26(4A):2551-6.
...the 'protective effect' of cod liver oil
versus childhood leukemia suggested by the
Shanghai study in 1988 finds a support in
this more recent report about vitamin D:
Anticlastogenic potential of 1alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 in murine lymphoma.
Sarkar A, Saha BK, Basak R, Mukhopadhyay I, Karmakar R, Chatterjee M.
Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Jadavpur University, Calcutta, India.
Vitamin D3, having gained scientific interest for so long because of its role in mineral homeostasis, has now received great importance as a possible antitumor agent.
This study was undertaken in an attempt to visualize the possible anticlastogenic potential of the vitamin in an ascitic mouse lymphoma model namely, Dalton's lymphoma. Frequencies of structural type chromosomal aberrations, sister chromatid exchanges and micronucleus assays have been chosen as the genotoxic endpoints in the proposed investigation. All these cytogenetic markers have been found to be markedly elevated during the progression of lymphoma in bone marrow cells.
Vitamin D3 effectively suppressed the frequencies of chromosomal aberrations and sister chromatid exchanges in the lymphoma-bearing mice during the entire phase of tumor growth that significantly coupled with almost two-fold increase in survival time (37 +/- 2 and 68 +/- 2 days in lymphoma controls and vitamin D3-treated lymphoma-bearing mice, respectively), thus substantiating the antineoplastic efficacy of this secosteroid. The outcome of this study also is clearly reflected in the depletion of circulating (serum) vitamin D3 levels in the lymphoma control mice compared with normal (vehicle) controls while a still higher level was maintained in the VD3-treated lymphoma mice. This anticlastogenic property of the vitamin has so far been neglected and this is the first attempt to unravel the vitamin D3's effect in combating tumor development in vivo by limiting the frequencies of chromosomal aberrations, sister chromatid exchanges and micronuclei at least in transplantable murine model studied herein.
Cancer Lett. 2000 Mar 13;150(1):1-13.
...but an anti-mutagenic effect of vitamin A
had been previously reported by several investigators.
This is one example:
Antimutagenicity profiles of some natural substances.
Brockman HE, Stack HF, Waters MD.
Department of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal 61761.
Selected antimutagenicity listings and profiles have been prepared from the literature on the antimutagenicity of retinoids and the carotenoid beta-carotene. The antimutagenicity profiles show: (1) a single antimutagen (e.g., retinol) tested in combination with various mutagens or (2) antimutagens tested against a single mutagen (e.g., aflatoxin B1).
Data are presented in the profiles showing a dose range for a given antimutagen and a single dose for the corresponding mutagen; inhibition as well as enhancement of mutagenic activity is indicated. Information was found in the literature on the testing of selected combinations of 16 retinoids and carotenoids vs. 33 mutagens. Of 528 possible antimutagen-mutagen combinations, only 82 (16%) have been evaluated. The most completely evaluated retinoids are retinol (28 mutagens), retinoic acid and retinol acetate (7 mutagens each), and retinal and retinol palmitate (6 mutagens each). beta-Carotene is the most frequently tested carotenoid (15 mutagens). Of the remaining retinoids and carotenoids, 8 were evaluated in combination with a single mutagen and the other 2 were tested against only 2 or 3 mutagens. Most of the data on antimutagenicity in vitro are available for S. typhimurium strains TA98 and TA100. Substantial data also are available for sister-chromatid exchanges in vitro and chromosome aberrations in vitro and in vivo. This report emphasizes the metabolic as well as the antimutagenic effects of retinoids in vitro and in vivo.
Mutat Res. 1992 Jun;267(2):157-72.
One, two, and three!
Vitamin D, vitamin A, and even
omega-3 fatty acids have an
anti-mutagenic capability.
A natural mix of rare and precious moleculae
in a cheap, smelly, light yellow oil...
Desmutagenic and bio-antimutagenic activity of docosahexaenoic acid
and eicosapentaenoic acid in cultured Chinese hamster V79 cells.
Kuroda Y, Shima N, Yazawa K, Kaji K.
National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, 411-8540, Shizuoka, Japan.
The antimutagenic activities of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) were examined by studying their effects on induction of 6-thioguanine (6TG)-resistant mutations by ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) in cultured Chinese hamster V79 cells.
DRA had a remarkable inhibitory effect against the cytotoxicity of EMS, when cells were simultaneously-treated with EMS, showing a blocking or scavenging activity of DHA in reduction of surviving fraction of cells. DHA had not so significant effect, when cells were treated before and after treatment with EMS. On the other hand, EPA had marked inhibiting effects against cytotoxicity of EMS, when cells were treated with EPA, before, simultaneous and after treatment with EMS. Against the induction of mutations by EMS, an antimutagenic activity of DHA was found when cells were pre-treated, simultaneously-treated or post-treated with DHA. EPA was also effective in reducing EMS-induced 6TG-resistant mutations when the cells were treated using the three different treatment procedures described above.
The results suggest that in cultured Chinese hamster V79 cells, DHA and EPA may have both desmutagenic activity, which inactivates EMS chemically and/or enzymatically and bio-antimutagenic activity which suppresses mutation fixation after DNA is damaged by EMS.
Mutat Res. 2001 Oct 18;497(1-2):123-30.
One, two, and three...
and four! Cod liver oil contains
even vitamin E that has similar
antioxidant properties, and who
knows if this is the end of it...
Not long ago I read that those peculiar omega-3 so good for our brain (EPA & DHA) that
we get from sea creatures, mainly blue-fish, seem to be made by the ocean plankton itself.
Humans and even those fishlets are not able to synthesize them.
It is a wonderful hypothesis: those special unsaturated fatty acids represent a sort of vitamin
for all of us and come directly from where life originated million years ago on this Planet...
Our survival seems to be inevitably bound to the sea and the sunshine.
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagecache2.allposters.com%2Fimages%2Fpic%2FPTGPOD%2F607229%7ESunset-Beach-Volleyball-Posters.jpg&hash=10f75b54f6ef73e205590fe9b3e983e6)
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/PTGPOD/607229~Sunset-Beach-Volleyball-Posters.jpg
ikod
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.savourlife.ca%2Faccess%2Fimages%2Fgallery%2Fcod%2520liver%2520oil.jpg&hash=2f52e20b21c3b747359d649cbab299b2)
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It's never too late (sometimes)...
If you followed this thread so far,
you deserve to watch this free video:
"The Vitamin D Pandemic and its Health Consequences"
Presented by Michael Holick, PhD, MD, Professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics
and director of the General Clinical Research Center at Boston University Medical Center
Keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 34th European Symposium on Calcified Tissues, Copenhagen 5 May, 2007
http://www.uvadvantage.org/portals/0/pres/
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uvadvantage.org%2Fportals%2F0%2Fpres%2Fvideo%2Fvideo%2Fslides%2Fslide414.jpg&hash=d05795914097bc88a7dd8dab1dfc1734)
http://www.uvadvantage.org/portals/0/pres/video/video/slides/slide414.jpg
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It's never too late (sometimes)...
If you followed this thread so far,
you deserve to watch this free video:
"The Vitamin D Pandemic and its Health Consequences"
Presented by Michael Holick, PhD, MD, Professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics
and director of the General Clinical Research Center at Boston University Medical Center
Keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 34th European Symposium on Calcified Tissues, Copenhagen 5 May, 2007
http://www.uvadvantage.org/portals/0/pres/
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uvadvantage.org%2Fportals%2F0%2Fpres%2Fvideo%2Fvideo%2Fslides%2Fslide414.jpg&hash=d05795914097bc88a7dd8dab1dfc1734)
http://www.uvadvantage.org/portals/0/pres/video/video/slides/slide414.jpg
Iko I can't get the link to work. It goes to a page but the video never loads.And I cannot even see the whole page to press a start video button or anything like that! My Player will try to open the link but then says that totem cannot play it because the movie is not there at the specified link!
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Hi Karen,
good to see that you belong to
the liquid-sunshine jazz band!
Try to start from: http://www.vitamindcouncil.com/
First "Item of interest":
Video of Professor Michael Holick explaining the vitamin D revolution.
Michael Holick, a respected Vitamin D researcher recently gave keynote address about Vitamin D.
It is a great overview of the entire situation. Watch the video- The Vitamin D Pandemic and its Health Consequences
...it should work! [;)]
I'm watching it over and over...to improve my english of course!
(Joke, I love this stuff: even helicobacter connections are mentioned)
ikoD [^]
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uvadvantage.org%2Fportals%2F0%2Fpres%2Fvideo%2Fvideo%2Fslides%2Fslide362.jpg&hash=b03af111fffacfc878099fed4da9f16c)
http://www.uvadvantage.org/portals/0/pres/video/video/slides/slide362.jpg
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Hi Iko.. Ok I tried to start from there .. No good. I think it may be this new linux system I am not sure.. I will see if George can see it, or rather play it!
Man You can say that again.. It is wet here and raining like crazy.. supposed to continue all week and through the weekend for the second week in a row! LOL... Its wet for sure.. Had some snow for one and 1/2 days but it is gone:(
Your English has been great so far.. No worries. I bet you do love it.. I want to see it too. Have an appointment today.. supposed to be D_DAY for the antibiotics!
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If you like videos, here is Dr. John Cannell's interview on CBNnews.com
which I just found searching in a gold mine (vitamindcouncil):
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/269033.aspx
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.trackyourplaque.com%2Flibrary%2Fimages%2FCannell100.jpg&hash=2aa85bd2dfc81c3b27e4dae30a6cba8b)
http://www.trackyourplaque.com/library/images/Cannell100.jpg
...plus this other video by Gailon Totheroh about Cancer's Natural Enemy: http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/175085.aspx
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Encouraging news about vitamin D RDA from Canada, a northern country were UVrays are precious....
...
It's not a miracle pill. But early indications suggest when it comes to health measures you can control, taking vitamin D may rank up there with quitting smoking.
Yet nearly all Canadians are probably deficient in this so-called "sunshine" vitamin, the only vitamin you can't get in large amounts from a good diet.
And much of this information has been staring scientists in the face, generally unrecognized, for 40 years or more.
...
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=2afe61fa-d92f-426d-a401-5611c495e418&p=1
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia-cdn.tripadvisor.com%2Fmedia%2Fphoto-s%2F00%2F11%2Fd2%2Fc7%2Fsunshine-on-long-beach.jpg&hash=8b3d23006b155badd339058c703f9115)
http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/00/11/d2/c7/sunshine-on-long-beach.jpg
-
If you like videos, here is Dr. John Cannell's interview on CBNnews.com
which I just found searching in a gold mine (vitamindcouncil):
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/269033.aspx
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.trackyourplaque.com%2Flibrary%2Fimages%2FCannell100.jpg&hash=2aa85bd2dfc81c3b27e4dae30a6cba8b)
http://www.trackyourplaque.com/library/images/Cannell100.jpg
Thanks Iko It was interesting!
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Repetita juvant...
Hypothesis-Ultraviolet-B Irradiance and Vitamin D Reduce the Risk
of Viral Infections and thus Their Sequelae, Including Autoimmune Diseases and some Cancers.
Grant WB.
Sunlight, Nutrition, and Health Research Center (SUNARC), San Francisco, CA, USA.
Many viral infections reach clinical significance in winter, when it is cold, relative humidity is lowest and vitamin D production from solar ultraviolet-B irradiation is at its nadir. Several autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes mellitus and asthma, are linked to viral infections. Vitamin D, through induction of cathelicidin, which effectively combats both bacterial and viral infections, may reduce the risk of several autoimmune diseases and cancers by reducing the development of viral infections. Some types of cancer are also linked to viral infections. The cancers with seemingly important risk from viral infections important in winter, based on correlations with increasing latitude in the United States, an index of wintertime solar ultraviolet-B dose and vitamin D, are bladder, prostate, testicular and thyroid cancer, Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and, perhaps, gastric cancer. The evidence examined includes the role of viruses in the etiology of these diseases, the geographic and seasonal variation of these diseases, and the time of life when vitamin D is effective in reducing the risk of disease. In general, the evidence supports the hypothesis.
However, further work is required to evaluate this hypothesis.
Photochem Photobiol. 2008 Jan 7 [Epub ahead of print]
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.geocities.com%2FResearchTriangle%2FForum%2F7787%2FFlinderssunset.jpg&hash=6b4186302693df07eef9e7dcfecde1fb)
http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Forum/7787/Flinderssunset.jpg
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Iko,
Is cod liver oil the same type of Omega-3 oils used (supposedly) for lowering cholesterol?
-
Hi JimBob,
welcome to the codmaniac thread.
There is a difference between fish LIVER oils
and simple fish oils:
Hi Carolyn! Thanks for calling...
Cod liver oil is not exactly like fish oil
Note:
fish liver oils contain vit.A+Vit.D3+omega-3 fatty acids.
fish oilscontain omega-3 fatty acids mainly.
Vit.A&Vit.D3 are fat-soluble and do accumulate in the body: doses higher than reccomended may lead to toxicity.
iko
So when you give fish oil you are giving omega-3 fatty acids mainly.
Omega-3 may have amazing effects on the human brain and they are currently being tested in patients with bipolar disorder (a type of psychotic depression): there are positive and negative reports, as usual. They just started few years ago...it is a promising field.
There is an interesting book about this by a pharmacology professor, Andrew L. Stoll:
http://www.amazon.com/Omega-3-Connection-Groundbreaking-Anti-depression-Program/dp/0684871386
In proper doses you may be sure to give good nutrients (they come from the sea plankton!) and no toxicity. Even if they don't work, your kid will be safe and well nourished.
I don't know ADHD enough to reccomend anything, but speaking of nutritional supplement and reminding the paper cited at the beginning of this topic, I would suggest to alternate fish oil with CLO.
Vitamin D has also positive effects on the brain.
Check carefully expiring date and storage reccomended conditions: these oils may go rancid quick.
Control of the nervous system
Vitamin D3 actions in the nervous system include induction of Vitamin D Receptor content (VDR is expressed in the brain and on several regions of the central and peripheral nervous system), the conductance velocity of motor neurons, and the synthesis of neurotrophic factors, such as nerve growth factors and neurotrophyns, that prevent the loss of injured neurons. Vit.D3 also enhances the expression of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor, a potential candidate for treatment of Parkinson's disease.
In addition to increased nerve growth factor, combined treatment with Vit.D3 and 17beta-estradiol in rats elicits neuroprotective effects after focal cortical ischemia induced through the photothrombosis model.
Vit.D3 influences critical components of orderly brain development. In the embrionic rat brain, the VDR increases steadly from day 15 to day 23, and Vit.D3 induces the expression of nerve growth factor and stimulates neurite outgrowth in embryonic hippocampal explants and primary cultures. Low prenatal Vitamin D in utero leads to increased brain size, brain shape, enlarged ventricles, and reduced expression of nerve growth factor in the neonatal rat.
The association of vit.D deficiency and abnormal brain development makes Vitamin D an attractive candidate for tretment of schizophrenia, a disorder resulting from gene-environment interactions that disrupt brain development.
Also, transient prenatal vitamin D deficiency in rats induces hyperlocomotion in adulthood with sever motor abnormalities.
simplified by me from a nice and thick recent review by Adriana S. Dusso and coll.:
Vitamin D
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=15951480&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum
Shortly, there is increasing experimental evidence that vitamin D is just good for the brain.
No negative effects are reported.
Take care
iko
Post Scriptum:
I just found a positive report about ADHD and fish oil. You probably started from this one...let me know. There are so many references to get lost between papers and scientific reports.
It's in another Forum! What a fantastic gigantic basket this Google is...
http://www.feelgoodforum.com/about1564.html
...
You can scroll these pages to find out specific actions
of these 3 main components of cod LIVER oil:
Vitamin A, vitamin D3, Omega-3 fatty acids.
ikoD
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Iko,
Is cod liver oil the same type of Omega-3 oils used (supposedly) for lowering cholesterol?
Omega-3 fatty acids come from fishes or plants (flaxseed, slightly different kind).
There are studies suggesting a 10-20% reduction in blood cholesterol after weeks of regular supplement in the diet, but anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombotic effects sound much more interesting to me.
Our brains seem to crave for these precious oils (EPA & DHA), and related reports about feeding pregnant mothers and giving 'cod' to young children seem really promising (see 1st page of this topic).
ikoD
picture by Tumpani (Photobucket)
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"Yummy" cod liver oil!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0wVYwKjDs8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqsDNORvXRA
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RDA for vitamin D3 should be updated.
Over 2000 units per day recommended:
Optimal serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels for multiple health outcomes.
Bischoff-Ferrari HA.
Deptartment of Rheumatology, Institute of Physical Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. heike.bischoff@usz.ch
Recent evidence suggests that higher vitamin D intakes beyond current recommendations may be associated with better health outcomes. In this chapter, evidence is summarized from different studies that evaluate threshold levels for serum 25(OH)D levels in relation to bone mineral density (BMD), lower extremity function, dental health, risk of falls, admission to nursing home, fractures, cancer prevention and incident hypertension. For all endpoints, the most advantageous serum levels for 25(OH)D appeared to be at least 75 nmol/l (30 ng/ml) and for cancer prevention, desirable 25(OH)D levels are between 90-120 nmol/l (36-48 ng/ml). An intake of no less than 1000 IU (25 mcg) of vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) per day for all adults may bring at least 50% of the population up to 75 nmol/l.
Thus, higher doses of vitamin D are needed to bring most individuals into the desired range. While estimates suggest that 2000 IU vitamin D3 per day may successfully and safely achieve this goal, the implications of 2000 IU or higher doses for the total adult population need to be addressed in future studies.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2008;624:55-71.
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http://www.viawomen.com/
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Historical annotation:
Cod liver oil and malaria
Positive effect in experimental conditions.
Reported twenty years ago.
Never confirmed, rarely cited, buried in the literature.
But now you can easily find it in seconds thanks to technology.
And this is a new, very positive fact.
Qinghaosu, dietary vitamin E, selenium, and cod-liver oil: effect on the susceptibility of mice to the malarial parasite Plasmodium yoelii.
Levander OA, Ager AL Jr, Morris VC, May RG.Human Nutrition Research Center, US Department of Agriculture, MD 20705.
Young female mice were fed torula-yeast-based diets deficient in vitamin E or selenium or supplemented with cod-liver oil to determine the effect of host antioxidant status on the therapeutic efficacy of the Chinese traditional antimalarial drug qinghaosu (QHS), a sesquiterpene endoperoxide. Vitamin E deficiency enhanced the antimalarial action of QHS against Plasmodium yoelii, both in terms of decreased parasitemia and improved survival but Se deficiency did not. A vitamin E-deficient diet containing 5% cod-liver oil had such strong antimalarial activity in itself that no additional therapeutic benefit of QHS could be demonstrated. Hematocrit values in parasitized mice treated with QHS or fed the cod-liver-oil-supplemented, vitamin E-deficient diet were normal. Nutritional manipulation of host antioxidant status may provide a promising prophylactic and/or therapeutic tool for the control of malaria.
Am J Clin Nutr. 1989 Aug;50(2):346-52.
Free full text if you need more: right on your desk. Unbelievable.
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/50/2/346
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Run on vitamin D after study
Dr. Michael Pollak, an oncologist and director of the cancer-prevention centre at Montreal's Jewish General Hospital and McGill University, interviewed by Andy Riga for the Montreal Gazette, CanWest News Service.
Monday, June 18, 2007
...
"No one is naive," he said. "Vitamin D optimization won't eliminate cancer by any stretch of the imagination, but if it has no downsides and it cuts cancer incidence, it could be worthwhile. Nobody wants to overlook a clue here. This is what everybody wants - a simple pill that reduces cancer risk."
http://www.canada.com/topics/bodyandhealth/story.html?id=ed68aefc-50e4-45f8-b84f-2bd434a6f3d6&k=91024&p=1
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35000 viewers!
Let's celebrate this old thread with an ancient quote:
"Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion,
follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads,
or you will learn nothing."
Thomas Henry Huxley
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http://www.nmaseminars.com/images/green%20misty%20river.jpg
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We know from the 'Shanghai report' that daily doses of vitamins A and D (actually cod liver oil!) -taken for at least one year- could be able to reduce leukemia incidence to half or 1/3.
It's not much, but we (parents) should give it a chance and offer this protection to our sick children, to avert relapse risk.
Yes, an autoquote.
Waiting for cod4ALL and his comments on the 'Mansoura report' and those striking data about vitamin D deficiency at 0-3-12 months after a diagnosis of childhood leukemia (47 cases: further studies are obviously needed...in the next 2-3 decades).
for at least one year
Why such a long lag-phase of cod-therapy is needed before achieving a significant anti-leukemia effect? Could this be bound mainly to a vitamin D action?
Well, simple minds can only give simple answers:
If proper levels of vitamin D are needed to counteract leukemia onset, a deficient child (and most humans seem to be vitamin D deficient these days!) gets a relatively small amount of the sunshine vitamin from daily doses of cod liver oil. Maybe vitamin A helps, together with omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin E, but daily vitamin D through 'cod' is about 400 I.U.
Not much to treat deficiency, so it should take longer to work.
Maybe vitamin A helps
This is a recent medical hypothesis: vitamin A could prevent toxicity of vitamin D and cooperate with vitamin K too...all the fat-soluble vitamins together!
Isn't it wonderful? [;)]
Vitamin D toxicity redefined: vitamin K and the molecular mechanism.
Masterjohn C.
Weston A. Price Foundation, 4200 Wisconsin Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20016, United States. ChrisMasterjohn@gmail.com
The dose of vitamin D that some researchers recommend as optimally therapeutic exceeds that officially recognized as safe by a factor of two; it is therefore important to determine the precise mechanism by which excessive doses of vitamin D exert toxicity so that physicians and other health care practitioners may understand how to use optimally therapeutic doses of this vitamin without the risk of adverse effects. Although the toxicity of vitamin D has conventionally been attributed to its induction of hypercalcemia, animal studies show that the toxic endpoints observed in response to hypervitaminosis D such as anorexia, lethargy, growth retardation, bone resorption, soft tissue calcification, and death can be dissociated from the hypercalcemia that usually accompanies them, demanding that an alternative explanation for the mechanism of vitamin D toxicity be developed.
The hypothesis presented in this paper proposes the novel understanding that vitamin D exerts toxicity by inducing a deficiency of vitamin K. According to this model, vitamin D increases the expression of proteins whose activation depends on vitamin K-mediated carboxylation; as the demand for carboxylation increases, the pool of vitamin K is depleted. Since vitamin K is essential to the nervous system and plays important roles in protecting against bone loss and calcification of the peripheral soft tissues, its deficiency results in the symptoms associated with hypervitaminosis D. This hypothesis is circumstantially supported by the observation that animals deficient in vitamin K or vitamin K-dependent proteins exhibit remarkable similarities to animals fed toxic doses of vitamin D, and the observation that vitamin D and the vitamin K-inhibitor Warfarin have similar toxicity profiles and exert toxicity synergistically when combined.
The hypothesis further proposes that vitamin A protects against the toxicity of vitamin D by decreasing the expression of vitamin K-dependent proteins and thereby exerting a vitamin K-sparing effect. If animal experiments can confirm this hypothesis, the models by which the maximum safe dose is determined would need to be revised. Physicians and other health care practitioners would be able to treat patients with doses of vitamin D that possess greater therapeutic value than those currently being used while avoiding the risk of adverse effects by administering vitamin D together with vitamins A and K.
Med Hypotheses. 2007;68(5):1026-34.
New recipe
"Physicians and other health care practitioners would be able to treat patients with doses of vitamin D that possess greater therapeutic value than those currently being used while avoiding the risk of adverse effects by administering vitamin D together with vitamins A and K."
Med Hypotheses. 2007;68(5):1026-34.
And here we go with cod liver oil (containing vitamins A and D) plus spinaches, cabbage, cauliflower, and other green leafy vegetables (rich of vitamin K)!
We might even give rosemary (carnosic acid) and sesamolin a chance.
And never forget orange juice! (but this is another story) [;D]
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fd2993411.u58.surftown.nu%2Fimages%2FAalesund2.jpg&hash=174d855ac2ffcf882ab22ebcbe4a34f1)
Cut&Paste from the "Cod liver oil and leukemia" thread in Physiol.&Medicine.
Masterjohn's hypothesis about cooperation between the three fat-soluble vitamins is just fascinating.
If proper levels of vitamin A were required to avoid vitamin D toxicity, or to optimize its effects, giving cod liver oil containing Vitamins A and D (text-string from the Shanghai report!) would be much better and safer than recommending vitamin D supplements alone.
Ancient studies first suggested this protective effect, and they are properly cited in the article:
11) Thoenes F. Uber die Korrelation von vitamin A and D.
Deutsch Med Woch 1935;61:2079.
12) Morgan AF, Kimmel l, Hawkins NC. A comparison of the hypervitaminoses induced by irradiated ergosterol and fish liver oil concentrates.
J Biol Chem 1937;120(1):85-102.
13) Clark I, Basset CAL. The amelioration of hypervitaminosis D in rats with vitamin A.
J Exp Med 1962;115:147-56.
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Could by any chance the old remedy, a relic from the past,
an inexpensive nutrient containing vitamins A and D,
help leukemic patients in the long run, AFTER treatment?
According to this recent study, the answer is yes.
Differentiation-inducing liposoluble vitamin deficiency may explain
frequent secondary solid tumors after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
Minireview.
Gedikoglu G, Altinoz MA.
Secondary cancers are among the most threatening long-term health problems of hematopoetic stem cell- transplant (HSCT) patients. There are several lines of evidence indicating the possibility of a prolonged Vitamin A deficiency for solid tumor-type secondary cancers: I- Solid tumors such as oral cavity, head/neck region squamous carcinomas, skin cancers and melanomas, where lowered Vitamin A concentrations and chemo-preventing activity of its derivatives (retinoids) are most explicitly proven, arise much more frequently than others. II- Early monitorings: A significant retinol deficiency in HSCT patients is detectable along with a severity of mucositis and the vulnerability to infection. III- Monitoring of other liposoluble vitamins: Vitamin D, a differentiation-inducing vitamin like Vitamin A, showed a sustained decrease. Another similarity of these two vitamins is that they also depend on intestinal absorption and are decreased due to bowel injury by conditioning agents and chronic graft-versus-host disease. IV- Peroxidative reactions and inflammation can directly exhaust retinol levels despite sufficient intake. Considering the similar inhibitory role of Vitamin D analogs (deltanoids) on squamous carcinomas, skin tumors and melanomas, we propose that animal studies and extended vitamin surveillance studies in HSCT patients may unfold a preventive strategy against long-term complications.
Neoplasma. 2008;55(1):1-9.
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"Mother was right about cod liver oil"
Griffing GT.
Medscape J Med. 2008 Jan 11;10(1):8.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=18324318
There are many stories of mothers forcing their children to take cod liver oil.
Centuries ago, northern Europeans used cod liver oil to protect them from the cold. It was made from the livers of Gadus morhua and other species of cod. Cod liver oil was said to relieve such complaints as rheumatism, aching joints, and stiff muscles.
At the beginning of the 20th century, scientists established that cod liver oil was antirachitic, and it became commonplace for mothers to give it to their children.[1,2]
It turns out cod liver oil contains large amounts of vitamins A, D, and omega-3 fatty acids, and the health benefits may go beyond rheumatism and rickets.[3]
...
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I take cod liver oil and fish oil, infcat just got some more from Holland and Barrat for very little money 75% reduction at the moment for anyone wanting to give this a whirl
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Diagnosis and treatment of vitamin D deficiency.
Cannell JJ, Hollis BW, Zasloff M, Heaney RP.
Atascadero State Hospital, 10333 El Camino Real, Atascadero, California 93422, USA. jcannell@ash.dmh.ca.gov
The recent discovery--in a randomised, controlled trial--that daily ingestion of 1100 IU of colecalciferol (vitamin D) over a 4-year period dramatically reduced the incidence of non-skin cancers makes it difficult to overstate the potential medical, social and economic implications of treating vitamin D deficiency. Not only are such deficiencies common, probably the rule, vitamin D deficiency stands implicated in a host of diseases other than cancer. The metabolic product of vitamin D is a potent, pleiotropic, repair and maintenance, secosteroid hormone that targets > 200 human genes in a wide variety of tissues, meaning it has as many mechanisms of action as genes it targets. A common misconception is that government agencies designed present intake recommendations to prevent or treat vitamin D deficiency. They did not. Instead, they are guidelines to prevent particular metabolic bone diseases. Official recommendations were never designed and are not effective in preventing or treating vitamin D deficiency and in no way limit the freedom of the physician--or responsibility--to do so. At this time, assessing serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D is the only way to make the diagnosis and to assure that treatment is adequate and safe. The authors believe that treatment should be sufficient to maintain levels found in humans living naturally in a sun-rich environment, that is, > 40 ng/ml, year around. Three treatment modalities exist: sunlight, artificial ultraviolet B radiation or supplementation. All treatment modalities have their potential risks and benefits. Benefits of all treatment modalities outweigh potential risks and greatly outweigh the risk of no treatment. As a prolonged 'vitamin D winter', centred on the winter solstice, occurs at many temperate latitudes, < or = 5000 IU (125 microg) of vitamin D/day may be required in obese, aged and/or dark-skinned patients to maintain adequate levels during the winter, a dose that makes many physicians uncomfortable.
Expert Opin Pharmacother. 2008 Jan;9(1):107-18.
I know you cannot read it and I'm perfectly aware that most people aren't interested in Dr. Cannell's crusade on vitamindcouncil.com as well.
These days people read messages like these:
"Keep away from the sun to avoid cancer"
"multivitamin pills shorten your life"
Something must be wrong around here.
So, before we hear the usual folks blaming vitamin D supporters for huge profits from celebrity and vitamin pills plus UV lamps market, let me report the final words of this superb review by John Cannell and his colleagues.
Please do read the complete article: if you had enough time to read this crap page, you MUST find a few minutes for real Science!
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/PDFs/diagnosis-vitdd.pdf
...
To the authors' knowledge, plaintiffs' attorneys are not yet involved in the vitamin D debate. After the findings of Lappe et al. (1), it may only be a matter of time until lawsuits against physicians begin to appear, claiming that physicians dispensed sun-avoidance advice, but negligently failed to diagnose and treat the consequent vitamin D deficiency, leading to fatal cancers. Unless the future literature fails to support the present, such medical malpractice suits may become commonplace.
Finally, physicians and policy-makers should understand that much of the future of vitamin D is out of their hands. Inexpensive high-dose supplements are now widely available to the American public over-the-counter and to the world via the Internet. Sunlight remains free. A Google search for 'vitamin D' reveals several million hits. After the Canadian Cancer Society recently recommended 1000 IU/day for all Canadian adults in the wintertime, vitamin D disappeared off the shelves, causing a shortage during the summer.
The pleiotropic actions and unique pharmacology of vitamin D mean educated patients, on their own, can entirely control their own tissue levels of this steroid, through either UVB exposure or over-the-counter supplementation. Given the attitudes that some in mainstream medicine have about any substance with the word 'vitamin' in it (105), the public and not the medical profession may be the first to enter the vitamin D era.
reference 105:
Battling quackery: attitudes about micronutrient supplements in American academic medicine.
Goodwin JS, Tangum MR.
Center on Aging, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston 77555-0460, USA.
...sorry, $15 to read even the only abstract!!! [>:(]
Arch Intern Med. 1998 Nov 9;158(20):2187-91.
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...
The pleiotropic actions and unique pharmacology of vitamin D mean educated patients, on their own, can entirely control their own tissue levels of this steroid, through either UVB exposure or over-the-counter supplementation. Given the attitudes that some in mainstream medicine have about any substance with the word 'vitamin' in it (105), the public and not the medical profession may be the first to enter the vitamin D era.
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/PDFs/diagnosis-vitdd.pdf
..."educated patients" doesn't necessarily mean that they had read up on vitamin D.
In some cases personal experience helped to solve this problem from the very start.
Many years ago, at the camping ground near the seaside where I went with my family, I noticed four elderly men around a table, playing cards.
One of the group was 'reeeally' tanned, almost black, much darker than the others. Another friend passed by and started chatting.
After having said to the overtanned fellow: "You surely took a lot of sun this summer!",
he got this quick reply, probably the same given every day to others, over and over:
"Well, when I don't do this, I get aches and pains in the winter"
That wise old man had found out something important for his health all by himself.
He actually tested it "on his own skin"... year after year, then he drew his conclusions.
No 1988 Shanghai report, no Timo Timonen's hypothesis, and much before the "resurrection of vitamin D".
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...Italian Riviera Ligure is perfect to make good vitamin D: sunshine is free!
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http://www.equilibriarte.org/upload/forum/070805145950-238.jpg
http://www.visitnorway.com/ImageVault/Images/id_827/conversionFormat_13/ImageVaultHandler.aspx
http://www.unpluggedvalthorens.com/images/kidsss1.jpg...making plenty of vitamin D on a winter weekend!
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Cut and paste from another thread:
Neilep, our dearest moderator, asked: "Why are colds, sore throats, colds etc so much more common in winter ?"
Easy question Neilepus amicissimus,
the answer MIGHT be right here:
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=529704
Enjoy
ikod
AWESOME !!!..Vitamin D Rules !!...If only I knew a good source of Vitamin D !! [;)] [;)]
Hi Neilepus rapidofastissimus thread-makerus!
Cod liver oil is no good for 'boosting' your vitamin D: plenty of vitamin A and omega-3 fatty acids plus 'some' vitamin D.
It probably works in the long run as far as vitamin D3 is concerned (approx. 400 I.U./day).
So dear old 'cod' is still used daily in northern Europe, during months with the 'R': from September to April.
Short 'flashes' (30min.) of sushine between 10a.m. to 2p.m. at a proper latitude (no clouds please) really boost your skin production of vitamin D3 (>20,000 I.U.)
Sorry you cannot read the complete paper previously cited by ikus.
You would be impressed by a 1918 study about flu reported in the article.
Shortly, in 1918, trying to find out how influenza viruses managed to infect people and to verify relative incubation times (2-3 days), proper experiments were set up using human volunteers. Forget the details [xx(]...but secretions from infected patients were carefully collected, mixed up and flushed through the nostrils of brave volunteers. [:o]
Surprisingly enough, nothing happened afterwards, so the experiment was considered a 'fiasco'.
Only now, 90 years later, a crystal-clear explanation is ready for this.
Anti-infective properties of vitamin D were proved only 4-5 years ago, when the cathelicidin pathway was described.
Those volunteers were healthy men from the Navy.
Probably well-tanned all year round, perfectly healthy, they had been selected for not having had a flu in the previous months, to avoid an 'immunization' bias.
Maybe a good level of vitamin D helped them to block the influenza viruses quickly.
For the same reason, somewhere in 2005, most (maybe all) vitamin D supplemented patients in Dr J.Cannell department, Atascadero CA, went through a big influenza epidemic perfectly healthy.
John Cannell was the 'prepared mind', times were changing, so the vitamindcouncil.com crusade started.
One hypothesis out of many is that flu viruses do circulate all year round in humans, but give troubles in some people only in the cold season, i.e. when vitamin D levels are low.
So much for the anti-flu vaccination campaigns.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enB6BuOjXY8
P.S.
The reason why Chris is not commenting on these issues is simple: he is a virology expert and knows much better than others the other side of the coin.
Everybody is waiting for final scientific proofs about vitamin D and flu, but most of all about vitamin D benefits in other dreadful diseases.
Wonderful hypotheses need extended and accurate studies to become Science. It takes so much time.
I'm sure Chris will never have to decide from trembling hypotheses whether to give 'cod' to one of his kids or NOT.
It happened to me, after years of serious searches and rigorous evidence-based training.
That's life.
Hypothesis--ultraviolet-B irradiance and vitamin D reduce the risk of viral infections and thus their sequelae, including autoimmune diseases and some cancers.
Grant WB.
Sunlight, Nutrition, and Health Research Center, San Francisco, CA, USA. wgrant@infionline.net
Many viral infections reach clinical significance in winter, when it is cold, relative humidity is lowest and vitamin D production from solar ultraviolet-B irradiation is at its nadir. Several autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes mellitus and asthma, are linked to viral infections. Vitamin D, through induction of cathelicidin, which effectively combats both bacterial and viral infections, may reduce the risk of several autoimmune diseases and cancers by reducing the development of viral infections. Some types of cancer are also linked to viral infections. The cancers with seemingly important risk from viral infections important in winter, based on correlations with increasing latitude in the United States, an index of wintertime solar ultraviolet-B dose and vitamin D, are bladder, prostate, testicular and thyroid cancer, Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and, perhaps, gastric cancer. The evidence examined includes the role of viruses in the etiology of these diseases, the geographic and seasonal variation of these diseases, and the time of life when vitamin D is effective in reducing the risk of disease. In general, the evidence supports the hypothesis. However, further work is required to evaluate this hypothesis.
Photochem Photobiol. 2008 Mar-Apr;84(2):356-65. Epub 2008 Jan 7.
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"Keep away from the sun to avoid cancer"
"multivitamin pills shorten your life"
Surely there was (at least here in the slightly cooler regions of Europe) never any advise to totally avoid the sun, only to avoid getting sunburnt, which is a different 'kettle of fish'.
I thought it was a well known fact that we need the sun/exposure to sunlight (just think of rickets and "SAD")? Even though I have a 'fair complexion', I was never told by any physician to avoid the sun.
I've never heard of 'multivitamin pills shorten your life', only the sensible warning that if vitamins are taken in excessive amounts it may lead to unwanted side effects. Just like a bit of wine or beer is quite healthy - drinking large quantities is definitely not good for your health.
As with most things in life - moderation is the key.
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You are perfectly right, grumpy old mare,
but moderation and wisdom seem quite rare...
These days vitamin D "supporters" are fighting
to support the Common Sense Committee!
Did you watch Michael Holick's conference?
I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy it.
Take care
ikoD
It's never too late (sometimes)...
If you followed this thread so far,
you deserve to watch this free video:
"The Vitamin D Pandemic and its Health Consequences"
Presented by Michael Holick, PhD, MD, Professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics
and director of the General Clinical Research Center at Boston University Medical Center
Keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 34th European Symposium on Calcified Tissues, Copenhagen 5 May, 2007
http://www.uvadvantage.org/portals/0/pres/
This is what I meant as media anti-sunlight campaigns:
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http://content.ll-0.com/vitalchoiceseafood/vitalchoiceseafood_e_a000867414.JPG?i=101907174513
http://newsletter.vitalchoice.com/e_article000867414.cfm?x=b9Wm4WL,b4cFSjTj,w
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http://www.uvadvantage.org/portals/0/pres/video/video/slides/slide290.jpg
...and this is from 50yrs ago! (M.Holick 2007)
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aaaah, I can see your point now - I didn't know those kinds of ads!
I'm afraid I've never heard of Michael Horlick's conference. where was that shown?
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aaaah, I can see your point now - I didn't know those kinds of ads!
I'm afraid I've never heard of Michael Holick's conference. where was that shown?
In Copenhagen, May 2007...actually free online.
You may enjoy it clicking at the bottom of the previous-following box:
It's never too late (sometimes)...
If you followed this thread so far,
you deserve to watch this free video:
"The Vitamin D Pandemic and its Health Consequences"
Presented by Michael Holick, PhD, MD, Professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics
and director of the General Clinical Research Center at Boston University Medical Center
Keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 34th European Symposium on Calcified Tissues, Copenhagen 5 May, 2007
http://www.uvadvantage.org/portals/0/pres/
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...even in rare and particular clinical settings,
vitamin D -the sunshine vitamin- might help.
This is a very recent report from France:
Pretransplant Serum Vitamin D Levels and Risk of Cancer After Renal Transplantation.
Ducloux D, Courivaud C, Bamoulid J, Kazory A, Dumoulin G, Chalopin JM.
1 Inserm, U645 Besançon, University of Besançon, Besançon, France. 2 Department of Nephrology, Dialysis, and Renal Transplantation, University of Franche-Comté, Besançon, France. 3 CIC Biotherapy, Saint Jacques University Hospital, Besançon, France. 4 Laboratory of Renal and Metabolic Exploration, Jean-Minjoz University Hospital, Besançon, France.
BACKGROUND.: Serum levels of 25-OH-D3 inversely correlate with the incidence of various types of cancers in the general population. Because risk factors and incidence of cancer in renal transplant recipients (RTRs) are different from the general population, this study was designed to determine whether pretransplant 25-OH-D3 levels could be predictive of cancer risk in RTRs. METHODS.: Pretransplant 25-OH-D3 levels were reviewed in 363 consecutive RTRs. The impact of 25-OH-D3 levels on the development of cancer was then analyzed with respect to other known risk factors. RESULTS.: One hundred twenty-four patients (34.2%) showed vitamin D deficiency, 185 (51%) vitamin D insufficiency, and 54 (14.8%) with normal vitamin D levels. Thirty-two cancers (8.8%) occurred in 32 patients. A higher incidence of cancer was observed in patients with vitamin D deficiency (13.7% vs. 7% for patients with vitamin D insufficiency [P=0.068] and 3.7% for those with normal vitamin D levels [P=0.007]). 25-OH-D3 levels were lower in patients who developed cancer after transplantation (13.7+/-6 vs. 18.3+/-17.8 ng/mL, P=0.022). Age (hazard ratio, 1.06; 95% confidence interval, 1.02-1.11, for each 1 year increase; P=0.009) and low 25-OH-D3 levels (hazard ratio, 1.12; 95% confidence interval, 1.04-1.23, for every 1 ng/mL decrease; P=0.021) were independent risk factors for development of cancer.
CONCLUSION.: Pretransplant level of 25-OH-D3 is an important determinant for subsequent development of cancer after transplantation. Future studies should examine whether 25-OH-D3 supplementation can effectively decrease the incidence of cancer in RTRs.
Transplantation. 2008 Jun 27;85(12):1755-1759.
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http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1058/1302507409_aae9ed3b1b.jpg?v=0
Sunset in Besancon, France
Could by any chance the old remedy, a relic from the past,
an inexpensive nutrient containing vitamins A and D,
help leukemic patients in the long run, AFTER treatment?
According to this recent study, the answer is yes.
Differentiation-inducing liposoluble vitamin deficiency may explain
frequent secondary solid tumors after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
Minireview.
Gedikoglu G, Altinoz MA.
Secondary cancers are among the most threatening long-term health problems of hematopoetic stem cell- transplant (HSCT) patients. There are several lines of evidence indicating the possibility of a prolonged Vitamin A deficiency for solid tumor-type secondary cancers: I- Solid tumors such as oral cavity, head/neck region squamous carcinomas, skin cancers and melanomas, where lowered Vitamin A concentrations and chemo-preventing activity of its derivatives (retinoids) are most explicitly proven, arise much more frequently than others. II- Early monitorings: A significant retinol deficiency in HSCT patients is detectable along with a severity of mucositis and the vulnerability to infection. III- Monitoring of other liposoluble vitamins: Vitamin D, a differentiation-inducing vitamin like Vitamin A, showed a sustained decrease. Another similarity of these two vitamins is that they also depend on intestinal absorption and are decreased due to bowel injury by conditioning agents and chronic graft-versus-host disease. IV- Peroxidative reactions and inflammation can directly exhaust retinol levels despite sufficient intake. Considering the similar inhibitory role of Vitamin D analogs (deltanoids) on squamous carcinomas, skin tumors and melanomas, we propose that animal studies and extended vitamin surveillance studies in HSCT patients may unfold a preventive strategy against long-term complications.
Neoplasma. 2008;55(1):1-9.
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frmmla.wsu.edu%2Fimages%2FScottsdale%2FSunset_s.jpg&hash=03d6bd72f966af0f3a675afe5eafbc52) (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.naturalnews.com%2Fgallery%2Fscenic%2Fsun%2F29240038.jpg&hash=1b16cb6fa20844ab03280a61742282d7)
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http://www.naturalnews.com/003069.html
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Thank you Zoey,
for asking about my favourite quote. Well, to explain it properly, in a short 'essay' in english... it will take me more than a few minutes! But translating it is the easiest thing:
"The sun gives life, the sun takes it back"
These words concluded one of the best lectures I attended in my life. At the 3rd year of Medical school, General Pathology course, more than thirty years ago. Professor Mario Umberto Dianzani was our teacher, Dean of the Medical Faculty and a distinguished scientist, totally dedicated to his students. Later on he has been Rector of the University of Turin for several years before retiring.
In those days biochemistry was 'the' thing: new cofactors and vitamins were deeply explored by medical research.
I'm sure I owe to his excellent lectures my following research interest in cofactors.
"Aging of cells and living organisms" was the subject of the lecture.
In less than one hour we went from the origin of life on our Planet to the present time.
Volcanoes and oceans plus UV light to catalyze the synthesis of organic compounds (Miller's experiment), then nucleic acid formation after million years of random combinations.
Primitive organisms, bacteria and algae. Again the sunlight creates energy through photosynthetic processes and here come trees and forests! Different species of primitive life, unicellular, multicellular towards more and more complex organisms, thanks to spontaneous mutations, natural selection and evolution. For the whole 'biosphere' survival is always tightly bound to its origin, to the sunlight.
Sunlight and ultraviolet rays give energy and feed the whole system, nevertheless they are responsible -in the end- for lipid peroxidation and DNA damage. A series of biochemical reactions lead to senescence in multicellular organisms too.
Complex systems are progressively deranged: skin, bones, muscles, nerves, glands and immune cells get older...diseases follow.
The sun itself puts an end to our lives.
Magic
...
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http://blogs.bootsnall.com/Chuck/uploads/_Beautiful%20Sunrise.jpg
"Il sole dona la vita, il sole se la riprende"
Mario Umberto Dianzani, 1975.
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But.. It is really beautiful isn't it!
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Each tablespoon has 40 calories, all 40 of them being from fat.
"As a dietary supplement, take 1-3 teaspoonfuls daily."
So, that's up to 120 extra calories from fat every day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
guilda
Drug Intervention Tennessee (http://www.drug-intervention.com/tennessee-drug-intervention.html)
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Hi guilda!
Welcome to this forum and to an almost forgotten discussion about the benefits of cod liver oil.
This thread is deeply connected to a leukemia and D-vitamin -two year long- debate between Zoey, dqfry, Neilep, George-another_someone, plus others and myself: you may have a look around there, if you are interested in this sort of stuff.
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=4987.msg41687#msg41687
Each tablespoon has 40 calories, all 40 of them being from fat.
"As a dietary supplement, take 1-3 teaspoonfuls daily."
So, that's up to 120 extra calories from fat every day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
guilda
Drug Intervention Tennessee (http://www.drug-intervention.com/tennessee-drug-intervention.html)
Yes, but this is supposed to be "good" fat:
mostly omega-3 fatty acid (EPA & DHA), so good for our brain and blood vessels.
Not to mention vitamin A and D-vitamin, the sunlight hormone-vitamin.
Furthermore, 3 teaspoons of 'cod' daily could mean too much vitamin A, as recently reported.
As I mentioned before, some producer had to remove consistent amounts of D-vitamin during processing to comply with wrongly assessed toxic daily doses.
Consequently, we might get too much vitamin A reducing the benefit of too little vitamin D3.
I suspect that the original formula was quite different indeed.
"Cod Liver Oil, Vitamin A Toxicity, Frequent Respiratory Infections,
and the Vitamin D Deficiency Epidemic"
by John Cannell et al.
Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol 2008;117:864-870.
http://www.annals.com/toc/auto_abstract.php?id=15313
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/2008-december.shtml
Now we surely need certified cod liver oil with proper testing of the amounts of vitamins A and D3 reported for each batch/lot. This might justify a less cheap product on one side, allowing the lot of us to rediscover its role as a proper nutrient on the other.
But I am afraid that the "freshly patented" and more expensive vitamin D analogues will win in the end: they will be able to support all the extensive and accurate clinical trials needed today.
Poor old cod liver oil, a relic from the past: it will go back to silly jokes and ancient stories.
ikod
Good NEWS on D-vitamin!!!
M. A. Helou, G. Massey, G. Francis, K. Godder, J. Laver
Abstract:
Background: Survivors of childhood cancer are at increased risk for osteoporosis. Contributing factors include direct effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy on bone, secondary hormone deficiencies, and chronic illness. However, vitamin D insufficiency could be a major risk factor during and after cancer therapy. Vitamin D insufficiency is common in healthy school aged children (median 25-hydroxy vitamin D [25(OH)D] = 28 ng/mL, 55% <30 ng/mL, 5% < 10 ng/mL.) Based on this data, we hypothesize that vitamin D insufficiency would be common among children with cancer. If vitamin D insufficiency is prevalent, correction may contribute to better bone health and immune responses in children with cancer. Methods: We determined the serum levels of 25(OH)D, PTH, calcium, and phosphorus for 40 children with leukemia or lymphoma currently on therapy (group 1), 34 children with leukemia or lymphoma off therapy (group 2), 16 children with solid tumors currently on therapy (group 3), and 10 children with solid tumors off therapy (group 4.) Prevalence of 25(OH)D insufficiency ( <32 ng/mL) and severe deficiency (<10 ng/mL) was compared by Chi square test to the healthy reference population (established by Weng, et al.)
Results: For the majority of patients, calcium and phosphorus levels were within normal limits. Conclusions: Vitamin D insufficiency was very common in all groups, especially in children with solid tumors on therapy (Group 3.) 25(OH)D levels did improve off therapy, but for Group 2, still remained significantly less than normal reference population (p=0.0001.)
The data suggests that vitamin D status should be determined for all children at diagnosis of malignancy with a strong recommendation to consider vitamin D supplementation during treatment and follow up.
J Clin Oncol 26: 2008 (May 20 suppl; abstr 10023)
http://www.asco.org/ASCO/Abstracts+&+Virtual+Meeting/Abstracts?&vmview=abst_detail_view&confID=55&abstractID=35975
Something is finally "moving" on the clinical research side...
I hope(dream) that many parents -on the other side- are giving 'cod for more than one year'!
Unfortunately, if vitamin D is needed mainly, and too much vitamin A is either toxic or counteracting "D" wonderful effects (J.Cannell et al. Nov.2008), we would need a special cod liver oil formula:
a moderate amount of vitamin A, plenty of D-vitamin and lots of omega-3!
This probably WAS the original cod liver oil, before they started removing D-vitamin, erroneously thinking that it was too close to toxic amounts.
Two thousands I.U. per day of vitamin D3 was considered almost toxic for humans.
What a shame: we seem to have destroyed the original formula. (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lung.ca%2Ftb%2Fimages%2Ffull_archive%2F006_codLiverOil.jpg&hash=ab69c998b71e9d651a87d5b572202eb4)
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From January 2008 VitaminD Newsletter:
...
All of the epidemiological and animal studies in the literature suggest cancer patients will prolong their lives if they take vitamin D. I can't find any studies that indicate otherwise. However, none of the suggestive studies are randomized controlled interventional trials; they are all epidemiological or animal studies, or, in the case of Vieth's, an open human study. However, if you have cancer, or your child does, do you want to wait the decades it will take for the American Cancer Society to fund randomized controlled trials using the proper dose of vitamin D? Chances are you, or your child, will not be around to see the results.
John Cannell, MD
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http://www.vitamindcouncil.com/
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Some recent discussion about ancient reports of cod liver oil use...
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Rickets in Lion Cubs at the London Zoo in 1889: Some New Insights.
Chesney RW, Hedberg G.
aDepartment of Pediatrics, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee.
In 1889, when Dr John Bland-Sutton, a prominent surgeon in London, England, was consulted concerning fatal rickets in more than 20 successive litters of lion cubs at the London Zoo, he evaluated the role of diet relative to the development of rickets. He prescribed goat meat and bones and cod-liver oil to be added to the lean horse-meat diet of the cubs and their mothers. Rickets reversed, the cubs survived, and litters were reared successfully. In classic controlled studies conducted in puppies and young rats 3 decades later, the crucial role of calcium, phosphate, and vitamin D in both prevention and therapy of rickets was elucidated. Later studies led to the identification of the structural features of vitamin D. Although the Bland-Sutton interventional diet obviously provides calcium and phosphate from bones and vitamin D from cod-liver oil, other benefits of this diet were not initially recognized.
Chewing bones promotes tooth and gum health and removes bacteria-laden tartar.
Cod-liver oil also contains vitamin A, which is essential for the prevention of infection and for epithelial cell health. Taurine-conjugated bile salts are also necessary for the intestinal absorption of fat-soluble vitamins, including A and D. Moreover, unlike dogs and rats, all feline species are unable to synthesize taurine yet can only conjugate bile acids with taurine. This sulfur-containing beta-amino acid must be provided in the carnivorous diet of a large cat.
Taurine-conjugated bile salts were provided in the oil cold-pressed from cod liver.
The now famous Bland-Sutton "experiment of nature," namely, fatal rickets in lion cubs, was cured by the addition of minerals and vitamin D. However, gum health and the presence of taurine-conjugated bile salts undoubtedly permitted absorption of vitamin A and D, the latter promoting the cure of rickets.
Pediatrics. 2009 Apr 6. [Epub ahead of print]
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News, news, news!
25-Hydroxyvitamin D, dementia, and cerebrovascular pathology in elders receiving home services.
Buell JS, Dawson-Hughes B, Scott TM, Weiner DE, Dallal GE, Qui WQ, Bergethon P, Rosenberg IH, Folstein MF, Patz S, Bhadelia RA, Tucker KL.
From the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy (J.S.B., T.M.S., G.E.D., I.H.R., K.L.T.), Tufts University; Tufts Medical Center (T.M.S., D.E.W., W.Q.Q., M.F.F., S.P., R.A.B.), Tufts University School of Medicine; Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (B.D.-H., G.E.D., I.H.R., K.L.T.); Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (R.A.B.); and Boston University Medical Center (P.B.), Boston, MA.
BACKGROUND: Vitamin D deficiency has potential adverse effects on neurocognitive health and subcortical function. However, no studies have examined the association between vitamin D status, dementia, and cranial MRI indicators of cerebrovascular disease (CVD). METHODS: Cross-sectional investigation of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D], dementia, and MRI measures of CVD in elders receiving home care (aged 65-99 years) from 2003 to 2007. RESULTS: Among 318 participants, the mean age was 73.5 +/- 8.1 years, 231 (72.6%) were women, and 109 (34.3%) were black. 25(OH)D concentrations were deficient (<10 ng/mL) in 14.5% and insufficient (10-20 ng/mL) in 44.3% of participants. There were 76 participants (23.9%) with dementia, 41 of which were classified as probable AD. Mean 25(OH)D concentrations were lower in subjects with dementia (16.8 vs 20.0 ng/mL, p < 0.01). There was a higher prevalence of dementia among participants with 25(OH)D insufficiency (</=20 ng/mL) (30.5% vs 14.5%, p < 0.01). 25(OH)D deficiency was associated with increased white matter hyperintensity volume (4.9 vs 2.9 mL, p < 0.01), grade (3.0 vs 2.2, p = 0.04), and prevalence of large vessel infarcts (10.1% vs 6.9%, p < 0.01). After adjustment for age, race, sex, body mass index, and education, 25(OH)D insufficiency (</=20 ng/mL) was associated with more than twice the odds of all-cause dementia (odds ratio [OR] = 2.3, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.2-4.2), Alzheimer disease (OR = 2.5, 95% CI 1.1-6.1), and stroke (with and without dementia symptoms) (OR = 2.0, 95% CI 1.0-4.0). CONCLUSIONS: Vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency was associated with all-cause dementia, Alzheimer disease, stroke (with and without dementia symptoms), and MRI indicators of cerebrovascular disease.
These findings suggest a potential vasculoprotective role of vitamin D.
Neurology. 2009 Nov 25. [Epub ahead of print]
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A promise is a promise... [;)]
so here you find D-vitamin safety limits:
Risk assessment for vitamin D.
Hathcock JN, Shao A, Vieth R, Heaney R.
Council for Responsible Nutrition, Washington, DC 20036-5114, USA. jhathcock@crnusa.org
The objective of this review was to apply the risk assessment methodology used by the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) to derive a revised safe Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) for vitamin D. New data continue to emerge regarding the health benefits of vitamin D beyond its role in bone. The intakes associated with those benefits suggest a need for levels of supplementation, food fortification, or both that are higher than current levels. A prevailing concern exists, however, regarding the potential for toxicity related to excessive vitamin D intakes. The UL established by the FNB for vitamin D (50 microg, or 2000 IU) is not based on current evidence and is viewed by many as being too restrictive, thus curtailing research, commercial development, and optimization of nutritional policy. Human clinical trial data published subsequent to the establishment of the FNB vitamin D UL published in 1997 support a significantly higher UL. We present a risk assessment based on relevant, well-designed human clinical trials of vitamin D.
Collectively, the absence of toxicity in trials conducted in healthy adults that used vitamin D dose > or = 250 microg/d (10,000 IU vitamin D3) supports the confident selection of this value as the UL.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Jan;85(1):6-18.
Free full text to enjoy real Science! http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/85/1/6
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D-vitamin newsletter! [;D] [;D] [;D]
Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin d and the incidence of acute viral respiratory tract infections in healthy adults.
Sabetta JR, Depetrillo P, Cipriani RJ, Smardin J, Burns LA, Landry ML.
Department of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Declining serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D seen in the fall and winter as distance increases from the equator may be a factor in the seasonal increased prevalence of influenza and other viral infections. This study was done to determine if serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations correlated with the incidence of acute viral respiratory tract infections. METHODOLOGY/FINDINGS: In this prospective cohort study serial monthly concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D were measured over the fall and winter 2009-2010 in 198 healthy adults, blinded to the nature of the substance being measured. The participants were evaluated for the development of any acute respiratory tract infections by investigators blinded to the 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations. The incidence of infection in participants with different concentrations of vitamin D was determined. One hundred ninety-five (98.5%) of the enrolled participants completed the study. Light skin pigmentation, lean body mass, and supplementation with vitamin D were found to correlate with higher concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D. Concentrations of 38 ng/ml or more were associated with a significant (p<0.0001) two-fold reduction in the risk of developing acute respiratory tract infections and with a marked reduction in the percentages of days ill.
CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Maintenance of a 25-hydroxyvitamin D serum concentration of 38 ng/ml or higher should significantly reduce the incidence of acute viral respiratory tract infections and the burden of illness caused thereby, at least during the fall and winter in temperate zones. The findings of the present study provide direction for and call for future interventional studies examining the efficacy of vitamin D supplementation in reducing the incidence and severity of specific viral infections, including influenza, in the general population and in subpopulations with lower 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations, such as pregnant women, dark skinned individuals, and the obese.
PLoS One. 2010 Jun 14;5(6):e11088
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Does vitamin d protect against cardiovascular disease?
Bassuk SS, Manson JE.
Division of Preventive Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 900 Commonwealth Avenue East, Boston, MA, 02215, USA, sbassuk@rics.bwh.harvard.edu.
Abstract
Because of its role in maintaining bone density, vitamin D has long been recognized as critical to the health of women, a group at disproportionate risk of osteoporosis. Recent data from epidemiologic and laboratory studies suggest that vitamin D may also protect against the development of cardiovascular and other chronic diseases. Because three quarters of US women (and men) have suboptimal vitamin D status, many experts advocate increasing daily recommended intakes from 200-600 IU to at least 1,000 IU, which may indeed be a prudent strategy. However, data from large randomized clinical trials testing sufficiently high doses of this vitamin for cardiovascular disease prevention-as well as to assess the overall balance of benefits and risks of such supplementation-are needed.
J Cardiovasc Transl Res. 2009 Sep;2(3):245-50. Epub 2009 Jul 17.
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"...From a clinical perspective, vitamin D insufficiency represents the first potentially modifiable prognostic marker in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) by presenting the opportunity for patients to have their serum vitamin D checked and, if they are deficient, vitamin D supplements administered to correct the deficit."
...
CLL: a supplementary question?
Pepper C, Fegan C.
Cardiff University.
Comment on:
Blood. 2011 Feb 3;117(5):1492-8.
Abstract
In this issue of Blood, Shanafelt and colleagues provide the first evidence that vitamin D deficiency is a risk factor for disease progression in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Their findings imply that dietary vitamin D supplementation could potentially modify the natural history of this incurable disease.
Blood. 2011 Feb 3;117(5):1439-40.
http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org/cgi/reprint/117/5/1439
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Ok, we seem to be almost THERE.
It's a pity we didn't start from childhood leukemias...they are not incurable, in fact, but curable in the majority of patients (well over 50%), not enough though.
"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle." George Orwell
If, in the near future, proper vitamin D3 supplementation improves survival in childhood leukemias...
Well...I'm going to take a week off, a month off...maybe a whole year off!
Ikod
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wallpaperweb.org%2Fwallpaper%2Fsport%2F1024x768%2F11ski102wp.jpg&hash=376c7caf0e7a1222162f6dec146b6be3)
...and that's it my friends,
I thank you so much for your interest
in such a neglected area of human research.
Ikod