[iko (OP)]

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/

http://www.uvadvantage.org/portals/0/pres/video/video/slides/slide414.jpg

[Karen W.]

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/

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!

[iko (OP)]

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  [^]

http://www.uvadvantage.org/portals/0/pres/video/video/slides/slide362.jpg

[Karen W.]

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!

[iko (OP)]

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

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

[iko (OP)]

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

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/00/11/d2/c7/sunshine-on-long-beach.jpg

[Karen W.]

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

http://www.trackyourplaque.com/library/images/Cannell100.jpg

Thanks Iko It was interesting!

[iko (OP)]

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]

http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Forum/7787/Flinderssunset.jpg

[JimBob]

Iko,

Is cod liver oil the same type of Omega-3 oils used (supposedly) for lowering cholesterol?

[iko (OP)]

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

[iko (OP)]

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)


http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/Tumpani/17%20MB%20Ford%20Model%20As/12.jpg

[iko (OP)]

"Yummy" cod liver oil!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0wVYwKjDs8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqsDNORvXRA

   

[iko (OP)]

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.

http://www.viawomen.com/

[iko (OP)]

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

[iko (OP)]

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

[iko (OP)]

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

http://www.nmaseminars.com/images/green%20misty%20river.jpg

[iko (OP)]

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)  []

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.

[iko (OP)]

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.

[iko (OP)]

"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]

...

http://www.uvadvantage.org/portals/0/pres/video/video/slides/slide100.jpg

[Andrew K Fletcher]

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