The Vitamin D Cure Blog

Much of medicine, health, and the food industry focus on bacteria as a source of disease. The general message the public gets is more bugs are more problems. Kill the bugs, solve the problem. Unfortunately this message fails to inform us that without bugs we would not exist. Bacteria and viruses are the engines of creation and biodiversity on this planet, without them the world we know would not exist.

Remember the Biosphere Project where a group of volunteer scientists were to live in an isolated man-made environment in a dome for as long as possible? It demonstrated that humans have only a trivial knowledge about how the earth and its biology interact. They could not control the temperature, oxygen, or CO2 levels in the dome without air conditioning. And, most of the animals and plants died within a short period of time. The company that owned the project dissolved and the structure is now being leased by the University of Arizona for climate studies. Many attribute the demise of the life in the dome on a lack of diversity in the microbial populations as well as a lack of understanding of atmospheric science in the biosphere.

Humans have some 500-1000 species and over a 1000 trillion bacteria living in and on us every day. They help exfoliate our skin. They clean or clutter our mouth and teeth. They digest or process much of our food. They stimulate/motivate our immune system. They orchestrate our growth and development during infancy and childhood. They can cause ulcers, cancer, autoimmune disease, obesity, arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and more. They have ties to all human disease. Check out the latest science.

So which ones do we keep and which ones do we get rid of? We have almost no clue. What we do know is that these bacteria set up shop and begin to alter the expression of our genes from the moment of birth. Vaginal birth verses cesarean section. Breast feeding verses formula feeding, soy verses meats, grain instead of green vegetables. Each choice makes a difference in which bugs thrive and which ones are suppressed.

The lesson to be learned here is not to get rid of the bugs but to foster the growth of bugs that promote our health. Since we have identified only a small fraction of the bugs we can only rely on history to help us decide. History tells us that our diet and environment are the selection process.

For over a million years early humans survived off of lean animal meats including seafood, insects, and vegetable matter. These foods provided and supported the bugs that promoted our well being and survival. Only in the last 10,000 years have we seen the introduction of grains like wheat, corn, and rice, and other foods like soy, and dairy. In the last 200 years we have seen societies move from agriculture to industry and now to a digital service economy. In this transition we have lost our sun exposure and exercise. Both of these changes have altered our resistance to certain bacteria in us and outside of us. In the last 60 years have we seen the introduction and widespread use of antibiotics that kill the good with the bad. In the last 40 years we have seen an explosion in the number of antibacterial soaps and cleaning fluids.

The prescription is simple. Get back to basics. Minimize the use of chemical cleaners especially on your body. Up until about 75 years ago water and friction worked just fine and it still does. Don’t use antibiotics unless your survival is threatened. Get regular sun exposure; it inactivates viruses, kills bacteria, and facilitates the production of vitamin D, one of your primary defense mechanisms. Stop eating grain, soy, and dairy, they were never meant to be part of our diet. Eat more fresh lean meats that you have prepared. Replace the foods you should not eat with more vegetable matter. And finally, exercise. People who exercise don’t get sick. Look at Jack LaLanne, he’s 93 and healthier than most of us at 40. Your prescription for this lifestyle is The Vitamin D Cure.

Last week saw the publication of another study associating heart attacks with very low vitamin D levels this time in men. Dr. Giovannucci analyzed the Health Professions Cohort followed at Harvard University and found that men with vitamin D levels below 15 ng/mL had twice as many heart attacks as men with vitamin D levels above 30 ng/mL. Similar data were published in January from the Framingham Offspring Cohort.

Vitamin D deficiency has also been associated with an increased risk for high blood pressure and heart failure. And, both of these medical conditions lead to an enlarged heart. Enlarged hearts are more susceptible to rhythm disturbances like atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia.

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys from the CDC tell us that Americans only get about half their required potassium intake and only 60 percent of their magnesium intake on a daily basis. These nutrients come primarily from vegetable matter and fruit. Green vegetables have the highest concentration of available magnesium. Americans on average consume less than one serving of green vegetables a day and rarely more than two servings of produce a day.

The Honolulu Heart Study showed a 50-80 percent higher risk for coronary heart disease with lower magnesium intakes. Low levels of potassium and magnesium in the blood increase the risk of rhythm disturbances like atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia particularly following heart bypass or heart attack, thus increasing the risk for sudden death. Low intakes of omega-3 fatty acids particularly DHA and EPA are associated with a higher risk for coronary heart disease and a higher risk for rhythm disturbances in the heart and sudden death.

Tim Russert’s sudden death from coronary heart disease is not a mystery. It was the result of lifestyle factors that too many Americans share. Unfortunately, too many of them will suffer the same fate.

None of this has to happen. Make this news event a wake up call for you to intervene and change the path you’re on. We need to consume at least 6 servings of vegetable matter a day. Two or fewer of these servings should be fruit and two or more of these servings should be green vegetables. We need to increase our consumption of fish and wild free range meats or supplement omega 3 fats. We need to get more exercise and sun exposure. We should check our vitamin D levels along with our cholesterol profiles and supplement vitamin D if needed.

You CAN change the trajectory you are on by embracing the messages in The Vitamin D Cure and convert sudden death into sudden life

Two very important diabetes research studies were published in the New England Journal of Medicine this week, the ACCORD and ADVANCE studies. See this editorial reviewing this research or download both studies to read the complete articles.

The message is clear. Higher insulin levels lead to increased body weight, blood pressure, lipid abnormalities, and risk for heart attacks and strokes. It does not matter whether the insulin is from insulin injections or from medications which increase insulin production or sensitivity to insulin.

In the ACCORD study there was more aggressive use of insulin in combination with drugs that make you produce more insulin or make you more sensitive to insulin (thiazolidinediones). This combination was effective at lowering glucose but increased the risk of heart attacks and death leading to early termination of the study. In the ADVANCE study less insulin and medications increasing your insulin sensitivity were used and subsequently they did not see an increased risk of heart attack or weight gain. However, in the ADVANCE study they only saw kidney protection from tight control of glucose.

To prevent diabetes and its complications you want to lower insulin levels and improve insulin sensitivity without medications. Insulin is an inducible growth hormone, meaning you can adjust the level of insulin with your food choices. Insulin sensitivity is also adjustable with diet and exercise. Polyunsaturated fats, such as omega 3 fats and intense exercise increase your sensitivity to insulin.

Your background set point for insulin sensitivity is determined during fetal development and early childhood. Malnutrition during pregnancy leading to small babies and rapid catch up growth from high calorie, high combined protein/sugar, and high saturated fat diets reduces insulin sensitivity for a lifetime. See “The Barker Theory.”

Dairy, grain, and legumes (beans) produce more insulin than protein from animal meats. See Insulation from Insulin. Combining protein with sugar increases insulin release. Chronic high insulin levels promote insulin resistance especially during pregnancy and during early childhood but also later in life.

Remember the “Yellowstone Park Rule of Thumb.” Wild animals do not eat dairy but from their mother’s breast as a yearling. Wild animals do not eat grain or legumes. Wild animals exercise every day. And, wild animals do not get high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. Go Wild with The Vitamin D Cure diet.

Did anybody watch 20/20 on Friday before Memorial Day Weekend? The segment about revenge had one clear message, forgiveness. This is an appropriate message for a Memorial Day weekend.

Forgiveness is a challenge in a society that celebrates revenge; good conquering apparent evil in a grand fashion. Revenge with a tremendous amount of violence is the premise of most movies and television shows. It permeates our culture, at home, at work, in the lunch room, on the playground, on the playing field, and during the commute to and from work. It is the dark side of competition in American Society.

Revenge is the absence of forgiveness. It is the energy that drives separation and isolation among people and among cultures. It is the fuel of murder, war, and persecution.

Forgiveness can conquer all of this. Positive energy is always more powerful than negative energy. You will never jump start your car by hooking your battery to the negative pole of a donor battery and connecting the positive to ground.

We all seem to know this intuitively, but putting it into practice after a lifetime of revenge thoughts and behaviors is at first difficult. We may have learned this inefficient behavior unconsciously by simply absorbing and mirroring our environment. To change requires consciousness; not allowing habits to rule your thoughts and hence your behavior.

The first person you should forgive is yourself. Only if you have infinite forgiveness for yourself can you forgive those around you. In other words, don’t be so hard on yourself. The more gentle and kind you are to yourself, the more you have to offer everybody and everything you come in contact with.

Especially practice this with your family. Turn off the TV and movies that perpetuate this revenge mentality. Teach yourself and your children to forgive and practice it with them every day at home, on the playing field, and with neighbors. We can spend all that energy wasted on thoughts of revenge to live a richer life right now.

It reminds me of the Amish community who immediately forgave the man who shot and killed their children at school several years ago. Their forgiveness overpowered the act of violence and rage.

Forgiveness allows us to live in the infinity of NOW, letting go of the past and the future. It relieves us of the feelings of disappointment, revenge, and anxiety that go along with living outside of this moment.

It starts with you. One person’s forgiveness can stop wars. Embrace forgiveness and you embrace eternal peace.

Insulin is a member of the growth hormone family. Its primary purpose is to take up glucose, protein, and fat. Without insulin your glucose levels go up and we call this diabetes. However, the strongest stimulus for the release of insulin is NOT SUGAR or carbohydrates. PROTEIN is the most potent stimulus for the release of insulin. When you combine protein and sugar in the same meal your insulin levels go through the roof.

Insulin promotes construction of bone, fat, and muscle. The stimulating nutrient(s) and your level of activity determine what is produced. Insulin plus sugar and fat with no physical activity makes more fat. Insulin plus protein and physical activity makes muscle and bone. It’s your choice.

Insulin is an on demand construction crew and more of it is released when vitamin D levels are normal than when you are deficient. Our focus, as the construction site manager is, what are we telling insulin to make? (Fat or muscle and bone)

Here is a series of related trivia questions. What food does Mother Nature provide that fattens up newborns so they will survive that first winter? And why is this food so efficient at fattening up? Should we be eating that food as adults?

Let’s face it most of us are not physically active. The absence of physical activity is a signal to insulin for the production of fat. The more insulin you release in an inactive state the more fat you will make. If we are inactive we want lower insulin levels.

Studies in postmenopausal women show much less insulin is released in response to a meal of beef protein than in response to a gram equivalent meal of soy or cottage cheese protein. This is because soy and dairy both combine sugar/carbohydrates along with their protein. Remember, that sends insulin levels through the roof. In addition dairy brings along a load of saturated fat and salt.

How might this get us into trouble? Have you ever had a smoothie? In the book I talk about 2+2 smoothies, 2 veggies, 2 fruits blended. There is no protein in that drink and there shouldn’t be. When you have a smoothie made with fruits and then add protein powder or yogurt, you send your insulin levels to the moon. And, if you are not very physically active that insulin will convert all that sugar to fat in your belly.

If you haven’t figured out the trivia question yet, it’s breast milk. Breast milk fattens babies up because it combines a simple sugar, lactose, with protein in the form of casein. This combination sends insulin levels through the roof. Insulin, plus protein and fat along with high growth hormone levels builds bone, muscle, and fat in an active growing infant. That same dairy meal in an inactive adult with waning growth hormone levels and waning sex steroids makes fat.

The take home message sounds like a broken record, lean and green. Separate your protein from carbohydrates in meals by several hours. You can combine protein and fat or carbohydrates and fat, but DO NOT combine protein and carbs. Stay away from dairy, legumes, and grain. These foods combine protein and carbs, release tons of insulin, and insulate you from health and happiness with a belly of fat. Get the Vitamin D Cure for more information on eating right.