The Vitamin D Cure Blog

When the leaves change colors the availability of ultraviolet light to make vitamin D (UVB) disappears till next spring. Your vitamin D level then begins to fall along with all the leaves on the deciduous trees. Ten weeks after peak fall colors your vitamin D level is about half what it was at the end of summer. For me hear in Michigan (42° N) that is about Christmas time or New Year’s. For those of you who live in the southern part of the United States or below 35° N your vitamin D may never fall by half because your winter is not 10 weeks long. The only sources of vitamin D during winter are fat stores and supplements.

Mother Nature intended for us to burn most of our fat stores over the winter due to less food availability. Our Western lifestyles have us typically eating more food through the end of year holidays. So rather than liberating stored vitamin D by burning fat, we are increasing fat volume and retaining vitamin D in fat. If there were ever an appropriate use of fasting it would be from Thanksgiving through Easter. We should eat less in these winter months not more.

Moderate to intense physical activity also stimulates fat burning and will liberate vitamin D from fat stores. Maintaining a routine of this type of activity has been shown in CDC data to translate into significantly higher vitamin D levels. So follow the diet in the Vitamin D Cure year round and establish a daily routine of moderate physical activity.

Remember low vitamin D levels in the winter depress your mood and your immune system. So beat those winter blues and stop all those flu viruses with the Vitamin D Cure.

Recipe of the Month
Remember our recipes are courtesy of Chef Kelly (kellychez@gmail.com). If you have recipes you would like to share or convert to follow the rules of The Vitamin D Cure send them to contact@thevitamindcure.com .

Broiled Spiced Salmon with Roasted Winter Squash & Fennel
Serves 4

For the vegetables:
• 1-1 ½ pound butternut squash, peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded, halved crosswise, then cut lengthwise into 3/4-inch-wide wedges
• 1 fennel bulb, trimmed, cut lengthwise into 1-inch-wide wedges
• 1 large onion, root end left intact, then cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch-wide wedges
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

For the Salmon:
• 4 Salmon fillets (4-6 oz. each)
• 1 Tbsp. reserved spice mixture from vegetables
• Salt & Pepper
• Olive oil

1. Position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 450°F.
2. Combine squash, fennel, and onion on heavy large rimmed baking sheet. Add oil and toss to coat. Mix all spices in small bowl to blend, reserve 1 Tbsp. for Salmon. Sprinkle spice mixture over vegetables and toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt and generous amount of pepper.
3. Roast until vegetables are tender and browned, turning once, about 45 minutes. Turn oven to broil.
4. For the salmon, foil line and spray a broil pan with nonstick spray.
5. Place salmon fillets on pan and drizzle with oil, season with salt and pepper and evenly sprinkle 4 fillets with reserved spice mixture.
6. Broil for 5 to 7 minutes or until fish flakes easily.
7. Serve over top roasted vegetables.

Vitamin D in the News

Vitamin D has profound and multiple effects on the immune system. This is particularly true when it comes to your response to infections. We know how it affects our response to tuberculosis. The effects of vitamin D on our response to viruses like the flu are a bit less clear. Here is an excellent review of the data that is our there.

Vitamin D for treatment and prevention of infectious diseases: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Endocr Pract. 2009 Jul-Aug;15(5):438-49.
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia 30030, USA.
OBJECTIVE: To review the existing human controlled intervention studies of vitamin D as adjunctive therapy in settings of infection and provide recommendations for design and implementation of future studies in this field on the basis of the evidence reviewed. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of randomized controlled clinical trials that studied vitamin D for treatment or prevention of infectious diseases in humans. Studies from 1948 through 2009 were identified through search terms in PubMed and Ovid MEDLINE. RESULTS: Thirteen published controlled trials were identified by our search criteria. Ten trials were placebo controlled, and 9 of the 10 were conducted in a rigorous double-blind design. The selected clinical trials demonstrated substantial heterogeneity in baseline patient demographics, sample size, and vitamin D intervention strategies. Serious adverse events attributable to vitamin D supplementation were rare across all studies. On the basis of studies reviewed to date, the strongest evidence supports further research into adjunctive vitamin D therapy for tuberculosis, influenza, and viral upper respiratory tract illnesses. In the selected studies, certain aspects of study design are highlighted to help guide future clinical research in the field. CONCLUSION: More rigorously designed clinical trials are needed for further evaluation of the relationship between vitamin D status and the immune response to infection as well as for delineation of necessary changes in clinical practice and medical care of patients with
Vitamin D deficiency in infectious disease settings.

Vitamin D Success Story
Please share your successes at success@thevitamindcure.com or online at Amazon. Your success story has a powerful impact on motivating others to change their lifestyle.

Hi,
I am a Registered Nurse working in the City of London. As I live in rural Essex, I commute daily in to London. Reading my newspaper on the train a few weeks ago I came across an article on Vit. D. This seemed interesting so I ordered Dr. Dowd’s book.

On reading this book I realized that I ticked all the boxes of symptoms being Vitamin D deficient. I have weak muscles/aches/not much strength, and always struggle when I went to a Gym. I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia around 10 years ago, which settled but I always feel fatigued etc… I lead a very busy life working full time in London as a Registered Nurse. You wouldn’t know that I have discomfort as I just get on with it.

A colleague took some blood and my level of Vit. D was 31 nmol/L range from out lab is 75 - 200 nmol/L. Magnesium level is 0.84 range from our lab is 0.65 - 1.05. I put myself on ‘Life Extention’ 1000iu x 2 daily from Victoria Health and Magnesium. I am trying to change my diet which was mostly vegetarian.

By the way I am Scottish….so not much sun in my life when I was growing up. I am going to keep to this regime and will let you know the outcome. So glad I came across the article and the book which will be useful for my colleagues and patients. I have ordered a couple of copies of the book to give to a couple of my doctor colleagues.

Regards,
Lorna.

Do something sexy for your special someone. Give them vitamin D. It will boost their mood, memory, muscle strength, and immune system while reducing their risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancer, and death from all causes.

Recipe of the Month

Milanese-Style Chicken and Arugula Salad

Tomato-Basil Vinaigrette

• ½ C. Red Wine Vinegar
• ¼ C. Basil Leaves
• 4 Plum tomatoes cut into chunks
• 2 t. Extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 t sugar
• ½ t salt
• 4 Large garlic clove

1. Blend all ingredients in a food processor until smooth.
2. Pour ½ cup dressing into 2qt glass baking dish, reserve remaining dressing

Salad

• 4 Skinless boneless chicken breasts
• 4 Red bell peppers cut into quarters
• 1 t Extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 pkg Baby Arugula
• ¼ C Pine nuts, toasted

3. Place chicken in glass baking dish and marinate for 30 minutes
4. Preheat grill or broiler
5. Brush peppers with oil and grill along with chicken until tender and peppers are to desired texture
6. Divide arugula between four plates.
7. Slice chicken and place on arugula with thinly sliced peppers.
8. Drizzle with vinaigrette and top with pine nuts

Serves 4

Remember our recipes are courtesy of Chef Kelly (kellychez@gmail.com). If you have recipes you would like to share or convert to follow the rules of The Vitamin D Cure send them to contact@thevitamindcure.com .

Vitamin D in the News

Muscle weakness is an important symptom of vitamin D deficiency, but it has not been well studied. This study was based in a secondary school. A total of 99, 12- to 14-yr-old girls were included. Median serum 25(OH)D3 concentration was 8 ng/mL. They found a positive relationship between 25(OH)D and jump velocity (P = 0.002), jump height (P = 0.005), power (P = 0.003), Esslinger Fitness Index (P = 0.003), and force (P = 0.05). From these data they concluded that vitamin D was significantly associated with muscle power and force in adolescent girls.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease associated with genes in the tissue typing class (MHC class II) region of our genome. Population data on MS provide strong evidence that environmental factors act to influence the unusual geographical distribution of this disease. Growing evidence implicates sunlight or vitamin D as a key environmental factor in its cause. This study implicates vitamin D as a strong environmental candidate in MS by demonstrating direct functional interaction with a gene that increases susceptibility to disease (HLA DRB1). These findings support a connection between the population data and the genetic features of this disease with major practical implications for studies of disease cause and prevention.

The immune system has long been known to be influenced by essential nutrients in our diet. Vitamins A and D have been shown to have an unexpected and crucial effect on the immune response. This review discusses our current understanding of the essential roles of these nutrients in modulating a broad range of immune processes, such as white cell (T-cell) activation and proliferation, T-helper-cell differentiation, tissue-specific white blood cell homing, the production of specific antibodies and regulation of the immune response. Finally, they discuss the clinical potential of vitamins A and D for modulating immune responses and for preventing and/or treating inflammation and autoimmunity.

Vitamin D Success Story

Please share your successes at success@thevitamindcure.com , or tell your story in a book review, online at Amazon. Your success story has a powerful impact on motivating others to change their lifestyle.

Our success story this week comes from the February issue of Fitness Magazine for which Dr. Dowd was interviewed. Check out this link.

The month of January should see some upgrades to the website allowing me to keep the information current. We have decided to streamline the information by consolidating the newsletter and the blog. The enhanced blog will now have a recipe of the month, vitamin D and health news, and commentary split between 2 postings.

Please check out eVitamins.com for all of your supplement needs.

Recipe:

This month’s recipe is from a new member of the team here at the Vitamin D Cure. Kelly Cieszkowski has a degree in hotel and restaurant management and is currently enrolled in culinary arts at Schoolcraft College here in Detroit. She has a lot of energy and great ideas for cooking. So I will be drawing on her culinary creativity for many of our coming recipes. If you have any tasty recipes that follow the guidelines in The Vitamin D Cure share them with us at contact@thevitamindcure.com and we will make them part of our newsletter.

Pistachio Crusted Chicken with Warm Raspberry Sauce

Ingredients:
1.5 cup chopped pistachios
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 tablespoon local honey
Pepper to taste
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (pounded to 1/2 in. thickness)
1/2 cup raspberry preserves
1 tablespoon raspberry or red wine vinegar
1 lb. Asparagus
3 tablespoons olive or canola oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
A pinch of sea salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F and lightly coat a baking sheet with canola oil.
2. Place chopped pistachios in a shallow bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together dijon mustard, canola oil, honey, salt and pepper.
3. Dip chicken into dijon mixture to coat thoroughly and then into the pistachios to coat. Place onto prepared baking sheet.
4. Place pan into preheated oven and turn oven down to 375 degrees F. Bake until the chicken is no longer pink (155 to 160 degrees F internal temperature) and the pistachio coating is golden brown, approximately 15 minutes.
5. For the sauce, in a small saucepan combine raspberry preserves, vinegar and pepper to taste. Bring to a low simmer and serve warm over chicken.

For asparagus:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Trim asparagus and place on baking sheet.
3. Drizzle with olive or canola oil, balsamic vinegar and a pinch of salt and pepper; toss to coat thoroughly.
4. Roast in the oven for approximately 10 minutes or until desired tenderness.

Vitamin D and Diet News: Highlight the Latest Research on vitamin D, Diet and Exercise.

Nutrition after exercise improves bone: It only makes sense. Have your ever watched a wolf or lion hunt. They stalk and chase their prey for sometimes hours until they catch it. That is their work out. Then they follow that with a meal of lean meat, their prey. We need only reproduce this with an exercise routine followed by a meal of lean protein and vegetables and we will be as lean and fit as the lion.

Vitamin D Deficiency and breast cancer: Using models of UV light exposure Dr. Grant shows that the further away from the equator you live the higher your risk of low vitamin D levels and the higher your risk of breast cancer based on current incidence data on breast cancer from 107 countries world wide.

An alkaline diet helps preserve lean body mass in elderly: Dr. Bess-Dawson Hughes from Tufts University in Boston shows that higher intakes of diets rich in potassium increase your lean body mass. Potassium comes from vegetables and fruit. Remember the Vitamin D Cure Diet is 2-3 times as much vegetables and fruits as lean protein.

Success story of the month:

Dear Dr. Dowd,

I had leg, hip and feet pain. My doctor sent me to physical therapy, a podiatrist and subscribed Celebrex. Previously an orthopedic doctor has subscribed 3 Advil in the morning and 3 more at lunch. Every move was an achy, tense pain in my joints. I had gained weight because I wasn’t moving due to the pain. I happened to read an article about The Vitamin D Cure. The next day I picked up a bottle of vitamin D and have been taking 1000 IU per day. One week later, the achiness was less and two weeks later the joint pain was gone. My knees still make noise when I go up steps but I am living without any pain and I have stopped taking all medicine. I take vitamin D every day.
I told my doctor after taking vitamin D for 3 weeks. He took my blood and test my vitamin D level. I was at the low range for a healthy level. He confirmed that I could have been low in vitamin D since my levels were low after taking 1000 IU per day.

Thanks so much for giving me my pain free life back!

Billie

Help somebody you may not even know by writing a book review on Amazon or by sending us your success stories and experiments in the kitchen that we can post in this newsletter. (success@thevitamindcure.com)

Pass us on to a friend. You buy the book and we’ll take care of the D-Tales.

Dietary recommendations seem to change year after year. The food industry sends us an endless stream of choices and provides reasons for why we should choose their products. They even invent new food categories and meal times. In an effort to simplify decision making and ignore the noise, we gravitate towards the philosophy of “everything in moderation.” Each of us has a different definition for moderation and for most of us this means continuing to eating the way we always have without change regardless of health.

What if there was a universal diet; a way of eating that all of us should follow for optimal health? The fuel our body was designed to assimilate most efficiently. There is such a diet and it’s outlined in The Vitamin D Cure.

If you were to meet your Paleolithic grandfather from 20,000 BC he would spruce up nicely in a tuxedo. No he would not have hair covering his entire body. His genetic makeup would be identical to yours. Remember, this is 10 times older than the bible.

Let’s look at the composition of his diet. It is more calories that you and I consume because he was waaaay more active than we are today. About 30 percent of his calories came from protein, 35 percent from fat, and 35 percent from carbohydrates. The modern Western Diet provides 13-16 percent of calories from protein, 30 percent of calories from fat and 50 percent of calories from carbohydrates. Most Americans are not getting enough protein and healthy fat in their diet. Most Americans are consuming too many carbohydrates.

Where are all the carbohydrates coming from? Grain, in all of its forms, and corn syrup account for most of this. Grain was initially touted as a solution for diseases of the colon, such as polyps and colon cancer. Decade long studies of grain fiber supplementation however failed to show prevention of either outcome. Now grain is being touted to lower cholesterol. Summaries of this date show at most single digit percent reductions in lipids.

Why aren’t we getting enough protein and fat? In the last 20 years we have demonized protein and fat as the evils of the Western Diet despite evidence to the contrary. Vegetarians have claimed that all that ails the human race is due to eating meat and fat, similar to the dermatologist telling us to avoid the sun. Subsequently, we have all decreased our meat consumption and increased our consumption of grain. Worse yet we have substituted dairy and soy products for meat. Both of these choices provide much less protein per serving and more fat and carbohydrates. See what this does to your insulin. (Insulation from Insulin, Insulin Revisited)

The Anthropologic Rule of Thumb states: Don’t eat anything your Paleolithic grandparents would not have eaten in 20,000 BC. (Note: I didn’t say eat everything that they ate…yet.) No Paleolithic humans or any wild animals on today’s planet consume dairy, grains, or legumes and neither should we. No wild animals on this planet get hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, autoimmune diseases, or cancer like humans do. There is a direct connection between our diets and lifestyles, and these diseases. We did not need to sequence the human genome to figure this out.

Get The Vitamin D Cure and start changing your life for the better, today.

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