Cancer Chronic (Constant) Inflammation Helps Tumor Cells Grow and Spread

Tags: Cancer, Inflammation, Helps Cancer Grow and Spread, Medical Tests to Detect, Vitamin D and Low Uric Acid Levels to Stop, Americans Too Low Vit D

I have mentioned many times that inflammation in blood vessels and organs helps cancer to spread. That is why high blood pressure, uric acid and C-Reactive Protein Tests for Inflammation, low fructose diet, and about 50 nanograms/ml of 25-hydroxy-vitamin D blood test of this metabolite needs to be done routinely. Many Americans have less than 20 ng/ml of this metabolite of vitamin D3 in their blood which has contributed to the increase in allergies, colds, asthma, cancers, autoimmune diseases such as MS, Lupus, Psoriasis, and others.

The list is even longer. At least 75 percent of Americans have too low vitamin D3 intake from pills and sun exposure during the middle six hours of the day during the spring, summer, and fall. Unfortunately, on average, it takes 17 years for half the doctors to adopt new information which may be much worse now because of patient load and information overload.

Jim Kawakami, August 18, 2010, http://jimboguy.blogspot.com

ScienceDaily (Aug. 18, 2010) — http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100816170837.htm

Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center researchers have uncovered a new link between chronic inflammation and cancer. Although cancers do not always cause inflammation, chronic inflammation is known to help tumor cells grow.

In an article published in the June issue of Nature, VCU Massey scientists Sarah Spiegel, Ph.D., and Tomasz Kordula, Ph.D., and their co-authors examine how sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), a lipid mediator in the blood that influences immune cell circulation, also regulates inflammation and cancer. They reported that S1P is a missing cofactor that is required for the activity of TRAF2, the key regulator of NF-kappaB, which acts as a master on-off switch in controlling inflammation and cancer.

Spiegel, who is internationally recognized for her pioneering work on bioactive lipid signaling, discovered almost two decades ago that S1P is a potent lipid mediator that stimulates cell growth. S1P and the kinase that produces it, SphK1, have since emerged as critical regulators of numerous fundamental biological processes affecting health and disease.

"It is difficult to find an area of physiology and pathophysiology in which S1P does not have important if not key roles. Appropriate to its name, which is associated with the enigma of the Sphinx, how S1P so profoundly regulates cell fate decisions has long remained a mystery," said Spiegel, co-leader of VCU Massey's Cancer Cell Signaling Program and chair of VCU School of Medicine's Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department.

The puzzle of how such a simple molecule as S1P can have diverse roles has been solved by VCU Massey researchers' discovery that this lipid mediator functions not only as a "first messenger," a ligand or agonist that binds to specific cell surface receptors, but also inside the cells as an "intracellular second messenger" that is required for activation of the transcription factor NF-kappaB.

These findings also provide an explanation for the numerous observations of the importance of the enzyme that produces S1P, SphK1, in protection of cancer cells against chemotherapeutic drugs and the correlation of its levels with poor prognosis of many types of cancers, including breast, colorectal and brain.

Spiegel hopes that specific SphK1 inhibitors they are developing will pave the way for future potent and specific drugs that target SphK1 for the treatment of cancer.

Vitamin D Best Nonscientific Column About Why It is a Miracle Hormone

Tags: Vitamin D, Lack of High BP, Osteoarthritis, Autoimmune Disorders, MS, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Heart Disease, Cancer, Colon, Breast

Although this article came very late, it is one of two best popular write-ups of the need for vitamin D I have read. She quotes Holick of Boston University who has been working on vitamin D for a longtime, but was virtually ignored by medical establishment and the exalted journals.

Shows how highly intelligent experts maintain their previous beliefs just like radicals on the Left and Right in spite of evidence contradicting their views. Long held beliefs are reinforced by repetition in our neurons and synapses and can’t be dislodged by making a logical fact filled argument. Stop try President Obama and play to your base which should include Independents.

We should all admit that experts do not always offer good advice and sometimes they lie if paid enough as we have seen in doctors supporting the approval of very dangerous medicines or supporting a drug even though many get sick and die. We should all also admit that we are more ignorant than we should be to make good decisions, but we rely on the garbage in garbage out philosophy without knowing we are spewing garbage.

Religion and other beliefs are entrenched in our neurons and synapses and even in our epigenetic genes which can be turned off or on by our environment whether physical or mental to help us survive and maintain our predilections which can be carried from one generation to another even when they are no longer appropriate.

Please read the whole article. Well worth while.

Jim Kawakami, July 30, 2010, http://jimboguy.blogspot.com

Vitamin D Best Nonscientific Column About Why It is a Miracle Hormone

NY Times Jane Brody, July 28, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/health/27brod.html?src=me&ref=homepage

Vitamin D promises to be the most talked-about and written-about supplement of the decade. While studies continue to refine optimal blood levels and recommended dietary amounts, the fact remains that a huge part of the population — from robust newborns to the frail elderly, and many others in between — are deficient in this essential nutrient.

If the findings of existing clinical trials hold up in future research, the potential consequences of this deficiency are likely to go far beyond inadequate bone development and excessive bone loss that can result in falls and fractures. Every tissue in the body, including the brain, heart, muscles and immune system, has receptors for vitamin D, meaning that this nutrient is needed at proper levels for these tissues to function well.

Studies indicate that the effects of a vitamin D deficiency include an elevated risk of developing (and dying from) cancers of the colon, breast and prostate; high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease; osteoarthritis; and immune-system abnormalities that can result in infections and autoimmune disorders like multiple sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.

Most people in the modern world have lifestyles that prevent them from acquiring the levels of vitamin D that evolution intended us to have. The sun’s ultraviolet-B rays absorbed through the skin are the body’s main source of this nutrient. Early humans evolved near the equator, where sun exposure is intense year round, and minimally clothed people spent most of the day outdoors.

“As a species, we do not get as much sun exposure as we used to, and dietary sources of vitamin D are minimal,” Dr. Edward Giovannucci, nutrition researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health, wrote in The Archives of Internal Medicine. Previtamin D forms in sun-exposed skin, and 10 to 15 percent of the previtamin is immediately converted to vitamin D, the form found in supplements. Vitamin D, in turn, is changed in the liver to 25-hydroxyvitamin D, the main circulating form. Finally, the kidneys convert 25-hydroxyvitamin D into the nutrient’s biologically active form, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, also known as vitamin D hormone.

A person’s vitamin D level is measured in the blood as 25-hydroxyvitamin D, considered the best indicator of sufficiency. A recent study showed that maximum bone density is achieved when the blood serum level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D reaches 40 nanograms per milliliter or more.

“Throughout most of human evolution,” Dr. Giovannucci wrote, “when the vitamin D system was developing, the ‘natural’ level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D was probably around 50 nanograms per milliliter or higher. In modern societies, few people attain such high levels.”

A Common Deficiency

Although more foods today are supplemented with vitamin D, experts say it is rarely possible to consume adequate amounts through foods. The main dietary sources are wild-caught oily fish (salmon, mackerel, bluefish, and canned tuna) and fortified milk and baby formula, cereal and orange juice.

People in colder regions form their year’s supply of natural vitamin D in summer, when ultraviolet-B rays are most direct. But the less sun exposure, the darker a person’s skin and the more sunscreen used, the less previtamin D is formed and the lower the serum levels of the vitamin. People who are sun-phobic, babies who are exclusively breast-fed, the elderly and those living in nursing homes are particularly at risk of a serious vitamin D deficiency.

Dr. Michael Holick of Boston University, a leading expert on vitamin D and author of “The Vitamin D Solution” (Hudson Street Press, 2010), said in an interview, “We want everyone to be above 30 nanograms per milliliter, but currently in the United States, Caucasians average 18 to 22 nanograms and African-Americans average 13 to 15 nanograms.” African-American women are 10 times as likely to have levels at or below 15 nanograms as white women, the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found.

Such low levels could account for the high incidence of several chronic diseases in this country, Dr. Holick maintains. For example, he said, in the Northeast, where sun exposure is reduced and vitamin D levels consequently are lower, cancer rates are higher than in the South. Likewise, rates of high blood pressure, heart disease, and prostate cancer are higher among dark-skinned Americans than among whites.

The rising incidence of Type 1 diabetes may be due, in part, to the current practice of protecting the young from sun exposure. When newborn infants in Finland were given 2,000 international units a day, Type 1 diabetes fell by 88 percent, Dr. Holick said.

The current recommended intake of vitamin D, established by the Institute of Medicine, is 200 I.U. a day from birth to age 50 (including pregnant women); 400 for adults aged 50 to 70; and 600 for those older than 70. While a revision upward of these amounts is in the works, most experts expect it will err on the low side. Dr. Holick, among others, recommends a daily supplement of 1,000 to 2,000 units for all sun-deprived individuals, pregnant and lactating women, and adults older than 50. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that breast-fed infants receive a daily supplement of 400 units until they are weaned and consuming a quart or more each day of fortified milk or formula.

Given appropriate sun exposure in summer, it is possible to meet the body’s yearlong need for vitamin D. But so many factors influence the rate of vitamin D formation in skin that it is difficult to establish a universal public health recommendation. Asked for a general recommendation, Dr. Holick suggests going outside in summer unprotected by sunscreen (except for the face, which should always be protected) wearing minimal clothing from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. two or three times a week for 5 to 10 minutes.

Slathering skin with sunscreen with an SPF of 30 will reduce exposure to ultraviolet-B rays by 95 to 98 percent. But if you make enough vitamin D in your skin in summer, it can meet the body’s needs for the rest of the year, Dr. Holick said.

Can You Get Too Much?

If acquired naturally through skin, the body’s supply of vitamin D has a built-in cutoff. When enough is made, further exposure to sunlight will destroy any excess. Not so when the source is an ingested supplement, which goes directly to the liver.

Symptoms of vitamin D toxicity include nausea, vomiting, poor appetite, constipation, weakness and weight loss, as well as dangerous amounts of calcium that can result in kidney stones, confusion and abnormal heart rhythms.

But both Dr. Giovannucci and Dr. Holick say it is very hard to reach such toxic levels. Healthy adults have taken 10,000 I.U. a day for six months or longer with no adverse effects. People with a serious vitamin D deficiency are often prescribed weekly doses of 50,000 units until the problem is corrected. To minimize the risk of any long-term toxicity, these experts recommend that adults take a daily supplement of 1,000 to 2,000 units.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: July 29, 2010 The Personal Health column on Tuesday, about the deficiency of vitamin D in much of the population, referred imprecisely to the publisher of a book by Dr. Michael Holick of Boston University, who said low levels of the vitamin could be contributing to high rates of some chronic diseases. While Penguin did not publish Dr. Holick’s book, “The Vitamin D Solution,” it owns the imprint that did, Hudson Street Press.

Is There a Good Non-Medicative Way to Treat Allergies?

Tags: Allergies, Vitamin D, B-Vitamins, Immune System Fix, Osteoporosis, Cancer, T-Cell Activation, Teeth/gums

Allan,

I was disappointed to hear that your remedy for allergies cannot work well after the season starts. Recipe below.

My primary care doctor, Dr. Lisa Emond, specializes in treating skin diseases and colleagues in a separate unit just treat allergies which is a big thing in Oregon with all the trees, grass, molds, and dust mite's fecal matter we have. I picked Oregon because we do not seem to have ragweed. She also sees the good alternative medicine can supplement Board Certified doctors.

The approved range for vitamin D metabolite 25-hydroxy-vitamin D is from 30-80 nano-grams/ml or ng/ml. But at about 30, only 30 percent of osteoporosis can be reversed according to studies by the Osteoporosis Foundation.

The Vitamin D council website which examines peer reviewed vitamin D research publications advices us to take 5,000 IU of vitamin D daily. If 2,000 UI of vitamin D which more Americans are starting to take based on doctor's recommendation, about a storage of 12 days is built up. At about 3500 IU of vitamin D, my metabolite went up to about 49 ng/ml. At 4600 IU of vitamin D, it went up to the low 70s so I shall learn if my pre-osteoporosis diagnosis can be reversed to no osteoporosis over a period of time.

Vitamin D does greatly improve our immune system because it activates the germ fighter T-Cells needed to fight everything including cancer cells. Cervical cancer cells are so deadly because they seem to be able to at least partly deactivate vitamin D. Although no double blind study has been done, enough epidemiology studies have been done to show a strong correlation with healthful results. How good these studies are in making conclusions depends how good the data within it are even thought vitamin D was measured but not studied before. But with very few exceptions, the data seems quite good.

What vitamin D does is also fix our immune system so it does not attack harmless stuff such as pollin. That is why I have successfully use it to fix my immune system so my body does not attack itself. It worked marvelously. I hope it does not take the usual 17 years for half the doctors to use scientifically and practically determined Best Practices.

My superb dental hygienist, Carmalita, has Spring allergies and takes 2,000 IU vitamin D which is probably not enough. She should take a vitamin D metabolite test of 25-hydroxy-vitamin D, but it can be expensive so make sure it is covered. If it is too expensive, start with 2,000 to 3,000 IU of vitamin D3. She should gradually go up and I am asking my great dentist Dr. Steve Hull to give this copy to her.

I had problems with dentists a lot in New Jersey and Los Angeles, Dr. Hull is the first one who has done everything well. Carmalita was the first person to persuade me to do the right thing to keep up my dental hygiene. My gums are now in much better shape. Like most Americans, we do not spend the required two minutes of brushing in circles to cover all surfaces and then flossing to remove food particles and paste in between our individual teeth. I have been amazed what I find there!

She told me today that plaque is normally the same color as teeth and only when it gets contaminated with crud does it becomes colored! Brush, brush, and brush some more. Floss, Floss, and Floss forever! Most should go three times a year. Two is not enough. Bacteria builds up when we sleep so brush your teeth first thing. I do! It has a huge effect on our health, especially heart disease.

At some point I will look at these studies in detail to give me confidence that assumptions and simplifications made in the analysis seems reasonable. Even Harvard studies can be wrong because we are all human and prey to our human frailties. Unfortunately these studies are impossible for laypersons to understand including many scientists. I learned to read horribly written articles so normally what I do is take it all in and then organize the information in my head to make sense of the information.

Jim Kawakami, April 20, 2010, http://jimboguy.blogspot.com

Jim

This series of vitamins boosts the immune system to fight the cause of allergies. They must be taken several weeks before the season starts. If you start taking them once you get the symptoms, they won't doing a thing for you. I take them all year because you can't be sure when the agents that cause the allergies effect you and this series of vitamin B's have other benefits for your health and cognition. These are relatively low doses that I have not been able to find in B complex tablet.
Allan

B-6 50 mg
B-12 500mcg
Folic acid 400mcg
Niacinamide 100mg

Harvard Heart Letter Highly Recommends Vitamin D Supplements 75% People Heart Disease Vitamin D Lack

Because our body needs a huge amount of vitamin D, I strongly suspect that problem women have with osteoporosis is due to our body's need of vitamin D for every tissue in our body.

Consumer Reports Health Letter reported that we can store months of vitamin D to get us through the winter. But because so many use sunscreens all year because they are afraid of skin cancer, no thanks to recommendations given by Dermatologists. Skin cancer including melanoma increased sharply when sunscreens were introduced, especially in sunny Australia and low sun exposure in Scandinavia.

Being low in vitamin D means that calcium/vitamin D supplements will not help keep your bones safe. Putting calcium in the bones needs vitamin D, but our body needs vitamin D to survive so our bones get very little bone buildup because the needed vitamin D has higher priorities for every tissue in our body to maintain our health. Could the toxic bone drugs serve the function of vitamin D? Wouldn't it be cheaper and safer to just go to 5,000 or more IU of vitamin D3.

Lack of enough vitamin D3 leads to "coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, heart failure, muscle pain, infection, some types of cancer, type 2 diabetes, depression, asthma, and memory loss." ... in addition to osteoporosis.

Earlier I reported that Boston University treated people low in vitamin D were given 50,000 IU, yes 50,000 IU weekly until levels high enough to indicate that storage of vitamin D in our tissues for future use. As I roughly recall the supplements were given for 8 weeks. Once the levels were up, they switched to a level of 50,000 IU every other week to maintain adequate vitamin D levels.

A nurse in Eugene, Oregon, was so low in vitamin D that she had to be given daily injections of 30,000 IU vitamin D3! A friend in sunny Southern California was so low in vitamin D due to a lack of enough sun exposure that a conservative doctor gave her 50,000 IU monthly and increased her daily dose. Her frequent colds stopped.

Strongly recommend you go to your primary care doctor for your vitamin D test during your regular health checkup. Since most of you don't go to the doctor often enough, I recommend you go as quickly as possible to test for 25-hydroxyvitamin D, a inactive metabolic product which gives us a clue to the levels of vitamin D3 in our blood streams and tissues.

Jim Kawakami, December 12, 2009, posted http://jimboguy.blogspot.com

Boston Univ Found 50,000 IU of Vitamin D2 (D3) Weekly for Eight Weeks Treated Deficiency Then Every Other Week

ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2009) — Boston University School of Medicine researchers (BUSM) have found that 50,000 International Units (IU) of vitamin D2, given weekly for eight weeks, effectively treats vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D2 is a mainstay for the prevention and treatment of vitamin D deficiency in children and adults. Continued treatment with the same dose of vitamin D2 every other week for up to six years after the initial eight-week period prevents vitamin D deficiency from recurring with no toxicity.

The BUSM study appears online in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

Vitamin D is essential for strong bones because it helps the body absorb calcium and phosphorus from the food we eat. Vitamin D deficiency can lead to rickets in children and the painful bone disease osteomalacia in adults. Vitamin D deficiency can also cause osteoporosis and has been linked to increased risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune diseases and infectious diseases including influenza, according to senior author Michael F. Holick, PhD, MD, director of the Bone Healthcare Clinic and the Vitamin D, Skin and Bone Research Laboratory at Boston University School of Medicine.

Of the 86 patients researchers studied, 41 patients who were vitamin D deficient received eight weeks of 50,000 IU of vitamin D2 weekly prior to starting maintenance therapy. For those patients, the mean pre-treatment 25-hydroxyvitamin D status (25(OH)D) level was 19 ng/ml, which increased to 37 ng/ml after eight weeks of weekly therapy. These patients were then treated with 50,000 IU of vitamin D2 every other week and had a mean final 25(OH)D level of 47 ng/ml.

For the 45 patients who received only maintenance therapy of 50,000 IU of vitamin D2 every two weeks, the mean pre-treatment 25(OH)D level was 27 ng/ml and the mean final level was 47 ng/ml.

"Vitamin D2 is effective in raising 25(OH)D levels when given in physiologic and pharmacologic doses and is a simple method to treat and prevent vitamin D deficiency," said Holick, who is also director of the General Clinical Research Unit and professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics at BUSM. "While treating and preventing vitamin D deficiency, these large doses of vitamin D2 do not lead to vitamin D toxicity."

According to Holick, this is the first study demonstrating the efficacy of a prescription therapy to prevent vitamin D deficiency longterm in routine clinical practice.

Quest Diagnostics, the nation's leading provider of diagnostics testing, information and services, analyzed the specimens used in the study. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091026161850.htm

Harvard Heart Letter Highly Recommends Vitamin D Supplements 75% People Heart Disease Vitamin D Lack

The best way to get enough vitamin D is through food, right? No, according to the latest Harvard Heart Letter, which says supplements are the best way for Americans to raise their body’s level of vitamin D, which in most cases too low right this moment.

In fact, the Harvard report notes that at least one-third of Americans and 75 percent of people who have cardiovascular disease are vitamin D deficient. To make that determination, the report states that “deficient” is defined as less than 20 nanograms of 25-hydroxyvitamin D per milliliter of blood (ng/mL); “insufficient” is from 20 to 30 ng/mL, and “sufficient” as any level greater than 30 ng/mL. The Vitamin D Council, however, states that everyone should maintain a level of 50 to 80 ng/mL, which means that according to their standards, a great many more people would be classified as being vitamin D deficient.

Vitamin D deficiency is a serious problem, as this vitamin plays a critical role in bone strength (including osteoporosis and fractures associated with falls), coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, heart failure, muscle pain, infection, some types of cancer, type 2 diabetes, depression, asthma, and memory loss. ...

Vitamin D is called the Sunshine vitamin for good reason: the body makes vitamin D (which is really a hormone and not a vitamin at all) in a process that begins when sunlight strikes the skin. That’s when the body converts a type of cholesterol into pre-vitamin D, which they circulates throughout the body in the blood. When it reaches the liver, this organ converts it into a biologically inactive substance called 25-hydroxyvitamin D, which is the substance that is measured to identify your vitamin D level.

The final touch is provided by the kidneys, which adds an ingredient that results in active vitamin D for the body. The majority of people could get all the vitamin D they need if they exposed their skin to sun, without sunscreen, for five to ten minutes daily, depending on the time of year and the distance away from the equator. The Vitamin D Council notes that the skin produces about 10,000 IU vitamin D when it is exposed to 20 to 30 minutes of summer sun, which is 50 times more than the US government’s recommendation of 200 IU daily.

Both Harvard and the Vitamin D Council recommend that individuals have their vitamin D levels checked to determine their level. A physician can order a vitamin D test or tests can be ordered online that consumers can do at home and submit for their results. When it comes to taking vitamin D supplements, recommendations from Harvard are for 800 to 1,000 IU daily, while the Vitamin D Council recommends 5,000 IU daily. Consumers should talk to a knowledgeable medical professional about their supplementation needs. Vitamin D supplements are available alone, while multivitamins often contain 400 IU, and some calcium supplements also contain vitamin D. http://www.emaxhealth.com/1275/83/34767/supplements-best-way-raise-vitamin-d-levels.html

University of Nebraska Recommends 2,000 IU (International units) of Vitamin D3 Available at Costco . Vitamin D Council recommends 5,000 IU daily while Boston U Study uses 50,000 IU weekly to bring up the levels and permit storage of vital vitamin D and then biweekly 50,000 IU to maintain adequate levels. Many of the Brain Problems with children may be partially due to inadequate vitamin D in the mother. Brain development and synapse connections need vitamin D.

... Vitamin D is necessary for every tissue in our body, according to Dr. Robert P. Heaney, vice president of research for Creighton University whose research specialty is calcium and vitamin D metabolism. He says we all need more vitamin D than we're getting. Heaney recommends adults take 2,000 IU (international units) each day. However, check with your doctor on your specific need for vitamin D.

“Not getting enough vitamin D lowers our resistance to not only infections but diseases from diabetes to cancer,” he says.

For example, one study shows that having adequate vitamin D could decrease your risk of an influenza-like illness by up to 50 percent, according to Heaney. So if you're traveling and want to avoid the flu, take along plenty of vitamin D.

“Everything is affected by a lack of vitamin D,” he says. “Brain, heart, blood, skin, bones, muscle, reflexes. We've got a lot of machinery in our body, and they all need vitamin D.”

“We in the northern part of the states lack sun exposure,” Bessmer adds. “Even when we have sun, it comes at an inadequate angle to provide enough vitamin D. That's why taking vitamin D, especially during winter months, is a good thing.” ... http://www.omaha.com/article/20091211/LIVING01/712119844