Editor's Blog
For those of you who take your vitamins and nutrients seriously, I asked Dr. Terry Grossman (writing partner of Ray Kurzweil), one of the more credible voices in the field, if he had any recommendations for avoiding or beating the so-called swine flu. Here is his response:
“I have some suggestions for what people can do to boost immunity to avoid getting swine flu as well as some suggestions for treating it in the event they get it.
To boost function of the immune system, I like a supplement known as Monolaurin, one capsule three times daily along with vitamin C 1000 mg 2 to 3 times daily and astragalus 1000 mg 2 to 3 times daily (however, astragalus should not be taken if you come down with the flu).
For people who actually do contract the flu and don’t want to take the standard therapies such as Tamiflu and Relenza, I suggest 2 Chinese herbal formulations that we use in our clinic – Yin Chiao five tablets four times daily or Cold Arrest I 8 capsules three times daily. These supplements are inexpensive and available from acupuncturists or practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine. Addition of a ‘drainage remedy’ known as Septonsil 15 drops in water 3 times daily can also be of value.
I hope this information will be useful to your readers.”
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4 Comments
What are recommended for children trying to beat swine flu. To get ahead of the game what do I give them. I bought monolaurin;I bought vit. C. I bought Vit. D but I dont know how much to give my children. I have been giving them one a day of each. They are 4 and 5 years old. Im new to this way, but looking to not jump to antibiotics. I want to learn the natural way to take care of my children.
Here is a web site on Vitamin D run by a medical doctor, John Cannell:
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/
The treatment guidelines for Vitamin D deficiency he developed are here:
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml
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If you refuse to see a physician, or can’t find a knowledgeable one, purchase the 1000 IU/day vitamin D3 cholecalciferol pills that are available over-the-counter in North America or a 5,000 IU capsule. Take an average of 5,000 IU a day, year-round, if you have some sun exposure. If you have little, or no, sun exposure you will need to take at least 5,000 IU per day. How much more depends on your latitude of residence, skin pigmentation, and body weight. Generally speaking, the further you live away from the equator, the darker your skin, and/or the more you weigh, the more you will have to take to maintain healthy blood levels.
For example, Dr. Cannell lives at latitude 32 degrees, weighs 220 pounds, and has fair skin. In the late fall and winter he takes 5,000 IU per day. In the early fall and spring he takes 2,000 IU per day. In the summer he regularly sunbathes for a few minutes most days and thus takes no vitamin D on those days in the summer. The only way you can know how much you vitamin D you need to take is by repeatedly getting your blood tested—known as a 25(OH)D test—and seeing what you need to do to keep your level around 50 ng/mL.
nfants and children under the age of one, should obtain a total of 1,000 IU (25 mcg) per day from their formula, sun exposure, or supplements. As most breast milk contains little or no vitamin D, breast-fed babies should take 1,000 IU per day as a supplement unless they are exposed to sunlight. The only exception to this are lactating mothers who either get enough sun exposure or take enough vitamin D (usually 4,000–6,000 IU per day) to produce breast milk that is rich in vitamin D. Formula fed babies should take an extra 600 IU per day until they are weaned and then take 1,000 IU a day, as advised below.
Children over the age of 1 year, and less than 4 years of age, should take 2,000 IU vitamin D per day, depending on body weight, latitude or residence, skin pigmentation, and sun exposure.
Children over the age of 4, and less than 10 years of age, should take 3,000 IU per day, unless they get significant sun exposure. On the days they are outside in the sun, they do not need to take any; in the winter they will need to take 3,000 IU every day.
Children over the age of 10 years old should follow instructions for adults detailed above.
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The American Academy of Pediatrics also has recently updated its guidelines for children, but Dr. Cannell’s studies suggest they may be too low for children who do not get enough sun. The AAP guidelines (which until recently did not suggest any vitamin D supplements for newborns who are now kept out of the sun on dermatologists’ advice, perhaps unintentionally producing a generation with low level rickets and other health problems):
http://www.aap.org/healthtopics/vitamind.cfm
So, one should treat those AAP guidelines as at least a minimum to supplement with, but then explore the science with your family’s doctor about moving beyond that like Dr. Cannell links to on his web site. Too much Vitamin D can cause problems, even as Dr. Cannell suggests the toxicity level for Vitamin D (it bioaccumulates) for healthy people is much higher than widely assumed.
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/vitaminDToxicity.shtml
A regular blood test is ideal to make sure a parent or child has healthy levels. Vitamin D in the body is (metaphorically) like an electric circuit with a battery and a motor and a solar panel. You want the right level of charge on the battery, not too little, not to much, to keep that motor of health running just right. The solar panel has a charge limiter, but if you hook up supplements (vitamin pills) you bypass the body’s natural balance. If you overcharge with supplements, you will damage your battery. But, if you undercharge, the motor won’t run right. But as John Cannell points out, there are lots of cases of children dying from overdoses of iron-contaning pills or Tylenol, but never a case he’s heard of about a child getting an overdose of vitamin D pills.
Dr. John Cannell suggests that in general the US RDA for Vitamin D is about ten times too low, because it was set decades ago for healthy bones, not a healthy immune system (cancer, influenza) or a healthy brain (autism, depression, schizophrenia, etc.). By his standards, most pregnant women in the USA have shockingly low levels of Vitamin D which may have long-term consequences for their children.
Ultimately, because there are so many variables, an RDA may not even be that useful.
http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/why-rda-for-vitamin-d.html
This page has some evidence suggesting Vitamin D may help prevent influenza:
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/vitamin-d-and-h1n1-swine-flu.shtml
“This is an announcement to alert readers to a crucial email I received from a physician who has evidence vitamin D is protective against H1N1. I ask you, the reader, to contact your representatives in Washington to help protect Americans, especially children, from H1N1 before winter comes.”
As he suggested there, I’ve contacted a senator, a governor, and the White House about holding hearings on Vitamin D and H1N1 and health. Not that they’ll listen to just me, but the maybe if a bunch of people ask, there is some chance they will hold hearings on Vitamin D.
Basically, as we all spend more time indoors, as we are taught by dermatologists to fear the sun and wear sunscreen, and as we drive instead of walk or bicycle, Vitamin D deficiency has become a true epidemic in the USA. It may literally be costing the USA hundreds of billions of dollars a year in extra health care costs, plus untold suffering. And the cost to prevent this is trivial (repeated blood tests probably cost much more than the supplements, something hplus-inspired technology will bring down, no doubt.
Obvious in-retrospect possible correlations:
* why do people get influenza mainly in the winter and not the summer?
* why is autism correlated with rainy weather?
As people feel worse from Vitamin D deficiency in various ways, they may even spend even more time indoors, given less energy and a need to use the computer to escape other issues, creating a vicious cycle of worsening Vitamin D deficiency. Our bodies are adapted to be outdoors and moving around, keeping them indoors in one place a lot puts stress on them, something we may be only slowly evolving to handle, same as humans are still struggling evolutionarily to adapt to the relatively dysfunctional change in diet that agriculture created.
From:
“Skeletons in Our Closet: Revealing Our Past through Bioarchaeology”
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6812.html
“For instance, the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture approximately 10,000 years ago has commonly been seen as a major advancement in the course of human evolution. However, as Larsen provocatively shows, this change may not have been so positive. Compared to their hunter-gatherer ancestors, many early farmers suffered more disease, had to work harder, and endured a poorer quality of life due to poorer diets and more marginal living conditions. Moreover, the past 10,000 years have seen dramatic changes in the human physiognomy as a result of alterations in our diet and lifestyle. Some modern health problems, including obesity and chronic disease, may also have their roots in these earlier changes.”
In general, vitamin D deficiency may effect people with darker skins living in northern latitudes in the USA even worse:
“Autism and The Black Community: A Tragic Injustice”
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health/autism/the-black-community.shtml
“Why Michelle Obama is More Likely to Die From Breast Cancer than Hilary Clinton”
http://curtisduncan.blogspot.com/2009/10/why-michelle-obama-is-more-likely-to.html
So, hplus-type engineering for humans who could deal better with an agricultural diet (instead of wild foods), and who could deal better with a life indoors in-front of screens (and so getting less Vitamin D), and which would allow people with darker skins to worry less about Vitamin D at extreme lattitudes, will no doubt have some appeal to those who don’t do their computing outside on the run in the sun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Mann
There is a lot more to learn about vitamin D, this is just an overview of key issues.
There is no doubt that vitamin D plays a role in immunity. I came across an article that had references stating that vitamin D receptors are present on almost all of our immune cells. The article also stated that “epidemiological studies indicate that people with low levels of Vitamin D are 40% more likely to have a respiratory infection.” This is from Vitamin D Article and Influenza
I personally thing that most of the swine flu stuff was just a scare. I wasn’t “that” much worst than any other flu. Most flu’s can be very dangerous to the young and old. This one just got some good media and tended to stay around longer than normal.
-Peter
Physician Contract Reviews