Vitamin D3 Can Save Lives

VITAMIN D3 CAN SAVE LIVES


Vitamin D3 is an absolutely fascinating supplement that I have ignored for a long time. Last month, Life Extension Magazine, January, 2009 issue had a startling article written by the magazine’s editor, William Faloon. MILLIONS OF NEEDLESS DEATHS tells how this vitamin can save lives by preventing heart attack, cancer and stroke. Mr. Faloon has been on a crusade to get our federal government to recognize the benefits of vitamin D3. After almost two years of trying to gain co-operation from the government nothing had happened. But in his 16 months of effort new studies have appeared to show optimizing vitamin D intake will save even more lives than what had been expected.

A study published in June, 2008 showed men with low vitamin D levels suffered 2.42 times more heart attacks. This caused me to look back on an article I read by Chris D. Meletis, ND. It has become clear that this nutrient acts to widen the role of vitamin D3 in an individual’s total health. This has only made it clear that a large percentage of the population at large is deficient in this important nutrient. Faloon made this deficiency even more apparent when he placed the number of Americans dieing each year from coronary artery disease-related heart attacks at 157,000. He went on to say that based on a recent study, if Americans were optimizing their vitamin D status, the number dieing would have been reduced to 92,500, 55% would have been saved.

He put the number of lives into context by pointing out that millions of dollars are being spent to promote Lipitor as reducing heart attacks by 37%. Yes, this is an impressive number; but not when compared to the number of lives that would be saved by vitamin D. He makes the point the latest study, men with higher levels of vitamin D levels had a 142% reduction in heart attacks. This does not mean that you should stop taking your prescribed medications, but it does mean you do not want become vitamin D deficient.

All forms of heart disease kill over 869,700 Americans per year. The lethal forms of heart disease include all of the following: cardiomyopathy, valvular insufficiency, congestive heart failure, arrhythmia, coronary thrombosis (blood clot in coronary artery), and coronary atherosclerosis. It is believed that vitamin D would help to give protection against many of the forms of cardiac-induced death.

Today we are surrounded by an economy that seems to be on the verge of disaster. President Obama is trying to find a solution to our many financial problems. The politicians talk about how health care has to be made more effective and affordable for the average American citizen. Consider these facts; there are 920, 000 heart attacks per year, according to the American Heart Association. Annual cost for health care services, medications, and lost productivity caused by these heart attacks is over $156 billion.

Now compare the annual retail cost of all 300 million Americans supplementing with 1,000 IU of vitamin D is $6.6 billion. This would give us a savings of $149.40 billion. Ok, if vitamin D’s only benefit is to reduce heart attacks by 142%, the net savings (after deducting the cost of vitamin D) would be around$84 billion each year. Do you not agree that would put a huge dent in our national health care cost?


References
1. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis. Accessed September 4, 2008.
2. Faloon W. Should the president declare a national emergency? Life Extension. 2007 Oct;13(10):7-17.
3. Giovannucci E, Liu Y, Hollis BW, Rimm EB. 25-hydroxyvitamin D and risk of myocardial infarction in men:
a prospective study. Arch Intern Med. 2008 Jun 9;168(11):1174-80.
4. Available at: www.americanheart.org/downloadable/heart/1200082005246HS_Stats%202008.final.pdf. Accessed October 29, 2008.
5. Dobnig H, Pilz S, Scharnagl H, et al. Independent association of low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin d and 1,25-
dihydroxyvitamin d levels with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Arch Intern Med. 2008 Jun 23;168(12):1340-9.
Refrences: Chris D. Meletis, ND
4. Hathcock JN, Shao A, Vieth R, Heaney R. Risk assessment for Vitamin D. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Jan;85(1):6-18.
5. Vieth R. Critique of the considerations for establishing the tolerable upper intake level for Vitamin D: critical need for revision upwards. J Nutr. 2006 Apr;136(4):1117-22.
6. Wilkins CH, Sheline YI, Roe CM, Birge SJ, Morris JC. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with low mood and worse cognitive performance in older adults. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2006 Dec;14(12):1032-40.
7. Lotfi A, Abdel-Nasser AM, Hamdy A, Omran AA, El-Rehany MA. HypoVitaminosis D in female patients with chronic low back pain. Clin Rheumatol. 2007 Mar 22; [Epub ahead of print].

Introduction to Health Debate

Hi, my name is Dick Miller, and I am just a normal guy that is over 70 years old. I work a full time job and of course I am very concerned about my health. Yes, there are a number of things that frustrate me a great deal about standard, conventional medicine. In many ways it is very corrupt. Yet there are real doctors and others that are trying to clean up the mess and create systems that are so much more successful. In my opinion we have a number of problems that everyone seems to be afraid of. Ignorance on the part of the public at large is one of the major problems and there are those that take advantage of this ignorance to make very large amounts of money by herding the ignorant into health care programs that increase the sales of the drug companies, and treatment methodologies that are very expensive, do not cure the medical problems or they just kill the patients. If we could freely use all of the technologies out there, the average person would be amazed at how they could live a more robust life with out expensive drugs. Heart Disease, Cancer, and Diabetes are serious and very dangerous medical problems. Today these medical problems are multibillion dollar industries that have no intent to find a cure. But fantastic advances have been developed in the field of Alternative Medicine and they are not allowed to make the public aware of these advances.

Today, when I see people sitting in a doctor’s waiting room I get very up set. I doubt if any of those individuals have any real understanding of why they are sick. The majority just accept what ever the doctor tells them to do; buy a prescription, accept the prescribed surgery or what ever medical methodology that is prescribed. Most doctors will not take any time to explain in detail what the problem is, or what the causative factors are. Very few will explain how to control the causative factors; assuming that all that is solved when the prescription is followed.

I went through this type of routine when I had my heart attack. I lay in that parking lot for 2 hours before I had regained the strength to crawl over to my car. I pulled myself into the driver’s seat, by this time I was soaking wet from sweating and hurt like hell. I had to gasp to breath. I drove to a medical center down the street and went into the Emergency room and asked for help. A nurse checked me over and told me there was nothing wrong. I went out to my car and sat there until the pain in my chest and my back stopped and I could breathe without effort. Several months later my regular doctor ordered an electrocardiogram for me. She told me I had a heart attack and I told her what happened. She called a Cardiologist and made an appointment for me. In short, I went through a series of very dangerous and painful tests, which resulted in my diagnosis. The Cardiologist gave me a fist full of prescriptions and restrictions on my life style. He would not answer any of my questions. I went back to my regular doctor and explained what had happen. My doctor got very angry and called the Cardiologist’s office. From that point on my education started on heart disease. She put me on a number of supplements and herbs. I did not understand how the supplements like Coenzyme Q10, L-Carnitine, D-Ribose, or Magnesium did anything to help my heart, but I faithfully did as the doctor directed, and guess what, my pain disappeared, I did not get dizzy, I had more stamina and strength. I was not totally healed, but I was a hell of a lot better. I knew I had to know to know what exactly was wrong with my heart and why I had the problem. So I had a lot of questions. My doctor was a practitioner of Alternative medicine. She answered most of my questions and agreed that I needed to learn more. I asked a lot of questions and I will admit it was not easy. But I was fortunate and started getting more and more answers. One day I called a company that had a top quality D-Ribose supplement and I was asking a lot of pointed questions, because I was not a believer in what this supplement was supposed to do. Finally, the lady I was talking to told me about a book written by Stephen T. Sinatra, a practicing cardiologist in Connecticut. The Sinatra Solution, is a fantastic book. It is written for laymen, not doctors; it explained what was wrong with my heart, why I had the problems I had; very clearly explained why the supplements worked to solve my problems. Dr. Sinatra spends a lot of time explaining how each supplement works, what the good points are and bad points. The toughest chapter is where he actually explains the different conditions that can affect the heart. It took me a lot more time to understand what he was trying to get across to the reader. When I finished it I knew how to put a plan together to save my life. I say this because the only person that can be responsible for my life and good health is myself. This is one example of what I mean when I say we have to become informed and responsible before we can improve our health. Doctors can only assist us, but we have to know what they are attempting and why they are going in the direction they have chosen.

I would recommend that you check out two magazines. Life Extension magazine, at www.lifeextension.com; they will send you a copy of the magazine for free. It is a terrific publication. I subscribe to the magazine and I am also a member of the Life Extension Foundation. There are a lot of benefits that they have to offer.

Total Health Magazine is another terrific publication. Go to www.totalhealthmagazine.com

I would also like to recommend a book written by Suzanne Somers, BREAKTHROUGH, EIGHT STEPS TO WELLNESS.

I started reading this book in August. It completely stopped me. I had never given Suzanne Somers any real attention. Man was I wrong. She is an accomplished author and really knows the problems of medicine. In the book she interviews some very accomplished doctors and does not hide the shocking details she learns from the doctors. The first doctor she interviewed was one of my heroes, Dr. Jonathan Wright. This is a book that every one has to read before they can really put their health plans together.

I hope you found some of my thoughts valuable and useful. This is a new adventure for me and I am very excited about how I may be able to help people.