Chris
Senior Member
- Messages
- 845
- Location
- Victoria, BC
Here comes the sun..
Hi, Ric, many thanks for that long and informative post. And congratulations on making such great strides towards healthif it works, stick with it until/unless it doesnt any more.
But I come from a different space, and have some comments form another perspective. I am not arguing with your success, but will try to explain why I am following another route. At age 71 (2004), after 70 healthy and active years, I was found to have a heavily calcified and severely stenotic aortic valveso surgery (with one bypass added for luck). I dont know why it happened, but it certainly left me with a fear of calcification. Your optimism about the safety of high dose Vit D is not shared by all --Zitterman, for instance, sees a diphasic effect with harmful effects at both low and high levels, and Krispin Sullivan, the Naked at Noon lady who has spent many years researching Vit D, in an interview in 2010 says We cant overlook the fact that when oral intake...is excessive, vitamin D is shunted into our fat cells, and high storage levels in human fat cells may be dangerous (see In Focus at www. nutricology.com ) I am going to be careful, and regard the issue as at best not yet settled. You are doing finegreat; I fear I might not do so well.
But apart from the safety issue with high dose Vit D supplementation, there is much more to the UV story. I always feel better when there is sun around, and so... In addition to the mouse study, which did suggest strongly that UV does other good things for us mammals than raise Vitamin D levels, there is evidence that the Vit D made in our skin under UV is not the same as that ingested from food or pills. Stephanie Seneff writes about this in a paper on the Weston Price site, Sulfur Deficiency. There she asks Is the skin a solar-powered battery for the heart? and shows that the Vit D made in the skin is Vitamin D3 Sulfate, and that Vit D3 cannot be made directly from unsulfated D3", though it is found in raw milk. She adds I believe it is extremely likely that Vit D3 sulfate is not the only thing thats affected by greater sun exposure...given that cholesterol sulfate and vitamin D3 sulfate are very similar in molecular structure...I suspect that cholesterol sulfate synthesis may also exploit the suns radiation energy. In addition, both cholesterol and sulfur afford protection in the skin from radiation damage to the cells DNA, the kind of damage that can lead to skin cancer. Cholesterol and sulfur become oxidized upon exposure to the high frequency rays in sunlight, thus acting as antioxidants to take the heat, so to speak. There is more detail to her argument than this, but it might help explain that mouse experimentthere is more going on under the sun than the simple generation of Vit D3 as generally understood.
UV A is also captured by the skin and put to work. Martin Feelisch asks Is sunlight good for our heart? ( http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals.org/content/31/9/1041.long ), and answers that it plays a key role in the NO cycle that plays such a large role in vascular health, and is triggered by the nitrites and nitrates in, especially, dark green vegetables and beets. An excellent account of this is to be found at www.aor.ca , in their latest magazine, which can be freely read and downloaded there. At this point we connect with the Terry Wahls story, pursued on another thread here.
UV A also plays a role in lowering Blood Pressure ( see Oplander C, Whole body UVA radiation lowers systemic blood pressure..., PMID: 19797169 ) , so the answer to Feelischs question seems a clear yes. In addition to this, the UVFoundation (www.uvfoundation.org ) is doing a genomic study to dig out further effects of UV light on the skin, and I have no doubt that more will be found.
In the light of all this, I am going to stick with the sun, and with my Fiji lamp, which seems about as close to the spectrum of sunlight as I can get at reasonable cost and size. I am of course aware of possible danger, but these days the dangers seem moderated by research such as the review by J. Moan, Addressing the health benefits and risks... (2008), the abstract of which concludes: these data, together with those for internal cancers and the beneficial effects of our optimal Vit D status, indicate that increased sun exposure may lead to improved cancer prognosis and, possibly, give more positive than adverse health effects. Not conclusive, but since lying in the sun gives pleasures in addition to better health, I am going to stick with it as my favourite way of raising Vit D levels, while using pills and the Fiji during those long periods when the sun is not available up here.
I should also thank you for reminding me of valuable co-factors; I do take K2 (in two forms) daily, but will add some A, and probably Boron and Strontium as well, after checking their availability in food that I am likely to eat. I hope we both continue to improve via our distinct but overlapping routes.
Best, Chris
Hi, Ric, many thanks for that long and informative post. And congratulations on making such great strides towards healthif it works, stick with it until/unless it doesnt any more.
But I come from a different space, and have some comments form another perspective. I am not arguing with your success, but will try to explain why I am following another route. At age 71 (2004), after 70 healthy and active years, I was found to have a heavily calcified and severely stenotic aortic valveso surgery (with one bypass added for luck). I dont know why it happened, but it certainly left me with a fear of calcification. Your optimism about the safety of high dose Vit D is not shared by all --Zitterman, for instance, sees a diphasic effect with harmful effects at both low and high levels, and Krispin Sullivan, the Naked at Noon lady who has spent many years researching Vit D, in an interview in 2010 says We cant overlook the fact that when oral intake...is excessive, vitamin D is shunted into our fat cells, and high storage levels in human fat cells may be dangerous (see In Focus at www. nutricology.com ) I am going to be careful, and regard the issue as at best not yet settled. You are doing finegreat; I fear I might not do so well.
But apart from the safety issue with high dose Vit D supplementation, there is much more to the UV story. I always feel better when there is sun around, and so... In addition to the mouse study, which did suggest strongly that UV does other good things for us mammals than raise Vitamin D levels, there is evidence that the Vit D made in our skin under UV is not the same as that ingested from food or pills. Stephanie Seneff writes about this in a paper on the Weston Price site, Sulfur Deficiency. There she asks Is the skin a solar-powered battery for the heart? and shows that the Vit D made in the skin is Vitamin D3 Sulfate, and that Vit D3 cannot be made directly from unsulfated D3", though it is found in raw milk. She adds I believe it is extremely likely that Vit D3 sulfate is not the only thing thats affected by greater sun exposure...given that cholesterol sulfate and vitamin D3 sulfate are very similar in molecular structure...I suspect that cholesterol sulfate synthesis may also exploit the suns radiation energy. In addition, both cholesterol and sulfur afford protection in the skin from radiation damage to the cells DNA, the kind of damage that can lead to skin cancer. Cholesterol and sulfur become oxidized upon exposure to the high frequency rays in sunlight, thus acting as antioxidants to take the heat, so to speak. There is more detail to her argument than this, but it might help explain that mouse experimentthere is more going on under the sun than the simple generation of Vit D3 as generally understood.
UV A is also captured by the skin and put to work. Martin Feelisch asks Is sunlight good for our heart? ( http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals.org/content/31/9/1041.long ), and answers that it plays a key role in the NO cycle that plays such a large role in vascular health, and is triggered by the nitrites and nitrates in, especially, dark green vegetables and beets. An excellent account of this is to be found at www.aor.ca , in their latest magazine, which can be freely read and downloaded there. At this point we connect with the Terry Wahls story, pursued on another thread here.
UV A also plays a role in lowering Blood Pressure ( see Oplander C, Whole body UVA radiation lowers systemic blood pressure..., PMID: 19797169 ) , so the answer to Feelischs question seems a clear yes. In addition to this, the UVFoundation (www.uvfoundation.org ) is doing a genomic study to dig out further effects of UV light on the skin, and I have no doubt that more will be found.
In the light of all this, I am going to stick with the sun, and with my Fiji lamp, which seems about as close to the spectrum of sunlight as I can get at reasonable cost and size. I am of course aware of possible danger, but these days the dangers seem moderated by research such as the review by J. Moan, Addressing the health benefits and risks... (2008), the abstract of which concludes: these data, together with those for internal cancers and the beneficial effects of our optimal Vit D status, indicate that increased sun exposure may lead to improved cancer prognosis and, possibly, give more positive than adverse health effects. Not conclusive, but since lying in the sun gives pleasures in addition to better health, I am going to stick with it as my favourite way of raising Vit D levels, while using pills and the Fiji during those long periods when the sun is not available up here.
I should also thank you for reminding me of valuable co-factors; I do take K2 (in two forms) daily, but will add some A, and probably Boron and Strontium as well, after checking their availability in food that I am likely to eat. I hope we both continue to improve via our distinct but overlapping routes.
Best, Chris