Vitamin D The Sunshine Vitamin!

Who Needs it and Why?

Bill Young, Holistic Nutrition Coach Certified Reiki Practitioner President, Apple Health Network, Inc. Phone: 646-961-3818 Email: bill@Applehealthnetwork.com

Who needs vitamin D and why?

Ill give you a clue. Every one of our 100 Trillion cells has a vitamin D receptor! That means that every one of our cells depends on vitamin D for some aspect of its proper functioning. Another clue, every cancer patient tested has been found to be vitamin D deficient. Also, vitamin D impacts the functioning of more than 3,000 of our genes. So, yeah, we all need vitamin D to maintain health. In the past, it was thought that vitamin D was only important for bone health. Today we know that this essential vitamin (actually, it is not a vitamin, it is a steroid hormone) contributes to over 300 different metabolic processes in the body affecting many different disease states: Kills brain cancer cells Boosts strength of immune system Speeds healing of bone fractures Improves insulin sensitivity in diabetics Stops viral infections by interfering with viral replication Fights psoriasis Protects against multiple sclerosis Promotes re-growth of hair in bald men

To name just a few.

The problem is that most people are woefully deficient in vitamin D, especially African Americans and other non-Caucasians. No one these days in modern America gets enough sunlight and therefore Vitamin D. We wear clothes that cover our bodies from the sun. We live and work indoors. Most of the population lives north of the equator. African Americans of course, have another distinct disadvantage, deeply melanated skin which drastically decreases the amount of UVB radiation that reaches the vitamin D producing layers of the skin. I have yet to meet an African American who has a normal level of vitamin D. It is absolutely imperative that we increase our vitamin D levels to optimal as quickly as possible, because it has been found that low levels of vitamin D can double your risk of dying in any particular year. If you do not know your vitamin D blood level, you need to get tested ASAP! Ask your doctor to test your blood 25(OH)D level, which is the technical description of calcitriol, the active form of vitamin D3. The blood levels of vit D runs from 30ng/ml to 80ng/ml. For optimum health, including protection from cancer, you want to be in the 50ng to 70ng range.

When I first tested my vit D, it was 27ng! Other clients of mine had reading of 11, 7 and one sisters level was so low, it was undetectable! How do you increase your vitamin D level? The ideal way is by exposure to the sun. To do that, you must expose at least 40% of your body to the sun. If you are Caucasian, about 20 minutes per day will allow your body to make about 20,000 International Units (IU) of vit D. If you are not Caucasian, you need from 1 hour to an hour and a half of exposure, depending on your skin shade, with the darkest skin tones requiring the longest time. What about skin cancer from the sun? Turns out that people with the least amount of regular exposure to the sun are those that are most susceptible to skin cancer as your skin builds up a protective layer of melanin over time. Of course, this approach is not practical for most of us, living and working in an urban environment, but just in case you were living in a private, 2 acre gated community with a pool For most of us, we will have to take supplemental vit D3. The FDA Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for vit D3 of 600iu is obviously inadequate if you are deficient in this important nutrient. Remember, you get 20,000 IU per day from the sun, optimally. I take 10,000 IU of vitamin D3 daily and have been for 5 months. My vit D level is now 35ng, still a long way from 50 but

measurably better than the 27 I started with. I recommend that my clients take 5,000 to 10,000 IU daily until you reach the goal of 50ng. Then you can cut back to a maintenance level which will be dependent on the season of the year, there is less sunlight in the winter, your skin color, etc. It is vitally important that you get an adequate amount of vitamin k along with your vit D3, so that the calcium is deposited in your bones and not in your arteries or other soft tissue. Note that there are several forms of vitamin K. Vitamin K1 can be obtained from green leafy vegetables, but it only lasts a short time in your body and is not as powerful as vitamin K2. K2 is obtained from meats and from supplements such as Melaquinone 7. As you know, you should only eat small amounts of meat, and if you are chronically ill, none at all. Also note that if you take blood thinners like cumadin or warfarin (they are the same thing, rat poison!) or daily aspirin, you should check with your doctor before taking vitamin K2. While we are on the subject, there is a natural blood thinner with none of the dangers of cumadin or daily aspirin, which eventually destroys the lining of your stomach and causes bleeding ulcers. It is called Nattokinase, a natural proteolytic (protein digesting) enzyme from Japan. It has been used for decades in Japan to thin the blood and prevent and treat strokes and heart attacks as it eats blood clots better than TPA or any other drug. See 2nd attachment with this lesson to get a report on Nattokinase that you can read and share with your doctor.

Your doctor will probably not have heard of Nattokinase and will therefore be reluctant to take you off warfarin. Even though he/she knows it is rat poison and can kill you, it is part of conventional medicines Standard of Care, and he/she can be liable if s/he takes you off it and you have a cardiovascular event; whereas if you die from the side effects of warfarin, he/she is not technically liable. I take a specially formulated professional grade of vitamin D3 with Melaquinone 7 designed for mega dosing and I highly recommend it to you. I also have a version without the Melaquione 7, if your doctor will not let you stop taking warfarin. Contact me for details.