I recently touched base with a colleague, Dr. Howard Schubiner who has helped me understand chronic pain as it relates to stress. We collaborated on a study looking at cognitive behavioral techniques to facilitate the ‘unlearning’ of pain pathways. He has a new book out titled, Unlearn Your Pain: A 28 day process to reprogram your brain, available through his website, www.unlearnyourpain.com. If you’re suffering from chronic pain and you do not feel better after normalizing your vitamin D, changing your diet, and exercising then you need to check this book out. It could be the answer to your prayers.
There will be an exciting conference in Los Angeles in the Summer of 2011, The Ancestral Health Symposium . Loren Cordain calls it the “Woodstock of Evolutionary Medicine”. Brent Pottenger is organizing the program and there should be a potpourri of presentations by many experts, advocates, and practioners. Brent’s wonderful blog will keep you posted as the event approaches.
There is a new book out, Principles of Evolutionary Medicine by Peter Gluckman, one of the world’s leading researchers in this area. I have my copy ordered. The table of contents looks terrific. It should be an intense read. Peter Gluckman and David Barker are members of a generation of evolutionary biologist who have connected the theory with animal and human disease models. There will be some Nobel prizes handed out to some of these scientists.
Recipe of the Month
Remember our recipes are courtesy of Chef Kelly (kellychez@gmail.com). If you have recipes you would like to share or convert to follow the rules of The Vitamin D Cure send them to contact@thevitamindcure.com .
This month’s recipe is Gourmet Mushrooms & Sausage over Wild Rice
Serves 4
-1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
-1 larger onion, chopped
-12 ounces Italian Sausage, casings removed (try venison or other wild game sausage)
-1 Tbsp. tomato paste
-1/2 cup parsley, chopped
-1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
-2 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable broth OR stock
-1 10-ounce package frozen spinach
– 2 cups of dried gourmet mushrooms rehydrated in water (Portobello, morels, porcini etc…)
-Salt and pepper
-1 cup wild rice
-1 cup cold water
Directions:
(For the stew)
-Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat; add onion and cook until soft (about 5 to 7 minutes.)
-Add sausage and cook, crumbling it until browned.
-Add the tomato paste and cook another 2 minutes. Stir in parsley & cilantro and cook 1 more minute.
-Add the broth and rehydrated mushrooms; bring to a boil. Add the frozen spinach and simmer, partially covered, for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally.
-Stir in salt and pepper to taste.
(For the rice)
-In a saucepan cover rice and water until it comes to a boil. Reduce to low and cook 20 minutes or until the rice is al-dente.
Place rice on the plate and spoon the mushroom and sausage mix over the rice and serve.
Vitamin D in the News
An article came out in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) showing again that single annual high dose vitamin D replacement is not effective at preventing fractures of falls in elderly. This paper published 2007 also showed no benefit to annual dosing.
If you want to effect a change you have to change more than one variable as in the study that came out in Archives of Internal Medicine this month. In this study they replaced vitamin D and had patients participate in physical therapy.
Osteoporosis is NOT a disease of elderly it is a symptom of the elderly; it is a life long disease. Many young girls fail to attain peak bone mass due to poor nutrition (lack of protein and green veggies) and lack of exercise. They then enter late adult life and begin to gradually lose bone mass from a position of weakness. This accelerates after menopause and then they become symptomatic with fractures. It is NOT surprising to see a lack of benefit from relatively short term intervention (1-2 years) of a single variable in a disease influenced by many factors over many decades.
Research by Reinhold Vieth, PhD from University of Toronto showed that monthly dosing of vitamin D produces swings that tended to cause some calcium loss in the urine from high peak levels of D. Weekly and daily dosing did not cause this problem. Moreover, many of the reports of vitamin D toxicity come from Europe where they commonly use IM injections of high dose vitamin D in institutionalized elderly. The absorption of vitamin D from these injections is not consistent from patient to patient. Vitamin D ( 25(OH)D ) in too high of a blood level can induce some over production of the active hormone. High levels of the active hormone will pull calcium out of the bone and increase fracture risk.
Timing is everything. You want normal vitamin D levels during the phase of your life when you are building bone (third trimester of fetal gestation through 20 years of age). This is when it has its greatest benefit to bone. Treating older individuals who have lost bone is not likely to show much difference unless you focus on people with vitamin D levels below 20 and preferably with compensatory hyperparathyroidism; and throw in lots of exercise (stimulus to build bone). The solution is entire Vitamin D Cure program.
Vitamin D Success Story
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