Can Vitamin D Help Prevent Swine Flu and Other Diseases?

[Guest guest]

Can Vitamin D Help Prevent Swine Flu and Other Diseases? http://aromatherapy4u.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/can-vitamin-d-help-prevent-swine-flu/ April 29, 2009 in Cold & Flu Prevention, Diabetes, Did You Know?, Educational,Empowering, Health and Wellness, Helping Others, How To, Myths and Truths, Natural Supplements, News, Nutrition, Parents, Supplements, Why we should care, Women's Health, Young Living Distributor | Tags: Cold & Flu Prevention, Young Living Distributor,News, Vitamin D, Diet, Health and Wellness, Swine FluI’ve never gotten a flu shot and never plan to get one either, I’ve also never gotten a flu before. I’m not alone in this choice, there are many others like myself who know that holding ourselves accountable for our wellness makes a huge difference in whether your body fights off things like this or succumbs to it. I personally like to take responsibility for myself and my wellness, this has rewarded me with relatively good health for over 52 years now, not to mention the small fortune I’ve saved.“If a doctor treats your flu, it will go away in fourteen days.If you leave it alone, it will go away in two weeks.”~ Gloria SilversteinClearly there are things that can help, while others hinder our efforts. For instance, one thing I would never do is fall victim and allow myself to be ‘conditioned’ to marketing. I don’t care how cleverly a TV commercial or ad tries to convince me that I need their over processed, toxic product. I’m not going to buy into it, no matter how well the poisonous aspects of it are sugar-coated so they can get me to part with my money to line their wallets. Staying out of the sun is one example, why in the world would I want to eliminate a free and healthy available source of vitamin D that my body evolved with so it could obtain that important vitamin!? Thus, I am anti-sunscreen and smart about going in the sun.Why am I bringing up vitamin D and exposure to the sun? Because it’s one of the things I practice year round as part of maintaining my wellness. It is the single most important and inexpensive thing I can do to support my health.A study of more than 2,000 women has found those with higher vitamin D levels showed fewer aging-related changes in their DNA, as well as lowered inflammatory responses. Professor Brent Richards, who led the study, said: “These results are exciting because they demonstrate for the first time that people who have higher levels of vitamin D may age more slowly than people with lower levels of vitamin D. “This could help to explain how vitamin D has a protective effect on many ageing-related diseases, such as heart disease and cancer.”Another study, examining almost 1,000 patients in West Africa, showed that low vitamin D levels are common among tuberculosis (TB) patients.Lack of vitamin D has been linked in previous studies to multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, and other diseases.In another study, women with higher levels of vitamin D are more likely to have longer telomeres, and vice versa. Cells have built-in DNA clocks, known as telomeres. Measuring the length of these strands of DNA is one way of examining the aging process at a cellular level. This means that people with higher levels of vitamin D may actually age more slowly than people with lower levels of vitamin D (Diet and Leukoctes study).Vitamin D concentrations also decrease with age, whereas your C-reactive protein (a mediator of inflammation) increases. This inverse double-whammy increases your overall risk of developing autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.High-fat diets, glucose (sugar), and mixed carbohydrates and fat were linked to chromosomal damage by activating your body’s inflammation response - quite likely from the creation of endotoxins in your gut. This is NOT to say to use sugar substitutes in place of sugar because the sugar substitutes are unsafe and create an entirely different set of disease conditions.Optimizing your vitamin D levels could also help you to prevent as many as 16 different types of cancer including pancreatic, lung, breast, ovarian, prostate, and colon cancers.The protective effect against cancer works in several ways, including:• Increasing the self-destruction of mutated cells (which, if allowed to replicate, could lead to cancer)• Reducing the spread and reproduction of cancer cells• Causing cells to become differentiated (cancer cells often lack differentiation)• Reducing the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones, which is a step in the transition of dormant tumors turning cancerous.Previous studies have found that more than one million people die every year from lack of sun exposure and subsequent vitamin D deficiency, so fear of the sun is really something that needs to be overcome.Yet another study confirmations that proper sun exposure reduces your risk of developing inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and type 1 diabetes.Vitamin D deficiency is a growing epidemic across the world and is contributing to many chronic debilitating diseases – many of which conventional medicine insist need to be treated with vaccines and medication, rather than recommending proper sunlight exposure. In the United States, the late winter vitamin D average is so low it falls within the category of “serious deficiency.”Although nearly one third of the word’s population carries the mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, only about 0.2 percent of those infected with tuberculosis (TB) actually develop a clinically significant infection This is a very powerful indicator that something other than the bug itself is responsible for developing the disease. One study was able to show an astonishing 100 percent resolution rate and in this study by treating TB patients with 10,000 units of vitamin D daily (compared with the 400 units usually advocated by conventional medicine).Researchers set out to determine if vitamin D receptor gene (VDRG) BsmI polymorphisms were markers for the susceptibility to Parkinson’s in Korean patients. The study involved 85 Parkinson’s patients (30 men and 55 women) and a control group of more than 200 healthy patients. The results of the study showed that overexpression of the b allele and homozygote bb caused the VDRG of Parkinson’s patients to react differently than those in the control group–thus making them more susceptible to this devastating disease.The number of Americans suffering from heart attack peaks in mid-winter and reaches its annual low in July. Researchers ( Journal of the American College of Cardiology (1998;31:1226-1233) say this trend occurs across various climactic regions and may be unrelated to seasonal fluctuations in temperature. There were 53% more cases of heart attack reported during the winter months than in the summer. Many experts have attributed seasonal fluctuations in cardiac events to the added physical strain of dealing with mounting snowdrifts and plunging temperatures. But the same fluctuations in heart attack rates occurred both in the Northeast and the Southwest, where it’s not cold and there’s no snow to shovel. Sunlight may also play a crucial role. It is well known that light has an influence on a number of physiologic variables, and increased exposure to sunlight may be protective against coronary disease.Vitamin D from Sunlight or Supplement, which is best?Although there are vitamin D supplements on the market, I do not like supplementing with oral vitamin D, as it is very easy to overdose and unlike other vitamins, vitamin D is actually a steroid hormone precursor that is created by your body after exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun. This is the active vitamin D, or vitamin D3 referred to above. Nearly all the prescription-based supplements are synthetic vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol), which is FAR LESS effective. So, your safest bet is to get your vitamin D from natural sunlight exposure.So be sure to get outside regularly, starting with 15 minutes a day exposing as much skin as possible and build up slowly, do not allow your skin to turn pink and burn though and receive regular exposure to sunshine. Take some time for yourself and work up to the point where you build up to it so you can get one hour of sun on your skin every day it is possible.Clearly going out in the sun regularly will not alone prevent contraction of the Swine Flu or any other flu. But what it will do is help in the ways it can, therefore, combining sun exposure with other simple beneficial practices we all can be on our way to being healthier and happier people with a bit more money in our pockets to boot! So go outside and plant that little vegetable garden you’ve been procrastinating starting! Articles on Swine Flu, Vaccines, Gardening, and Essential Oils:Mysterious Swine Flu: what to do about itSwine Flu and Therapeutic-grade Essential OilsChoose your seed manufacturer and produce wisely!60 Easy Ways to Use Therapeutic-grade Essential OilsSpring Gardening Season: where to find great seeds and gardening booksRebuilding soils with beneficial soil organismsA Look at Vaccines Without A conflict of InterestStill Want To Believe Vaccines Are Safe?Duped Again: HPV Vaccine