Throw away your Vitamin D3!

Dave228 wrote:Okay I can look into your claims but where are the studies backing this up?

The US NIH now estimates that 90% of cells in the human body are bacterial in origin while only a mere 10% of cells in the body are truly human.[26] Thus, many microbiologists now believe that humans are best viewed as superorganisms in which a plethora of bacterial gene products can effect the activity of our own receptors and genetic pathways.[27] Indeed, independent research teams have found that Mycobacterium tuberculosis downregulates VDR activity by approximately 3.3 times.[28] Active Borellia lowers VDR activity by about a factor of 50 and Epstein-Barr Virus by a factor of around 10.[29] HIV completely shuts down VDR activity. It’s quite likely that other pathogens yet to be fully characterized have also evolved ways to decrease VDR activity because by doing so, they slow important components of the innate immune response that might otherwise render them dead.


With this in mind, the claim by many vitamin D researchers that vitamin D can help patients with autoimmune disease by slowing an “over-active” adaptive immune response no longer jives with an emerging view in the microbiology/immunology community – that both the adaptive and innate immune systems should be kept active in autoimmune disease in order to allow the body to best target disease-causing microbes.

The possible presence of pathogens in autoimmune and other inflammatory disease states such as cancer and atherosclerosis makes our group’s findings on vitamin D’s actions more plausible. When the immune system is fighting a microbe, it continually releases inflammatory molecules in an effort to kill the pathogen.[34] If the pathogen dies, endotoxins[35] and cellular debris are generated. This leads to increased symptoms of malaise on the part of a person who harbors such microbes.

It follows that any substance that slows the innate immune response will decrease this battle between man and microbe, causing the patient to feel better. The more the immune response is slowed, the greater the decrease in inflammation and inflammatory markers. But while such measures can make the patient appear as if they are getting better for years, ultimately the bacteria causing their disease are able to spread much more easily and exacerbate the disease state over the long-term.

Our molecular and clinical data shows that 25-D, like the pathogens we describe above, binds the Vitamin D Receptor and slows its activity.[1] Since the VDR largely controls the innate immune response, increasing 25-D levels could easily display the pattern of immunosuppression described above.

http://bacteriality.com/2009/08/10/iom/

... the Tokyo team’s data on VDR null mice also strongly supports the fact that a blocked VDR naturally leads to high levels of 1,25-D and very low levels of 25-D. the Tokyo team’s data on VDR null mice also strongly supports the fact that a blocked VDR naturally leads to high levels of 1,25-D and very low levels of 25-D.

Unfortunately the exact opposite is true. The level of 25-D in the body is not causing the illness, it is a result of the disease process.

In reality, the low 25-D observed in the subjects resulted from the downregulation of 25-D under the influence of elevated levels of 1,25-D

http://bacteriality.com/2007/09/15/vitamind/#footnote_36_53

"a research team at the University of Wisconsin Osteoporosis Clinic, who did not test subjects’ levels of 1,25-D, seemed puzzled by the results of a study which revealed that some participants getting abundant sun exposure still displayed low levels of 25-D." = http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/jc.2006-2250v1

North-Europe wrote:During the winter near the poles, there arent going to be any sunlight at all for 4-6 months straight.

Supplementing vit D is very important for people inhabiting those regions.

North-Europe wrote:During the winter near the poles, there arent going to be any sunlight at all for 4-6 months straight.

Supplementing vit D is very important for people inhabiting those regions.

Prague wrote:Getting real food, real life would be better.


Plus if you like califlower or parsley, you don't eat donuts - it doesn't go together.

one more argument and the most important one - the body is not supposed to get constant ammounts of nutrients (vitamins, minerals) per day/week

action<reaction wrote:

Prague wrote:Getting real food, real life would be better.


Plus if you like califlower or parsley, you don't eat donuts - it doesn't go together.

one more argument and the most important one - the body is not supposed to get constant ammounts of nutrients (vitamins, minerals) per day/week

I have no doubt in my mind that there a ton of people everywhere you'll go who are going to take that pill more or less for the psychological reassurance that they're doing the right thing for themselves, and I think that's what you're getting at.

But what about us who strongly follow very strict dietary choices every single day? The supplementing to me would seem quite synergistic with a body that's getting "standard" health benefits from eating the correct food, obtaining the correct amount of sunlight, water, physical exercise, etc... but what about optimal health benefits?

Also, in regards to your last point, that's why fasting seems to be SUCH a good idea!

if you eat well, you do not need vitamins, antioxidants, etc

the problem is not what you lack, the problem is the excess - you could live on raw potatoes for some years (as some soldiers during the first world war)