Big "Bru-Ha-Ha " about Zetia Last Nite

mrsD · 01-17-2008, 10:16 AM

Things this morning.

And something for Tony too!

1)http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/a...ors/article.do

2) http://www.lewrockwell.com/sardi/sardi69.html

Every one here needs to read both of these.
from #2:

Quote:

Other natural antidotes to arterial calcifications include vitamin K, vitamin D and magnesium.

Groups who consume the highest amounts of vitamin K from dietary sources exhibit more than a 50% reduction in coronary heart disease mortality and aortic calcium scores.

[Journal Nutrition 134: 3100–05, 2004] Vitamin K is naturally rich in spinach, broccoli and turnip greens.

Vitamin D has also been shown to be correlated with the absence of extensive arterial calcification. [Circulation 96: 1755–60, 1997] But the public is going to have to overcome mistaken advice usually offered by health professionals about vitamin D.

Most physicians, pharmacists and dieticians will warn the public away from so-called high-dose vitamin D supplements because of the false notion that vitamin D actually induces calcifications. But this effect has only been demonstrated in animals at lethal doses (~2.1 million units of vitamin D). [Current Opinion Lipidology 18(1):41–6, 2007]

Dr. Reinhold Vieth, PhD, at the University of Toronto, says the toxicity of vitamin D doesn’t begin till 40,000 units are consumed. [American Journal Clinical Nutrition 1999 May; 69(5):842–56] Dr. Vieth notes that an hour of total-body skin exposure to unfiltered sunlight in the summer at a southern latitude would produced about 10,000 units of vitamin D without any known side effects. He says the risk for toxicity is remote.

Vitamin D is a vitamin/hormone produced in the skin upon sun exposure. It is widely known that more heart attacks occur in winter months when vitamin D levels are low.

Dr. Joe Prendergast, a practicing endocrinologist in Redwood City, California, now treats his patients with 5000 units vitamin D and a blood-vessel widening amino acid (arginine) to successfully reverse hardening of the arteries. Vitamin D’s anti-calcifying effects are working for this doctor’s patients.

Magnesium is a natural calcium blocker and is another natural antidote to arterial calcification. [The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2004 Oct; 23(5):501S–505S] Magnesium is rich in foods like almonds, spinach and pumpkin seeds. Magnesium oxide in dietary supplements is poorly absorbed and other forms (citrate, glycinate, malate) should be consumed.

We are back to healthy lifestyle...and other things to prevent plaque buildup.

Adastra · 01-17-2008, 07:02 PM

OMG Mrs D!! - after reading this thread and that final post of yours, I am now at a complete loss as to which (if any) of the recommended treatments for cholesterol (if indeed cholesterol is a problem at all) I should be taking.

I have been told, as you may remember, that I have high calcium as well as cholesterol in my arteries but my consultant has suggested that I take a statin to knock down my cholesterol. I do not intend to take any statin with so many possible side effects to them. All I can do is take my sterols and fish oil and anything else that might reduce my cholesterol. However if cholesterol does not really pose a problem then I guess I may as well forget it!!

Thanks anyway for the articles which I may consider showing my consultant. I don't think I will try the high dose vitamin D though. I would however appreciate your views on the subject of how to clear blocked arteries of cholesterol and/or calcium.

Tony

mrsD · 01-18-2008, 08:10 AM

It is the last post, just above yours I wanted you to see.

The new Vit D information has really moved quickly in medical circles.
The new upper safe limit has been recommended at 10,000 IU daily for D3.

You can have a blood test at the doctor's to confirm if you need it.
But as I read the posts at Chronic Pain at Braintalk, and Vitamin Forum over there, I see many patients in pain improving on Vit D.

My husband and I are both taking 2000IU a day now. (I was taking 1000IU daily during the winter only.)

Search the names in the last post of mine, and you can read more.
I think you can continue to use the Stanols, they are not harmful, like the statins. They are also not very strong. If that would make you feel better.

nide44 · 01-18-2008, 09:42 AM

Thanks, Mrs D & Tony.
I've got some reading to do.

mrsD · 01-19-2008, 11:09 AM

found just this morning...

Quote:

Tuesday, January 8, 2008 - Page updated at 12:00 AM

E-mail article Print view Share: Digg Newsvine
Researchers tie low vitamin D to heart disease

By John Fauber

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MILWAUKEE — Low levels of vitamin D, a chronic problem for many people in northern latitudes areas such as Wisconsin and Washington, were associated with substantially higher rates of heart disease and stroke, according to a new study.

In one of the strongest studies to date linking the vitamin to cardiovascular disease, researchers followed 1,739 members of the Framingham Offspring Study for more than five years.

They found the rate of cardiovascular disease events such as heart attacks, strokes and heart failure were from 53 percent to 80 percent higher in people with low levels of vitamin D in their blood.

"This is a stunning study," said John Whitcomb, medical director of the Aurora Sinai Wellness Institute in Milwaukee. He was not involved in the study.

Whitcomb said the study bolsters the idea that people living in northern-latitude areas should be supplementing their diet with vitamin D pills from October through March.

Whitcomb noted that other than eating lots of fatty fish, it is nearly impossible to maintain optimal vitamin D levels through diet alone. Sun exposure and taking vitamin D supplements are the only proven methods, he said.

"We were designed to live in sunshine," Whitcomb said. "Every year we go through this five-month stress test."

Denise Teves, an assistant professor of medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa, said cells that line the arteries of the heart have vitamin D receptors. Low levels of vitamin D can lead to a proliferation of smooth muscle cells in those blood vessels, which, in turn, can lead to blockages and stiffness in arteries.

In addition, more vitamin D can lead to less inflammation in arteries. It also has been linked to reduced blood pressure.

Teves said that while the current recommendation for adults is to get about 400 international units of vitamin D a day, an optimal level might be from 800 to 2,000 international units.

However, other vitamins have shown initial promise in preventing cardiovascular disease only to fizzle out when randomized clinical trials were done, said Matthew Wolff, chief of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison. Neither he nor Teves was involved in the study.

Researchers say there may be one significant difference between vitamin D and vitamins such as C and E and folic acid, which have failed to show a benefit in reducing cardiovascular disease risk in randomized trials.

For much of history, humans lived near the equator and were exposed to higher amounts of ultraviolet light, resulting in higher levels of vitamin D in their bodies, said Thomas Wang, lead author of the cardiovascular-risk and vitamin D study, which was published online Monday in the journal Circulation.

"The levels we see today in developed countries are relatively unusual, especially from an evolutionary standpoint," said Wang, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

One-third to one-half of otherwise healthy, middle-age-to-older adults have low levels of vitamin D in the United States, the study says.

The study found a significant reduction in cardiovascular-disease risk in people who had more than 15 nanograms per milliliter of 25-dihydroxyvitamin D — the form of vitamin D stored in blood — compared with those who had less than that.

Wang said his study doesn't prove that taking vitamin supplements reduces heart attacks and strokes. That can only be done with a large clinical trial in which vitamin D is compared with a placebo.

However, until such studies are done, there is little risk for adults who take up to 2,000 international units a day, he said.

from http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...86_vitd08.html
(I've copied the whole article because sometimes links "die".)

and another paper, this time with Dr. Vieth...which goes into detail...it is the paper with the new suggested
safe upper limit:
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/85/1/6

http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi.../full/29/3/722

Quote:

We found a high prevalence of hypovitaminosis D and a strong inverse association between 25(OH)D concentrations and prevalent CVD among type 2 diabetic outpatients. Interestingly, our data suggest that the putative elevated CVD risk associated with hypovitaminosis D is probably mediated by correlated elevations in plasma inflammatory markers. Moreover, since elevations of CRP and fibrinogen levels increase the risk for CVD (14), these findings could help to explain the CVD excess typically observed during winter months, a period in which vitamin D status tends to be poor (15), and suggest a rationale for vitamin D supplementation in prevention of CVD, especially in the elderly.

Our findings are supported by few available data in humans showing that 25(OH)D levels are inversely related to coronary artery calcifications (16,17) and are lower in patients with myocardial infarction (7) and by experimental studies (18–22) suggesting that low 25(OH)D influences the activity/expression of macrophages and lymphocytes in atherosclerotic plaques, thus promoting chronic inflammation in the artery wall. Interestingly, in two recent clinical trials (23,24), vitamin D supplementation markedly reduced serum levels of CRP, interleukin-6, and tissue matrix metalloproteinases. Additionally, low vitamin D3 concentrations result in elevations of parathyroid hormone, which has been linked to insulin resistance and significant increases in the serum levels of many acute-phase proteins (25).

Evidently, these findings are all consistent with the proposition that hypovitaminosis D and subsequent secondary hyperparathyroidism may promote the acute phase response and may help to explain how hypovitaminosis D might act as a risk factor for CVD.
This study has some limitations. Because our study was a cross-sectional one, the causative nature of the associations cannot be established. Additionally, parathyroid hormone and 1{alpha},25(OH)D were not measured in this study. Further investigation is necessary to evaluate whether hypovitaminosis D is associated with incident CVD among type 2 diabetic adults and to determine possible mechanisms of any preventive effect from vitamin D supplementation against CVD.

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