Vitamin D

Category: Natural chemicals

Type

Voluntary

Introduction and description

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vitamin D is a group of fat-soluble secosteroids responsible for enhancing intestinal absorption of calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphate and zinc. [A secosteroid is a molecule similar to a steroid but with a "broken" ring]. For us, the most important compounds in this group are;

• vitamin D3 (also known as cholecalciferol) and
• vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol)

In the liver, cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) is converted to calcidiol, the calcidiol is converted by the kidneys to calcitriol, the biologically active form of vitamin D, and Calcitriol circulates as a hormone in the blood, regulating the concentration of calcium and phosphate in the bloodstream and promoting the healthy growth and remodeling of bone. Calcitriol also affects neuromuscular and immune function.   

In addition to the kidneys, calcitriol is also synthesized by monocyte-macrophages in the immune system, where it acts locally as a cytokine, defending the body against microbial invaders by stimulating the innate immune system.  Vitamin D is absolutely key to the functioning of the immune system, and its actions “are expressed in several white blood cells, including monocytes and activated T and B cells. It is also involved in the synthesis of nitric oxide synthase, and increased glutathione levels”.

The body can synthesize vitamin D (specifically cholecalciferol) in the skin, from cholesterol, when 'sun exposure is adequate' (hence its nickname, the "sunshine vitamin"). 

Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) can only be produced via our skin through the action of ultraviolet irradiation (UV) in a very quick and efficient process - 10,000 to 20,000 IU of vitamin D are produced in 30 minutes of whole-body exposure, in the skin of most vertebrate animals, including humans. Exposure to light through windows does not work because glass almost completely blocks UVB light. Sunscreen absorbs ultraviolet light and prevents it from reaching the skin. Sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 8 based on the UVB spectrum can decrease vitamin D synthetic capacity by 95 percent, sunscreen with an SPF of 15 can reduce synthetic capacity by 98 percent.   

Clothing is extremely effective at reducing the amount of skin exposed to UVB and reducing natural vitamin D synthesis.

Vitamin D imbalance

Deficiency

It should be clear from the list of essential minerals described above that Vitamin D deficiency causes Mineral deficiency of a major sort.

The immune system will be depressed, bone formation and repair will be depressed leading to osteoporosis or rickets, osteomalacia and tooth decay - all problems of the elderly, for example, who rarely get out into the sun. Without the regulating aspects of calcitriol, calcium can become a noxious substance in the blood stream and start to harden the arteries, as such a lack of Vitamin D will cause atherosclerosis. Calcium imbalance as well as mineral imbalance can cause all forms of heart disease from arrhythmias to heart damage.

There will be nervous problems and a host of other illnesses, all apparent if you glance at the sections on

• Calcium imbalance
• Magnesium imbalance
• Iron imbalance
• Phosphorus imbalance and
• Zinc imbalance

If you turn to the section on Cancer, you will see that there is a strong correlation between cancer and viruses, bacteria, fungi, toxins and parasites. Without Vitamin D, there is zinc deficiency, with zinc deficiency you get a compromised immune function and a compromised immune function cannot fight all these unpleasant invaders, so even if you don't get cancer, you may get numerous other diseases of the organs, because much disease is caused by these pathogens. 

“ Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to increased risk of viral infections, including HIV and influenza. Low levels of vitamin D appear to be a risk factor for tuberculosis, Vitamin D hypovitaminosis may be a risk factor for multiple sclerosis. ..... Vitamin D deficiency has become a worldwide issue in the elderly and remains common in children and adults”.

Overdose

Overdosing on Vitamin D also causes Mineral imbalance, for example it can produce hypercalcaemia – too much calcium. Pregnant women who overdose on Vitamin D can produce babies with “mental retardation and facial deformities”.   

Vitamin D overdose can cause “anorexia, nausea, and vomiting, followed by polyuria, polydipsia, weakness, insomnia, nervousness, pruritus, and, ultimately, renal failure. Proteinuria, urinary casts, azotemia, and metastatic calcification (especially in the kidneys) may develop. Other symptoms of vitamin D toxicity include mental retardation in young children, abnormal bone growth and formation, diarrhea, irritability, weight loss, and severe depression. Kidney damage may be irreversible." 

Both an excess and a deficiency in vitamin D appear to cause “abnormal functioning and premature aging”. 

Causes of Vitamin D imbalance

Overdose

You cannot overdose on Vitamin D from ultraviolet exposure, the concentration of vitamin D precursors produced in the skin reach an equilibrium, and any further vitamin D that is produced is degraded.  Vitamin D toxicity can be caused by supplementing with high doses of vitamin D. In other words it is usually caused by Vitamin supplements and fortified foods.

• Vitamin supplements and food fortification -  No recommendations are issued by the Institute of Medicine, USA, for the amount of sun exposure required to meet vitamin D requirements. Accordingly, the Dietary Reference Intake for vitamin D assumes no synthesis occurs and all of a person's vitamin D is from food intake, although that will rarely occur in practice. Thus there is the real danger that a person with perfectly adequate exposure to the sun, may attempt to take their RDA of Vitamin D via fortified foods or supplements and thus overdose.
  There is also a growing trend to add fortification to foods.  A country with low sunshine [such as those in Scandinavia] may decide to fortify its foods to help boost Vitamin D intake, but foods are sold internationally and may end up being sold to people in other countries where sunshine is high.  The fortification of foods is a problem in general, as all food naturally produced is by definition balanced, but a diet consisting of fortified foods can easily lead to overdose.

Deficiency 

• 

  FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE OPEN THE F**KING WINDOW
  Inadequate access to sunshine – Vitamin D deficiency occurs in countries with low sunlight. It occurs in Islamic societies and groups where the women remain completely covered and are encouraged to remain in the house. It can occur in school children without adequate recreational breaks, who spend their leisure time indoors on computers or game machines. It can occur in shift workers, or those who work long hours indoors and rarely go out in their lesiure time. 

• Nutritional deprivation – I would like you to glance at the list of foods containing Vitamin D shown below. What has been the abiding message from the medical community for the last 60 plus years? Avoid fats, avoid butter, avoid fatty meat, avoid eggs. And also what has been the one thing that has marked out the western diet and that of so called developing nations? A decline in fish eating – partly it has to be said, because we have polluted our seas so much the fish in some areas are full of mercury and toxic. We do not get enough sun and we are also nutritionally depriving ourselves [on the advice of the medical community] of all the foods that would help the most. The following study may be of considerable interest. The Inuit's chief diet at one time was fish and blubber from seals and occasionally whales. They were healthy, they are now unhealthy, the Inuits location is far removed from the sun, as such their main source of vitamin D was food.

• Liver disease or kidney disease - both of which can result in problems as it is here that Vitamin D is synthesised 

• Pharmaceuticals - according to the eHealthme webite, as of March 2014, 932 pharmaceuticals could cause Vitamin D deficiency.  Fairly obviously, the list is too long to include here so this LINK takes you to the page where they are all listed.  The types of drugs in this list include the following - please note this list is not exhaustive:
  • Osteoporosis drugs
  • ACE inhibitors
  • Diabetes treatments
  • Benzodiazepines
  • Proton pump inhibitors used to treat stomach problems
  • Antipsychotics
  • Skin disease treatments including acne treatments
  • Diuretics
  • Multiple sclerosis treatments
  • Immunosuppressants
  • Breast cancer treatment drugs
  • Antibiotics
  • Pain killers and NSAIDs - including aspirin
  • Statins - statins have a very bad record in this respect

 Sources of vitamin D

I actually have a complementary activity in this suppression section called Being naked in the sun, whose purpose is to help us get more sun for reasons other than just health, but it is clear from the description above, that this activity serves a multitude of purposes.

In the same way, Eating for health and Sexy eating are also complementary activities.   As the aim should be to eat your way to health via foods containing Vitamin D, if you cannot get enough via sunshine alone.

Rather than produce a simple list of foodstuffs containing Vitamin D, I have instead taken the information from the USDA Nutrients database and reproduced it here.  I have excluded all fortified and manufactured foods, simply because they are not universally available.  What should be apparent is that only a limited number of 'pure' foods contain Vitamin D.  Despite its extraordinary importance to our health the main sources are Sunshine, Fish, Eggs, Animal fats of various sorts, Mushrooms and Butter.

Indians who have a vegetarian diet use ghee and live in the sunshine.  Westerners with a vegetarian diet using vegetable oils and not eating fish are at great risk unless they make a lot of effort to be in the sun a great deal.

One source outside the USDA has stated that sprouted seeds such as alfalfa contain Vitamin D. 

Description	Vitamin D (D2 + D3) (µg) Value Per
Fish oil, cod liver	250.00
Mushrooms, maitake, raw	28.10
Fish, halibut, Greenland, raw	27.40
Fish, mackerel, salted	25.20
Fish, carp, raw	24.70
Fish, eel, mixed species, raw	23.30
Salmon, sockeye, canned, drained solids, without skin and bones	21.50
Fish, salmon, sockeye, canned, drained solids	21.00
Fish, trout, rainbow, farmed, cooked, dry heat	19.00
Salmon, sockeye, canned, total can contents	19.00
Fish, salmon, chinook, smoked	17.10
Fish, swordfish, cooked, dry heat	16.60
Fish, mackerel, Atlantic, raw	16.10
Fish, sturgeon, mixed species, smoked	16.10
Fish, trout, rainbow, farmed, raw	15.90
Fish, salmon, pink, canned, drained solids	14.50
Fish, Salmon, pink, canned, drained solids, without skin and bones	14.10
Fish, swordfish, raw	13.90
Fish, salmon, pink, canned, total can contents	13.70
Fish, cisco, smoked	13.30
Mushrooms, portabella, exposed to ultraviolet light, grilled	13.10
Fish, salmon, sockeye, cooked, dry heat	13.10

Fish, sturgeon, mixed species, raw	10.30
Fish, snapper, mixed species, raw	10.20
Fish, salmon, chum, canned, drained solids with bone	9.60
Fish, mackerel, Pacific and jack, mixed species, raw	9.10
Fish, salmon, coho, wild, raw	9.00
Fish oil, sardine	8.30

Fish, mackerel, jack, canned, drained solids	7.30
Fish, mackerel, spanish, raw	7.30
Fish, tuna, light, canned in oil, drained solids	6.70
Fish, halibut, Atlantic and Pacific, cooked, dry heat	5.80
Fish, tuna, fresh, bluefin, raw	5.70
Fish, sea bass, mixed species, raw	5.60
Egg, yolk, raw, fresh	5.40
Fish, herring, Atlantic, cooked, dry heat	5.40

Mushrooms, Chanterelle, raw	5.30
Egg, yolk, raw, frozen, pasteurized	5.20
Mushrooms, morel, raw	5.10
Fat, chicken	4.80
Fat, duck	4.80
Fat, turkey	4.80
Fish, sardine, Atlantic, canned in oil, drained solids with bone	4.80
Fish, sardine, Pacific, canned in tomato sauce, drained solids with bone	4.80
Fish, shad, american, raw	4.80
Fish, halibut, Atlantic and Pacific, raw	4.70
Fish, rockfish, Pacific, mixed species, cooked, dry heat	4.60

Fish, herring, Atlantic, raw	4.20
Fish, cod, Atlantic, dried and salted	4.00
Mushrooms, shiitake, dried	3.90
Fish, trout, mixed species, raw	3.90
Fish, rockfish, Pacific, mixed species, raw	3.80

Fish, flatfish (flounder and sole species), cooked, dry heat	3.50
Chicken, broilers or fryers, separable fat, raw	3.30

Egg, yolk, raw, frozen, sugared, pasteurized	3.10
Egg, whole, dried	3.10
Egg, yolk, raw, frozen, salted, pasteurized	3.10
Pork, fresh, backfat, raw	3.10
Fish, tilapia, raw	3.10

Fish, perch, mixed species, raw	3.00
Fish, caviar, black and red, granular	2.90
Yogurt, Greek	2.80
Fish, flatfish (flounder and sole species), raw	2.80
Fish, herring, Atlantic, pickled	2.80
Pork, fresh, spareribs, separable lean and fat, cooked, braised	2.60
Lard	2.50
Meat drippings (lard, beef tallow, mutton tallow)	2.50
Animal fat, bacon grease	2.50
Fish, pike, northern, raw	2.50
Egg, whole, cooked, fried	2.20

Egg, whole, cooked, hard-boiled	2.20
Pork, fresh, spareribs, separable lean and fat, cooked, roasted	2.20
Fish, herring, Atlantic, kippered	2.20
Egg, whole, raw, fresh	2.00
Egg, whole, cooked, poached	2.00
Fish, tuna, white, canned in water, drained solids	2.00
Fish, tuna, yellowfin, fresh, cooked, dry heat	2.00
Turkey and pork sausage, fresh, bulk, patty or link, cooked	2.00

Ghee	1.80
Egg, whole, cooked, scrambled	1.80

Pork, fresh, separable fat, cooked	1.80
Fish, whiting, mixed species, cooked, dry heat	1.80
Egg, whole, cooked, omelet	1.70
Egg, duck, whole, fresh, raw	1.70
Egg, goose, whole, fresh, raw	1.70
Pork, fresh, separable fat, raw	1.70
Pork, fresh, shoulder, whole, separable lean and fat, raw	1.70
Fish, anchovy, european, canned in oil, drained solids	1.70
Fish, tuna, fresh, yellowfin, raw	1.70
Butter, salted	1.50

 

 

How it works

Vitamin D itself is a healing substance as such we have observations in the list below that show how it helps health.

But deficiency and overdose can  both produce hallucinations and psychosis.  It should be clear that hallucinations and 'psychosis' including such illnesses as schizophrenia and manic depression do not have one cause, they have multiple causes.  But it appears that Vitamin deficiency is one of them and more specifically Vitamin D deficiency. 

The following is pure speculation, because as yet the cause effect chain has not been investigated, but I think the person has a parasite, virus, bacteria, fungi, toxin, heavy metal or even a pharmaceutical/drug in their system.  The vitamin D deficiency has a knock on effect in suppressing their immune system and once the immune system can no longer fight the onslaught, the pathogen gets to the brain and starts doing damage there.  The following chart comes from the ehealthme web site.  In looking at the chart we need to remember that this is just those who were tested, it may well be that thousands never have been, so we do not in reality know the actual number, but we do know it exists.  This chart tells us that there is a link.

On Feb, 18, 2014: 36,486 people who have bipolar disorder are studied. Among them, 32 (0.09%) have Vitamin D Decreased.

References and further reading

• PLoS One. 2013 Nov 4;8(11):e78987. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0078987. eCollection 2013.  Dietary adequacy of vitamin D and calcium among Inuit and Inuvialuit women of child-bearing age in Arctic Canada: a growing concern. Kolahdooz F, Barr A, Roache C, Sheehy T, Corriveau A, Sharma S. Aboriginal and Global Health Research Group, Department of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Related observations

Healing observations

• A pilot study assessing the effect of prolonged administration of high daily doses of vitamin D on the clinical course of vitiligo and psoriasis 012054
• Association of 25-hydroxyvitamin D with metabolic syndrome in patients with psoriasis: a case-control study 012055
• Cancer prevention by natural compounds 017699
• Cod liver oil and Multiple Sclerosis 012191
• Cod liver oil and respiratory tract infections in children 012185
• Cod liver oil as both preventative and healing medicine 012188
• Cod liver oil, Dementia and Alzheimers disease 012194
• Cod liver oil, fish and Multiple Sclerosis above the Arctic Circle 012193
• Croll, Oswald - Preface of Signatures – 16 016034
• Dairy products and osteoporosis 005634
• Dairy products vitamins and mineral 005906
• Depression and nutritional deprivation 011995
• Early Detection of Autism (ASD) by a Non-invasive Quick Measurement of Markedly Reduced Acetylcholine & DHEA and Increased β-Amyloid (1-42), Asbestos (Chrysotile), Titanium Dioxide, Al, Hg & often Coexisting Virus Infections (CMV, HPV 16 and 18), Bacteria 022802
• Effect of narrowband ultraviolet B therapy on inflammatory markers and body fat composition in moderate to severe psoriasis 015619
• Erectile dysfunction, Endothelial dysfunction, Vitamin D deficiency and cod liver oil 012196
• Flemish children and vitamin D 007167
• Higher predicted vitamin D status is associated with reduced risk of Crohn's disease 026328
• Honey cough mixture from country housewives 010126
• Is Postpartum Depression a Disease of Modern Civilization? 027731
• Lack of sunlight, osteoporosis and obesity 006225
• Lion cubs, rickets and cod liver oil 012186
• Liver disease, Vitamin D deficiency and Hepatitis C 012058
• Mrs Grieve on Fenugreek 016791
• Mrs Grieve on Skullcaps 017484
• Mrs Grieve on the Scotch Thistle 017238
• Myasthenia Gravis and Vitamin D Deficiency 012198
• Natural Vitamin D sources 007165
• Nutraceuticals for blood pressure control 017739
• Nutrition and the psychoneuroimmunology of postpartum depression 027723
• Psoriasis and nutrition 012060
• PubMed - Physical activity in preschool children: comparison between Montessori and traditional preschools 015193
• Results of a Prostate Cancer/Vitamin D Trial: Effectiveness Safety Recommendations 029480
• Rickets reappears in Denmark 012183
• Sunlight and health 006223
• Sunlight and health II 006224
• Sunlight and health III 006226
• Sunlight is an important determinant of vitamin D serum concentrations in cystic fibrosis 020160
• Sunlight, Vitamin D and Breast cancer 012195
• Sunlight, Vitamin D and Multiple Sclerosis 012192
• Sunshine as a cure for illness 026789
• The benefits of Omega 3 fatty acids 006175
• The healing effects of Vitamin D and sunlight 012466
• USDA Nutrients - Fish, Cod 012455
• USDA Nutrients - Fish, Herring 012459
• USDA Nutrients - Fish, Mackerel 012472
• USDA Nutrients - Fish, Oysters 012458
• USDA Nutrients - Fish, Salmon 012487
• USDA Nutrients - Fish, Sardines 012453
• USDA Nutrients - Fish, Scallops 012457
• Vitamin D deficiency and Hyperthyroidism 012197
• Vitamin D deficiency and the Epstein Barr Virus 012199
• Vitamin D deficiency in chronic idiopathic urticaria 015909
• Vitamin D deficiency, liver and kidney disease 007168
• Vitamin D deficiency, Psoriasis and Obesity 012056
• Vitamin D deficiency, thyroid disease and obesity 012059
• Vitamin D status in patients with chronic plaque psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis 012057
• Vitamin D, cod-liver oil, sunlight, and rickets: a historical perspective. 012187
• Vitamin D, sunlight and TB 007166
• Vitiligo and Vitamin D deficiency 010133
• Vitiligo co-morbidities 010134
• Vitiligo, Psoriasis and Vitamin D 010132

Hallucination

• Calcium deficiency and hallucinations 005696
• Vitamin D deficiency and its effects 007172
• Vitamin D deficiency and psychiatric problems in the elderly 007171
• Vitamin D deficiency and psychosis 007170

Wisdom, Inspiration, Divine love & Bliss

• Watson, James Dewey - On sun and sex 006228

Other observations

• Cigarette smoke exposure is associated with vitamin D3 deficiencies in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis 019901
• Gastric sleeve for obese causes problems 006847