Great New Drug Discovery, Prevents Cancer Too

A recent study reports that over 75 percent of advanced cancer patients have low levels of Vitamin D.  Read about it here. The lowest levels of Vitamin D are associated with the most advanced cancers.

Vitamin D has become the new wonder drug. Vitamin D deficiency is implicated in Multiple Sclerosis. Flu season is the season when our sunlight deficiency causes a drop in our Vitamin D levels and a corresponding drop in the health of our immune systems.  Moderate to high doses may reduce heart disease, and can slow the progress of congestive heart failure. Of course we have known for years that Vitamin D deficiency causes as loss of bone density progressing to rickets.  Vitamin D is a commonly recommended preventative for osteoporosis. Vitamin D is now being studied for diabetes because it decreases insulin resistance - a benefit for diabetics.

What's wrong with this picture?  It hi-lights some serious deficiencies in our medical paradigm.  We need a health paradigm. 

1. Vitamin D is a nutrient. Not a drug. It is studied as it if was a drug.

2. The main natural source of Vitamin D is sunshine. But people who sell sunscreen have built a huge propaganda message against sunshine - so many doctors are reluctant to prescribe sunshine to prevent disease.  Fewer are likely to recommend sunshine for health. I have read - but not seen specific studies - that melanomas do NOT develop on areas of our skin that receive the most sun - the face and hands. Research published in the British Journal of Dermatology concluded that the perceived statistical increase in melanomas is most likely due to a shift in diagnoses which classify non-malignant lesions as cancerous. And countries near the equator,where the sun is strongest - tend to have lowest incidences of skin cancer. What's up with that? Here's Mercola's post on this item - the comments are interesting as well.

The wind is my drug - and now the sun as well. 


3. We have clearly documented measurements of 'the amount of Vitamin D required to prevent illness'.  Of course these numbers are being revised in light of new findings.  But we have no recommendations, and no studies, of the amount of Vitamin D consumption (or creation via exposure to sunlight) that will optimize health. We only research for the 'minimum to prevent disease' and then we measure drug like effects when Vitamin D is used to treat disease.

4. You can be deficient in Vitamin D.  Deficiency in Vitamin D means that you are consuming, or producing through exposure to sunlight, less than the RDA of Vitamin D.  You can be preficient in Vitamin D.  Preficiency exists when your Vitamin D levels are below the 'optimal' level of Vitamin D. But we do not know the optimal levels of Vitamin D.  There are no studies to measure the optimal intake, or even optimal range, of any nutrient. So, we don't know what amount of Vitamin D is most healthy. And we don't know what amount of sunshine is most healthy.

5. Vitamin D affects your health. But we don't study health, we only study illness. How Vitamin D affects your health is poorly studied - and recent studies of Vitamin D are all focused on illness, not on health.

This might explain why the information about Vitamin D has remained hidden from view for so long. We are now starting to study Vitamin D deficiency more often, but we do not yet study Vitamin D preficiency, nor Vitamin D health. It also makes me wonder what other nutrient imbalances hold keys to illness - that we don't understand because we don't study health.

6. Vitamin D is studied in isolation. All nutrients tend to be studied, as if  they are drugs, in isolation. When we learn to measure health, and to determine the correct amounts of nutrients for optimal health - we will learn about combinations of nutrients and how they affect health.  Studies to date on multi-vitamin supplements, for example, treat each multi-vitamin recipe as a drug, and measure results as if they were drugs.  Effects on health are not measured, because we don't measure health effectively. Only effects on illness are measured.

In theory, we should be able to:

a) Measure the health level of a person and the changes over a span of time, along many of the dimensions in the hierarchy of health.  At present there are no established techniques to effectively measure and compare the health of so called 'healthy' individuals.

b) Measure the nutrient intake and changes in nutrient intake of the same person over the same span of time.  It is very easy for our intake of nutrients to drift over time, without us being aware.  We seldom evaluate diets - and are less likely to evaluate diets for overall nutrient content.  Instead, diets are evaluated for factors that do not contribute directly to health - but might contribute to illness - calories, unhealthy fats, etc.

c) Analyze the relationships between nutrient intake, changes in nutrient intake, and health.

Instead, we measure when illness is found. We deliberately wait until something breaks, and then try to fix it, or try to figure out how to prevent it from breaking, without understanding

Your body is always growing, healing, repairing, working to improve your health.  Working to restore health imbalances. Every person has a different level of health, different health strengths and weaknesses. But none of us have a clear idea what our individual strengths and weaknesses are.  Which of the over 100 essential nutrients are in your diet in healthy amounts?  What types of exercise are most healthy for your personal body?

Frankly, we don't know much about health. Hopefully we can start learning. You have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of healthiness.

Yours in health, tracy

Tracy is the author of two book about healthicine: 

Personal Health Freedom 

Are You Preficient

What is preficient?  Deficient is a medical term, relating to illness, not to health.

Preficient is when your nutrient consumption is below the amount for optimal health.

This raises two issues:
1. We don't know the optimal healthy amount for any nutrient
2. We don't measure health scientifically, so we cannot make scientific statements about health optimization.

But we can know many things, and use this information to build healthier bodies, families and communities. Let's start with the basic diagram of deficiency, healthy and excessive nutrient consumption. We'll start with Vitamin A.  What do we know about healthy consumption of Vitamin A? Your consumption of Vitamin A might be deficient, healthy, or excessive.

The RDA, or AI - Adequate Intake of Vitamin A, according to the  Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences  is 900 ug per day (600 ug for females due to smaller size). The tolerable upper level is 3000 ug per day. Note the IOM advises that these numbers are general - individual results may vary.

So, the optimal amount for optimal health might be somewhere between 900 mg per day, and 3000 mg per day, according to the scientific opinions of the IOM.  These numbers are not exact, and have personal individual variations even in healthy individuals. They are designed for use in planning nutrients for healthy people. They are also constantly being researched and debated.

We can update the diagram with these numbers.

The definition of the RDA is such that prolonged deficiency results in a medical condition.  The UL is defined where prolonged excess results in symptoms, eg - the IOM does not define the level at which a medical condition will result from excessive Vitamin A.


Somewhere between the RDA and possibly above the UL - is where we will find the optimal nutrient intake level for Vitamin A.

The IOM does not attempt to define an intake level of Vitamin A (or any nutrient) to optimize health - IOM recommendations are specifically designed to avoid illness (deficiency) or symptoms (in excess). There are other sources that do research and provide recommendations for health.

SONA (Suggested Optimum Nutrient Allowance) provides a well researched estimate of the optimal intake of Vitamin A. Their recommendations are summarized in this diagram:

SONA recommends 2000 ug per day for adults to create optimal health.  They state that toxicity can appear at 100,000 ug per day in healthy individuals - but caution that lower toxicity levels exist during pregnancy.

Clearly looking from a health view (SONA) provides very different advice than looking from a sickness view (IOM).  As we should expect.

But, the title of this blog is "Are You Preficient?"  What is 'preficient'?  Preficient is pre-deficient. Eg. it is the space between the optimal consumption of Vitamin A and the deficiency (RDA) level of Vitamin A consumption.

You might be preficient, or deficient.  If deficient, you might suffer specific illnesses over the long term.  If preficient - you will not have optimal health.

When we map the IOM numbers (RDA) and the SONA numbers into a diagram, we can clearly see deficiency and preficiency levels.

X marks the area of preficiency for Vitamin A.  If you are a male, over the age of 19 consuming less than 2000 ug per day - you may be preficient.  If you consume less than 900 ug per day, you may be deficient.

What do we know about deficiency?  Vitamin A deficiency over long periods of time, causes disease.

What do we know about preficiency? Preficiency is defined as 'the level below optimal health'.  Preficiency might cause disease, or contribute to illness - where we have not yet found a link between the preficiency and the illness.

Vitamin A deficiency causes night blindness.  Many seniors develop night blindness - which in some cases can be successfully treated with high doses of Vitamin A.  Could long term deficiency, or even long term preficiency of Vitamin A cause night blindness? If we simply 'treat' night blindness with high doses of Vitamin A - we simply fix the problem when it is detected.  If we act to improve health, instead of simply treating illness - we can avoid the problem before it occurs. We will also be acting to prevent permanent damage caused by Vitamin A preficiency or deficiency.

You might think that no-one, or hardly anyone is deficient.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture USDA's Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals, 60.1 percent of males over the age of 19 do not consume the RDA of Vitamin A.  And 58.7 percent of females as well. Over 25 percent of males and females consumed less than half the RDA of Vitamin A.

Approximately sixty percent of us may be deficient in Vitamin A.  Over 25 percent are almost certainly deficient in Vitamin A.  However, it is important to note that the Office of Dietary Supplements of the National Institute of Health reports "Vitamin A deficiency rarely occurs in the United States"  -- strange? What's going on here?

How many are preficient?  We don't know, but we do know it is higher than 60 percent.

Vitamin A is a single nutrient. We know that a majority of adults are preficient of Vitamin A.  We can guess that there are many other nutrients that are also preficient.  But we don't measure preficiency. And we don't measure health - nor health level changes that might be caused by preficiency.

We should.  We might learn, for example, that some specific diseases are caused by combined preficiencies.  For example, if an adult is preficient in Vitamin A, and preficient in Omega 3 oils, and deficient in Vitamin B5 - we might find a very specific disease that is directly caused by this combination.

The truth is, we hardly measure deficiencies.  And we don't study illness and disease caused by minor, or short term deficiencies.  So we cannot take the next step - and measure illness and disease caused by combinations of deficiencies. There are many groups of diseases where our current 'medical paradigm' cannot find the cause. Maybe a health paradigm will help us to find some of these causes.

What can you do?  You have only one choice - to do your own research, and make your own decisions.  Because even the best information available from the IOM is only valid for 'healthy individuals'.  And we don't measure health, so we have no idea how healthy you are - or how healthy I am. You may be able to change your diet to ensure that you consume sufficient quantities of Vitamin A.  But if you think you can meet all of your nutritional needs for optimal health through diet - you may want to check out the food myth. 

I am not a doctor - I cannot make medical recommendations. But in the case of Vitamin A, there is an easy out.  You can consume beta-carotene, which your body uses to create Vitamin A as required.  Beta-carotene is benign - it does not appear to be toxic even at extremely high levels of consumption.  So you can safely change your diet, or supplement your diet to increase your intake of Beta-carotene, and ensure your Vitamin A consumption is not preficient.

How many other nutrients are essential to optimal health?  We don't know for certain.  What quantities are required for optimal health? For certain - we don't know.

Yours in health,
tracy

Tracy is the author of two book about healthicine: 

www.personalhealthfreedom.com 

Hierarchy of Health - Primary and Secondary Disciplines

Health is defined as: “the combined state of physical, mental and social well being”

Note: You can see more recent posts about Healthicine here: What is Healthicine and Hierarchy of Healthicine.

The primary disciplines of health can be derived in a hierarchical fashion from the foundations of life.

Genetics is the foundation of health. Health begins with genetics, as does life. There is no genetically perfect human - by design.  Genetics must vary the elements in development of life to guard against toxins, viruses, bacteria, and other real and potential stressors.

Nutrition is the next layer in the hierarchy of health. Genetics require appropriate nutrients to develop in the first place.  The continued development of life requires many nutrients. As life becomes more complex - human life is very complex - nutrition also becomes more complex.

Nutrition is the foundation of health freedom. We have little control over our genetics.  We have significant control over our nutrients. I believe we need significantly more control over our nutrients.

Cells are the next step in the development of life.  Cells are complex organisms made up of a variety of chemical (nutrient) components with a genetic core. The first cellular organisms were able to live on their own.  Gradually they developed cooperation with other types of cells. The human body contains over 100 different types of cells, many of which are living, growing, reproducing and dying at any time.  Healthy cells are a fundamental element of health. Cellular health is dependent on genetic and nutritional health.  Cellular health includes the non-human flora that is part of our bodies and our health.

Tissues are colonies of similar cells, working together for a common function.  Muscle tissue, connective tissue, nerve tissue, etc. Tissue health is the next fundamental element of health. Tissue health is dependent on genetic health, nutritional health and cellular health.

Organs are structures consisting of two or more types of cells cooperating for a higher purpose. Your heart, lungs, and skin are organs that contribute to your health.  Organ health is dependent on all prior layers of health.

Systems are composed of two or more organs, working together to provide a higher function. Your circulatory system is composed of your heart, blood vessels and blood. System health is a higher level of health that is also dependent on each of the preceding layers.

Body is the final physical component of health.  Your body consists of all of the genetics, nutrients, cells, organs and systems needed for life.  The health of your body is dependent on the health of each of those components.

Mind is a component of health that rises above the body. The mind is more than just a calculator, or just an awareness.  Or mind re-minds us to eat when we are hungry, to hunt when we have no food, and learns to store food and eventually to farm so that we can plan for food in the future. The mind is rich and varied - in animals, the mind of a predator is very different from the mind of a prey animal. People can be of many different minds.  A health mind is essential to overall health, and a health mind is dependent on all of the preceding elements.

Spirit rises above the simple calculations and planning of the mind. Although animals might not have spirituality, they definitely have spirit. The spirit and spirituality of humans is rich and complex.  A health spirit is essential to optimal health.

Community, people working together, helping each other.  At the simplest level, mothers raising children.  Human children are very dependent on their community and will die without support. As we grow and develop, so do our many communities.  Communities are a valuable component of health - not only that - healthy communities contribute to maintain and improve health through each of the elements, from genetics, nutrition, cells through to more healthy communities.

These are the fundamental elements of health: genetics, nutrients, cells, tissues, organs, systems, body, mind spirit and community.  In the study of health, this is where we start.

Although medical textbooks cover the basics of genetics, nutrition, cells, tissues, organs, systems, bodies, minds and communities, we seldom study them with a health optimization goal. Their goals tend towards  'if they are ill, we need to fix it', otherwise 'you are healthy and do not need medical assistance'. There are some attempts to improve health for high level athletic competition, but it is aimed at improving strength, endurance, etc. sometimes to the detriment of overall health.

I believe health must be measured, on a scale of 1 to 10, for example if statements about health are to be of any value.  Our current binary view of health - either healthy or sick - is a poor tool for health optimization.  Measuring health on a broader scale will increase our information about health and also contribute to our knowledge of illness.

Each of these elements has an effect on the others.  Combined effects can potentially be very, very complex. It is worthwhile to enumerate and study the secondary components of health that can be generated by simple combinations of the above.

This chart diagrams the primary disciplines of health, and the first level combinations, to create a graphic of the primary and secondary disciplines of health. Click this text to see a full size view. .

Again we see many familiar studies from medical research.  But not from health research. And some interesting items appear that maybe haven't been thought about before, in a comprehensive health view.  Spirit and Cells, for example. How might the health of your cells affect your spirituality?  How might your spirituality affect the health of your cells.  There is much more here than a first glance reveals.

Yours in health, and personal health freedom
tracy
www.personalhealthfreedom.com


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Tracy is the author of two book about healthicine: