Impt Tools for Parkinson's: Curcumin Vitamin D and Omega-3

Turmeric contains curcumin, the polyphenol identified as its primary active component and which exhibits over 150 potentially therapeutic activities, which include antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties.1

July 08, 2013                   

Story at-a-glance

• Curcumin crosses the blood-brain barrier and exhibits potent neuroprotective properties, leading researchers to investigate it as a possible drug alternative in the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease
• Unlike Parkinson’s drugs, curcumin, a polyphenol identified as the primary active component of the spice turmeric, it reduces inflammation and oxidative damage in the brain
• Curcumin has also shown promise for preventing other brain disorders, including dementia, Huntington’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease
• Parkinson’s disease is related to certain lifestyle factors, including exposure to pesticides, paint and solvents, and vitamin D deficiency; animal-based omega-3 fats are also a powerful defense against Parkinson's

By Dr. Mercola

Most spices have powerful medicinal properties, which is precisely why they've been used to promote healing for thousands of years prior to the advent of modern, synthetic drug-based medicine.  

One such spice is turmeric, the yellow-pigmented "curry spice" often used in Indian cuisine. Turmeric contains curcumin, the polyphenol identified as its primary active component and which exhibits over 150 potentially therapeutic activities, which include antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties.¹  

Curcumin is capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, which is one reason why it holds promise as a neuroprotective agent in a wide range of neurological disorders.  

Researchers have investigated curcumin for its potential role in improving Parkinson's disease .

Preliminary results indicate that it may hold even more promise than the drugs currently used for this disorder, many of which (ironically) have serious neurotoxic side effects, including dyskinesia – a movement disorder identical to the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. 

Natural Curcumin Extract Outshines Parkinson's Drugs 

Parkinson's is a neurodegenerative disease caused by a steady depletion of dopamine-producing nerve cells, particularly in the area of your brain referred to as the substantia nigra. Most of the current drug treatments for Parkinson's disease, known as dopamine agonists, focus on replenishing dopamine.  

Although such treatments provide symptomatic relief during early Parkinson's disease, they are ineffective in the long term where they may actually increase symptoms such as tremor, postural instability and cognitive deficits that are common with this disease. They are also associated with motor complications and a laundry list of other strange and disturbing side effects, including: 

Euphoria	Nausea
Hallucinations	Insomnia
Causing or worsening psychosis	Unusual tiredness or weakness
Orthostatic hypotension (a dizzy spell caused by a sudden drop in blood pressure)	Dizziness, drowsiness, lightheadedness, or fainting
Increased orgasmic intensity	Twitching, twisting, or other unusual body movements
Weight loss	Pathological addiction (gambling, shopping, internet pornography, hypersexuality)

As researchers noted in the journal Current Pharmaceutical Design:²

"Most of the current pharmacotherapeutic approaches in PD [Parkinson's disease] are aimed at replenishing the striatal dopamine. Although these drugs provide symptomatic relief during early PD, many patients develop motor complications with long-term treatment. Further, PD medications do not effectively tackle tremor, postural instability and cognitive deficits.

Most importantly, most of these drugs do not exhibit neuroprotective effects in patients. Consequently, novel therapies involving natural antioxidants and plant products/molecules with neuroprotective properties are being exploited for adjunctive therapy."

Unlike Parkinson's drugs, curcumin is neuroprotective and several studies strongly support its use for the treatment of Parkinson's. For example:

• Curcumin showed neuroprotective properties in an animal model of Parkinson's disease; the beneficial effect was thought to be related, in part, to its antioxidant capabilities and its ability to penetrate the brain.³
• Curcumin alleviated the effects of glutathione depletion, which causes oxidative stress, mitochondria dysfunction and cell death – and is a feature of early Parkinson's disease.⁴
• The c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling pathway is involved in dopaminergic neuronal degeneration, which is in turn associated with Parkinson's. Curcumin prevents dopaminergic neuronal death through inhibition of the JNK pathway, and thereby offers a neuroprotective effect that may be beneficial for Parkinson's.⁵
• Slow-wriggling alpha-synuclein proteins can cause clumping, which is the first step for diseases such as Parkinson's. Curcumin helps prevent the proteins from clumping.⁶

 

Curcumin Is a Powerful Ally for Your Brain Health 

For years now turmeric, and its active ingredient curcumin, have shown powerful benefits to your brain health. One of the ways that it works, similar to vitamin D, is modulating large numbers of your genes; in fact, curcumin has been shown to influence more than 700 genes. 

The potential healing power of this spice, which is an important part of Eastern cultural traditions including traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda, perhaps first came about when it was noticed that the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease among older adults in India is more than four times lower than the rate in the United States.    

Why such a significant difference?  

Some researchers believe the answer for this drastic disparity in Alzheimer's disease prevalence is a direct result of curcumin. Research has shown that curcumin may help inhibit the accumulation of destructive beta amyloids in the brain of Alzheimer's patients, as well as break up existing plaques. People with Alzheimer's tend to have higher levels of inflammation in their brains, and curcumin is perhaps most known for its potent anti-inflammatory properties. The compound can inhibit both the activity and the inflammatory metabolic byproducts of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX2) and 5-lipooxygenase (5-LOX) enzymes, as well as other enzymes and hormones that modulate inflammation. 

And that's not all. The growing interest in curcumin over the past 50 years is understandable when you consider the many health benefits researchers have found when studying this spice. According to an ever-expanding clinical body of studies, curcumin may help: 

Reduce cholesterol levels	Prevent low-density lipoprotein oxidation	Inhibit platelet aggregation
Suppress thrombosis and myocardial infarction	Suppress symptoms associated with type 2 diabetes	Suppress symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis
Suppress symptoms of multiple sclerosis	Suppress symptoms of Alzheimer's disease	Inhibit HIV replication
Suppress tumor formation	Enhance wound healing	Protect against liver damage
Increase bile secretion	Protect against cataracts	Protect against pulmonary toxicity and fibrosis

 

Two More Important Tools for Parkinson's: Vitamin D and Omega-3 

There is a correlation between insufficient levels of vitamin D and the development of early Parkinson's disease, and research has suggested that long-term deficiency may play a role in the pathogenesis of the disease. There are three major points you want to remember about vitamin D:

1. Your best source for this vitamin is exposure to the sun, without sunblock on your skin, until your skin turns the lightest shade of pink. While this isn't always possible due to the change of the seasons and your geographic location (and your skin color), this is the ideal to aim for. A safe tanning bed is the next best option, followed by oral vitamin D3 supplementation.
2. If you do supplement with vitamin D, you'll only want to supplement with natural vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol). Do NOT use the synthetic and highly inferior vitamin D2, which is the one most doctors will give you in a prescription most of the time unless you ask specifically for D3.
3. Get your vitamin D blood levels checked! The only way to determine the correct dose is to have your blood tested since there are so many variables that influence your vitamin D status. I recommend using Lab Corp in the U.S. Getting the correct test is the first step in this process, as there are TWO vitamin D tests currently being offered: 1,25(OH)D and 25(OH)D.

From my perspective, the preferred test your doctor needs to order is 25(OH)D, also called 25-hydroxyvitamin D, which is the better marker of overall D status. This is the marker that is most strongly associated with overall health. You'll want to optimize your levels according to the chart below. If you currently have Parkinson's disease you will want to keep your vitamin D level in the higher 70-100 ng/ml range to help fight the disease.  

  

Animal-based omega-3 fats are also a powerful defense against Parkinson's, as they contain two fatty acids crucial to human health, DHA and EPA. Most of the neurological benefits of omega-3 oils are derived from the DHA component rather than the EPA component. 

In fact, DHA is one of the major building blocks of your brain. About half of your brain and eyes are made up of fat, much of which is DHA -- making it an essential nutrient for optimal brain and eye function. Your brain activity actually depends greatly upon the functions provided by its outer, fatty waxy membrane to act as an electrical nerve-conduction cable. In your brain alone, DHA may help to ward off Parkinson's by:

• Reducing brain inflammation
• Stimulating neuron growth, and development and repair of synapses. (Your brain is a vast complex system of nerve cells sending and receiving electrical impulses across junctions called synapses. The small space between the two cells is where the action occurs. One neuron may synapse with as many as 1,000 other neurons.)
• DHA protects your brain's function by supporting optimal glutamate function. Glutamate and GABA are considered your brain's 'workhorse' neurotransmitters. They work together to control your brain's overall level of excitability, which controls many body processes.

I believe krill oil is your best option for getting animal-based omega-3 fats because of the fact that the omega-3 is attached to phospholipids that dramatically increase its absorption, especially into brain tissue.

Lifestyle Changes to Help Prevent Parkinson's 

Parkinson's disease is related to lifestyle factors, including the following:  

Environmental toxins and pesticides	Aspartame consumption
Petroleum-based hydrocarbon solvents, like paint and glue	Deficiencies in vitamin D and vitamin B folate
Excess iron in your body	Pasteurized milk

In addition to avoiding these toxic exposures, I recommend lifestyle adjustments including:

• Exercise regularly, including high-intensity exercise like Peak Fitness. It's one of the best ways to protect against the onset of symptoms of Parkinson's disease
• Get plenty of sunshine to optimize your vitamin D levels
• Avoid pesticide and insecticide exposure (as well as exposure to other environmental toxins like solvents)
• Eat more organic vegetables, which are high in folate, the natural form of folic acid (folate after all comes from foliage)
• Make sure your body has healthy levels of iron and manganese (neither too much nor too little of either)
• Consider supplementing coenzyme Q10, which may help to fight the disease. But remember, the oxidized form of coenzyme Q10 called ubiquinone or plain CoQ10 is actually found in elevated levels in neurodegenerative conditions involving enhanced oxidative stress, as it is a residual marker of lipid peroxidation (brain rancidity). This is why ubiquinol, the reduced form that is capable of donating electrons to quench brain-damaging free radicals, while at the same time providing a boost to brain mitochondrial function, is the only logical choice in Parkinson's disease and related neurodegenerative conditions.

As for getting the full benefits that curcumin has to offer, look for a turmeric extract that contains 100 percent certified organic ingredients, with at least 95 percent curcuminoids. The formula should be free of fillers, additives and excipients (a substance added to the supplement as a processing or stability aid), and the manufacturer should use safe production practices at all stages: planting, cultivation, selective harvesting, and then producing and packaging the final product.  

Unfortunately, at the present time there really are no formulations available for the use against cancer. This is because relatively high doses are required and curcumin is not absorbed that well. There is much work being done to provide a bioavailable formulation in the near future. 

In the event you need higher doses (such as in the case of treating cancer), use the curcumin powder and make a microemulsion of it by combining a tablespoon of the powder and mixing it into 1-2 egg yolks and a teaspoon or two of melted coconut oil. Then use a high-speed hand blender to emulsify the powder (be careful when doing so as curcumin is a very potent yellow pigment and can permanently discolor surfaces if you aren't careful).  

Another strategy that can help increase absorption is to put one tablespoon of the curcumin powder into a quart of boiling water. It must be boiling when you add the powder; it will not work as well if you put it in room temperature water and heat the water and curcumin. After boiling it for 10 minutes you will have created a 12 percent solution that you can drink once it has cooled down. It will have a woody taste. The curcumin will gradually fall out of the solution, however. In about six hours it will be a 6 percent solution, so it's best to drink the water within four hours

[-] Sources and References

• Current Pharmaceutical Design January 2012
• Green Med Info

• ¹ GreenMedInfo, Curcumin Health Benefits: 160 Pharmacological Actions
• ² Current Pharmaceutical Design January 2012
• ³ Free Radic Res. 2005 Oct;39(10):1119-25.
• ⁴ Free Radic Biol Med. 2008 Mar 1;44(5):907-17.
• ⁵ Rejuvenation Res. 2010 Feb;13(1):55-64.
• ⁶ Journal of Biological Chemistry March 16, 2012; 287(12): 9193-9199

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/07/08/curcumin-vs-drugs-for-parkinsons.aspx

This article was previously published as:
Curcumin: The Spice That Can Potentially Help Your Health in 150 Different Ways

Are you getting adequate sun exposure and Vitamin D?

More and more studies come out confirming the power of vitamin D, a steroid hormone, to influence virtually every cell in your body.  

Receptors that respond to vitamin D have been found in nearly every type of human cell, from your bones to your brain. 

Recent research shows that women can help reduce their children’s risk of Type 1 diabetes by optimizing their vitamin D levels prior to and during pregnancy, as vitamin D has been shown to suppress certain cells of the immune system that may be a factor in the disease. 

Studies published between 1990 and 2009 ³ also revealed a significant link between high levels of vitamin D and a lowered risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, along with cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome. 

It will likely take decades before healthy policy catches up with what overwhelming scientific evidence has already revealed about the benefits of vitamin D, and before increased sunlight exposure becomes the norm. 

But you don’t have to take part in the waiting game – you can optimize your levels right NOW. 

Ideally, you should regularly expose a large amount of your skin to healthy amounts of sunshine, preferably as close to solar noon as possible. Direct UV exposure translates to up to 20,000 units of vitamin D a day. 

You may also use a safe tanning bed or supplement with oral vitamin D3. If you choose to do the latter, have your vitamin D levels routinely tested by a proficient lab to see if you are within the therapeutic range.  

Follow age-appropriate vitamin D doses when supplementing.

VITAMIN D DOSE RECOMMENDATIONS
AGE	DOSAGE
Below 5	35 units per pound per day
Age 5 - 10	2500 units
Age 18 - 30	8000 units
Pregnant Women	8000 units
WARNING: There is no way to know if the above recommendations are correct. The ONLY way to know is to test your blood. You might need 4-5 times the amount recommended above. Ideally your blood level of 25 OH D should be 60ng/ml.

http://healthticket.blogspot.com/2013/12/must-read-you-can-prevent-or-cure-type.html

Top 5 Signs of Vitamin D Deficiency

Vitamin D deficiency is incredibly common around the world, but many mistakenly believe they aren't at risk because they consume vitamin D-fortified foods, such as milk. Few foods have therapeutic levels of vitamin D naturally, and even fortified foods do not contain enough vitamin D to support your health needs.

Analysis by Dr. Joseph MercolaFact Checked

January 01, 2019

 

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

• Top 5 signs you may have a vitamin D deficiency that you will notice as an individual include ongoing musculoskeletal pain, frequent or intense colds and flus, neurological symptoms such as depression, impaired cognition and headaches, unrelenting fatigue and head sweating
• As a society, three key things that indicate a vitamin D deficiency are increasing or stable rates of the incidence of breast cancer, the increase in the number of pre-term births and, now, an increase in the incidence of type 1 diabetes
• An estimated 40 percent of Americans are profoundly vitamin D deficient, defined as having a serum level below 20 ng/mL (50 nmol/L); 75 percent of American adults and teens are deficient when a sufficiency level of 30 ng/mL is used. If the sufficiency cutoff is moved to a healthy 40 to 60 ng/mL (100 to 150 nmol/L), as recommended by the GrassrootsHealth panel of 48 vitamin D researchers, deficiency rates in the U.S. would likely be in the high 90 percent bracket
• 20 ng/mL is grossly insufficient for good health and disease prevention. According to the most recent research, a vitamin D level between 60 and 80 ng/mL (150 to 200 nmol/L) appears to offer the greatest protection against cancer and other chronic diseases
• Pregnant women need a minimum vitamin D level of 40 ng/mL (100 nmol/L) to help prevent premature birth and other pregnancy complications
• Optimizing your vitamin D levels may help you prevent cancer, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, infections, neurodegenerative diseases and much more. Optimizing it is extremely simple and can be measured for success using an in-home test and some form of intake

Last year's 30-day new year's resolution guide was a big hit. This year, for the month of January, we will revisit this tip-a-day format by looking back at 30 of the most-read Mercola.com articles of all time, reviewing the topics readers have found most valuable over the years.

First on the list, and the topic of this article, is vitamin D deficiency. What are the risks? How can you determine if you're deficient? And what are the benefits of raising your vitamin D level?

Vitamin D deficiency is incredibly common around the world, but many mistakenly believe they aren't at risk because they consume vitamin D-fortified foods, such as milk. Few foods have therapeutic levels of vitamin D naturally, and even fortified foods do not contain enough vitamin D to support your health needs.

Despite its name, vitamin D is actually a steroid hormone that you obtain primarily through sun exposure, not via your diet. Since most dermatologists and other doctors recommend avoiding the sun and using sunscreen before venturing outdoors, vitamin D deficiency has reached truly epidemic proportions around the world.

Unfortunately, while the justification for sun avoidance is that it may reduce your risk of skin cancer, by avoiding sun exposure you risk vitamin D deficiency, which in turn raises your risk for many cancers — not only internal ones but also skin cancer, as well as a whole host of chronic diseases.

Considering the importance of vitamin D for disease prevention, strict sun avoidance is likely doing far more harm than good. The major problem with sun exposure is burning, not overall exposure. And, the easily treatable forms of skin cancer — squamous and basal cell carcinomas — are the ones most likely to form.

Definition of Vitamin D Deficiency

According to research1 published in June, 2018, an estimated 40 percent of Americans are profoundly vitamin D deficient, defined as having a serum (blood) level of vitamin D below 20 ng/mL (50 nmol/L). Sufficiency is defined as having a level of 20 ng/mL or higher.

Calling someone with a vitamin D level of less than 20 ng/ml vitamin D deficient is like calling someone over 400 pounds simply overweight; in both cases a grossly serious understatement.

Seventy-five percent of American adults and teens are deficient in vitamin D when a sufficiency level of 30 ng/mL is used.2 If the sufficiency cutoff were to be moved to 40 to 60 ng/mL, sufficiency rates in the U.S. would likely be in the high 90 percent bracket.

It's important to realize that 20 ng/mL has repeatedly been shown to be grossly insufficient for good health and disease prevention and, really, anything below 40 ng/mL (100 nmol/L) should be suspect. For example, research has shown that once you reach a minimum serum vitamin D level of 40 ng/mL, your risk for cancer diminishes by 67 percent, compared to having a level of 20 ng/mL or less.3

Most cancers occur in people with a vitamin D blood level between 10 and 40 ng/mL (25 to 100 nmol/L), and the optimal level for cancer protection now appears to be between 60 and 80 ng/mL (150 to 200 nmol/L).

Several studies also show that these higher vitamin D levels are protective against breast cancer specifically. Importantly, a 2005 study4 showed women with vitamin D levels above 60 ng/mL have an 83 percent lower risk of breast cancer than those below 20 ng/mL! I cannot think of any other strategy that can offer that kind of risk reduction.

More recently, a pooled analysis5 published in June 2018 of two randomized trials and a prospective cohort study came to a near-identical conclusion. The objective was to assess whether there are any benefits to having a vitamin D level above 40 ng/mL, as most studies do not venture into these higher levels.

Indeed, mirroring the 2005 findings, women with vitamin D levels at or above 60 ng/mL had an 82 percent lower incidence rate of breast cancer than those with levels of 20 ng/mL or less. Published research by GrassrootsHealth reveal as much as 80 percent of all breast cancer incidence could be prevented simply by optimizing vitamin D and nothing else.

Top 5 Signs of Vitamin D Deficiency

The only way to definitively identify vitamin D deficiency is via blood testing. However, there are some general signs and symptoms to be aware of as well. If any of the following apply to you, you should get your vitamin D levels tested sooner rather than later, and take proactive steps to boost your level into the 60 to 80 ng/mL range:

1.Ongoing musculoskeletal pain and achy bones — According to vitamin D researcher Dr. Michael Holick, many who see their doctor for aches and pains, especially in combination with fatigue, end up being misdiagnosed as having fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome.

"Many of these symptoms are classic signs of vitamin D deficiency osteomalacia,6 which is different from the vitamin D deficiency that causes osteoporosis in adults," Holick says. "What's happening is that the vitamin D deficiency causes a defect in putting calcium into the collagen matrix into your skeleton. As a result, you have throbbing, aching bone pain."7

2.Frequent illness/infections — Vitamin D regulates the expression of genes that influence your immune system to attack and destroy bacteria and viruses, so frequent illness and infections of all kinds, including colds and flu, is a tipoff that your immune function is subpar, which likely means you're low on vitamin D.

3.Neurological symptoms — This includes depression, "feeling blue, cognitive impairment, headaches and migraines. In 2006, scientists evaluated the effects of vitamin D on the mental health of 80 elderly patients and found those with the lowest levels of vitamin D were 11 times more prone to be depressed than those who received healthy doses.8

The same study also found low vitamin D was linked to poor cognitive performance. Several other studies9 have also linked vitamin D deficiency with poor mental function, confusion, forgetfulness and difficulty concentrating. Headaches and migraines are also associated with low vitamin D.10,11

4.Fatigue and daytime sleepiness — Studies have linked low vitamin D to persistent fatigue.12,13 In one case, a woman struggling with chronic fatigue, daytime sleepiness (hypersomnia), low back pain and daily headaches was found to have a vitamin D level below 6 ng/mL.

Her symptoms resolved once she raised it to 39 ng/mL.14 Another study15 found women with vitamin D levels below 29 ng/mL were more likely to complain of fatigue than those with levels above 30 ng/mL.

5.Head sweating — According to Holick, a classic sign of vitamin D deficiency is a sweaty head. In fact, physicians used to ask new mothers about head sweating in their newborns for this very reason. Excessive sweating in newborns due to neuromuscular irritability is still described as a common, early symptom of vitamin D deficiency.16

Top 5 Risk Factors for Vitamin D Deficiency

Several factors will influence your risk for vitamin D deficiency, including the following:

• Rarely spending time outdoors and/or always wearing sunscreen — Researchers have noted that vitamin D deficiency is prevalent in adults of all ages who always wear sun protection (which blocks vitamin D production) or limit their outdoor activities.17 The ideal time for sun exposure is between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., when the UVB rays are present.
• Darker skin — Your skin pigment acts as a natural sunscreen, so the more pigment you have, the more time you'll need to spend in the sun to make adequate amounts of vitamin D. If you have dark skin, you may need as much as 10 times more sun exposure to produce the same amount of vitamin D as a person with pale skin.
• Being 50 or older — As you get older, your skin doesn't make as much vitamin D in response to sun exposure. At the same time, your kidneys become less efficient at converting vitamin D into its active form. Older adults also tend to spend more time indoors (i.e. getting even less sun exposure and therefore vitamin D).
• Obesity — Because vitamin D is fat-soluble, body fat acts as a "sink" by collecting it. If you're overweight or obese, you're therefore likely going to need more vitamin D than a slimmer person. In one recent study,18 vitamin D deficiency was three times more prevalent in obese individuals.
• Gastrointestinal problems — Vitamin D is fat-soluble, which means if you have a gastrointestinal condition that affects your ability to absorb fat, you may have lower absorption of fat-soluble vitamins like vitamin D as well. This includes gut conditions like Crohn's, celiac and nonceliac gluten sensitivity and inflammatory bowel disease.

Health Benefits of Vitamin D Optimization

Optimizing your vitamin D levels has been shown to have a powerful effect on health, helping protect against a wide variety of diseases. Among them:

Dry eye syndromes.19,20

Macular degeneration,21,22 which is the No. 1 cause of blindness in the elderly.

Autoimmune diseases — Vitamin D is a potent immune modulator, making it very important for the prevention of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease and psoriasis, just to name a few.

Gastrointestinal diseases.23

Infectious diseases, including influenza and HIV.24,25

Inflammatory rheumatic diseases26 such as rheumatoid arthritis.

Osteoporosis and hip fractures.

Cardiovascular disease — Vitamin D is very important for reducing hypertension, atherosclerotic heart disease, heart attack and stroke, as it plays a vital role in protecting and repairing damage to your endothelium.27 It also helps trigger production of nitric oxide — which improves blood flow and prevents blood clot formation — and significantly reduces oxidative stress in your vascular system, all of which are important to help prevent the development and/or progression of cardiovascular disease. According to Holick,28 vitamin D deficiency increases your risk of heart attack by 50 percent, and if you have a heart attack and you're vitamin D deficient, your risk of dying from that heart attack is virtually guaranteed. Indeed, a Norwegian study29 published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found "a normal intake of vitamin D" significantly reduces your risk of death if you have cardiovascular disease.30

Neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease31,32 and epilepsy — In one study,33 epileptics given a one-time megadose of vitamin D3, ranging from 40,000 IUs all the way up to 200,000 IUs, followed by a daily dose of 2,000 to 2,600 IUs a day for three months to bring each individual's vitamin D status to at least 30 ng/mL, resulted in significant improvements. Ten out of 13 had a decrease in the number of seizures, five of which experienced more than a 50 percent reduction. Overall, the group had a 40 percent reduction in the number of seizures.

Lupus — According to researchers in Cairo,34 most patients with systemic lupus erythematosus have some level of vitamin D deficiency, defined as a level of 10 ng/mL or less, or insufficiency, a level between 10 and 30 ng/mL.

Obstructive sleep apnea — In one study, 98 percent of patients with sleep apnea had vitamin D deficiency, and the more severe the sleep apnea, the more severe the deficiency.35

Bone health, falls and fractures — A 2006 review36 looking at vitamin D intakes and health outcomes such as bone mineral density, dental health, risk of falls, fractures and colorectal cancer, found "the most advantageous serum concentrations of 25(OH)D begin at 30 ng/mL, and the best are between 36 to 40 ng/mL."

Obesity and diabetes — Research37 has shown vitamin D supplementation (4,000 IUs/day) combined with resistance training helps decrease your waist-to-hip ratio, a measurement that is far better at determining your risk for Type 2 diabetes and heart disease than body mass index.

Type 1 diabetes — Data from GrassrootsHealth's D*Action project to prevent Type 1 diabetes38 suggests maintaining a vitamin D level between 40 and 60 ng/mL (100 to 150 nmol/L) may prevent Type 1 diabetes, and stop the progression of the disease, which is a growing problem.

Neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis (MS)39,40,41 — Research shows MS patients with higher levels of vitamin D tend to experience less disabling symptoms.42 Vitamin D deficiency is also common among patients with Parkinson's43 and seniors with severe vitamin D deficiency may raise their risk for dementia by 125 percent.44

DNA repair and metabolic processes — One of Holick's studies45 showed healthy volunteers taking 2,000 IUs of vitamin D per day for a few months up-regulated 291 different genes that control up to 80 different metabolic processes, including DNA repair and autoxidation (oxidation that occurs in the presence of oxygen and/or UV radiation, which has implications for aging and cancer).

Preterm birth — A level of 40 ng/mL has also been shown to offer powerful protection against preterm birth if you're pregnant.46 Women with a vitamin D level of at least 40 ng/mL may lower their risk of preterm birth by as much as 62 percent, compared to having a level of just 20 ng/mL. Women with a history of preterm birth gain even greater protection — an 80 percent reduction — when raising their vitamin D level above 40 ng/mL.

Pregnancy complications — Having a vitamin D level above 40 ng/mL also protects the mother by reducing her risk of preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and prenatal infections by approximately 50 percent.47

All-cause mortality — Studies have also linked higher vitamin D levels with lowered mortality from all causes.48,49,50

Check Your Vitamin D Level Twice a Year

Regular, sensible sun exposure is the best way to optimize your vitamin D status, but many will need to take an oral vitamin D3 supplement, especially during winter months.

The only way to gauge whether you might need to supplement, and how much, is to get your level tested, ideally twice a year, in the early spring, after the winter, and early fall when you level is at its peak and low point. This is particularly important if you're pregnant or planning a pregnancy, or if you have cancer.

Again, the level you're aiming for is between 60 and 80 ng/mL, with 40 ng/mL being the low cutoff point for sufficiency to prevent a wide range of diseases, including cancer.

GrassrootsHealth makes testing easy by offering an inexpensive vitamin D testing kit as part of its consumer-sponsored research. By signing up, you are helping further vital health research that can help millions in coming years. (All revenues from these kits go directly to GrassrootsHealth. I make no profit from these kits and only provide them as a service of convenience to my readers.)

All women are also encouraged to enroll in the Breast Cancer Prevention project,51 to track your vitamin D level and help prevent an initial cancer occurrence, or, if you've already had it, to help prevent a recurrence. In addition, anyone affected by Type 1 Diabetes is invited to enroll in the Type 1 Diabetes Prevention Project.

Required Dosage Is Highly Individual

Research52 suggests it would require 9,600 IUs of vitamin D per day to get 97 percent of the population to reach 40 ng/mL, but individual requirements can vary widely, and you need to take whatever dosage required to get you into the optimal range.

As noted by Carole Baggerly, director and founder of GrassrootsHealth, a nonprofit public health research organization dedicated to moving public health messages regarding vitamin D from research into practice:53

"Our first paper, published in 2011, showed the dose response relationship. You can easily see that two people taking the same dose (e.g., 4,000 IU/day) could have very different results. That's why testing … is so important."

If you've been taking a certain amount of vitamin D3 for a number of months and retesting reveals you're still not within the recommended range, then you know you need to increase your dosage.

Over time, with continued testing, you'll find your individual sweet spot and have a good idea of how much you need to take to maintain an ideal level year-round. GrassrootsHealth also has an online vitamin D calculator you can use to estimate your vitamin D3 dosage once you know your current serum level.

Additional Guidelines When Using Oral Vitamin D3

Aside from determining your ideal dose of vitamin D3, you also need to make sure you're getting enough vitamin K2 (to avoid complications associated with excessive calcification in your arteries), calcium and magnesium.

Research54,55 has shown that if you're taking high doses of vitamin D while having an insufficient magnesium level, your body cannot properly utilize the vitamin D you're taking. The reason for this is because magnesium is required for the actual activation of vitamin D. If your magnesium level is too low, the vitamin D may simply get stored in its inactive form.

This may actually help explain why many need rather high doses of vitamin D to optimize their levels. According to this scientific review, as many as 50 percent of Americans taking vitamin D supplements may not get significant benefit due to insufficient magnesium levels.

On the other hand, when you have an optimal magnesium level, your vitamin D level will rise even if you're taking a much lower dose.56 In fact, previous research57 has indicated that higher magnesium intake helps reduce your risk of vitamin D deficiency — likely by activating more of it.

A growing body of evidence shows that vitamin D plays a crucial role in disease prevention and maintaining optimal health. There are about 30,000 genes in your body, and vitamin D affects nearly 3,000 of them, as well as vitamin D receptors located throughout your body.

Vitamin D May Help Protect Against Cancer and Other Diseases

According to one large-scale study, having optimal vitamin D levels can slash your risk of cancer and can help prevent at least 16 different types of cancer, including pancreatic, lung, ovarian, prostate and skin cancers.

Vitamin D from sun exposure also radically decreases your risk of like multiple sclerosis (MS) and Type 1 diabetes. Sun exposure also helps prevent osteoporosis, which is a significant concern for women in particular.

Magnesium Is Important for Heart Health

Magnesium is involved in the regulation of blood sugar and insulin sensitivity, which is important for the prevention of many chronic diseases, including Type 2 diabetes and heart disease and dementia. It also supports your brain and heart health via other mechanisms.

It supports healthy heart function by relaxing your blood vessels and normalizing blood pressure, for example. Magnesium also has anti-inflammatory activity, support your endothelial function, and the function of your muscles and nerves, including the action of your heart muscle.

Low magnesium has been linked to a higher risk for hypertension, cardiovascular disease, arrhythmias, stroke and sudden cardiac death. According to one scientific review, which included studies dating as far back as 1937, low magnesium actually appears to be the greatest predictor of heart disease, and other recent research shows even subclinical magnesium deficiency can compromise your cardiovascular health.

Omega-3 Fats Are Crucial to Your Well-Being

Meanwhile, recent research suggests high doses (4 grams) of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA may help improve healing after a heart attack. Other benefits of omega-3 fats include prevention of lupus and Parkinson’s disease, decreased anxiety, healthier and stronger bones, as well as fighting fats in the body. However, you can’t tell by looking in a mirror if you are deficient in vitamin D, magnesium or omega-3s. The only real way to know if you are deficient in these nutrients is to get tested.

How to Test Your Levels

I’m really pleased GrassrootsHealth Nutrient Research Institute has expanded its research projects to include a range of different tests, seeing how deficiency may be needlessly affecting the health of so many. Like its Vitamin D*action Project, the Magnesium*PLUS Focus Project will allow us all to take action on known science with a consensus of experts without waiting for institutional lethargy.

The Vitamin D*action Project has truly demonstrated the value measurement can have on public health, and there’s no doubt in my mind that the Magnesium*PLUS Focus Project will have the same impact. As in earlier projects, once the study of a community is completed, all that information can be used to push for public health recommendations that will benefit everyone.

You have the ability to participate in a variety of different tests, including:

• Vitamin D
• Vitamin D and Omega 3
• Vitamin D, Omega 3 and Magnesium
• Vitamin D, Magnesium & Omega 3 PLUS Elements. Remember, by participating in this public research project, you not only are identifying your own levels, but allowing yourself to make decisions about your diet and supplements to improve your health. Your data (which is anonymous) will also help GrassrootsHealth researchers to determine the ideal levels for the prevention of various diseases, and what kind of dose-response relationship exists among the general population.

With the data from this project, individuals will be able to see what works for them, and, researchers will be able to demonstrate just to what extent health care costs may be reduced simply by getting people into an optimal range. 

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