the-psoriasis-treatment

Michael Holick, MD, Ph.D., told me in a phone interview nearly a year ago that vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency was "one of the most common medical conditions" and has implications on the health of bones, the heart, the immune system, and likely every cell in the body. Dr. Holick added, "If a normal adult isn’t taking at least 1,500 to 2,000 IU from supplement and diet—and you can’t really get it from your diet—then we know you’re vitamin D deficient." Now, The Endocrine Society has released new clinical practice guidelines intended to help curtail widespread vitamin D deficiency with extra focus on care for populations who are most at risk. The guidelines follow on the coattails of last November's updated vitamin D recommendations by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which several experts have condemned as conservative and inadequate. In response, a "Task Force," led by Dr. Holick, reexamined the evidence and compiled new recommendations to prov...

A while back, I was talking with a friend of mine. He was a giant of a black man and we spoke about his  blood pressure woes and his weight issues. So I asked him about his diet, his habits, and all that. He told me all about it: How he ate all the right foods, how he was trying to avoid the wrong ones, and how he recently started walking on his treadmill. I said to him, "What do you do all day?" He said, "I'm in the office all day." "What do you do at lunchtime?" "I usually have a protein shake or eat a salad with some chicken." That's good, I tell him. But I want you to do one more thing. It's easy. While or after you eat, take a walk. Outside. In the parking lot. Once or twice a week. OK, he says. "But why outside?" I said, "Sunlight and vitamin D." Then, I told him a story we should all be familiar with by now, which went something like this: Darker skin is a result of greater production of a pigment called mel...

People who are overweight or obese are more likely to have lower circulating levels of vitamin D and may have trouble with conversion to its hormonally active form, a Norwegian study suggests. These findings, published in the Journal of Nutrition , may partially explain why carrying extra pounds raises risk of several poor health outcomes linked to low vitamin D. The hormonally active form is critical for maintaining cell health, strong bones, a strong immune system, and a healthy heart and brain. University of Oslo researchers observed almost 1,800 people for six years—about 62 percent obese and 11 percent morbidly obese as indicated by Body Mass Index (BMI)—and found an inverse relationship between higher BMI and serum concentrations of circulating 25(OH)2D and the hormonally active 1,25(OH)2D. A seasonal variation of both vitamin D metabolites in the obese subjects provided clues that excess weight disturbed the complicated conversion (hydroxylation) of the circulating 25(OH)2D to h...

Over the past decade, there has been tremendous excitement in the world of nutrition centered around the "sunshine vitamin " for its association with reducing risk of influenza, osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases, heart disease, and even some cancers such as prostate and breast cancer.   However, this morning, the Institute of Medicine, of the National Academy of Sciences released new  guidelines   for vitamin D   (and calcium) that will come as a disappointment to several researchers who consider the report too conservative to deal with a widespread epidemic. "Vitamin D is  the most common medical condition in the world, believe it or not" said Michael Holick, of Boston University Medical Center, to me in a recent interview. Holick, who routinely prescribes 2000-3000 IU per day to his patients, has studied  Vitamin D for more than 40 years. In the 1970s he was the first to isolate the major circulating form of ...

Michael Holick, MD, PhD, of Boston University Medical Center says he’s “just one of the many scientists” exploring vitamin D, but he easily can be considered the world’s foremost authority on the sunshine vitamin. In the 1970s, it was Dr. Holick who first isolated the major circulating form of vitamin D in plasma, 25-hydroxyvitamin D, as well as the active form produced by the kidneys. He was also one of the first scientists to warn the medical community about the potential implications of widespread vitamin D insufficiency. When asked about the prevalence of low vitamin D status, he answers that it’s the “most common medical condition in the world, believe it or not.” Dr. Holick has championed the cause of bringing vitamin D into the limelight for decades, writing numerous scientific papers as well as two popular books on the subject of vitamin D and health. Getting D Facts from Dr. Holick While seeking the latest findings from vitamin D research, I caught up with Dr. Holick and soug...

Being overweight is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes; however, a new study shows losing weight alone may not be enough to reduce risk of type 2 diabetes in people with low muscle mass and strength, particularly if they are over the age of 60. These are the findings of new research from Dr. Preethi Srikanthan of University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues who performed a cross-sectional analysis of 14,528 people from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III. Dr. Srikanthan and colleagues concluded that age-related muscle loss, or sarcopenia, was associated with greater insulin resistance; and, sarcopenia, independent of obesity, may be an early predictor of diabetes. This association of sarcopenia and insulin resistance was strongest in those who were 60 years and older, the researchers warn. Apart from these poor health outcomes, sarcopenia in older adults is also clearly associated with other health outcomes such as increased risk of falls, hip fractures, bone l...