Vitamin D, the Sunshine Supplement, Has Shadowy Money Behind It (nytimes.com) 151
The New York Times tells the story of Dr. Michael Holick, a Boston University endocrinologist "who perhaps more than anyone else is responsible for creating a billion-dollar vitamin D sales and testing juggernaut." From the report: Dr. Holick's role in drafting national vitamin D guidelines, and the embrace of his message by mainstream doctors and wellness gurus alike, have helped push supplement sales to $936 million in 2017. That's a ninefold increase over the previous decade. Lab tests for vitamin D deficiency have spiked, too: Doctors ordered more than 10 million for Medicare patients in 2016, up 547 percent since 2007, at a cost of $365 million. But few of the Americans swept up in the vitamin D craze are likely aware that the industry has sent a lot of money Dr. Holick's way. A Kaiser Health News investigation for The New York Times found that he has used his prominent position in the medical community to promote practices that financially benefit corporations that have given him hundreds of thousands of dollars -- including drug makers, the indoor tanning industry and one of the country's largest commercial labs.
In an interview, Dr. Holick acknowledged he has worked as a consultant to Quest Diagnostics, which performs vitamin D tests, since 1979. Dr. Holick, 72, said that industry funding "doesn't influence me in terms of talking about the health benefits of vitamin D." There is no question that the hormone is important. Without enough of it, bones can become thin, brittle and misshapen, causing a condition called rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. The issue is how much vitamin D is healthy, and what level constitutes deficiency.
In an interview, Dr. Holick acknowledged he has worked as a consultant to Quest Diagnostics, which performs vitamin D tests, since 1979. Dr. Holick, 72, said that industry funding "doesn't influence me in terms of talking about the health benefits of vitamin D." There is no question that the hormone is important. Without enough of it, bones can become thin, brittle and misshapen, causing a condition called rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. The issue is how much vitamin D is healthy, and what level constitutes deficiency.
Only in America (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Only in America (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Only in America (Score:5, Informative)
From the NYT article:
Dr. Holick's crucial role in shaping that debate occurred in 2011. Late the previous year, the prestigious National Academy of Medicine (then known as the Institute of Medicine), a group of independent scientific experts, issued a comprehensive, 1,132-page report on vitamin D deficiency. It concluded that the vast majority of Americans get plenty of the hormone naturally, and advised doctors to test only patients at high risk of certain disorders, such as osteoporosis.
A few months later, in June 2011, Dr. Holick oversaw the publication of a report that took a starkly different view.
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This is the document where later on the accepted they had screwed up the math in calculating the RDA.
John Cannell MD is the real hero here on vitamin D (Score:5, Insightful)
https://www.vitamindcouncil.or... [vitamindcouncil.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
He has been demonstrating a need for vitamin D since around 2000 (before Holick).
Bottom line:
* Humans are adapted overall for an outdoor lifestyle partially clothed in the sunshine without regular bathing.
* Humans in industrialized countries now spend most of their time indoors -- or travelling in enclosed vehicles where glass is designed to prevent UV transmission to prevent faded carpets but not faded people.
* When humans in industrialized countries go outdoors they tend to wear a lot of clothes.
* Bathing (especially with soap) disrupts the formation of vitamin D by removing natural oils from the skin which are needed to make vitamin D.
Three other factors have made vitamin D deficiency worse:
* Dermatologists claiming time in the sun gives you cancer -- which is a half-truth because while sunlight can increase melanoma risk (a relatively easily treatable cancer), vitamin D reduces cancer risk for many cancers including melanoma -- which is why more office workers get melanomas than outdoor workers and why many office workers get melanomas in places they wear clothes.
* The USA RDA for vitamin D was set to prevent the worst cases of rickets not to ensure optimal health and so for decades has been ten times or more too low. Only recently has it been raised to perhaps adequate for infants but the RDA is still too low for adults
* Historically, a patent was granted for Vitamin D2, a synthetic and less effective form of vitamin D, and that was what doctors pushed instead of the better vitamin D3.
* In order to use vitamin D optimally, you also need a health diet like with vitamin K2 and other cofactors like magnesium, zinc, and boron -- and the standard American diet tends to be lacking in these.
Another complication: if a pregnant or nursing mother has low vitamin D her child will also have low vitamin D -- which may be a contributor to autism and other health problems for young children.
And yet another (politically charged) complication: people with darker skin moving far north or south from the equator are going to be even more impacted by vitamin D deficiency (e.g. especially Somalis moving to Minnesota who also wear burkas and have a high autism rate). Just like people with lighter skin who move to the equator are at elevated risk from melanoma. Skin color is adaptive for latitude (some exceptions being people who get vitamin D in their diet from fish or other animal products). However, this is made more complicated by uncertainty about whether vitamin D needs may differ in connection with other metabolic genes varying along with skin color genes.
Also, while vitamin D is the biggest immediate problem form lack of adequate sunlight, it is not the only substance our skin makes when exposed to sunlight -- so taking the right amount of vitamin D3 is beneficial but maybe not the entire answer.
Yes, there are now conflicts of interest by multiple advocates of adequate Vitamin D3 like with Holick or even now Cannell. But there still is a health crisis going on!
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Re:Only in America (Score:4, Interesting)
It concluded that the vast majority of Americans get plenty of the hormone naturally, and advised doctors to test only patients at high risk of certain disorders, such as osteoporosis.
A few months later, in June 2011, Dr. Holick oversaw the publication of a report that took a starkly different view.
There is definitely some sort of big D conspiracy going on.
I'm not a doctor, and I don't even play one on TV; but I can state I'm skeptical of the whole Vit D. Every year my doctor tells me to up my D intake. First it was, take a multivitamin; then it was... that's not enough, that only has 100% of daily need- you should be getting 500% of what is recommended the recommended level is too low.
Every year he tells me I should be taking more and more... ... I've stopped listening to him about the issue, even though every year he tells my Vit D levels in my blood are too low- they're merely average. I think he's become brain washed by some strange D cult. He's all about the D.
Re:Only in America (Score:5, Insightful)
It's important to remember that just because the American medical industry is infested with corporatism that the basis of their argument still has some truth. Him overdosing you on Vitamin D to make some nice profits doesn't mean you should abstain completely.
The rest of the world which isn't in such a state can provide a quite sane source of information. If it's winter and you live above above the 45deg line then just take a supplement daily like everyone who doesn't see the sun for half a year and move on with your life.
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A product is cheap, however preferential treatment to a whole series of products produced by a certain manufacturer under certain brands are quite lucrative, and the medical system in the USA is well known for kickbacks as well as other benefits given directly to GPs by the industry.
Have a Glass of Milk (Score:3)
Big Calcium would be very happy if you did.
Do You DO Everything a Doctor Tells You? (Score:2)
The Hypothosis is that we spend far more time inside not exposed to the Sun.
Vitamin D supplements replace in a fashion that lost Sun exposre that makes Vitamin D.
choose wisely.... (Score:2)
choose wisely [youtube.com]
Darwin knows, and has an award....
He chose poorly [youtube.com]
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Sell sunlight? You can't even give it away to us nerds!
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Vitamin pushers, miracle cure snake oil salemen, and other quackery has been around everywhere, forever. It is not a uniquely American phenomenon.
Re: Only in America (Score:2)
There are unique aspects to American gullibility. Check out Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500 Year History.
it's a looong story (Score:2)
The life you save might your own....
"Choose wisely."
choose wisely [youtube.com]
Darwin knows, and has an award....
He chose poorly [youtube.com]
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Riiight. As I said, quackery is not a new phenomenon, particularly when you can tap into conspiracies about "big pharma" that seem embarrassing on late-night infomercials...
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For many people it doesn't.
Compensating for low vitamin D levels with sun exposure is asking for skin cancer.
Re:Only in America (Score:5, Insightful)
"Compensating for low vitamin D levels with sun exposure is asking for skin cancer."
No, it bloody isn't. You don't need to sit in the sun for hours, 10-15 minutes per day is sufficient (with modifiers for extreme tropical and frigid climate zones - extreme northern and southern dwellers definitely need supplements during the dark).
And it isn't even whole-body exposure. If you wear a short-sleeved shirt for work, and you walk in the open air to get your lunch, you'll get enough.
I have pale skin, and I live in the melanoma capitol of the world (Queensland, Australia), and my own GP just tells me to follow the guidelines from the Cancer Council:
https://cancerqld.org.au/cance... [cancerqld.org.au]
"Vitamin D â" how much sun is enough
In Queensland where UV levels are high all year round, most people receive adequate sun exposure to produce vitamin D through their daily incidental activities. These activities include hanging out the washing, checking the letterbox or walking to and from your car. "
Re:Only in America (Score:5, Insightful)
And you don't need to sit in the sun for hours to get skin cancer either.
And a large percentage of adults in the West carry gene variants that lead to low vitamin D levels even with normal sun exposure. That's not surprising given that vitamin D is supplied by eggs, cheese, and fish, meaning there has been little selective pressure against deficiencies, and it may be in the process of becoming an essential vitamin for many humans.
Vitamin D is also generic and trivially cheap, at around two cents per day. The idea that recommending supplementation is due to some corporate scheme drumming up support for expensive drugs is laughable.
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10-15 minutes per day is sufficient
Commonly referred to as a sunburn in Australia.
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>"Can a billion dollar industry form around a vitamin the human body produces itself in ample supply. As the NYT article states, "Drug companies can sell fear, but they can't sell sunlight, so there's no promotion of the sun's health benefits."
And the sun benefits the mood and brain, releasing other important factors and benefiting sleep cycles. However, sun exposure also contribute to wrinkles and skin cancer. Plus there really are a lot of people who don't and won't get enough vitamin D (3) due to th
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I have a vitamin D deficiency so it was worthwhile for me to get the test, but the bill provided some serious sticker shock.
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Expensive?
Vitamin D 1,25-Hydroxy - $90
Vitamin D 25-Hydroxy - $65
Those are costs without insurance; paid out-of-pocket by a private lab testing.
Plenty of online lab companies that let you buy whatever labs you want, and just go to LabCorp to have them tested, and results sent to you.
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People with darker skin and/or living at more extreme latitudes cannot form ample supply. Also people spend more time indoors, and use sunscreen because of all the skin cancer scares.
Re: Only in America (Score:2)
People with darker skin can go out in the sun more to compensate. Though you still need calcium to process vitamin D so you're still stuck with dietary solutions.
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Re: Only in America (Score:2)
The only time I see bow legged children is in Hollywood movies about England.
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Re: Only in America (Score:2)
I grew up in a poor neighborhood around plenty of black children. Still never seen one who's bow legged.
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Many people do not get adequate sunshine, essentially bathe too much, are too fat, or simply don't form, absorb and/or retain enough vitamin D3. If you want to be better informed, go read the collated medical and research papers at VItaminDwiki.com
My family (has) lived near the Arctic for some decades - this is deadly serious, and personal. IOM etc got the RDA, AI, and
KALE? (Score:2)
One last time:
KALE is what you put AROUND the salad - it is the garnish, it is NOT the salad!
Re:KALE? (Score:4, Insightful)
One last time:
KALE is what you put AROUND the salad - it is the garnish, it is NOT the salad!
Within reason, people should eat whatever they want. Ideally it would be something healthy (and kale isn't unhealthy).
I'm not a huge fan of the stuff myself, but if people want to eat kale, let them eat kale.
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Exactly
https://www.dietitians.ca/geta... [dietitians.ca] [Food-Sources-of-Vitamin-D]
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And in my case, on that page of "Food Sources of Vitamin D", I consume a grand total of one of the items -- eggs.
I'm vegetarian, so the meat sources are out.
I'm allergic to fish, so all those are out.
I minimize my consumption of dairy, so those are out.
Surprise, surprise, I had bone issues until I took Vitamin D.
I wonder if this "article" is trying to move the U.S. to the Canadian model where the government controls the selling of Vitamin D. [I was told this by a frustrated Canadian nutritionist, and it ma
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Surprise, surprise, I had bone issues until I took Vitamin D.
That's due to your personal choice of not eating meat and is irrelevant.
If I were jabbing myself with a fork every day, I would not use that as a justification for people needing to buy more band-aids.
And "allergic to fish"? "Fish" isn't a specific protein or other complex molecule that you can be allergic to. Nor do "fish" contain any such "fish" molecule that's present in all fish but not present in fish descendants like pigs. If you're allergic to one specific protein that specific fishes has, you wil
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My personal choice to not eat meat is irrelevant (to you)? A humorous response, causing me to wonder how your relationships with the opposite gender are working out.
As to fish...
Yes, I seem to be allergic to some "specific protein" as I can indeed consume fish oil. Your point, therefore, is...?
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My personal choice to not eat meat is irrelevant (to you)?
No, what is irrelevant is any argument you make for vitamin D supplements based on your circumstances, because your circumstances being due to a personal choice.
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"No canary is relevant to the air quality in the coal mine because they are more sensitive than the average."
Ah, that's what makes my case _more_ interesting. I can easily "run low" on Vitamin D, and have similarly noticed the benefit of having enough after a period without enough.
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A person who gets bad hay fever from one brand of pollen over another should naturally differentiate their problem with something like "dandelions are the worst for me". And we've all heard that sort of thing many times.
If I am indeed allergic to a fish protein, but it translates to "all fish I've ever tried to eat and I'm sick of the side effects from trying so I'm taking the nuke them all from orbit approach" then it is simpler, and more powerful/useful, to say that I am allergic to fish.
Larger generaliz
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By the way, what is with "fish" in quotes?
Some can eat fish but not shellfish.
I can eat shellfish but am allergic to fish. I've met others with this (more rare) set of (dis)abilities. I can eat shrimp, prawns, lobster, crab -- all delicious. I can not eat any fish I've tried to eat.
People who are allergic to pollen don't have others saying "there are all kinds of 'pollen' and you gotta specify". Down with the allergy racism ;-)
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By the way, what is with "fish" in quotes?
Much like we say nuts about things that aren't nuts (including peanuts, pecans, walnuts, almonds, cashews and macadamians), we may write "nuts" with quotes when the uncertainty of what is meant makes a difference.
For fish, It's likewise because fish isn't a phylogenic classification, but a common term. Just because your great-great-N-grandfather was a fish, and you're closer related to a trout than a trout is to a shark, I don't consider you a fish.
So the quotes around "fish" are useful precisely to convey
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And in my case, on that page of "Food Sources of Vitamin D", I consume a grand total of one of the items -- eggs.
Well eggs are good in several ways.
I'm vegetarian, so the meat sources are out.
By choice. Don't pretend that it's healthy.
I'm allergic to fish, so all those are out.
You have a leaky gut. Stop eatings grains.
I minimize my consumption of dairy, so those are out.
You have a leaky gut. Stop eatings grains.
Surprise, surprise, I had bone issues until I took Vitamin D.
Then you were deficient. For measurable results in other areas (like sleep), take it on waking, never in the evening. Take it with A and K2. A, D and K2 work together to regulate calcium deposition and mitigate their individual toxicitie
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I'll credit you with some knowledge of vitamins...
However, trying to claim/imply I am unhealthy is humorous. When I help out planting trees, I routinely do the work of three people -- whose combined age equals mine. I guess the 400 million vegetarians in India must also be unhealthy as well?
As to eggs, they provide insufficient vitamin D -- Google says you get 5% of daily req. from one egg so I'd need 20 a day...
As to my allergy to fish -- had it for 56+ years. Gone through periods where I ate zero starc
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Thank you for the book information and your suspected diagnosis.
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From the library's notes for the book:
"Found in the seeds, grains, skins, rinds, and leaves of most plants, lectins act as smart bombs in the human body, causing toxic or inflammatory reactions that lead to serious conditions such as leaky gut, autoimmune disease, chronic digestive disorders, heart disease, and weight gain."
Ignoring the "leaky gut" one (that I may or may not have...but more probably had when I was very young), I don't any of these. I have the digestion of a horse, no heart issues ever -- I
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>The way I had it explained, the "leaky gut" can occur when a child is very young.
The current science (I just got back from a conference where this was discussed in some detail) is that (a) wheat agglutin causes it in two ways and it is very bad. and (b) that everyone has a leaky gut during and after exercise, which is normal. The leaky gut lets larger proteins through and the immune system inflames in response. The takeaway is (a) don't eat wheat and (b) Exercise in the fasted state. Sugar is bad on a w
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They used to sell fake sunlight until skin cancer awareness spread.
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They used to sell Thorium tonics as bottled sunshine
https://www.popsci.com/scitech... [popsci.com]
Re: Only in America (Score:2)
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The SAD lights are for the most part just brighter versions of indoor lights. They shouldn't be putting out high-energy ultraviolet. If they were, it would be extremely harmful to the eyes, causing more damage there than eventual skin cancer. This is much more likely to be coincidence.
Re: Only in America (Score:2)
Here, let me Google that for you...
https://www.theguardian.com/sc... [theguardian.com]
Re:It's all fuzzy. (Score:4, Informative)
But it isn't always easy to say precisely how much we need,... Vitamin toxicity is a real thing, ... [D dietary need] varies based on a number of factors, including personal factors ... Though it is clear we need good nutrition, as a culture we seem to be going overboard.
Among the personal factors are issues with ageing (affecting things like synthesis and absorption) and exposure to light.
In addition to both the well-known and severe deficiency diseases and a number of lesser ones, overdosing can cause a number of problems: One of them being too-early calcification of a cracked or broken bone in the process of self-repair.
When I smashed the end of my humerus through my scapula in a bicycle accident, I asked the orthopaedist about using some nutritional (over-)supplementation to encourage healing. He said the bulk of them (E and C to discourage scarring and the latter encourage collagen generation - the first step in a bone break repair, Arginine and Ornithine on an empty stomach at bedtime to release GHRH) would just produce "expensive urine" so go ahead if I felt like it, but to NOT supplement with D other than drinking milk (which I could do) - which had entirely enough thanks to mandated fortification.
With lots of individual variation in the paths to the blood level of the Ds and a lack of an adequate regulatory pathway, (so you can't predict it from things like diet, age, sun exposure, etc.) you need to measure to tell what that level is. With both over- and under-dosing producing really nasty diseases with no symptoms until it's too late to do anything to reverse the damage, it's a really good idea to get it tested and adjust supplemtation to put it into that happy medium between the too-much and too-little pathologies.
Now whether the blood levels recommended by this guy ARE that happy medium is another can of worms. But my GP/cardiologist is onboard with it and prescribed both testing and adjusting supplementation. (Cardiologists are careful about calcium metabolism, as the calcification of plaques is a major factor in circulatory diseases.)
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Re: It's all fuzzy. (Score:1)
Vitamin d toxicity is difficult to achieve, over 40000iu a day for more than 6 months. The big money is made by not treating vitamin d deficiency.
Re:It's all fuzzy. (Score:5, Funny)
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Don't need bias for it to be bad (Score:5, Insightful)
It's the same general principal as money in politics. You don't actually have to influence the individual for your contribution to further your point of view.
A corporation finds politicians with views naturally aligned to their objectives and helps those politicians get into office.
Similarly, a corporation finds researchers with view naturally aligned to their objectives and helps those researchers get papers into top journals and conferences.
The key is more public funding of science so private donors can't have such a big influence.
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> The key is more public funding of science so private donors can't have such a big influence.
Don't be so naive - especially as you contradict yourself.
> A corporation finds politicians with views naturally aligned to their objectives and helps those politicians get into office.
Public science funding just get its funds diverted by those self same politicians (corporations don't even have to nefariously get them into office - they just pick the one already naturally aligned to their viewpoint or even p
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How?
Government science panels have often been hijacked by special interests, sometimes industrial, sometimes NGO. You're just pouring gasoline on the flames.
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How?
I think there is a web site called "GoBribeMe".
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Oh, corporations can certainly pay lots of money to politicians they like.
The question you haven't answered is how that gets those politicians elected.
Appearance of impropriety (Score:5, Interesting)
"Dr. Holick, 72, said that industry funding "doesn't influence me in terms of talking about the health benefits of vitamin D."
It is arguable that this doctor wasn't directly influenced by lobbying money. However, there is a definite appearance of impropriety. The doctor's statement above is not believable. What he should have said is, "I accepted money that influences me to promote ideas that I already believed in."
Re: Appearance of impropriety (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Appearance of impropriety (Score:5, Interesting)
common inadequacy (Score:2)
http://www.lifeextension.com/M... [lifeextension.com]
Also read vitaminDwiki.com for more medical papers and research.
Re: common inadequacy (Score:2)
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The Life Extension Foundation does sell supplements, and occasionally they are too enthusiastic. However, they are at the high end of the ethics scale for the supplement industry. They fund research, and the articles in their magazine cite many high quality references. They also encourage the use of some things they don't sell, a prime example being the prescription drug Metformin.
The LEF is a good organization, and their claims deserve to be taken seriously.
Quest Diagnostics? (Score:5, Informative)
The summary makes it sound as if they specialize in Vitamin D level analysis. They’re a general-purpose medical lab and do all sorts of analysis on most body fluids.
Without vitamin D testing they’d still be an industry behemoth. It’s probably not even a rounding error in their bottom line.
Re: Quest Diagnostics? (Score:3)
Re: Quest Diagnostics? (Score:4, Insightful)
I was interested in the story until I read those little details.
An endocrinologist is consulting for a testing lab? Stunning!
A highly-specialized expert with extremely-good credentials got paid $34K/year average for a job? Scandalous!
Hell, I was recently offered more than that for an engineering consultancy that should barely require a four-year degree.
Something I've always wondered (Score:3)
So it would make sense that the high levels of recommended daily allotments were coming from regulatory capture.
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>"USDA daily recommended levels are so high I couldn't possibly hit them even if I ate a perfect diet. Yet I've had blood work done and never once been low on any vitamins"
I have. As part of regular lab work, my D came back more than once as "low", despite years of taking a multivitamin with breakfast and dinner; although I admit I don't get much sun. I was told to take a D3 supplement (which I then started adding a 2,000 UI pill in the morning). Now, people can debate what is correctly "normal" or "h
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I did my research, considered it super safe, super cheap, and no big deal to just take a supplement. No prescription needed, and have been doing in for something like 8 years now.
I agree that vitamin D is a safe supplement. Moreover I'd say (from a completely non-scientific, anecdotal, standpoint) it's beneficial during the winter months, when exposure to natural sunlight falls below the "30 mins & 30% skin exposure" figure I recollect, from many many years ago, as recommended to get the daily dose.
The problem I do have with vitamin D supplements is that they are invariably combined with vitamin E, and I have seen studies that suggest too much of that is actively harmful (albeit
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Funny you should say that. I had symptoms of thyroid issues many years ago. They performed a nuclear iodine scan on me and said I had "pre-Hashimoto-like nodules." My younger sister WAS diagnosed with Hashimoto's. My TSH continues to come back normal every year and I have not been rescanned.
Where is the money made? (Score:3)
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I'm glad that works for you, but did your Dr say anything about maybe spending 10 minutes in the sunlight (go for a walk), or dietary options (milk in your coffee, cheese and crackers after dinner instead of dessert), or something along those lines?
If it works for you, that's great. I just hate the idea of getting my nutrients from pills instead of diet. That doesn't work for everyone, of course.
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The question (Score:2)
The issue is how much vitamin D is healthy, and what level constitutes deficiency.
No, the issue is how much vitamin D you actually absorb from supplements, and how efficacious taking supplements is overall. The most popular supplements have not been shown to provide significant health benefits [sciencedaily.com], including vitamin D. The simple fact is that most supplements are a waste of money [theatlantic.com].
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You're probably unknowingly supplementing too.. (Score:2)
In the US if you drink milk (from cows or plants) it's most likely got Vit D added, plus it's also added in many cereals.
Sunlight supplement??? (Score:2)
Cheech: So, what do you do?
Guy: I own a tanning salon for people to get tan in.
Cheech: How do you get the sun to shine just on the people who pay you, man?
Low Vitamin D is a Parathyroid Cancer indicator (Score:1)
FYI folks!
Low vitamin D can be an indicator of parathyroid cancer. Related to this is high calcium serum level. High calcium serum level can be an indicator of taking too much Vitamin D or of parathyroid cancer.
parathyroid cancer is a very slow cancer for most folks. high calcium serum is a mortality indicator (i.e. if it's high, on average you'll die sooner than most folks).
Just FYI!
While I'm on the horn, if you are between 27 and 33 and get an ache in your groin, and find any kind of hard growth on you
Dr. Dean Edell (Score:2)
In the words of Dr. Dean Edell, this is the "Vitamin D decade", where doctors want you to take it as prophylactic to heart disease. See previous "Vitamin E decade" and "Vitamin C decade".
His radio show reviewed little medical releases and the supporting science behind them. Quacks found it tough going.
It's too bad he went off the air while quack infomercials continue to reign and even a few quack doctor shows, or at least quack-friendly (to say nothing of regular talk shows, studied as medical "disinforma
In the end... (Score:1)
Any good doctor worth a visit would know to "read between (Dr Holick's) lines" and bring realistic, applicable info to patients.
Consider, also, that most (western patients) are too stupid to realize that Vit D supplements are NOT a replacement for sunshine!
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The upside of taking Zircam is that no matter how much you overdose on iron supplements, you're not going to rust when it rains.