Vitamin D better for cavities than fluoride

[Guest guest]

Studies have

linked geographical variations in dental health and tooth loss to sun exposure.

Dental caries has

been shown to be inversely related to mean hours of sunlight per year, with

people living in the sunny west having half as many cavities as those in the

much less sunny northeast. As reported

by the Vitamin D Council:

" There

were also several studies reported on vitamin D and dental caries in the 1920s

and 1930s. May Mellanby and coworkers in Sheffield, England, did studies on the

role of vitamin D on teeth in the 1920s.

The first

experiments were with dogs, where it was found that vitamin D stimulated the

calcification of teeth. Subsequently, they studied the effect of vitamin D on

dental caries in children, finding a beneficial effect.

Additional

studies were conducted on children in New York regarding dental caries with

respect to season, artificial ultraviolet-B (UVB) irradiance, and oral intake

of vitamin D with the finding that it took 800 IU/day to prevent caries

effectively. "

Two proposed

mechanisms causing this beneficial effect include:

·

Vitamin

D beneficially affects calcium metabolism, and

·

Vitamin

D, which is produced in your body in response to sunlight exposure, induces

cathelicidin, an antimicrobial peptide, which attacks oral bacteria linked to

dental caries

According

to the Vitamin D Council:

" Use of

vitamin D appears to be a better option for reducing dental caries than

fluoridation of community water supplies, as there are many additional health

benefits of vitamin D and a number of adverse effects of water fluoridation

such as fluorosis (mottling) of teeth and bones. ... Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin

D concentrations around 30-40 ng/ml (75-100 nmol/L) should significantly reduce

the formation of dental caries. (The average white American has a level

near 25 ng/ml, while the average black American has a level near 16

ng/ml.) "

Oral

Health, Heart Disease, and Vitamin D

As you probably

know, many public water supplies around the US are fluoridated, allegedly to

help prevent dental caries. However, there's overwhelming evidence showing that

ingesting fluoride is NOT the way to protect your teeth. On the contrary,

fluoride is a potent toxin, and over 40 percent of American children and teens

are showing signs of fluoride overexposure in the form of dental

fluorosis—unsightly yellow or brown spots or mottling on their teeth.

Fluoride

consumption has also been linked to a long

list of other health problems.

The idea that vitamin

D may help protect against cavities is very interesting, and actually makes

loads of sense since we already know it is necessary for bone health. Vitamin D

also upregulates a specific gene that produces over 200 anti-microbial

peptides, some of which work like broad-spectrum antibiotics, including

cathelicidin that attacks oral bacteria.

It's also

interesting to note the connections

between oral health, heart health, and vitamin D status.

For example, gum

disease increases your risk of several other serious diseases, including,

pneumonia, lung disease, diabetes and stroke—and vitamin D deficiency has

also been linked to an increased risk of all of these conditions! This is a

beautiful illustration of the interdependency between seemingly disparate

systems within your body.

Sun

Exposure May Be Essential for Heart Health

The link between

gum disease and heart disease may not be obvious, but chronic inflammation is a

hallmark of both conditions and inflammation in your body plays a major role in

the build-up of plaque in your arteries, which can lead to a heart attack. And

vitamin D helps combat inflammation, as just mentioned.

Furthermore,

according to research

by Dr. Seneff, the vitamin D produced in your skin in response to

sun exposure will impact your sulfur

status, which may also play a crucial role in heart disease, so

there are many interrelated factors affecting each other, thereby raising or

lowering your risk of a number of health problems.

So what does sun

exposure have to do with heart health?

Your heart

requires cholesterol sulfate

for optimal function. When you are deficient in cholesterol sulfate (due to a

lack of cholesterol in your body), your body tries to protect your heart by

creating arterial plaque, because the platelets produce cholesterol sulfate in the plaque. Dr.

Seneff believes that the mechanism we call " cardiovascular disease, "

of which arterial plaque is a hallmark, is actually your body's way to

compensate for not having enough cholesterol sulfate.

Now, when you expose

your skin to sunshine, your skin synthesizes vitamin D3 sulfate, which is a water

soluble form of sulfur that can travel freely in your blood stream, making it

readily available.

Oral vitamin D3,

on the other hand, is unsulfated, and this form needs LDL (the so-called

" bad " cholesterol) as a vehicle of transport. Her suspicion is that

the simple oral non-sulfated form of vitamin D may not provide as much of

the same heart-healthy benefits as the vitamin D created in your skin from sun exposure,

because it cannot be converted to vitamin D sulfate, and therefore will not

improve your sulfur status. This is yet another reason to really make a

concerted effort to get ALL your vitamin D requirements from exposure to

sunshine!

Your

Vitamin D Level is Directly Related to Your Risk of Heart Disease

But that's not

all. Dr. Camargo of Harvard University recently wrote an editorial about

the growing number of studies that link low vitamin D levels to heart attack,

heart failure, stroke, hypertension and diabetes. One recent study found that

every 10 ng/ml lower blood vitamin D concentration resulted in a nine percent

greater risk of death, and a 25 percent greater risk of heart attack.

As noted in Dr. Camargo's editorial,

credit is due to the first man to discover the connection, an epidemiologist in

New Zealand by the name of Professor Scragg, who first noticed the

association in 1981. His population-based case-control study found a strong

inverse association between 25-hydroxyvitamin D level in the blood and risk for

heart attack.

As

reported by the Vitamin D Council, there are currently two large,

population-based, randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled trials on the

health effects of vitamin D supplements underway. One is at Harvard, which is

looking at cancer and heart disease. The other is being done in New Zealand,

and is focused on heart disease, infection and fractures. Unfortunately, the

results from these studies are not expected to be available until 2017.

Six years is a long time to sit around and wait for the results from

these studies. I strongly encourage you NOT to wait and see. The evidence that

optimal vitamin D levels are necessary for general health and disease

prevention is overwhelming.

Vitamin

D and Cancer

Two grassroots

organizations are now focusing on vitamin D as a preventive measure for cancer.

There are already over 800 studies

supporting the theory that vitamin D may prevent a large percentage of several

types of cancer, and I'm very pleased to see that this information is starting

to gain foothold.

Vitamin D has a

protective effect against cancer in several ways, including:

•

Increasing the self-destruction of mutated cells (which, if allowed to

replicate, could lead to cancer)

• Reducing the spread and reproduction of cancer cells

• Causing cells to become differentiated (cancer cells often lack

differentiation)

• Reducing the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones, which

is a step in the transition of dormant tumors turning cancerous

The Vitamin D

Council, a nonprofit educational corporation based in California, recently

launched their " Vitamin D and Cancer " campaign, presenting 20

detailed summaries of the evidence. The summaries were prepared by epidemiologist

Dr. Grant, founder of the nonprofit organization, Sunlight, Nutrition

and Health Research Center (SUNARC). He also serves as the Science Director for

the Vitamin D Council. I highly recommend reviewing these summaries, which can be found

here. (Just select the type of cancer you want to review from the listing

on the left.)

According to the

Vitamin D Council:

" Some

researchers believe the link between vitamin D sufficiency and a decreased risk

in cancer is promising. A randomized controlled trial found a 77 percent

reduction in all-cancer incidence when the study group supplemented with 1,100

IU/day of vitamin D plus 1,450 mg/day calcium. Says Dr. Grant, " Based on

various studies of UVB, vitamin D and cancer to date, it appears that global cancer burden can be

reduced by 15-25 percent if everyone had vitamin D blood levels above 40 ng/ml. "

Some of the facts

presented in these summaries include:

1.

Geographical

studies have found reduced risk in mortality rates for 20 types of cancer in

regions of higher solar UVB doses.

2.

Observational

studies have found that the risk of breast, colon, and rectal cancer fall as

vitamin D blood levels rise at least up to 40 ng/mL (100 nmol/L).

3.

Those

with higher vitamin D blood levels at time of cancer diagnosis have nearly

twice the survival rate of those with the lowest levels.

4.

Higher

UVB exposure early in life is associated with reduced risk of breast and

prostate cancer.

World's

First Breast Cancer Prevention

Study Underway!

In addition to

the Vitamin D Council's educational campaign, Grassroots Health is now in the

process of initiating the world's first breast cancer prevention project and study,

to investigate and evaluate vitamin D as a preventive strategy for breast

cancer.

" We are

looking now for some really serious funding to support that as a major research

project, " says Carole Baggerly, director and founder of Grassroots Health.

If you would like

to sign up as

a participant in this groundbreaking study, or make a donation to support

this project, you can do so here.

This project is only for women who are:

1.

60

years of age and older

2.

have

no current cancer

3.

are

not currently being treated for cancer

Help

Promote Public Health By Participating in the D*Action Study

You can also

become a participant in the still ongoing Grassroots Health

D*Action study, which is evaluating vitamin D's impact on your overall health

status. When you join D*action, you agree to test your vitamin D levels

twice a year during a five year program, and share your health status to

demonstrate the public health impact of this nutrient. There is a $60 fee each

6 months ($120/year) for your sponsorship of the project, which includes a

complete new test kit to be used at home, and electronic reports on your

ongoing progress.

You will get a

follow up email every six months reminding you " it's time for your next

test and health survey. " To join now, please follow this link to the sign

up form.

Make

Sure You're NEVER Deficient in Vitamin D if You are Critically Ill

Dr. Lee of

the University of Queensland in Australia believes that people all over the

world are needlessly dying because they have vitamin D deficiency. He believes

severe immune dysfunction, bone hyper-resorption, blood poisoning, and

hyper-inflammation in critically ill patients could all be resolved with

sufficient vitamin D. He notes that the stress of surgery uses up

tremendous amounts of vitamin D, and cites studies showing that death in the

ICU and the CCU is two to three times higher for the vitamin D deficient.

According to Dr. Lee:

" Vitamin

D deficiency is highly prevalent and has been associated with a diverse range

of chronic medical conditions in the general population. In contrast, the

prevalence, pathogenesis and significance of vitamin D deficiency have received

little attention in acute medicine. Vitamin D deficiency is seldom considered

and rarely corrected adequately, if at all, in critically ill patients.

Recent

recognition of the extra-skeletal, pleiotropic actions of vitamin D in

immunity, epithelial function and metabolic regulation may underlie the

previously under-recognized contribution of vitamin D deficiency to typical

co-morbidities in critically ill patients, including sepsis, systemic

inflammatory response syndrome and metabolic dysfunction. Improved

understanding of vitamin D metabolism and regulation in critical illness

may allow therapeutic exploitation of vitamin D to improve outcome in

critically ill patients. "

This echoes previous

findings that your vitamin D status is critical for overall health,

prevention of disease, and for successful recuperation—whether you're

recuperating from a case of the flu, from surgery, or even cancer

treatment.

The

Best Source of Vitamin D

Exposing your

skin to sunlight is the best way to get vitamin D as this will also produce

vitamin D3 sulfate, which I discussed earlier. As a general guideline, getting

about 15 to 20 minutes of sun exposure a day, with at least 40 percent of your

skin exposed, will boost the vitamin levels above 40 ng/ml in many. However,

this is highly variable and dependent on a number of factors, including your

skin color, location and altitude, for example. If you're able to get out in

the sun for an adequate time period each day, your vitamin D levels should be

naturally optimized.

If you can't get enough sun exposure during certain parts of the year, I advise using a safe tanning

bed to allow your body to produce vitamin D naturally. Safe tanning beds

have electronic ballasts and produce less UVA than sunshine.

A third option is taking a high-quality vitamin D supplement. The most important

thing to keep in mind if you opt for oral supplementation is to use natural

vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) only. Do not use the synthetic

and highly inferior vitamin D2. Unless you get a deep dark tan, it is

wise to get your blood levels checked as that is the only way to know for

certain you have reached therapeutic levels. To determine the appropriate dose,

you need to get

your vitamin D levels tested. Ideally, you'll want to be between 50-70

ng/ml. Based on recent research published by Grassroots Health from the

D*Action study, the average adult needs to take 8,000 IU's of vitamin D per day

in order to elevate their levels above 40 ng/ml, which they believe is the bare

minimum for disease prevention.

Download

Interview Transcript

Source:

Vitamin D Council September 27, 2011

Source:

Best Practice & Research –

Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism October 2011; 25(5): 769-781

Source:

Vitamin D Council October 3, 2011

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