What’s the Hype with Vitamin D3

November 4, 2010 by

There is a lot of talk about vitamin D3, what it is, how to get it and if we are getting enough. In this article I would like to take a few minutes to break it down in a simple form so that you are empowered with the right information to make decisions for yourself.

“Because vitamin D is so cheap and so clearly reduces all-cause mortality, I can say this with great certainty: Vitamin D represents the single most cost effective medical intervention in the United States.” ~Dr. Greg Plotnikoff, Medical Director at Penny George Institute for Health and Healing in Minneapolis

What is Vitamin D3?

Vitamin D3 is a fat-soluble vitamin that is produced in the skin after exposure to ultraviolet B light either from the sun or from artificial sources and occurs naturally in some foods. Vitamin D exists in several forms, each with a different activity. Some forms are relatively inactive in the body and have limited ability to function as a vitamin. The liver and kidney help convert vitamin D to its active hormone form.

The major biologic function of vitamin D is to maintain normal blood levels of calcium and phosphorus. Vitamin D aids in the absorption of calcium, helping to form and maintain strong bones. It promotes bone mineralization in concert with a number of other vitamins, minerals, and hormones.

Without vitamin D, bones can become thin, brittle, soft, or misshapen. Vitamin D prevents rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults, which are skeletal diseases that result in defects that weaken bones. (1)vitamin d in the body

It used to be thought that Vitamin D was only good for prevention of weakened bones and rickets but as more research is being done the connection between Vitamin D3 and the body is wide ranging. In the side image you can see all the different ways that Vitamin D3 interacts with the body and how the lack of can produce disease states.

So the questions becomes: what do obesity, heart disease, depression, diabetes, and fibromyalgia have in common? Vitamin D deficiency. More than 200 million Americans lack this essential vitamin and as a result suffer from a host of daily annoyances, chronic conditions, the flu and even life-threatening illnesses. (3)

How do we get Vitamin D3?

Vitamin D3 is known as the sunshine vitamin because when we are exposed to sunlight our body creates vitamin D from ultraviolet B rays. We can also receive vitamin D through foods and supplementation. The caution here is that not all supplements or foods provide the same value as others. Most Vitamin D supplements are in the form of Vitamin D2, however the body is 500 percent (4) faster at converting vitamin D3 into its active hormonal form and therefore more productive in the body then D2. Some of the best food sources for Vitamin D are liver, egg yolks, cod liver oil, and fish. Many foods are being fortified with Vitamin D and are one of the biggest contributors to vitamin D in our diet.

How much Vitamin D3 should we be getting?

The data is being updated regularly and the RDA values are significantly out of date based on new research. This table is a good average to begin with, but please note the warning below. This chart does not give specifics for your individual needs.

Vitamin D Dose Recommendations
Age Dosage
Below 5 35 units per pound per day
Age 5 – 10 2500 units
Adults 5000 units
Pregnant Women 5000 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.

IF you feel you are not getting enough vitamin D or would like to know more, please contact me so we can assess your specific needs together and find the best solution for you.

For more information on vitamin D check out this link:

http://www.mercola.com/article/vitamin-d-resources.htm

References:

(1) http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2002/02/23/vitamin-d-part-five.aspx

(2) image: http://vitamind.ucr.edu/disease.html

(3) http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-04/pgu-tvd040110.php

(4) http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2006/10/26/beware-of-most-prescription-vitamin-d-supplements.aspx

Filed Under: Blog, Education

Sheila Speaks

November 3, 2010 by

Recently I attended a Lyceum for a remedy line I use in my office, Energetix. It was an incredible event full of knowledgeable and passionate practitioners of many different backgrounds. I was fortunate to be invited as part of their panel speakers on the Autism Spectrum and I wanted to share this event with you; to view please click play on the video below.

Filed Under: Education, Events Tagged With: , , ,

The Wisdom of Homeopathy

October 7, 2010 by

Most people have heard about homeopathy, some good and some maybe not so good.  Allopathic doctors and the community tend to discount homeopathy quickly as quackery and recently the UK is looking at revoking funding for homeopathic research. The reason given is there isn’t enough evidence to support it and it gives no better results than the placebo effect.  Keep in mind that the placebo is at least 30% effective, higher in some studies, and this effective rate has some pharmaceutical companies nervous. This all begs the question, if there is research stating that the placebo effect has positive benefits and homeopathy is no better than a placebo, wouldn’t we want to investigate it as a likely healing modality that at its very foundation is to “do no harm?”

Dana Ullman in his amazing article, The Case FOR Homeopathic Medicine: The Historical and Scientific Evidence, highlights the successes of homeopathy that is being overlooked by the scientific community. In his opening paragraph he states:

First, to clarify, advocating for or using homeopathic medicines does not preclude appreciation for or use of selective conventional medical treatment. Advocates of homeopathy simply honor the Hippocratic tradition of “First, do no harm” and therefore seek to explore and utilize safer methods before resorting to more risky treatments. This perspective has historical and international roots, and it is thus no surprise that American health care which has been so resistant to homeopathic and natural therapies in its mainstream institutions is presently ranked 37th in the world in the performance of its health care system.(1) In comparison, the number one ranked country in the world is France, a country in which around 40 percent of the population uses homeopathic medicines and around 30 percent of its family physicians prescribe them (2).

This is an important statement because many people assume that if you are an advocate for homeopathy you are against all conventional medicine. And yet, the statistics, ie the facts, show that there is something significantly wrong with America’s approach to health care. If France is ranked number one, then shouldn’t we review and study what they are doing differently?

Ullman goes on to speak about some of the historical successes of homeopathy like:

  • homeopathy’s notable successes in treating epidemics of cholera, yellow fever, scarlet fever, typhoid, pneumonia, or influenza
  • studies testing the effects of homeopathic medicines on cell cultures, plants, animals, physics experiments, and chemistry trials have shown statistically significant effects
  • hundreds of thousands, even millions, of medical doctors learned conventional medicine but have used homeopathic medicines in conjunction with or (commonly) as replacement for conventional medicines
  • four double-blind placebo controlled trials has shown benefit from the homeopathic medicine,Oscillococcinum, in the treatment of influenza.
  • over 100 million people in India depend solely on this form of medical care

homeopathic dilutions

The wisdom and gentle approach of homeopathy is often deeply misunderstood because of its basis in energetic medicine, resonant medicine, and not tangible molecules that can be tested the way most trials are currently ran. When you have an allopathically trained doctor running tests on homeopathic medicines there are bound to be errors; homeopathic medicines by their very nature require a different approach, one that they most often are not trained on. This doesn’t mean we should ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater’ but rather continue to do research in light of all the benefits that have been received by individuals and whole countries.

I encourage all of you to read Dana Ullman’s great article on The Case FOR Homeopathic Medicine: The Historical and Scientific Evidence and decide what makes sense to you. If you have had success with homeopathy, either in my practice or another, please share your experiences below. The wisdom needs to speak for itself, not the fear of those who misunderstand.

Filed Under: Education, Homotoxicology Tagged With: , , , , ,

Homotoxicology Bridges the Gap in Healthcare

September 19, 2010 by

Saying, or reading the word, “Homotoxicology”, can make one feel like they are back in biology class being riddled with the complex language of the scientific world.  And yet the joy of the scientific language is that, for the most part, it can be easily broken down into its Latin roots for deciphering.

This particular word breaks down into two parts: homo and toxicology. Starting with the latter part of the word we know that it contains ology, relating to the study of something…in this case toxins. Homo, which unfortunately has received bad press over the years, simply refers to humans, as in Homo sapiens. So putting them together Homotoxicology is the study of toxins in humans. Now that our etymology lesson is over we can begin to fill in the content of homotoxicology and how it bridges the gap in healthcare.

We are exposed to toxins all the time from the air we breathe, the products we use on our body, to the food we consume. Our bodies have an amazing ability to keep us healthy despite our encounters with these toxins. Specialized organs and systems within our bodies are designed to detoxify and protect us. When we are first exposed to a toxin we are in Phase 1 of the chart of homotoxicology.

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4 Phase 5 Phase 6
Excretion Reaction Deposition Impregnation Degeneration Neoplasm

As you can see in the chart Phase 1 is Excretion, this means the body is actively excreting the ingested or applied toxin. The body tries to excrete the toxin by sneezing, coughing, sweating, vomiting, or pushing it through the urine and feces.

If the body is unsuccessful at moving out these toxins (perhaps because we are exposed to too many, our diets are poor, or we’re stressed out) it will move into Phase 2 the Reaction phase. It is during this phase that the body begins to react to the toxin through inflammation.  Here is where the body produces a fever, mucus, swelling, etc.  This is the natural process the body uses to move the toxin to Phase 1 where it can be excreted.  If this process is stopped for any reason the body moves to Phase 3.

Phase 3 is where the toxin becomes Deposited within the body to be dealt with at a later time. It is the body’s way of saying, “I know I need to deal with you but at the moment I can’t, so you need to sit over here out of the way until I can move you out.” But as we know, like paperwork on the desk, we don’t always get to it when it would be ideal and other things pile up on top until it becomes buried underneath the newer paperwork. This is Phase 4, Impregnation.

Impregnation is the beginning of toxin layering and in the body you begin to experience more complex diseases and illness like allergies and autoimmune diseases. The body at this point is often unable to handle this toxic layering and moves to Phase 5, Degeneration.

The Degeneration Phase is exactly what it sounds like, the body begins to break down and many people are unable to recover at this stage. Some of the disease processes that are listed in Phase 5 are fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, lupus, tuberculosis, and heart attack.  (Some people move through phase 5 without symptoms other than fatigue.)  If the body continues to accumulate toxins, it will eventually move to Phase 6.

Phase 6 is Neoplasm and it at this phase the body is cancerous.

The good news is that the body is designed to heal and at any point along the chart with the right support and recommendations the body can reverse the process and move back towards Phase 1.

The questions many people have at this point are: “What phase am I in?”; “How do I know what is right for me to reverse this trend?”; “Don’t I have to live with my chronic disease for the rest of my life?”…The answer to each of these requires a practitioner who knows and understands how to tap into the communication system of the body and accurately guide it back to the Excretion Phase – some of the best tools for doing this are the Avatar and homeopathy. The body is amazing and all it needs is the right support at the right time to guide it back to its natural state of health and brilliance.

Filed Under: Homotoxicology Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

New Shipping Procedure!

June 6, 2010 by

Hi Folks,

First off, I’d like to welcome you all to the Essential Healing Solution Blog.  I am excited about this new addition to what EHS offers – it will be a great resource for education, events, and any changes that are happening at EHS.  Like this month we have a new shipping procedure that will speed up the time it takes to get products out to you.

How does this new shipping procedure work? There won’t be much difference on your end, please continue to place your calls and order as you have in the past, but now I will be using a service called Energetix Direct.  There are several benefits of working with this company: you will be able to receive your products the following day after the order goes in, there will be great patient education pieces in each order, and you will be notified by email when your product supply is getting low and need to reorder.  This will save all of us time and keep you on track for a healthy recovery!

This new shipping procedure will begin later this month so stay tuned for updates!

Filed Under: Procedures Tagged With: , ,