STAYING HEALTHY

Staying Healthy      https://thehonestscientist.com/staying-healthy/ 

I’d like to preface this by saying I am NOT a medical professional – what I am is a research scientist, employed for 20 years of my professional life as such in Australian research institutions, and what I’m doing here is compiling the research of medical professionals, which I’ve been investigating since around 1995. So I suggest you do not take my word for anything, but check out the original research.

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Anyway – this is a summary of the research I have encountered, as a potential protocol for improving your chances of staying healthy, by boosting your immune system. Ultimately there are not really any “cures” for any form of disease; it is your immune system in combination with your genetics and general physical and mental health that will determine how quickly you will recover from illness, sometimes in combination with help provided in various forms by medical professionals (e.g. ventilators, surgery, defibrillators, prescribed medicines, etc etc).

That being said, there are two major nutrients whose ability to effect our immune system is vastly underestimated by most people, including those in the medical arena, in my opinion (C10; see my About page for the explanation of my C and H ratings). These are Vitamins C and D. I will go more into Vitamin C below, but in view of the current pandemic and its relevance I will for now discuss Vitamin D first.

Vitamin D

One of the most essential vitamins is Vitamin D, which fortunately our bodies can make themselves with just a bit of exposure to sunlight (well, the Ultraviolet A and B in sunlight). In some countries, vitamin D is listed in micrograms (µg or mcg), in others international units (IU). 1ug is equivalent to 40IU. Whilst the recommended daily intake (RDI) for most adults in Australia and New Zealand (https://www.nrv.gov.au/nutrients/vitamin-d) is only 10ug (i.e. 400IU), Osteoperosis Australia recommends 1000-2000IU/day for the majority of us that don’t get out into the sun that much, and in view of the research below it looks like 4000-10000IU or equivalent per day is the sort of dose you should be getting to ensure your immune system is healthy and hopefully you will remain asymptomatic in the current pandemic. (Update – after taking around 10000IU/day for over year a blood-test revealed my Vitamin D levels were a bit high – my doctor informed me that he wouldn’t recommend 10000IU/day unless I had cancer or COVID-19 and then only for a limited time, and that 5000IU/day would be much better long-term. He also said that there are rare individuals that can reach really high-blood levels with only low-levels of supplements, so it’s best to have blood tests done on your levels over a period of time in conjunction with your doctor to find the right amount for you individual physiology).

Sunlight and fresh air was one of the most effective treatments for 1918 flu pandemic (see e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4504358/), and it was common prior to antibiotics for the wealthy when they became ill to head into the country and bask in the Sun, breathe in the fresh air and drink fresh water.

Ideally you should get your Vitamin D via Sun exposure; in Australia you might only need around 10 minutes in Summer per day, to 30 minutes in Winter if you have fair skin with just your arms exposed according to https://www.osteoporosis.org.au/sites/default/files/files/vitdconsumerguide.pdf, although if you have darker skin you may need up to 6 times as long. As per https://www.medscape.com/answers/128762-54304/what-is-the-recommended-sun-exposure-for-production-of-vitamin-d “if sun exposure produces slight pinkness, the amount of vitamin D produced in response to exposure of the full body is equivalent to ingesting 10,000-25,000 IU”. That may be difficult, especially in Winter, in which case you might be all right with some foods as per https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/foods-high-in-vitamin-d, especially oily fish. Vegetarians have even more issues; some mushrooms have a bit of Vitamin D in them, but otherwise you’ll have trouble getting enough just from food, especially anywhere near 10,000IU.

Long term lack of vitamin D as well as depressing the immune system leads to rickets, osteoporosis, and in many people multiple sclerosis. Lack may also lead to depression and SAD (seasonal affective disorder), plus issues in pregnancy (https://www.health.gov.au/resources/pregnancy-care-guidelines/part-g-targeted-maternal-health-tests/vitamin-d-status). This can obviously be a problem currently for those people quarantined at home, especially for people in Autumn and Winter.

It was long ago demonstrated that Vitamin D3 prevents colds and influenza. A meta-analysis published in 2017 (https://www.bmj.com/content/356/bmj.i6583) confirmed this finding with the lead investigator, Professor Adrian Martineau from QMUL, concluding that “the reduction in risk of acute respiratory infection induced by Vitamin D was on a par with the protective effect of the flu vaccine”.

Actually that’s probably too conservative, seeing as the average flu vaccine is only about 50% effective, and can be under 20% (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/vaccines-work/effectiveness-studies.htm). For example, consider the findings discussed in the Radiolab Podcast at https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/invisible-allies. It was found that people staying at homeless shelters across Massachusetts and beyond (California, Georgia, Washington) in the US had remarkably few problems with COVID-19, despite the fact that you would generally think the people there would have poor health and compromised immune systems due to lack of access to a good diet, clean water and living conditions. In fact once testing became available it was shown that 30-40% of them had contracted the virus, but none of them were showing symptoms – i.e. all of them were asymptomatic. The only reasonable explanation for this is that being homeless these people were a lot more likely to be outside during the day and hence getting a good amount of Sun exposure. Unfortunately as I write this the US is going into Autumn, so the reduced Sun exposure is unlikely to help them as much, especially in the Northern states.

Here are a few articles which discuss the benefits of Vitamin D in treating various illnesses, or conversely how low levels of Vitamin D are generally found in people suffering the worse symptoms of various illnesses, including COVID-19:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7276229/

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0239799

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0239252

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7400257/

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40520-020-01570-8

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/4/988/htm

These articles are also extremely interesting in that they show how the mortality rate of different countries varies substantially, in line with the average level of Vitamin D in those countries. You may expect that people would have good levels of Vitamin D because they are closer to the equator, but conversely citizens of countries closer to the poles (especially the Scandinavian countries) tend to have the highest levels as they have realised for some time that they need to supplement, especially in Winter, to avoid many health issues:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7305922/

http://imj.ie/vitamin-d-and-inflammation-potential-implications-for-severity-of-covid-19/

Here’s a couple of images below that neatly indicate how those with symptoms correlate with low levels of vitamin D, and the sort of levels you should probably be aiming for, thanks to Dr Jack Kruse.

Symptoms vs Vitamin D levels

Vitamin D blood serum levels

Now, it is extremely common for those in the medical community to be very conservative when it comes to recommending forms of treatment for illnesses, which is fair enough when you’re talking about a treatment that is new, expensive, or is untested and so we don’t know what side-effects it might have. Similarly if the difference between a dose doing you good and doing you harm is small. But none of these is the case for Vitamin D. It has been around in our body as long as there has been daylight, it is extremely cheap – sunlight is generally free, and you can pick up even 10000IU capsules for only around 10c each (so 3-5c/day if you take one of these every 2-3 days), plus we know it is vital for immune system function in general and for warding off the effects of many illnesses. I’ve also been unable to find any indication of symptoms from overdose of Vitamin D in adults occurring when taking supplements under 40000IU per day long-term (https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/vitamin-d-toxicity/faq-20058108, https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/how-much-vitamin-d-is-too-much, https://vitamindwiki.com/Overview+Toxicity+of+vitamin+D), especially if you’re drinking the recommended amount of water (although as per my update above an appropriate amount should be determined in conjunction with your doctor, and 10000IU/day is unlikely to be suitable unless you have a severe medical condition). So bearing in mind all the above, WHY WOULDN’T doctors recommend that at least everyone going into a hospital or aged care facility or experiencing any form of respiratory illness take a capsule of a few thousand IU of Vitamin D daily?

UPDATE: On October 28th 2020 (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-in-scotland-vulnerable-will-receive-vitamin-d-supplements-zc8stdpkh) it was announced in The Times that vulnerable people in Scotland would be given a free four-month supply of vitamin D supplements and a few days later it was suggested that Boris Johnson would also follow the same example in England (https://www.thenational.scot/news/18841488.boris-johnson-set-follow-nicola-sturgeons-policy-vitamin-d-supplies/, https://www.nutraingredients.com/Article/2020/11/04/UK-s-PM-may-provide-free-vitamin-D-in-coronavirus-fight). Hopefully other governments will follow suit (as of July 2021 this has not happened).

Note that Dr Anthony Fauci has stated he has taken Vitamin D supplementation in the past, and isn’t against taking Vitamin C either in order to help boost your immune system (e.g. https://www.health.com/nutrition/vitamins-supplements/dr-fauci-vitamin-c-and-d).

Vitamin C

Vitamin C (VC) is an essential nutrient used by our bodies for various purposes, especially by the immune system – if you have to jump on the war analogy bandwagon as every media institution seems keen to do, VC is used by our immune system mainly as ammunition. Low ammunition is a problem as that means you will get overrun by the enemy; large amounts of ammunition at the wrong time is also not of much use – you may hold off the enemy for a while but they will then overrun you whilst you are waiting for resupply. So the optimum solution is to have a decent amount of ammunition constantly being fed to you. By the same token the best way to take VC is in small amounts over the day. The research supports the idea that Vitamin C is not really a vitamin in the strict definition of the term – it should be considered an essential nutrient that your body regularly needs large amounts of (i.e. several grams per day on average) for optimal health, which puts it in the same category as carbohydrates, protein and fats.

The best form is generally agreed to be sodium ascorbate – this is a “buffered” form of pure VC, which is ascorbic acid – as the name suggests as an “acid” it can cause issues to those with sensitive stomachs in large amounts. Sodium ascorbate is the only form used to create Intravenous Vitamin C (IVC), which is the best form to get if you have a serious illness. Very few people will have access to this, unfortunately, so let’s just assume you have access to powdered sodium ascorbate for now – if your health food store or chemist does not have access you may be able to get this in bulk on eBay, and if not there maybe from your local veterinarian (vets have been using VC in bulk for animal health for decades), or maybe even a bulk food wholesaler (as an anti-oxidant VC is used in all types of foods to increase shelf life, especially fruit juices – it’s food additive number 300, or E300 in Europe). There are differing opinions on the use of sodium ascorbate by those who have been told they are meant to be on a “low sodium diet” – you may want to try pure ascorbic acid instead, or discuss it with your doctor, if you’re lucky enough to find a doctor that has a decent level of understanding of the importance of “vitamins” in a healthy diet. Some doctors have said a “low sodium diet” is really a “low table-salt diet” and that people on one are not affected adversely by large amounts of VC.

Anyway, the protocol suggested by doctors to boost your immune system (or to be precise to get your immune system operating the way it used to when people had ready access to a decent supply of freshly picked fruits and vegetables) is to mix 2 slightly heaped teaspoons of sodium ascorbate (~10g – i.e. 10000mg) in a litre or so of cool liquid (preferably good quality water) in a flask and sip it throughout the day (say every 15-20 minutes). Do not use warm/hot liquids – VC breaks down in heat (so cooking fruits/vegetables reduces the amount of VC in them). If you do not hit “bowel tolerance” (which means you start passing a lot of wind or get diarrhoea) then add another teaspoon the next day and repeat until you hit “bowel tolerance”, then back off a teaspoon or two the next day. Note that the amount you need can vary a lot, depending upon how old you are, how much you weigh, how healthy you are, how much VC you’re getting from other sources (especially fresh fruit and vegetables), etc etc. So you will need to vary this amount over time – if you’re really ill your body will be able to handle/require a lot more VC, whereas if you’re really healthy you might not need any supplemental VC at all (I’ve met exactly one person that fit into this category; in her early 20s, exercised daily, grew her own fruit and vegetables and hardly ever consumed processed food).

You can also leave the flask besides the bed and take a sip if you wake up during the night. Another way to keep your VC levels up during the night (especially if you’re really ill) is to have a capsule/caplet/whatever of slow-release/liposomal VC just before you go to bed – this is VC suspended in a lipid (oil/fat) which takes your body longer to break down, so keeps your levels up a bit longer. It’s also a lot more expensive than regular VC.

The amount above assumes you’re an adult human in roughly the normal weight range; if like me you’re carrying extra weight you’ll need a bit more as there is more body to keep healthy. If you’re younger you’ll generally need less; the 10g (10000mg) starting rate assumes you’re 10 years old or more; for those below 10 the suggested dosage is 1g/year of age, and for babies 0.1g/month of age. Breastfeeding babies will generally get plenty assuming their mother is healthy and taking enough.

Note that the above protocol is designed specifically to keep your immune system in good shape; there are other things as well to help this (e.g. prebiotics, probiotics, small amounts of other nutrients especially the other vitamins and Zinc, etc etc). Note also that the above protocol is NOT targeted at a specific illness – this is to help your body fight off all illnesses. As such you can follow this protocol AT THE SAME TIME as anything else your health professional has you doing, with a few rare exceptions. If you are having any form of medication you should check with your health professional to ensure that they have no problem with you taking supplemental VC. Also if you are taking MMS you should not be taking supplemental VC – MMS and VC effectively cancel each other out, so you should be using one or the other, not both (although you could mix it up by doing a few days on one protocol and then a few days on the other; just not both at once). If you do not know what MMS is you’ll need to look that up elsewhere; for various reasons I won’t be discussing it here.

If you only have access to VC tablets – grind them up and dissolve them if possible; if they don’t dissolve try breaking into pieces and having small bits during the day.

Now, for the major references – there are a heap more than these that have been published over the last century (especially since the 1970s) about the effectiveness of VC in helping the body recover from a number of illnesses, but these are the ones I believe are the most relevant at the moment (and most of these also refer to plenty of other sources):

Most of the above protocol is based on the work of Drs Klenner and Cathcart:

http://www.doctoryourself.com/klenner_table.html

http://www.doctoryourself.com/titration.html

Most of the books written by Steve Hickey and Hilary Roberts, which also have a wealth of references, starting with Ascorbate – The Science of Vitamin C:

http://www.lulu.com/au/en/shop/steve-hickey-and-hilary-roberts/ascorbate/paperback/product-55574.html

Vitamin C – Nature’s Miraculous Healing Missile, compiled by Glen Dettman, Archie Kalokerinos and Ian Dettman

Every Second Child, by Archie Kalokerinos

Curing the Incurable, by Thomas E Levy

Cancer and Vitamin C, by Linus Pauling and Ewan Cameron

The China Study, by T Colin Campbell and Thomas M Campbell

Here’s an interesting documentary about the apparent recovery of a man from swine flu a few years ago thanks to IVC, and the problems his family had with the medical establishment getting this treatment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GApXBaZuw14

A doctor whose opinion I value very highly who has been researching Vitamin C for decades told me in the early 2000s that hospitals were being set up at the time in China to treat people for a number of illnesses, including cancer, with IVC (C9, H2). As such the reports coming out of China in the last few months concerning the treatment of people suffering from COVID-19 with IVC are hardly surprising:

http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml

I would like to thank Alan for getting me interested in VC in the mid-90s – he mentioned to me at the time he was regularly taking 20-30g/day which bearing in mind my scientific training I thought at the time was ludicrous, and said as much. However, once I got over my prejudices enough to look into it I found he was basing his decision on sound data, and now do the same myself. I hope that the medical establishment can do the same in the near future.

UPDATE: On the 3rd December 2020 the ABC published a news story on their web site (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-03/mega-dose-of-vitamin-c-treats-sepsis-florey-institute-austin/12939202) which they followed up with a video segment in the 7pm news that night on how a “young Australian man who was critically ill with COVID-19 and suffering early stages of blood poisoning made a remarkable recovery after being given massive doses of vitamin C”. This was apparently the “same treatment the Florey researchers had trialled in animals”, and consisted of “an initial dose of 30 grams of sodium ascorbate (vitamin C) over 30 minutes, then a maintenance dose of 30 grams over six and a half hours”. Professor Bellomo said the changes were remarkable: “In a short period of time, we saw improved regulation of blood pressure, arterial blood oxygen levels and kidney function” and “The patient was able to be taken off machine ventilation 12 days after starting sodium ascorbate treatment and discharged from hospital without any complications 22 days later”.

So that’s just two IV vitamin C treatments in the one day and someone suffering sepsis and kidney failure is OK a few weeks later; imagine what would happen if as a matter of course patients received this kind of treatment immediately upon being admitted (or preferably earlier). Words like “revolutionary” are then used – pity doctors aren’t being taught what has been available in the literature for nearly a century concerning vitamins C and D.

Zinc

Unfortunately I’ve not done enough research to be as confident about suggesting a daily amount of Zinc (C8) or various other trace elements. The references on http://www.doctoryourself.com/fatigue.html suggest that daily doses of Zinc of 300mg+ could be harmful, but 50-150mg/day should be safe. Other sources suggest no more than 40mg/day long-term (but that’s assuming you’re already fairly healthy). The article at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22429343 suggests 10mg/day is helpful treating the common cold (which is a member of the coronavirus family), but that’s in combination with only 1000mg (1g) Vitamin C, which as noted above is a pretty minimal dose. Most people that have access to enough food to keep them satisfied will already have decent levels of Zinc, especially if you are eating meat/seafood, yoghurt, cheese, lentils/baked beans, seeds and nuts. Zinc supplements from health food stores and pharmacies are readily available.

Water

Our bodies are around 50-65% water by mass. As such unless we continue to get a good supply of clean water we will get health issues (C10). This is especially the case when ill, as some of the main things our immune system does to get rid of bacteria and the like is to heat up our body and cause us to sweat, plus urinate more, plus vomit.

As such make sure you get enough water when ill – being dehydrated will only cause more stress on your body. 2L (8 cups) per day for adults is recommended; one way of working out whether you’re getting enough is to check the colour of your urine – if it’s close to clear then you may be having too much, if it’s dark yellow or brown you’re probably having too little, and if it’s a light yellow/straw colour you’re probably having the correct amount. If it contains visible blood, or is cloudy or a different colour and you haven’t been consuming a lot of strongly coloured food (beets/berries can turn your urine red/pink; some food colourings can turn it blue/green; see e.g. https://www.healthline.com/health/urine-color-chart#color-chart) then you should be talking to your health care professional about this.

Sleep

Lack of sleep, especially over a long time period, tends to depress the immune system and make us more susceptible to chronic diseases (C10) including depression, obesity, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, to name but a few (https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/resources/infographic/sleep.htm). To prevent this we need at least 7 hours sleep per night on average (https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about_sleep/how_much_sleep.html), depending upon your age.

However it’s estimated that as many as a third of people in the USA are not getting that much sleep, and the numbers would be similar in most industrialised countries that follow similar work patterns, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. Economists have actually converted lost productivity and illnesses caused by poor sleep into dollar value effects on the economy – e.g. in the US it’s around US$411 billion a year, or 2.28% of the GDP (https://theconversation.com/sleep-deprivation-costs-the-economy-billions-and-sends-workers-to-an-early-grave-69753). As such make sure you get a decent night’s sleep, especially if you are ill – if your work isn’t too keen refer them to the above and inform them you’re improving the state of the national economy 😉

Other Nutrients

I’ve not spent as much time studying the role of other nutrients in boosting the immune system, so note that I have less confidence (C7) in recommending taking extra levels of the below over what you would normally get in a decent diet. The main thing to remember is that MOST minerals and vitamins are indeed nutrients you only need in fairly small amounts, even when ill, and large amounts can actually do more harm than good. For example, the amount of selenium you get in just 1 Brazil nut is (more than) enough for a daily dose, and as few as 5/day over time could lead to you losing your hair and fingernails and having other problems.

In general you’re always better off getting your nutrients from fresh food and vegetables plus a bit of meat if you can and are not vegetarian/vegan, but if stuck with pre-packaged foods in quarantine you may need to supplement to stay healthy. Plus, of course, plenty of good quality water and air.

Short Term Relief

I’ve been asked if there is anything else that most medical professionals are recommending if you are in the main “at risk” groups – i.e. elderly, smoker/asthmatic or someone else with compromised lung function, or already have a depressed immune system due to some underlying health issue (chronic condition like diabetes, acute illness like measles, etc). The short answer is that if you start developing a fever and cough then call an ambulance or your health professional (depending upon how badly you’re feeling) and see what they say – you may very well need to go to hospital.

The following has been researched even less (C6) but may be useful. If you have a Salbutamol inhaler (e.g. Ventolin) or some similar acute asthma treatment that may give short-term relief. Otherwise you may get some relief from some of the more traditional treatments, e.g. steam therapy – pour some boiling water into a bowl (or preferably some container you can fix to a table), put in few drops of eucalyptus and/or tea-tree oil, put a towel over your head and the container and breathe the steam from around 20cm/8″ away with your eyes closed (see e.g. https://www.bosistos.com.au/content/steam-therapy-0) – you can also get hand-held inhalers and vaporisers. In addition to helping clear the airways, this MAY (I stress MAY) help kill some bacteria and viruses – many coronaviruses break down in heat and close to 100% humidity (see e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14631830). I stress that this is likely to give you short-term relief at best – on its own it is very unlikely to cure you of a serious infection.

Ultraviolet light is also a potent killer of most bacteria, fungi and viruses – in most countries you can readily obtain cheap UVC hand-held sterilisers, which are good for use on surfaces (especially porous surfaces that you can’t really use soap and water or other cleaning products on) for preventing the spread of infection to others (C8). You need to be careful with these, however – they can damage your eyes if you look at the light for any length of time, and unlike UVA/UVB these will not really help you to generate vitamin D, but will cause bad sunburn if you expose your skin to it for any significant length of time.

“Feed a cold, starve a fever” or vice versa – they’re both right/wrong; in virtually all cases of illness (unless advised otherwise by your health care professional) you should keep up adequate nutrition to ensure your immune system has the necessary energy and nutrients to fight off infection. The old favourite chicken soup is good – especially the original recipes that have the soup made from bone broth, which is rich in vitamins and nutrients.

Silver and Copper

I’ve been asked about using colloidal silver. Although there are lots of medicos going on about how colloidal silver is only suggested by quacks and is useless applied topically or taken internally, that may not be the case (C7).

It has been known since pre-history that silver is effective against “germs”, which is one of the main reasons that rich families had cutlery, plates and drinking containers made out of it. Even Wikipedia admits that there are legitimate uses for silver in medicine, and that it was used up until the 1940s by medical doctors as an antibiotic and anti-fungal medicine. See also “Antimicrobial Silver in Medicinal and Consumer Applications: A Patent Review of the Past Decade (2007–2017)“. You can still purchase various dressings (band-aids and the like) which contain silver for topical use to prevent infection and for helping heal leg ulcers.

So, is there any evidence to suggest colloidal silver may be an effective antibiotic against some bacteria? Yes. See, for example, “Mechanistic Basis of Antimicrobial Actions of Silver Nanoparticles” and the articles linked off that paper. Here’s a few more: “Antibacterial activity of nanosilver ions and particles“, “Spectrum of antimicrobial activity associated with ionic colloidal silver“, “Antimicrobial Effects of Silver Nanoparticles Stabilized in Solution by Sodium Alginate“. However, these have all been on the topical use of silver, or action against bacteria in test tubes, which does not always translate to an effective oral human antibiotic. Even the research that only a few years ago nailed down why silver is so effective against bacteria was basically done in test tubes, plus a few mice. A 2006 patent “Treatment of Humans with Colloidal Silver Composition” mainly discusses research in test tubes, but does also include discussion on actual use by humans in various parts of the world (although their sample sizes are quite small and may have been cherry-picked).

What about as an antiviral? Once again, Yes. It’s already been announced in the news that coronaviruses do not live very long on copper surfaces, and based on history and other viruses (see e.g. “Survival of Influenza A(H1N1) on Materials Found in Households: Implications for Infection Control“) one would expect the same with silver. “Silver Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Characterization, Properties, Applications, and Therapeutic Approaches” and many of its references discusses the use of silver against not only bacteria and viruses, but also many forms of cancer. “Silver Nanoparticles as Potential Antiviral Agents” is pretty self-explanatory. Dr Paul Maher also discusses many studies in “Silver is A Broad Spectrum Anti-Viral“.

So, that’s the positive spin, but as with most forms of medicine there are issues. Because silver is such a potent anti-fungal, you should definitely NOT be using it in conjunction with antibiotics like penicillin, as nearly all antibiotics are some form of fungi. There are several other medicines you should not be using it in conjunction with as well, so as normal you need to consult your health practitioner. Another issue is the health of your gut microbiome, which is an essential part of your immune system. It, too, is made up of mainly bacteria, so just as with a prescribed antibiotic, colloidal silver can cause issues that require prebiotics and probiotics to address after use. Whilst “Repeated dose (28 day) administration of silver nanoparticles of varied size and coating does not significantly alter the indigenous murine gut microbiome” seems to indicate that colloidal silver might not affect the balance of the different varieties of bacteria in your gut, and perhaps even suggests it doesn’t even reduce the amount, other publications like “Gut Dysbiosis and Neurobehavioral Alterations in Rats Exposed to Silver Nanoparticles” and “Review of the effects of silver nanoparticle exposure on gut bacteria” suggest silver can affect your gut microbiome.

We also know that long-term low-level use of colloidal silver CAN be hazardous to your health, causing argyria, which can result in your skin turning blue and potentially causing minor eye damage (reduction of night vision), and perhaps reduced kidney function. However, even the most severely affected people do not appeared to have died from it, and it generally takes years to reach this stage, so unless you’re one of the unlucky people that are allergic to silver (and there are a few people out there), the negative health implications tend to be pretty minimal.

So what is the take-home message? Common wisdom would be to treat it like any other antibiotic; even if you aren’t taking any other medicine that could be disrupted by silver, and your medical practitioner did say that taking it shouldn’t be a problem, you would be advised to have it whilst you are ill and for a bit longer thereafter, and make sure you have prebiotics and probiotics during and after to ensure your gut microbiome is in good health.

Copper has a similar effect and may be as effective in colloidal form (C7). Copper has the advantage of being a lot cheaper than silver (under 1% of the price), so is cheap enough that you can put it in places where you would do a lot of handling, especially in public buildings. That means that there is likely to be a lot less spreading of bacteria, viruses and fungi spores by touch, as they can not survive very long on a copper surface. So, given the opportunity it makes sense to put copper coatings on door knobs and push plates, handles, taps, toilet pull-chains, handrails and the like. Some hospitals and at least one theme park have acted on this already:

https://theconversation.com/copper-is-great-at-killing-superbugs-so-why-dont-hospitals-use-it-73103

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6317222/

https://www.the-hospitalist.org/hospitalist/article/125654/patient-safety/how-copper-could-solve-problem-hospital-acquired

Hopefully you will find the above useful. Good luck.

Health benefits of the Sun: Vitamin D can reduce the risk of cancer by as much as 67%

By Rhoda Wilson|Dec. 28th, 2023

https://expose-news.com/2023/12/28/health-benefits-of-the-sun/ 

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Vitamin D is involved in the biology of all cells in your body, including your immune cells. A large number of studies have shown raising your vitamin D level can significantly reduce your risk of cancer.

Most recently, researchers found vitamin D and calcium supplementation lowered participants’ overall cancer risk by 30%.

Having a serum vitamin D level of at least 40 ng/ml reduces your risk for cancer by 67% compared to having a level of 20 ng/ml or less; most cancers occur in people with a vitamin D level between 10 and 40 ng/ml.

By Dr. Joseph Mercola

This article was originally published on 10 April 2017.

Thousands of studies have been done on the health effects of vitamin D, and research shows it is involved in the biology of all cells and tissues in your body, including your immune cells. Your cells actually need the active form of vitamin D to gain access to the genetic blueprints stored inside.

This is one of the reasons why vitamin D has the ability to impact such a wide variety of health problems – from foetal development to cancer. Unfortunately, despite being easy and inexpensive to address, vitamin D deficiency is an epidemic around the world.

It’s been estimated that as many as 90% of pregnant mothers and newborns in the sunny Mediterranean region are even deficient in vitamin D,1 thanks to chronic Sun avoidance. A simple mathematical error may also deter many Americans and Canadians from optimising their vitamin D.

The Institute of Medicine (“IOM”) recommends a mere 600 IUs of vitamin D per day for adults. As pointed out in a 2014 paper,2 the IOM underestimates the need by a factor of 10 due to a mathematical error, which has never been corrected.

Grassroots Health has created a petition for the IOM and Health Canada to re-evaluate its vitamin D guidelines and correct this mathematical error.3 You can help further this important cause by signing the petition on ipetitions.com.

More recent research 4 suggests it would require 9,600 IUs of vitamin D per day to get a majority (97.5%) of the population to reach 40 nanograms per millilitre (ng/ml). The American Medical Association uses of 20 ng/ml as sufficient, but research shows 40 ng/mL should be the cutoff point for sufficiency in order to prevent a wide range of diseases, including cancer.

A large number of studies have shown raising your vitamin D level can significantly reduce your risk of cancer.

Most recently, a randomised clinical trial 5 by researchers at Creighton University, funded by the National Institutes of Health (“NIH”), found vitamin D and calcium supplementation lowered participants’ overall cancer risk by 30%.6,7,8

The study, which included more than 2,300 postmenopausal women from Nebraska who were followed for four years, looked at the effects of vitamin D supplementation on all types of cancer.

Participants were randomly assigned to receive either 2,000 IUs of vitamin D3 in combination with 1,500 mg of calcium, or a placebo for the duration of the study. Blood testing revealed that 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels were significantly lower in those who did develop cancer.

Joan Lappe, Ph.D., professor of nursing and associate dean of research at Creighton University’s College of Nursing, and lead author of the study, said:

The study provides evidence that higher concentrations of 25(OH)D in the blood, in the context of vitamin D3 and calcium supplementation, decrease risk of cancer … While people can make their own vitamin D3 when they are in the Sun near mid-day, sunscreen blocks most vitamin D production.

Also, due to more time spent indoors, many individuals lack adequate levels of vitamin D compounds in their blood. The results of this study lend credence to a call for more attention to the importance of vitamin D in human health and specifically in preventing cancer.

Previous research has shown that once you reach a serum vitamin D level of 40 ng/ml, your risk for cancer diminishes by 67%, compared to having a level of 20 ng/ml or less.9,10,11,12,13,14,15

Most cancers, they found, occurred in people with a vitamin D blood level between 10 and 40 ng/ml. The optimal level for cancer protection was identified as being between 40 and 60 ng/ml. Another study 16 published in 2015 found women with vitamin D concentrations of at least 30 ng/ml had a 55% lower risk of colorectal cancer than those who had a blood level below 18 ng/ml.

Even earlier research, 17 published in 2005, showed women with vitamin D levels above 60 ng/ml had an 83% lower risk of breast cancer than those with levels below 20 ng/ml! The Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (formerly IOM) has also reported an association between vitamin D and overall mortality risk from all causes, including cancer.18,19

Vitamin D also increases your chances of surviving cancer if you do get it,20,21 and this includes melanoma. 22

The UVB in sunlight is what triggers your body to produce vitamin D. I firmly believe getting regular, sensible Sun exposure is the ideal way to not only optimise your vitamin D level but maximise your health as well because sunlight also has many other important health functions. I’ll review some of these in another section below.

Regular Sun exposure provides over 1,500 different wavelengths, and we’re just now rediscovering the value of many of these other wavelengths besides UVA and UVB. For example, we now know that red and infrared light helps your body form structured water, which is important for cellular function.

Many do not appreciate that red, near, mid and far-infrared have many important biological functions. One of them is to improve mitochondrial function, especially the 660 nm and 830 nm wavelengths, as cytochrome C oxidase in mitochondria uses these wavelengths to produce ATP more efficiently.

Vitamin D3 supplements are a poor second resort, but if you’re unable to get sufficient Sun exposure, then it’s better than nothing. As demonstrated in the featured study – which specifically looked at the effects of supplementation – they do have some benefits.

Also, while not addressed in this study, I strongly recommend taking your vitamin D3 with vitamin K2 and magnesium as well, since all three work in tandem. A primary consideration when it comes to vitamin D is to get your level checked, ideally twice a year, in the middle of the summer and winter, when your level is at its highest and lowest.

What you’re aiming for is a level between 40 and 60 ng/ml year-round. Grassroots Health offers vitamin D testing at a great value through its D*Action study.

Read more: Harness the Power of the Sun for Health (Infographic)

Many avoid Sun exposure for fear of melanoma, an aggressive and potentially lethal form of skin cancer. However, it’s important to realise that melanoma occurs among those with minimal Sun exposure as well.

An important risk factor for melanoma is overexposure to UV radiation. Baking in the Sun for hours on end on a weekend here and there is not a wise choice.

To minimise your skin cancer risk, you want to avoid sunburn at all costs. If you’re going to the beach, bring long-sleeved cover-ups and a wide-brimmed hat, and cover up as soon as your skin starts to turn pink.

Following are some general guidelines for sensible Sun exposure. If you pay close attention to these, you can determine, within reason, safe exposure durations.

Know your skin type based on the Fitzpatrick skin type classification system. The lighter your skin, the less exposure to UV light is necessary. The downside is that lighter skin is also the most vulnerable to damage from overexposure.

For very fair-skinned people and those with photodermatitis, any Sun exposure may be unwanted and they should carefully measure vitamin D levels while ensuring they have an adequate intake of vitamin D, vitamin K2, magnesium and calcium.

For most people, safe UV exposure is possible by knowing your skin type and the current strength of the Sun’s rays. There are several apps and devices to help you optimise the benefits of Sun exposure while mitigating the risks. Also, be extremely careful if you have not been in the Sun for some time. Your first exposures of the year are the most sensitive, so be especially careful to limit your initial time in the Sun.

The benefits of vitamin D are not restricted to cancer prevention. In fact, the list of health benefits of vitamin D is exceedingly long. As noted earlier, researchers have now realised that vitamin D affects virtually every cell and tissue in your body, so it might be easier to list what it will not affect, rather than what it will impact.

Compelling evidence suggests that optimising your vitamin D can reduce your risk of death from any cause, 23 making it a foundational component of optimal health. Mega doses of vitamin D have also been shown to decrease the length of time critical care patients must remain hospitalised.24 Those who received 250,000 IUs for five days were released after an average of 25 days, compared to the average of 36 days for those receiving a placebo.

Patients who received 500,000 IUs of vitamin D for five days were released after an average of just 18 days, effectively cutting their hospital stay in half. The health care savings in this instance alone are tremendous. When you add in all possible diseases and ailments vitamin D can prevent and/or ameliorate, the savings could potentially tally into the trillions each year.

Certainly, for the average person, optimising your vitamin D level is one of the least expensive preventive care strategies at your disposal. If you suffer from any of the following ailments and still haven’t checked your vitamin D level, now may be the time to go ahead and do so, as research 25 into vitamin D has found it can help prevent and/or address:

Osteoporosis, osteomalacia (bone softening) and hip fractures Type 1 and type 2 diabetes

Cancer, including cancers of the breast, colon, prostate, ovaries, oesophagus and lymphatic system. Adding vitamin D to the conventional treatment for pancreatic cancer may also boost the effectiveness of the treatment 26 Hypertension (high blood pressure), cardiovascular disease and heart attacks – (According to vitamin D researcher Dr. Michael Holick, deficiency can raise your risk of heart attack by 50%. What’s worse, if you have a heart attack while vitamin D deficient, your risk of dying is nearly guaranteed)

Obstructive sleep apnoea – In one study, 98% of patients with sleep apnoea had vitamin D deficiency, and the more severe the sleep apnoea, the more severe the deficiency27 Multiple sclerosis28 (“MS”) – Research shows MS patients with higher levels of vitamin D tend to experience fewer disabling symptoms

Rheumatoid arthritis Reduced immune function

Autoimmune diseases, including psoriasis Infections, including influenza

Depression, 29 Seasonal Affective Disorder and psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia Neurological disorders, including autism, dementia and Alzheimer’s 30

There’s overwhelming evidence to suggest the human body evolved to obtain health benefits from, and to thrive in, sunlight. As previously noted in The Daily Mail:31

Even taking the skin cancer risk fully into account, [scientists] say that getting a good dose of sunshine is statistically going to make us live longer, healthier and happier lives.

One significant mechanism by which sunlight helps optimise your health is by triggering the release of nitric oxide (“NO”) when sunlight strikes your skin. 32 NO is a powerful blood pressure-lowering compound that helps protect your cardiovascular system, cutting your risk for both heart attacks and stroke.

According to one 2013 study, 33 for every single skin cancer death, 60 to 100 people die from stroke or heart disease related to hypertension. So, your risk of dying from heart disease or stroke is on average 80 times greater than your risk of dying from skin cancer.

Importantly, while higher vitamin D levels correlate with lower rates of cardiovascular disease, oral vitamin D supplements do not appear to benefit blood pressure, and the fact that supplements do not increase NO may be the reason for this. According to researcher Dr. Richard Weller:

We suspect that the benefits to heart health of sunlight will outweigh the risk of skin cancer. The work we have done provides a mechanism that might account for this, and also explains why dietary vitamin D supplements alone will not be able to compensate for lack of sunlight.

To get a thorough understanding of how UV light affects your cardiovascular function, read Weller’s paper, ‘Sunlight Has Cardiovascular Benefits Independently of Vitamin D’. 34 Research also shows that UV light:

Helps treat and prevent the spread of diseases like tuberculosis. 35

Helps anchor your circadian rhythm, helping you sleep better.

Helps kill and prevent the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. UV light at 254 nanometres acts as a potent bactericidal, killing drug-resistant strains of S. aureus and E. faecalis in as little as 5 seconds. 36

Reduces your risk of myopia (short-sightedness). As reported by The Daily Mail: 37 “[R]esearchers believe that the neurotransmitter dopamine is responsible. It is known to inhibit the excessive eyeball growth that causes myopia. Sunshine causes the retina to release more dopamine.”

Helps treat seasonal affective disorder and major depression. 38 Schizophrenia has also been linked to maternal lack of Sun exposure during pregnancy. 39

Boosts men’s libido by increasing testosterone. Research reveals men’s testosterone levels rise and fall with the seasons. Researchers have also linked low vitamin D with an increased risk for erectile dysfunction. 40

Helps maintain vitamin D status in elderly people at a lower cost than that of using oral vitamin D supplementation. 41 Not only could UV lamps help improve nursing home patients’ physical health, but they could also help relieve symptoms of depression.

Lowers all-cause mortality. In one study,42,43 women who avoided Sun exposure had double the all-cause mortality rate of those who got regular Sun exposure. Another 54-month-long study, 44 involving more than 422,800 healthy adults, found that those who were most deficient in vitamin D had an 88% increased mortality risk.

Safe exposure to sunshine is possible by understanding your skin type, the UV strength at the time of exposure, and your duration of exposure. My advice has been clear: Always avoid sunburn. Once your skin develops the slightest tint of pink, cover up with clothing to avoid further exposure.

The most important part of the equation is to pay close attention to your vitamin D level. Ideally, get your vitamin D tested during the peak of summer and at the end of winter to help guide your UV exposure and vitamin D supplementation. The evidence is overwhelming: You really do need sensible Sun exposure for optimal health.

Since few foods contain any significant amount of vitamin D, and your body certainly was not designed to get its vitamin D from supplements, which are a modern invention, the only rational conclusion is that Sun exposure is the ideal way to raise your vitamin D level.

Research has shown just how beautifully your body has been designed to use the Sun’s UV rays to promote health. It even has built-in “fail-safes” and self-regulatory processes to ensure you cannot produce too much vitamin D from Sun exposure. Plus, the vitamin D produced by UVB rays actually helps counteract the skin damage caused by UVA. It’s an intricate dance that simply cannot be fully duplicated with a supplement.