4000 IU Vitamin D Daily Cuts Preterm Birth Risk in Half

A new study by researchers from Medical University of South Carolina has found that women taking 4000 IU of vitamin D daily during pregnancy cut their chances of a preterm birth in half compared to women taking only 200-400 IU.  The women taking 4000 IU of vitamin D also has a reduced risk of infections.  There were no adverse effects found for this level of supplementation.  

If you think you live in a sunny environment and don't need vitamin D, consider this:

"All the women taking part in the study were living in Charleston — in sunny South Carolina. Overall, 85 per cent were either insufficient, or "frankly deficient" in vitamin D when the study began."

This adds to the list of studies indicating that the vast majority of urbanites are deficient even if they live in sunny places.  

Canada's Health Care System in Financial Crisis

Just as the U.S. has started moving toward a Canada-esque health care system, the Canadian

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has announced that Canada's health-care system is in a financial crisis, and needs significant -- if controversial -- reform to survive.

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/OECD+prescription/3520108/story.html#ixzz0zWSwSbwk

 

Some bits from the report:

"Canada should end its status as the only OECD country -- other than the United Kingdom -- that mandates solely government funding of medical care, and allow co-payments and deductibles. Having to pay a modest fee to visit a doctor would limit government spending, likely reduce demand on the system and possibly encourage healthier lifestyles."

"The report notes that, with governments funding the entire cost of medical service and user charges outlawed, cost pressures and rising demand have forced healthcare rationing: long queues for some services and a shortage of physicians. "

"LET PRIVATE & PUBLIC HOSPITALS COMPETE
Contracts for health services, especially hospital services, should be opened up to both private and public facilities. As with any government contracting process, this could "stimulate public-sector accountability."

"OPEN DOOR TO PRIVATE HEALTH
People should be allowed to buy private health insurance and opt out of the public system for some basic medical services "at the margins" of the system, spurring on private health providers and generating competition to the public sector. To make the idea work well, doctors should be able to serve both publicly and privately funded patients."

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/OECD+prescription/3520108/story.html#ixzz0zWTwfV37

 

Dr. Oz Cancer Scare

CBS News reports that Dr. Mehmet Oz M.D., host of the Dr. Oz show and proponent of low-fat, high-fiber, vegetarian diets, has discovered that he has colon polyps.  As part of his show, he had Dr. Jonathan LaPook perform a colonoscopy on himself.  Dr. LaPook "didn't expect to find anything":

"He just might be the last person on earth people would expect to get a colon polyp," he wrote for CBSNews.com. "He's physically fit (he left me in the dust the last time we ran together), he eats a healthy diet, he doesn't smoke, and he has no family history of colorectal cancer or colon polyps."
But LaPook found something he hoped not to see, "a small adenomatous polyp that had the potential to turn into cancer over time."
"Statistically, most small polyps like his don't become cancer," wrote Lapook. "But almost all colon cancers begin as benign polyps that gradually become malignant over about 10-15 years."

Of course, the assumption here is that a low-fat, high cereal fiber diet that contains little or no red meat protects against colon cancer.  

LaPook says colon cancer is scary - this year it will likely strike 143,000 Americans and kill over 51,000 - but there is good news in all of this.
"Patients who smoke, eat diets high in red and processed meats, drink too much alcohol, don't exercise, and are obese are at increased risk of colorectal cancer," he wrote. "So Mehmet's healthy lifestyle may actually have protected him from having a bigger polyp - or even colorectal cancer by now."

As you can see, Dr. LaPook is so convinced that Dr. Oz's diet is "healthy" that he has to fit this anomoly into that world view.  Rather than wonder whether a low-fat high fiber diet is what caused this problem for Oz, he concludes that Oz would have been worse off if he had not been eating all those hearthealthywholegrains.

But if he did a little research, he would find out that colon cancer did not occur among Eskimos eating essentially no fiber and no whole grains.  He would learn that no research has provided any good evidence that red meat promotes colon cancer.  For example, in Red meat and colorectal cancer: A critical summary of prospective epidemiological studies, Alexander and Cushing report:

"Colinearity between red meat intake and other dietary factors (e.g. Western lifestyle, high intake of refined sugars and alcohol, low intake of fruits, vegetables and fibre) and behavioural factors (e.g. low physical activity, high smoking prevalence, high body mass index) limit the ability to analytically isolate the independent effects of red meat consumption. Because of these factors, the currently available epidemiologic evidence is not sufficient to support an independent positive association between red meat consumption and colorectal cancer."

Moreover, as I discussed in Fiber Fallacies, experimental studies suggest that a high fiber diet may promote polyp formation:

Many people think eating a high fiber diet will prevent colon cancer; but we not only have no proof or even weak evidence that ingestion of fiber prevents colon cancer, on the contrary we have experimental evidence indicating that diets high in fermentable fibers actually increase colonic cell proliferation of the type that leads to cancer.

Lupton et al reported that a diet high in fermentable fiber increased cecum size and large intestine length, and reduced pH and stimulated cell proliferation, in rat colons. [J. Nutr. 118: 840-845, 1988.]

Jacobs and Lupton found that when they fed rats a high fiber diet based on either oat bran, pectin, or guar, the yield of proximal colonic adenocarcinomas increased by 4.5 to 5 times over the fiber free level. [Cancer Research 46, 1727-1734, April 1986]

Mandir, Englyst, and Goodlad found that when they fed mice fiber in the form of bran or apple pomace, both fibers significantly increased cell proliferation, number of polyps, and tumor burden born by the mice. Both fibers increased polyp diameter, bran by 243% and apple fiber by 150%. [British Journal of Nutrition (2008), 100, 711–721]

According to the CBS News article, Dr. Oz told People Magazine:

"This was a shakeup for me...It's frustrating. Why did this happen to me? It forces you to question the assumptions you make about life."

Dr. Oz, since you are in the mood to question assumptions, I invite you to question the assumed safety and efficacy of the high fiber, low fat diet you endorse.   

The Gifts of Plants

It is my honor to be presenting at the Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference taking place next weekend, September 17-19. This first annual event promises to be an epic mixture of in-depth learning and flat out fun.

Due to some last minute schedule changes Kiva Rose asked me if I would be interested in presenting at the conference only a few weeks ago. With a resounding YES I then searched for an appropriate topic - something practical, yet entertaining while also being unique to my voice and experience.



The result is a topic very close to my heart, incorporating the gifts of the plants into our lives as a means of connection to ourselves and to the world around us.

Whether we live in the wilderness or in the city we can enrich our interactions with the world around us by using the gifts found there for our every day needs and even our sophisticated wants. From the practical to the beautiful we will learn about plants growing all over north america to re-discover the many gifts and lessons they offer. I'll be bringing a variety of props and stories to bring this topic alive.

I am looking forward to meeting so many people next weekend. Safe travels everyone and see you at the Ghost Ranch!