Autism letters
More Autism Reports
Dr. Cannell receives a progress update from a mother with three autistic children.
Yet Another Autism Case Report
Dr. Cannell provides new hope for a mother by teaching her how to help her autistic child with vitamin D.
Update on Autism and Vitamin D
As United States scientists continue to ignore Dr. Cannell's Vitamin D Theory of Autism, foreign researchers are starting to embrace it. Plus, letters from the mother of an autistic child.
More Letters on Autism
Dr. Cannell receives three letters in response to January's newsletter on autism and vitamin D.
Another Autism Case Report
Another mother's first-hand experience of treating her autistic son with vitamin D.
A Mother, Her Autistic Son, and Vitamin D
A mother's first-hand experience of treating her autistic son with vitamin D.
The Tragedy of Autism and the Promise of Vitamin D
A couple sees improvement in their autistic child after supplementing with vitamin D.
WHAT IS SO SPECIAL
ABOUT OVER-THE-COUNTER
VITAMIN D3?
My current handout on Vitamin D3
This is a set of my recommendations based on the body of evidence I have reviewed, in the form of studies, study summaries, and medical journal articles. If you read the linked documents, I suggest the ones with "autism" in them as a start.
It is not endorsed by CVS nor is it meant in any way to be contradictory to the instructions of your physician. You remain the ultimate one responsible for your health, and your physician is an important and leading part of your healthcare support team. If you see a contradiction in what is contained herein, please talk with your doctor and explore your best interests, which MAY not coincide with your physician's opinions.
I recommend that anyone under the age of 45 attempt to get sun exposure of arms, legs, and trunk of body sufficient to cause the skin to begin to “pink up”, but never ever so much as to cause a sunburn, on as near to a daily basis as possible. In the winter, that means that you can only do this while the sun is highest in the sky (your shadow must be shorter than you are or else there is not enough UV-B rays getting through the atmosphere to trigger your body's converting cholesterol in the skin into cholecalciferol (aka, vitamin D3).
During the summer months here in Texas, stay away from the heat of the day and get sun midmorning and midafternoon, for example. For a typical Caucasian teenager, 15 minutes to 1 hour of exposure will generate approximately 5,000iu of vitamin D3. For any teenager with naturally darker skin, it may take FIVE TIMES AS LONG to generate that 5,000iu. This has horrible ramifications in my mind for black women who are pregnant and deficient – question is, does this have anything to do with the statistic in the US that ¾ of all African-american males drop out/are in & out of the legal system? It is a verifiable fact that autism strikes more blacks than whites, more males than females, and more "northerners" than "southerners", not just in the US but around the world. The further from the equator, naturally the less sun you will receive. Apparently, this effects your blood levels of Vitamin D3, which in turn.......
Lifeguards have been measured to make more than 20,000 iu of D3 during a day at work at the swimming pool, and there are no adverse effects because the body will only activate and use what it needs. The rest might be stored, as Vitamin D3 is a “fat-soluble” vitamin, but it is never stored when you are deficient, and estimates are that at least ¾ of all Americans of all ages are classifiable as deficient, and it is worse as you live further north.
If you are over 45, your skin has begun losing its ability to make Vitamin D3. No food has enough Vitamin D3 naturally, and the amount added to milk, for example, is of no use to anyone unless an infant drinks at least an 8oz glass several times a day. After 45 or so, or if you can’t get out, you must take a tablet or capsule of D3. I vastly prefer D3 (over D2) because it is the actual chemical your body makes when the sun’s UV-B rays hit cholesterol in your skin. This is one reason why there are virtually no reports anywhere of D3 causing *any* adverse effects, even when taken in ridiculous amounts! The prescription version, called vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol), comes in 50,000iu strength only and being made by radiating mushrooms, is completely foreign to your body - unlike D3 which your body makes, D2 is not found naturally in any organ, nor in the bloodstream, in any appreciable amounts. Your body tries to convert ergocalciferol (D2) to cholecalciferol(vitamin D3), but is not very good at it. That is why each D2 cap has TEN times the amount of the OTC vitamin D3, and why your doctor prescribes one capsule a week, or a month, rather than every day. For most people, the body will be able to make/convert “some” D3 from the D2, but it varies wildly from person to person.
There ARE also examples in the literature of D2 causing harm when overdosed, though rarely has the injury been permanent.
My first recommendation is to get tested and find out first, whether your insurance plan will cover you getting tested. If not, you need to find out up front how much your doctor/lab will charge you – mine charged $320 out of pocket. So at the same time, I also had ZRT Labs ( www.zrtlab.com ) test me, at a cost of $75. The results were within 1 or 2 points of each other, and I have since learned that ZRT is widely considered reliable and accurate for a host of lab tests, not just 25(OH)D . (That is the name of the test that must be used – there are other versions that are useless, so make sure your dr. orders this one if you do decide to get tested).
After testing, you must take enough D3 to get your blood level to at least 50 ng/ml and preferably slightly higher. I consider 70 ng/ml to be the safe and prudent upper limit goal at this point, but I am open to further studies helping me choose a different level. There is evidence that your body does not begin to store D3 away (for a rainy day) until the level reaches some "saturation" point where the amount your organs are sucking in and using equals what your skin makes (or you take as a supplement). Less than that level, and your body simply USES it up to do good things for you, and NO storing takes place.
To my knowledge, since your body makes and controls it, Vitamin D3 5,000iu capsules do not, repeat, not, cause any adverse effects for the vast majority of humankind. No constipation. No diarrhea. No indigestion. No interaction with any other medication. In short, in normal people there is absolutely no reason to NOT take it, other than the fact that it costs around $16 per 100 count bottle (and often it is on sale as a “buy one, get a second one free”). There ARE a few rare people who are prone to hypercalcemia and have other rare diseases, and D3 is not for you rare and unlucky folk unless your doctor says it is prudent to take.
As you will see in this set of documents, D3 not only helps insure that you can absorb calcium, but that it helps you avoid the flu, proven to improve muscular performance in people/elite athletes, helps avoid falls in the plus 50 set, has influence over at least 1000 different genes in the human genome, influences at least 17 cancers, and far more. It has been determined that every organ in your body has 3-dimensional receptor sites that are specific for vitamin D3 (but NOT D2). It appears to me that virtually every organ relies on having vitamin D3 in order to work properly. There is a growing body of evidence that there is a link between D3 deficiency and: nervous system deficiencies in babies, particularly autism, asthma, auto-immune diseases, multiple sclerosis, both forms of diabetes, the list goes on and on in a horrifying way. There is an irony, a sick joke, here and that is why I chose the word “horrifying’. Black/dark complexions actually block the formation of D3 as you get further from the equator. Somalian exiles in Sweden (AND in the far north of the US) bore children in astonishing rates with “Swedish Disease”, they called it that because in Somalia no children are born with autism (they invented the name Swedish Disease because they are a multi-generational tight family society and remain in contact with relatives back in Somalia, and again, there was no word describing their autistic infants). The jury is still out, but the studies are coming in fast and furious and in higher numbers than ever before concerning D3 and virtually *every* disease state. It seems every researcher is just now discovering vitamin D3 has some part in a disease they have been investigating for years. Looking to cure cancer AFTER it develops instead of insuring enough nutrients, anti-oxidants, and vitamin D3 in the patient before hand to lessen, if not completely prevent, cancer. Our medical system simply doesn't teach physicians to think prevention. Diagnosis, yes. Treatment, yes. Billing, yes. Prevention, unacceptable.
We were promised by those in the medical profession, primarily dermatology and oncology(cancer) in the late 1980’s that if we stayed out of the sun, and slathered on the newly discovered “sunblock” cream/lotion, we would be safer and healthier. This has been turned completely on its head. We are as a people, sicker and taking more and more medications than ever before. The sunblock at that time actually only blocked UV-B which is the ray wavelength necessary for your body to generate D3. UV-A rays penetrate deeper and have been shown to disrupt the dna of cells which means.....their advice actually promoted cancers. Thus, we have seen an INCREASE in melanomas, for example, not a decrease. In effect, the entire population of the US was instructed to become deficient in vitamin D3 to such a level that we’ve seen skin cancers go UP, not go down, because apparently D3 actually helps to prevent skin cancers, along with everything else you will read about.
In the face of the evidence, I now believe that if every person over 45 was getting over 5,000iu per day, and every person under 45 was getting at least 15 minutes’ decent sun/skin exposure per day, we would be far healthier than we are now. One study suggests that 300 billion could be saved per year if every person got D3 supplements for FREE, paid for by the federal government. That means to me that many families/children would have avoided austism, for example. An autistic child can cost millions over a lifetime to care for. What a tradgedy of impact to an entire family if just one child develops austism!
Older people would not be osteoporotic in such high numbers, would not have died of heart attacks and strokes (at double the rate of those who had adequate vitamin D3 blood levels through supplements and good sun exposure). Women would not have 2.5 times the rate of breast cancer as those with good D3 levels, men would not have 2.2 times the level of prostate cancer. See Finland and Utah studies for these numbers. (google "UTAH" "Vitamin D" "Intermountain Health") for example.
And this is only the tip of the iceberg of diseases that have probably come to bloom because we have been taught to fear the sun – the sun that we evolved under for thousands of generations. Until this last generation, who may indeed turn out to be the first American generation ever to have a shorter life expectancy than the generation before it. I believed in the myth of the motto: "first, do no harm". Unfortunately, I predict we will find that the pharmaceutical industry and the medical community have BOTH done harm on what will prove to be tragically large in scale.
cannell-et-al-vitamin-d-deficiency-epidemic
AutismLetterWhat should you do? Inform yourself, read these articles and search google for evidence for yourself. I suggest you start with “Utah” “Vitamin D” “foundation” (“insert your own disease as a search word here”), Finland, Scotland, Autism, Pregnancy, and read for yourself, decide for yourself. Consult your dr., but keep in mind that she/he may not be able to both see patients and stay current on the thousands (literally) of studies being published around the world in reputable medical journals revealing just how badly we screwed up when we “became afraid of the sun”. Most were taught that the RDA of 400iu was all anyone needed, which is right for rickets but horribly wrongfully low for health. Apparently to me, keeping our children sunless in the 90’s has lead to new epidemics in autism, asthma, diabetes, auto-immune diseases (where the body attacks itself), and it is worse than any crisis on wall street or in banks, to our way of life. So please read and decide for yourself whether insuring that you and yours get enough vitamin D3 (not D2) per day is worth the low, low cost compared to what the alternative might cost you or your child.
Lastly, I cannot recommend anyone take a multivitamin that contains ANY amount of vitamin A, as it has been found to be a direct antagonist of vitamin D, actually blocking it from working. Most multivitamins have absolutely NO studies showing they: reduce heart attacks/strokes/cancer/asthma/diabetes/ANYTHING, other than preventing scurvy, beri-beri, and rickets. Some even carry warning labels that they may cause osteoporosis!
If you must take a multivitamin, do it once a month, not once a day. If your physician has instructed to take one daily, please follow that advice until you can talk with your dr. about “why” – and ask for studies or proof, that you will actually benefit and not be harmed by the multivitamins. I am still looking for good studies (properly run) that demonstrate that a multivitamin does any good of any kind! And remember, I do not advocate disobeying your physician but rather talking and discussing what ultimately is in your best health interests, based on science.
There are many supplements you may actually need/want, but my focus here is on D and related adjuncts which are truly basic to health. You do need to take calcium (as directed on the label), preferably those that are mixed with magnesium, manganese, and small amounts of copper and other trace elements needed. If prone to anemia as many women inherently are, some form of iron may also be necessary. If your vitamin D level is 50 or higher, you will absorb far more calcium/manganese/magnesium/iron/etc. as well as begin to store D3 properly. If you are taking a PPI that decreases stomach acid, evidence is growing that you cannot absorb calcium as well as a result, so you need even more help.
If you do start on vitamin D3 (either with or without testing before hand), keep some track of your most chronic issues that your body has symptoms of, and how they change over time as you continue taking D3. Note how often you do or do not get the flu or get sick, and compare that to before you were on D3. You just might be surprised at what is affected by a simple, cheap, safe, and readily available substance like D3 (which your body actually makes with the help of the sun). Remember, it used to be called “the sunshine vitamin” for a reason. We NEED to have sunshine in our lives, not always sitting in an office or in front of the computer/tv.
Caution: I am not saying Vitamin D3 will “do” any particular thing for any ailment you might have and you cannot expect or demand of it such behavior. I am saying that without D3 you cannot give your body its best chance for health, and the science I am seeing is continually elevating the importance of D3 in all things. Just as eating 25 different raw fruits, vegetables, and berries daily will provide fundamental nutritional building blocks, so too does D3 give you a much better chance to be healthy.
Again, this is my personal opinion and has nothing to do with CVS, who bears no responsibility for me exercising my professional judgment to educate and help my customers make the right choices towards better health.
HAPPY READING. And I will always be willing to answer any questions I can.
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earlier text I had posted:
How Healthy Is Your Diet? Are you tired of catching colds every time you turn around? Are you trying to become an elite athlete? Ever wonder why more and more people are getting autoimmune diseases despite our "modern science"? Want to live as long as you can, and do it in as good of shape as possible for as long as possible? Do you have diabetes or other serious health issues?
Or, a case for Vitamin D3 and some other real smart moves:
I have, of late, become increasingly aware of research concerning the effects of Vitamin D3 when it is present and more importantly, the multitude of negative effects when D3 is NOT present, in everyday human life. I am convinced there is a serious health problem that COULD be avoided, if we only took the effort to get adequate vitamin D3! I could be dispensing far fewer prescriptions!
I also find the link between autism and vaccinations to be suspect(Lancet just retracted a 20-year old article upon which thousands have based their fears of vaccines for their children). However, when considered chronologically with the major push by the dermatological profession to avoid the sun at all costs, the time at which this push started links very well with the time around which austism cases exploded. Could it be that the decrease in Vitamin D thanks to "no sun" could allow a genetic predisposition for autism (and other rampant childhood diseases) to be turned on? In reading research, I am seeing that as a real possibility!
We humans, especially Americans, are quick to accept "common sense" and take things "just in case", such as multivitamins, even though there are few if any studies that show multivitamins are of use. As a pharmacist, I DO NOT, CANNOT, recommend the multivitamins. Why?
I feel there are no reasonable studies that show, for example, that the multivitamin or "stesstabs" will:
You get the idea - I am convinced as a pharmacist that multivitamins are a multi-billion dollar/year rip-off of the public.
In fact, if you read the labels of "Stresstab" type multivitamins, you will see an actual warning that they may cause osteoporosis! (Too much vitamin A, which in studies HAS been shown to increase hip fractures AND which blocks the receptor sites that Vit D locks into). YES, multivitamins may prevent beri-beri, scurvy, and ricketts, but that's not good enough since we are not normally at risk for these diseases, and the science is simply lacking that they promote HEALTH.
PreNatal Vitamins ARE a good idea, because of the prescription-level amount of folic acid which is critical for fetal development and because the "standards of practice" for the medical profession require a doctor to prescribe them!.
You that know me also know that I am a believer in whole-food nutrition including raw fruits and vegetables as well as a good, lean, juicy, medium cooked steak (sorry, Gina :) ), and that due to a wealth of quality studies in its favor, I see the logic of taking Juice Plus+ with its 25 fruits,vegetables,and berries (and again, a number of good studies to back it up) as a GREAT way to insure I have all the micronutrients my body needs.
JP+ is my cheap "get out of jail free" card for my NOT being able to eat 9 to 12 helpings of raw fruits and vegetables every day. I haven't had a single sick day in the 8+ years since starting on Juice Plus+, my skin and nails look great for a geezer of 54 who's spent his entire youth out in the Texas sun getting an awesome tan every summer (April to October), I have documented by lab tests a set of much improved liver enzyme levels when taking it (that got worse when I purposely STOPPED taking JP+), and I just feel better, period. Their studies are HUGELY important in my decision to not only take it but to recommend it professionally.. Use the link and then go to "Science of Juice Plus" & "Medical Professionals" to view the science. I AM not calling JP+ a drug, it does not treat anything specifically! It is simply a way to get the nutrition contained in 25 different raw fruits, vegetables, and berries in a simple capsule form every single day of my life.
I believe also as a coach that it is critical to take JP+, as does the German Olympic Federation which requires/gives all their elite athletes JP+ as does the French Ski (Olympic) Federation for several years. They've seen the science and they know. It is WADA/USADA safe and has certification. Lindsey took it for 7 years leading up to (and through) her Beijing medal performance at the Paralympics with never a problem with testing. See Below**
What I do NOT understand is why we do not take Vitamin D3 with the same fervor as the multivits, given that unlike those multivits, D3 has a wealth of good, independent, unbiased and peer-reviewed studies showing time and time again that a Vit D3 deficiency can easily occur in *everyone*, especially those at risk:
, and that a Vit D3 suplement is:
If you are under 50, go out into the sun during the middle of the day for 10 to 20 minutes with as much bare skin as you can. You won't get cancer, you'll just get Vitamin D! If you can't do that because you are "north", or are over 50, or are dark-skinned, you need a supplement. Take it. And check out all the studies at this link on the Vitamin D Council website , I especially like the the D Action Foundation, a NON-PROFIT outfit that offers a cheap blood test to find out what your D level is! Their studies show that more than HALF OF ALL AMERICANS who have signed up are deficient.
If you are pregnant or nursing, especially if you are bed-resting(and thereby getting NO VITAMIN D), I feel it is vital that you MUST improve your Vitamin D3 intake! (read the letter from a mother with a nearly austistic child that was rescued thanks to her observational skills and motivations. Then, read 3 or 4 other follow-up letters from somewhat hostile readers as well as the responses from one researcher on D).
I recently asked my dermatologist about Vitamin D3, and was appalled that she was in my opinion completely clueless and actively biased against taking *any* Vitamin D. Her profession's mantra is both "they just want to make money" and "use sunscreen, skin cancer-boogie-boogie" and may very well be the reason that we've experienced a sudden increase in autism as well as a number of other diseases that have come out of nowhere to plague us in the last 10 or 20 years. Read more to get a better picture on this, and remember that the Vitamin D foundation is completely non-profit!
Study Summary worth wading through (some highly technical information)
In general, my advice to anyone wishing to get your best chance at avoiding diseases and living a better, more healthy life is to do what I do:
A. Ron Carmichael, pharmacist (email me if you have questions, just be sure to replace the A and all of the Ts in the email address with an @ symbol)
Feb 1, 2010
Back to home
*** Translated by Google from the original German and French language:
German Olympic team
„Partner "Exclusive Partner for Nutrition product line with" Juice Plus "- from 2012 Co-Partner
Wiesbaden, 6. Wiesbaden, 6 März 2009 . March 2009. The Swiss company NSA, with headquarters in Basel is until 2011 licensing partner of German Olympic Sports Federation (DOSB). At the 2012 Olympics in London, the co-operation on a co partnership will be extended. This was announced by the NSA and the DOSB, represented by its official marketing agency of German Sports Marketing (DSM), announced on Friday at a sales meeting of the trading company in Wiesbaden, Rhein-Main-Hallen.
The NSA will occur as Exclusive Partner for Nutrition "with its brand" Juice Plus "and emphasize the connection to the athletes, the growing importance of a balanced diet - an issue that also plays an important role in the DOSB:" Fitness and healthy eating are key issues that stand with us at the top of the agenda.
The NSA will this make a valuable contribution as a partner, "said Michael Vesper, general director DOSB. Care about the athletes will directly benefit from the partnership.
"Juice Plus" consists of concentrates harvested from ripe fruits and vegetables in capsule form and is available through distributors of the NSA. Regularly show from the company since 1995, commissioned studies, that the natural compounds in "Juice Plus" among other regenerative processes to be accelerated and strengthened immune system.
André Gerber, Director of Sales and Marketing of the NSA: "We are proud to be the official partner working with the largest sports federation in the world and contribute our expertise in the field of nutrition research. At the same time we want to use the Olympic theme as the inspiration for our sales and open up new ways. "
The NSA is active with their products in different areas of sport, and internationally. As early as mid-July 2008, the company has a cooperation with the French Ski Federation (FFS). Moreover, connect-known athletes such as the Serbian tennis player Ana Ivanovic and the Austrian luge doubles-Markus and Tobias Schiegel as testimonials for the brand on.
***French Ski Organization:
WHY ARE THESE ELITE SPORT ORGANIZATIONS CHOOSING TO GIVE THEIR ATHLETES THE EDGE OF MAXIMUM POSITIVE NUTRITIONAL STATUS AS PART OF THEIR DAILY TRAINING REGIMEN?
Athletes have nutritional needs that are far higher than "regular" folks, and JP+ supplies it. I find it ironic that elite athletes try to impose maximum stress on their bodies, yet fail to recognize they are increasing a need on all of their organs for increased micronutrients supply.
Lindsey and many other athletes have used JP+ while being subjected to numerous US AntiDoping Agency random surprise tests, and there has never been a problem with JP+. It is, after all, simply the nutritional essence of 25 different raw fruits, vegetables, and berries freeze dried into capsules.
Despite a proven history of "no problems", NSA, the makers of JP+, made this recent announcement:
We are pleased to announce that Juice Plus+® Orchard and Garden Blend capsules and Juice Plus+ Vineyard Blend® capsules have earned the product quality “seal of approval” from NSF International, “the Public Health and Safety Company.” NSF is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to product and ingredient safety. They provide peace of mind to both consumers and industry through their various product certification and GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) programs.
“The NSF ‘seal of approval’ demonstrates to the public what we already know: that our Juice Plus+® products meet the highest industry standards,” explains John Blair, Vice President of Product and Research for Juice Plus+®. In this case, that means the very stringent requirements of NSF’s dietary supplements and functional foods certification program. This program independently verifies that what is on the label is in the bottle, and that the product does not contain undeclared ingredients or contaminants.
To showcase the NSF certification, ALL Juice Plus+® Orchard, Garden, and Vineyard Blend capsule cartons and labels will display the NSF seal, which reads “NSF/Contents Tested & Certified.” Based on current inventory levels, products displaying the NSF seal will likely begin to reach your customers in early May.
Separately, we are pleased to announce that select batches of Juice Plus+® Orchard and Garden Blend capsules and Juice Plus+ Vineyard Blend® capsules have received an additional certification from NSF’s Certified for SportTM athletic banned substances program. These select batches of Juice Plus+® Orchard, Garden and Vineyard Blend will display both the basic NSF product certification seal and the NSF Certified for Sport™ seal on their labels.
NSF’s Certified for SportTM program involves additional screening that ensures that each specific batch of product that is “certified for sport” does not contain any substances that have been banned or prohibited by major U.S. and Canadian sports organizations. Major League Baseball (MLB), the MLB Player’s Association, the National Football League (NFL), the NFL Player’s Association, the Professional Golfers Association of America (PGA), the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), and the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) have all chosen NSF’s Certified for Sport™ program to help verify that the products their athletes use are safe and free of banned substances.
“Both the ‘regular’ NSF-certified product and the ‘special’ Certified for SportTM product are identical in every way,” Blair emphasizes. “The Certified for SportTM product is simply put through an even more stringent, batch-specific testing and screening process.”
So give your body the tools it needs to be the best it possibly can: Juice Plus+ with its 25 fruits,vegetables,and berries (and again, a number of good studies to back it up)