I am closing my online Vitamin D Store

I am sad to announce to my patients and readers that I am closing my online Vitamin D store effective this week.

Due to my very busy practice of medicine, along with my very time-consuming teaching schedule at the UCLA School of Medicine, I have not had the time to attend my online store like I did when I first opened it seven years ago.

I have wanted to keep the online store open as long as I could because it is a guaranteed source for the exact amount of vitamin D that is listed on the label. As I have told you before in my writings, unreliable labeling with regard to potency is common. A recent study by the multiple sclerosis consortium of physicians found after purchasing 10 different brands of vitamin D, none of them had the amount on the label. In fact they averaged 34% of what was on the label.

I know that for this reason many of you have continued to buy vitamin D from me for many years. In addition, I have tried to keep the price of my vitamin D very reasonable.

I will still be providing my vitamin D3 for the patients in my own practice of medicine. However, regrettably I will not be able to fill any mail order requests for vitamin D that you might submit to my office, as I just don’t have the staff to manage it at this time.

Two points of good news in all this:

  1. You can buy high-quality vitamin D from my online vitamin store -Dr Soram’s Healthy Living Shop. You can find it by clicking here. You will need to register to become a customer, but registration is easy. You will be able to find good brands of vitamin D there. Specifically, you can find the 1000 IU and the 5000 IU potencies.
  2. The other bit of good news is that I am hopeful at a future time I will be able to open a bigger online store with more of my own labeled products for many different health conditions. My Vitamin D of course would be part of that store.

Again, thank you to all of you for being my customers for so long . I look forward to staying in touch with you through my newsletter and on Twitter and Facebook.

Dr Soram

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug~

Remember to follow me on Twitter and Like me Facebook where you can leave me questions and comments.

Also remember to visit my Healthy Living Shop where you can get physician quality supplements for your health! If this is your first purchase at the store, you can use the code VPP10FT to get a one-time 10% discount on the entire order (before S&H and Tax).


 

Vitamin D Deficiency Increases Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease By Up To 122% !

As my readers and patients know, I am very passionate about normalizing the vitamin D levels of the population of the world. It is now estimated that over 1 billion people worldwide are deficient in vitamin D.

More and more studies are coming out showing the benefit of vitamin D for a plethora of medical conditions.

Now I am very excited to announce to you that a new study in the prestigious journal Neurology, the official journal of the American Academy of Neurology, has just published a landmark article showing a strong association between vitamin D deficiency and Alzheimer’s disease.

This study was carried out by lead author David Llewellyn, PhD, and is thought by the authors of the article to be the first large and prospective study looking at the relationship between Alzheimer’s disease and vitamin D in patients.

The findings showed that for the elderly Americans who took part in the study, those who were severely deficient in vitamin D were 122% more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease. Those who were just deficient had a 69% percent increase in the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

These are astonishing numbers!

The study looked at over 1600 adults who were 65 years or older who were deemed to be free of other disease. After meauring their baseline vitamin D levels, the people in the study were followed for six years to see who went on to develop Alzheimer’s disease or some other form of dementia.

The lead author of the study, Dr.Llywelyn said “We expected to find an association between low vitamin D levels and the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, but the results were surprising – we actually found that the association was twice as strong as we anticipated.”

He went on to say that “We need to be cautious at this early stage and our latest results do not demonstrate that low vitamin D levels cause dementia. That said, our findings are very encouraging and even if a small number of people could benefit, this would have enormous public health implications given the devastating and costly nature of dementia.”

He recommended clinical trials to establish whether increasing in advance people’s vitamin D levels would delay orprevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia.

This study puts a lot of wind in the sails of physicians who study vitamin D, including myself. However, I want to point out to my readers what levels the researchers used to define deficiency!

They defined deficiency as a vitamin D level less than 20 ng/mL. They defined a severe deficiency as a vitamin D level less than 10 ng/mL.

In the eyes of progressive vitamin D researchers these are extraordinarily low vitamin D levels. But these are the levels where research is done.

In spite of the strong evidence that many extra­skeletal benefits are derived from levels of vitamin D between 40 and 70 ng/mL, the very conservative Institute of Medicine of the United States, recommends a level of 20 ng/mL, and the Endocrine Society recommends a level of 30 ng/mL for good health. Even these two organizations cannot agree on a healthy vitamin D level.

I clearly do not agree with these recommendations for vitamin D blood levels , nor do my vitamin D research colleagues. My recommendation for a healthy person is to keep their vitamin D blood level between 40 and 70 ng/mL. The medical literature again for extra skeletal benefit strongly supports these numbers.

The Authors of the article, of course, call for additional prospective research. This will take many more years to accomplish.

My position on this is that there is no harm in normalizing our own levels of vitamin D until the research comes out. But articles like this one showed the handwriting on the wall that proper vitamin D levels can be protective against many health conditions.

Where do you stand on this issue of what level of vitamin D should we have? I look forward to your comments on twitter or Facebook.

Dr. Soram

Link between vitamin D, dementia risk confirmed

Vitamin D and cognition in older adults’: updated international recommendations

Vitamin D and the risk of dementia and Alzheimer disease

Vitamin D effects on musculoskeletal health, immunity, autoimmunity, cardiovascular disease, cancer, fertility, pregnancy, dementia,and mortality: a review of recent evidence.

Meta­analysis of All­ Cause Mortality According to Serum 25­Hydroxyvitamin D

Vitamin D Video by Dr Oz

Nice Video by Dr Oz. I don’t agree with his sun recommendations or his cod liver oil recommendations. I also don’t agree with his recommendation of only 1000 IU per day­. I recommend 2000 a day for an otherwise healthy adult, but otherwise, this interview has some good education about Vitamin D including his talk about the Vitamin D winter for those in the northern 2/3 of the US. Don’t forget your kids too!

Remember to follow me on Twitter and Like me Facebook where you can leave me questions and comments.

Vitamin D Protects Children from Ear Infections

When my book on vitamin D came out several years ago, I noted in the book, in my interviews and in my blog posts, that more and more research on vitamin D would occur in the years ahead, which which show its benefits for many health conditions.

Now these studies, most of which are double-blind, crossover, and placebo-controlled, are coming out showing the great benefits of normalizing our vitamin D levels.

I am delighted to see a published study showing that children with low levels of vitamin D and recurrent ear infections had a reduced risk for further ear infections with vitamin D supplementation.

This is especially important because the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines have just come out saying that all children under age 2 with an ear infection must be treated with antibiotics.

This new study was randomized and placebo-controlled. The children who received 1000 IU of vitamin D daily had a significantly lower risk of experiencing one or more episodes of acute ear infections. In addition the risk of uncomplicated ear infections was markedly smaller in the vitamin D group.

Suzanna Esposito, one lead authors, stated “In clinical practice, this means that in children with recurrent otitis media,(ear infection) we can check the levels of vitamin D and for those with low serum levels of it consider supplement use as treatment for their condition.”

The 1000 IU dose of vitamin D is the dose that I’ve recommended to my patients and readers to give their children who are over age one. for many years.

The publishing of this article is very exciting to me For now we will have a specific reason for more and more young children to be given a proper dose of vitamin D

Remember there are many additional benefits of vitamin D beyond just preventing ear infections. Studies have shown that it also helps protect against influenza.

Imagine what would happen if these children and their parents were given enough vitamin D to bring them not just into the normal range but into the “optimal range” that most vitamin D physicians, including myself recommend. This blood level is 40 to 70 ng/mL

Please give your children vitamin D! If your friends have children who are getting recurrent ear infections, they should have their children’s vitamin D level checked and corrected if it is low.

HERE IS the original article as well.

Take your vitamin D!

Want to Reduce PMS? Think Calcium and Vitamin D, Get Some Sun and Take These Other Steps

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS), the onslaught of physical and emotional symptoms that plague an estimated 40 percent of all women during the last one or two weeks of their menstrual cycles, may have met its match.

A new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that a combination of calcium and vitamin D not only reduces the risk of PMS symptoms, but they may be able to prevent them all together. The study compared the diets and supplement use of 1,057 women with PMS (aged 27 to 44) to 1,968 women with no PMS for a span of over 10 years.

Researchers found that women who ate four servings or more a day of a dairy product were less likely to develop PMS symptoms including anxiety, loneliness, irritability, tearfulness and tension.

“It seems that women who eat more foods high in calcium and vitamin D have less risk of experiencing PMS,” said Dr. Elizabeth Bertone-Johnson of the University of Massachusetts, the study’s lead author. “It’s very exciting, and could end up being good news for many women out there.”

Click here to read more.

My Healthy Living Shop Will Soon Carry My Physician-Quality Vitamin D

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

Fitting with these recent blog posts about vitamin D, I am happy to announce to all my readers that I am moving forward to integrate my vitamin D store with my Healthy Living Shop. That way when you go shopping for vitamin D, you can also shop for additional physician-quality nutritional supplements and pay only one shipping fee.

Similarly for those of you who are already shopping in the store, you will now be able to pick up your vitamin D while you are at the same shop!

I look forward to your comments about the uniting of these two stores!

I expect the two shops will be integrated sometime in the next 1-2 months.

Lupus and Vitamin D

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMugA large longitudinal study has found that patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) who had low levels of vitamin D and then received vitamin D supplementation, reduce the likelihood of having high disease activity.

Specifically in this article they looked at Lupus patients with vitamin D levels below 40 ng/mL. They they gave them an appropriate dose of vitamin D to boost their levels by 20 ng/mL.

Excitingly this increase in vitamin D was associated with a decline in the physicians’ assessment of disease activity in the patients to a significant extent.

The lupus patients whose vitamin D was increased in the study also had an improvement in their kidney function specifically the reduction in the protein in their urine.The article rightfully points out that this not only improves the patient’s prognosis, but also reduces the direct costs of healthcare and lost productivity that can be associated with patients with lupus with kidney involvement.

For the last 10 years I’ve been optimizing my lupus patients (all my patients) vitamin D levels. It is so exciting to see more and more studies coming out now, especially prospective ones as were promised years ago, proving the benefit of vitamin D. Vitamin D is truly mother nature’s most powerful anti-inflammatory. I wish everybody was aware of this!

Low Vitamin D linked with Worse Lupus

Original Article -Take This to Your Rheumatologist !

 

Vitamin D In the News Again

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

Vitamin D is in the news again as a benefit in diverse diseases.

Breast Cancer

New research shows that vitamin D and high dose may be a useful treatment in young women with an abnormality in the BRCA1 gene, who have the deadly triple negative breast cancer. So-called triple negative, (because it is missing three hormone receptors) breast cancer is considered a very aggressive type of cancer that often occurs in young women. In this new research which you can read about HERE, researchers have found the vitamin D in sufficient dose may significantly improve the prognosis of women with this very serious cancer.

BRCA1 is an important tumor suppressor gene that is involved in repairing DNA breaks, which is a danger to the integretity of the DNA itself. BRCA1 is like a safeguard to the genes. With a BRCA1 Mutation, that is a loss of BRCA1 itself which results in gene instability with unreparied DNA breaks and chromosome abnormalities that compromises the cell’s life.

You can read the details in the articles below if you’re interested. But basically what the vitamin D is found to do, is to increase the level of another DNA factor called 53BP1, which is like a cofactor to BRCA1. The increased level of the 53BP1 results in an increased ability of the cell to stabilize its DNA which is otherwise broken down by in the absence of  BRCA1.

So the big implication here is that vitamin D may be very helpful in this aggressive type of breast cancer.

As all my patients and readers know I’m a big proponent of giving sufficient doses of vitamin D to all patients who have had breast cancer. This article is exciting because it is now beginning to show the underlying biochemistry of what epidemiologic articles have told us for many many years.

In addition, equally important is preventing breast cancer. Nine of the world’s leading researchers published an article in 2007 showing that if women would keep their Vitamin D blood test at 52 ng/ml, epidemiological data says we would cut the incidence of breast cancer by 50%. Since that level is not harmful to anybody, what is wrong with keeping our levels of vitamin D in that range, until MORE data comes in?

Vitamin D Holds Promise in Battling a Deadly Breast Cancer

Original Article- in Doctor Language

Public Release Article

027-Your Questions Answered-Immune Support, Thyroid and Vitamin D

In this episode, I am proud to announce that I have been chosen to receive the prestigious Daniel J Wallace Founders Award at this year’s  Lupus LA event on May 24. The event will be held at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel. This award is given to individuals who have exemplified excellence in their profession, and as a result of their work and service, have improved the health and well-being of our community and its citizens. I am indeed very honored to be the recipient of this award this year. To my knowledge it will be the first time that this award is being given to a Integrative Medical Doctor.

Here is a link to the website.

I am also delighted to announce that the Pregnancy Awareness Organization is sponsoring an event in Los Angeles on May 6 at the Skirball Center. It is from noon to 4 PM. Ken Cook, the president of Environmental Working Group, and Alejandro Junger,  and I will be on a panel entitled “Cleaning up for Pregnancy”. We will discuss how to clean out before a woman gets pregnant. If you or one of your girlfriends are in the greater Los Angeles area and are thinking about getting pregnant soon this event would be most informative for you. [Read more…]

023-Your Questions Answered !

Your Questions AnsweredI have gotten a lot of questions from my listeners and devote this podcast to answering many of the questions. I plan on doing a podcast on a regular basis to answer your questions, so keep your questions coming!

As mentioned in the podcast, my at-home finger stick vitamin D blood test can be ordered in the store at my website HERE:

In this podcast the following questions were addressed:

•What forms of vitamin D are tested in my at-home vitamin D test kit?

•Is my vitamin D product vegan, and what is it made from specifically?

•A lady whose 12-year-old daughter has symptoms including weakness of the muscles in her legs, extreme mood swings, depression, tiredness, and psoriasis – like skin rash. [Read more…]

009-Ask Dr Soram-Vitamin D- New Findings -Part 2

Ask Dr Soram Vitamin D part 2 In this podcast I pick up where we left off on the last podcast and talk about the many myths about vitamin D. These are shown in the picture below.

I also discuss my seven tips for optimizing your and your families vitamin D. You can also see the video I made of my tips for vitamin D by clicking here.

Are you telling your friends and relatives about the importance of vitamin D? This is the most important time of year to get your levels measured which you can do with this at home test kit or with your personal physician.
 

Are you taking Vitamin D? How much ? What have you noticed when taking it?

I look forward to hearing your comments in the box below.