Vitamin D Needs

To be or not to be. What do you want to be? What do you need to be? Who wants health care that's less than the best? First aid is one thing. When you get first aid you know that it's not the best care you can receive. We consider it a "band-aid." It's a temporary response to an immediately bad situation. When we seek the care of a physician or an emergency room we'd like the choice or knowledge of the kind of care we will be receiving. When money is a concern we always want the best for less. We exist to point the way.

For a health care facility - what do they wish to be? We assume they want to provide the best for less. Which is fine if you know what the best is. According to our new president and some independent agencies that monitor and evaluate such things Intermountain Healthcare does this better than anyone else in the nation.

"President Obama mention Intermountain Healthcare in his speech for Healthcare - (A) nine-year study of more than 2,500 patients compared carotid endarterectomy, a surgical procedure to clear blocked blood flow that is considered the gold standard prevention treatment, to carotid artery stenting, a newer and less invasive procedure that involves threading a stent and expanding a small protective device in the artery to widen the blocked area to capture dislodged plaque. The study, dubbed the CREST trial, is of the largest randomized stroke prevention trials ever conducted. The trial was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health, and led by investigators at Mayo Clinic".- Intermountain Health Care (Feb 2010)

What's difficult to understand is why in any professional field if someone does it better why all the rest don't imitate the most successful? The choice would appear to be to strive to be the best by using the tools and methods that the best use. Everything else has to be considered sub par. There can only be one best and the differences between number one (1) and ten (10) should be too close to call. In the area of health care unfortunately that isn't the case. This does this appear to be the case when it comes to vitamins.

Vitamins are over the counter medications that few physicians prescribe. While there is generally little research available for these generics that are studies that examine the effects of vitamin deficiencies. We found this in the New York / LA Times and Yahoo News:

"In the study, researchers looked at tens of thousands of healthy adults 50 and older whose vitamin D levels had been measured during routine checkups. A majority, they found, were deficient in the vitamin. About two-thirds had less vitamin D in their bloodstreams than the authors considered healthy, and many were extremely deficient. Less than two years later, the researchers found, those who had extremely low levels of the vitamin were almost twice as likely to have died or suffered a stroke than those with adequate amounts. They also had more coronary artery disease and were twice as likely to have developed heart failure. The findings, which are being presented today at an American Heart Association conference in Orlando, don’t prove that lack of vitamin D causes heart disease; they only suggest a link between the two. But cardiologists are starting to pay increasing attention because of what they’re learning about vitamin D’s roles in regulating blood pressure, inflammation and glucose control — all critical body processes in cardiovascular health". - New York Times (November 2009)

Usually we receive our vitamins from the foods we eat and the way we live. Milk, tuna, sunlight and orange juice are the best sources of vitamin D but aren't generally found in our fast food lifestyles.

"Lack of Vitamin D could spell heart trouble - Researchers issue recommendations to screen for and treat Vitamin D deficiency—which is traditionally associated with bone and muscle weakness—may also increase the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). A growing body of evidence links low 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels to common CVD risk factors such as hypertension, obesity and diabetes, as well as major cardiovascular events including stroke and congestive heart failure".- American College of Cardiology (December 2008)

When the president suggested checking the pressure in your tires as a way of improving fuel economy and his opponents laughed until they realized that the professionals in the automotive industry made the same suggestion and that the idea had merit. Sometimes the simplest ideas or rather the simple ideas can produce amazing results. A vitamin D deficiency can affect your ability to absorb calcium in a cascading effect. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is problem for us locally. The simple solution might just be to give all of us above the age of fifty-five (55) cod liver oil which is highest in vitamin D. To those of us who can't stand the smell there are gel capsules. Whatever form we take its in as long as we take it we're certain that Pearlie Mae would be proud! It could save the lives of many of the residences of our jurisdictions as well.