Is Peppermint Oil For IBS effective?

Peppermint Oil for IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) is recommended by alternative medicine for a long time already. However, nowadays even general doctors do recommend Peppermint Oil for IBS as well.

Dr. Susan B. Kowalsky has the following advice:

There are a number of things to consider when diagnosing and treating irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) such as diet, stress, psychological factors, food allergies, and bacterial or yeast imbalance in the intestinal tract.

The highest standard of analysis may include a digestive and stool analysis, allergy diet, abdominal ultrasound or x-ray, or even a colonoscopy.

Subtle food allergies which I refer to as food irritants or sensitivities are a major contributing factor in the majority of people with IBS.

An elimination diet is the best method to determine what foods, if any, are causing symptoms. Blood and skin tests for allergies are only 60-70% accurate. With this allergy diet the foods most commonly known to cause allergies or sensitivities are eliminated from the diet for a month, then reintroduced one at a time, watching for symptoms.

In a study of 189 patients with IBS, half the patients improved when put on an elimination diet. Some of the most common foods to provoke symptoms were dairy, onions, chocolate, nuts, coffee, wheat, citrus, tea, rye, potatoes, barley, oats, and corn.

Digestive and stool analysis testing will provide valuable information about digestion, absorption, elimination, metabolic efficiency in the gut, and bacteria and yeast growth in the colon.

Additional testing for parasites can often provide the missing piece of the puzzle for many patients suffering with gas, bloating, abnormal stools and abdominal discomfort. Candida and other yeast overgrowth as well as parasite infections are a commonly overlooked cause of bowel symptoms.

Naturopathic treatments for IBS include enteric peppermint oil capsules which have been shown in numerous double-blind studies to lessen abdominal pain, distension, gas, stool frequency and abdominal rumbling. Interestingly, one study showed no relief from peppermint oil, and in my practice I have found about half my patients with IBS are helped with peppermint oil.

Vitamin B12 May Protect Against Alzheimer’s Disease

Vitamin B12 is required for important biological functions like red blood cell production, nervous system function, and DNA synthesis. Deficiency in B12 can cause a variety of problems including anemia, depression, confusion, fatigue, digestive issues, and nerve damage.1

Vitamin B12 is scarce in plant-based diets, and is a common deficiency, especially in the elderly. Of course, diets low in animal products and high in unrefined plant foods dramatically reduce the risk of chronic disease, but these healthful diets do require a supplemental source of vitamin B12. The rates of deficiency increase with age, and about 20% of adults over the age of 60 are either insufficient or deficient in vitamin B12.2 Recent research has suggested that the current recommendations for B12 intake may be inadequate — not just for the elderly, but even for young people who have adequate absorption capability. Therefore supplementation with vitamin B12 is likely important for most people, and absolutely required for most vegans to achieve sufficient B12 status.3

When vitamin B12 takes part in DNA synthesis, it helps to convert the amino acid homocysteine to methionine, therefore lowering homocysteine levels.1 Elevated homocysteine is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Since B12 is important for nervous system function, and many cardiovascular disease risk factors are also risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease, scientists hypothesized that adequate vitamin B12 levels would be protective, and elevated homocysteine would be detrimental with respect to the development of Alzheimer’s. They investigated the relationship between homocysteine, B12, and Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis in a group of 271 healthy older persons (65-79 years of age) over the course of 7 years. El
evated homocysteine was associated with increased risk, and increased B12 with decreased risk of Alzheimer’s disease.4

Future studies will evaluate the effectiveness of vitamin B12 supplementation as a preventive measure against dementia, but we don’t need to wait for those results — we already know that B12 is an important supplement to take, and Alzheimer’s prevention may turn out to be an added benefit of maintaining adequate B12 levels.

A health-promoting diet is the most effective way to maintain excellent health and protect against chronic diseases, including Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. But in order to enjoy the strongest protection possible, it is just as important to prevent deficiencies of certain nutrients that may be sub-optimal in an overall health-promoting diet, such as vitamin B12, zinc, DHA, iodine, and vitamin D, by taking the necessary supplements.

This article was originally published on drfuhrman.com. Read the original here.

References:
1. Office of Dietary Supplements, National Institutes of Health. Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet: Vitamin B12[http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminB12/]
2. Allen LH: How common is vitamin B-12 deficiency? Am J Clin Nutr 2009, 89:693S-696S.
3. Bor MV, von Castel-Roberts KM, Kauwell GP, et al: Daily intake of 4 to 7 microg dietary vitamin B-12 is associated with steady concentrations of vitamin B-12-related biomarkers in a healthy young population. Am J Clin Nutr 2010, 91:571-577.
4. Hooshmand B, Solomon A, Kareholt I, et al: Homocysteine and holotranscobalamin and the risk of Alzheimer disease: a longitudinal study. Neurology 2010, 75:1408-1414.

Why your detox is making you sick: Must-read article reveals dangers of aggressive detoxing

(NaturalNews) I can't tell you how many people have told me that a "detox" protocol made them feel extremely ill. They take detox supplements, pills or tinctures, and within a few hours they suffer dizziness, diarrhea, chills, outbreaks or even vomiting. These symptoms range from mild to severe, depending on the person and what they've taken. Such is the legacy of what I'm calling "extreme detox supplements" that seem to be designed to cause as much suffering as possible while framing it all as a "healing crisis."

I've always had a problem with the idea that such symptoms are routinely explained away as a healing crisis; as if you must suffer before you can heal. In this must-read article, I'm going to blow away detox myths and reveal why many people suffer such extreme illness during a detox. I'm also going to teach you how to detox safely and get away from the serious health risks found in extreme detoxing protocols.

Also, I urge anyone reading this who is considering a liver detox, kidney detox or heavy metals detox to pursue such activities only under the supervision of a licensed naturopath or integrative medicine M.D. who can guide you with a personalized protocol that's right for you. Don't "wing it" when it comes to the serious business of an aggressive detox.

Detox basics: Your liver dumps toxins into your small intestine

To understand why an extreme detox can make people feel so sick, you first have to understand how detox really works. This is an oversimplified explanation, but the fundamentals are correct: Your liver filters toxins out of your blood, including pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, ammonia and chemicals.

Your liver then dumps these toxins into your upper GI tract as part of a bile mixture used for digestion. Importantly, this reintroduces these toxins into your digestive system, where they can be quickly reabsorbed through intestinal walls and cause acute toxicity where you are essentially being "re-poisoned" with the same exact toxins your liver just pulled out of your blood.

(Note: Your kidneys also remove many toxins and flush them out of your body through urine. This is why kidney function is so crucial to your health. The heavy metals cadmium and mercury cause severe kidney damage, by the way.)

If you are eating a holistic, whole-food diet at the same time your liver is dumping toxins into your GI tract, then food fibers will tend to capture those toxins and trap them, ultimately transporting them out of your body through bowel movements. But if you aren't eating any fiber -- for example, you're on a "juice fast" or a "juice cleanse" -- then you have a potentially huge problem: You have no fibers to trap the toxins your liver is dumping into your small intestines! So those toxins get reabsorbed right back through your intestinal walls and into your blood.

I've also done pioneering food science research on identifying which natural foods can absorb dietary heavy metals. Click here to read my article on how strawberries naturally bind with dietary mercury.

All this helps explain why drinking nothing but fiber-less juice (i.e. "jucing detox") during an aggressive supplement detox can be disastrous. If you aren't eating fiber during your detox, what you are really doing is:

1) Collecting all the heavy metals, toxins and poisons from your body's cells, tissues and organs.

2) Concentrating them in your liver (and bile).

3) Dumping them back into your small intestine all at once where they can now cause acute toxicity and poisoning.

This is all made even worse when the detox supplements you're taking are more effective at pulling toxins out of your body's tissues because then your liver is concentrating more heavy metals into bile and dumping them into your intestines. In effect, your body is concentrating the toxins, making them even more dangerous than they were before.

Fiber-less juice fasting while taking detox supplements may be a really bad idea

What makes all this worse is the fact that many detox protocols demand that you drink only fiber-less juice such as wheat grass juice, celery juice, carrot juice, etc. at the same time you are taking aggressive detox supplements. The lack of fiber in these juices means that many of toxins pulled out of the blood by the liver will be reabsorbed in the gastrointestinal tract, possibly at acutely dangerous concentrations.

After the diarrhea and cramping finally stops, people will often say, "I feel SO much better now! The detox worked!" Except for the fact that everybody feels better after diarrhea stops. Feeling better after making yourself sick is not exactly my definition of getting healthier.

As part of a daily diet, of course, juicing can be incredibly healing. I'm a long-time advocate of daily juicing or even short-term juice fasts, but juicing is by definition a fiber-less diet, and as a result it should never be used in conjunction with aggressive supplements that are going to increase the toxin load in the GI tract.

In other words:

* If you are juicing, don't take aggressive detox supplements at the same time.
* If you are taking detox supplements, make sure you are eating whole foods with plenty of natural fiber.

Sometimes feeling like you're poisoned means you are actually being poisoned

I believe it is extremely unfortunate that detox participants who suffer extreme symptoms are always told those symptoms are, in effect, "GOOD!"

Sometimes that's simply not true. Many participants in James Arthur Ray's sweat lodge spirit journeys were also told that their extreme dehydration and hallucinations were "good" as well, but it turned out they were on the verge of death. Indeed, three people died in his sweat lodge experiences, and James Ray was convicted of negligent homicide. (He was released from prison last year.)

Even as they were on the verge of death, these people were told that their symptoms were all part of the "spiritual journey" from which they would emerge as stronger people. This is nearly identical to the extreme detox message told to many consumers, in which even serious illness is excused away as part of the healing journey.

As I've examined this issue more closely over the years, I've come to the conclusion that the detox supplement industry is in a worrisome state of denial about the safety of its more aggressive products. This is probably why the FDA banned cascara sagrada in 2002 for use in laxative products (but it's still legal to use in herbal supplements).

Although it sounds bizarre, customers of extreme detox supplements made with cascara sagrada are actually taught that diarrhea is a sign of healing and is therefore something to be sought after when taking detox supplements.

I strongly disagree with this: diarrhea is never a sign of good health, and removing toxins from the body should never need to involve extreme suffering, nutrient loss or the kind of dehydration and cramping that comes with diarrhea.

Anyone who tells you a detox has to hurt to be effective should not be trusted.

Skip the extreme supplements and detox with real food

The longer I've examined the detox industry, the more confident I have become in the fundamental idea that your everyday diet is the only detox you really need.

Every food item you eat every single day, in other words, should be part of a cleansing and toxin elimination lifestyle. My view on this has evolved over the years, of course, and today I no longer believe we need to suffer through "detox" regimes to experience lasting health. A healthy, whole foods diet that's rich in fresh fruits, vegetables and plenty of clean water is, all by itself, a "daily detox."

Truth be told, your daily diet is either helping you eliminate toxins or accumulate toxins depending on what you eat. A diet of processed foods and contaminated supplements will increase your toxic burden, but a diet of fresh whole foods will naturally and automatically eliminate toxins.

Engaging in regular exercise that causes you to sweat will greatly magnify your body's detox capabilities, by the way. Many toxins are released in your sweat, and that explains why people who exercise regularly (or who use saunas as therapy) tend to be far healthier and less toxic than those who never sweat.

People who drink plenty of fluids also tend to be healthier: water helps your kidneys eliminate toxins with high efficiency.

Bottom line: Detox should never be a crisis

My bottom line in all this? As one of the most widely-read voices in the natural health industry, I want to encourage us all to think in a more clear-headed manner about detox supplements and detox experiences. I have become increasingly convinced that extreme detox supplements may actually be causing more harm than good. Diarrhea is not healing, and the explanation that you need to suffer through a "healing crisis" just doesn't hold water.

In truth, every glass of clean water you drink is a "detox" elixir. Every stalk of celery you chew and swallow is a detox food. Every glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice you drink is a detox beverage. Every algae superfood you eat is a "detox" superfood. Every exercise that produces sweat is a detox exercise, and every hike into nature where you are surrounded by trees is a detox hike.

Your body is already programmed to detox itself automatically (which is why you have a liver and kidneys), so if you embrace a healthful lifestyle, your body will automatically detox itself with every breath, every heartbeat and every bowel movement.


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/044788_detox_myths_feeling_sick_healing_crisis.html#ixzz2zRbMXAyn

The Many Health Benefits Of Drinking Water with Lemon Juice

Balances pH - Lemons are an incredibly alkaline food, believe it or not. Yes, they are acidic on their own, but inside our bodies they're alkaline (the citric acid does not create acidity in the body once metabolized). As you wellness warriors know, an alkaline body is really the key to good health.

Helps control Hunger - Lemons are high in pectin fiber, which helps fight hunger cravings.

Aids digestion

Acts as a gentle, natural diuretic - Lemon water helps flush out unwanted materials by increasing the rate of urination in the body.

Clears skin - Lemon water helps purges toxins from the blood which helps keep skin clear; also help hydrate the skin.

Hydrates the lymph system

Boosts the immune system - Lemons are high in Vitamin C and potassium. Vitamin C is great for fighting colds and potassium stimulates brain and nerve function and helps control blood pressure.

Five Big Benefits of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT

"High-intensity interval training (HIIT) describes any workout that alternates between intense bursts of activity and fixed periods of less-intense activity or even complete rest. For example, a good starter workout is running as fast as you can for 1 minute and then walking for 2 minutes. Repeat that 3-minute interval five times for a 15-minute, fat-blasting workout. It sounds too simple to be effective, but science doesn't stretch the truth. Read on for eight proven benefits of HIIT: 1: Efficient HIIT is the ideal workout for a busy schedule. Research shows you can achieve more progress in a mere 15 minutes of interval training (done three times a week) than the girl jogging on the treadmill for an hour. 2. Burn More Fat and Increases Your Resting Metabolic Rate You burn more fat and calories after a HIIT workout than you do after, say, a steady-pace run. 3. Increase Hgh Levels In addition to increased fat burning and more muscle preserved, HIIT stimulates production of your human growth hormone (HGH) by up to 450 percent during the 24 hours after you finish your workout. This is great news since HGH is not only responsible for increased caloric burn but also slows down the aging process, making you younger both inside and out! 4. Burn More Fat and Not Muscle Studies show that both weight training and HIIT workouts allow dieters to preserve their hard-earned muscles while ensuring most of the weight lost comes from fat stores. 5. Improved Cardio A 2006 study found that after 8 weeks of doing HIIT workouts, subjects could bicycle twice as long as they could before the study, while maintaining the same pace. For more fitness articles check outwww.mybesthealthportal.net and musclemagfitness.com"

Are you eating these Top Anti-Aging Foods

Avocado- this fruit is rich in Vitamin E, Potassium and Monosaturated Fat that gives a unique luster to skin and hair. This fights against water retention in your body and regulates blood pressure. Add it to your food as much as possible and this will become one of the best anti aging foods you use to remain young.

Berries – this group of foods are the best ones for your skin and overall health as they contain rich doses of all the necessary anti-oxidants that are responsible for cleansing your body of the harmful build of toxins. By regularly adding berries to your diet you give your body the required power to cleanse itself which is necessary for a higher level of wellness that will give you a younger look. For best results do not forget to add atleast one type of berry in your daily food.

Garlic- this is an herbal food that has the effect of fighting against Cancer, fatal flus, coronary diseases and regulates your blood pressure besides reducing your cholesterol levels. You can even eat it raw to get the best results as an anti aging food.

Ginger- happens to be one of the best spices that have many health benefits. This is good for enhancing your overall fitness by guarding you against common colds, flus, giving relief from pains caused by rheumatic arthritis. This is also well known for its increasing of libido, improving your digestion and boosting blood circulation. Besides this it has a good effect on your skin tone and hair growth. Add this anti aging food daily to your diet.

Nuts- are the best foods that give you the right proportion of all types of minerals that are necessary to fight against the symptoms of aging on your body. These contain many of the essential minerals like Magnesium, Potassium, Iron, Copper, Zinc, and Selenium that are necessary for the proper functioning of our internal systems. They are good for our digestive systems and tones up your immune system. So add Walnuts, Almonds, and Or Cashews daily to reduce aging through proper dieting.

New Studies Show Optimizing Vitamin D Levels May Double Chances of Surviving Breast Cancer, Lower LDL Cholesterol, and Helps Prevent Autism

For many of you, the hint of spring is on the horizon and the opportunity to finally expose your skin to healthy doses of sunshine is very close. Remember that this is a far better choice than using oral vitamin D, as that is how your body was designed to get healthy vitamin D levels.

There are many reasons to be conscious of vitamin D, but today's featured study will focus on breast health. A robust and rapidly growing body of research clearly shows that vitamin D is absolutely critical for good health and disease prevention, in part due to the fact that it influences about 10 percent of all your genes.

Just one example of an important gene that vitamin D up-regulates is your ability to fight infections and chronic inflammation. It also produces over 200 anti-microbial peptides, the most important of which is cathelicidin, a naturally occurring broad-spectrum antibiotic.

Recent studies demonstrate how optimizing your vitamin D levels may lower your LDL cholesterol levels and double your chances of surviving breast cancer. Researchers also claim to have discovered a causal link between vitamin D deficiency and autism spectrum disorder.

Vitamin D for Breast Cancer

Since the early 2000s, scientific investigations into the effects of vitamin D have ballooned. By the end of 2012, there were nearly 34,000 published studies on the effects of vitamin D, and there are well over 800 references in the medical literature showing vitamin D's effectiveness against cancer alone.

According to Carole Baggerly, founder of GrassrootsHealth, as much as 90 percent of ordinary breast cancer may in fact be related to vitamin D deficiency.

Most recently, a meta-analysis of five studies published in the March 2014 issue ofAnticancer Research1 found that patients diagnosed with breast cancer who had high vitamin D levels were twice as likely to survive compared to women with low levels.2, 3, 4

The analysis included more than 4,500 breast cancer patients over a nine-year period. The high serum group had an average vitamin D level of 30 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml). Women in the low serum group averaged 17 ng/ml, which is the average vitamin D level found in American breast cancer patients.5

The study was co-authored by Professor Cedric F. Garland—featured in the 2011 video above—along with other researchers at the San Diego School of Medicine. Funding for the research6 was in part provided by a Congressional allocation to the Penn State Cancer Institute of the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

Vitamin D has a number of anticancer effects, including the promotion of cancer cell death, known as apoptosis, and the inhibition of angiogenesis (the growth of blood vessels that feed a tumor). According to Dr. Garland:

"As long as vitamin D receptors were present, tumor growth was prevented and kept from expanding its blood supply. Vitamin D receptors are not lost until a tumor is very advanced. This is the reason for better survival in patients whose vitamin D blood levels are high."

The researchers urge physicians to make vitamin D monitoring and optimization part of standard breast cancer care, and recommend that breast cancer patients should restore their vitamin D levels to a normal range of 30-80 ng/ml. According to the featured findings, you need at least 30 ng/ml of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) to prevent cancer from spreading. That said, other research suggests you'd be better off with levels as high as 80 ng/ml.

How Much Vitamin D Is Required for Breast Cancer Prevention?

In 2011, Dr. Garland's team found that a vitamin D level of 50 ng/ml is associated with a 50 percent lower risk of breast cancer.7, 8 (Similarly, a 2007 study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine9 concluded that a vitamin D level of more than 33 ng/mL was associated with a 50 percent lower risk of colorectal cancer.)

In the featured video above, GrassrootsHealth founder Carole Baggerly interviews Dr. Garland about those 2011 findings.

At that time, they discovered that in order to achieve protective levels, you have to take far more supplemental vitamin D than previously thought. To reach a minimum protective level of 40 ng/ml of vitamin D, study participants had to take anywhere from 1,000 IUs to as much as 8,000 IUs of vitamin D3 per day—a far cry from the recommended daily allowance of 600 IUs of vitamin D for adults.

The supplemental dose ensuring that 97.5 percent of the study population achieved a serum 25(OH)D of at least 40 ng/mL was 9,600 IU/day. This study also concluded that intake of up to 40,000 IUs per day is unlikely to result in vitamin D toxicity.

It's important to note, however, that it's virtually impossible to make a general recommendation on how much vitamin D to take as the amount needed can varysignificantly from one individual to another. In essence, you need to regularly monitor your levels, and take whatever amount of vitamin D3 you need to maintain a clinically relevant level.

Sources

Vitamin D May Also Benefit Your Cholesterol Level

In related news, a recently published study10 found that vitamin D in combination with calcium appears to reduce LDL cholesterol levels in postmenopausal women. As reported by the New York Times:11

"Researchers randomly assigned 576 postmenopausal women to either a daily dose of 400 units of vitamin D and 1,000 milligrams of calcium, or a placebo. They followed them for three years. By the end of the study, published inMenopause,12 the vitamin D group had significantly higher serum levels of vitamin D, and a small but notable drop in LDL."

Women taking a combination of vitamin D and calcium had a 4.46 mg/dL mean decrease in LDL cholesterol. Previous research by Dr. Stephanie Seneff also suggests that healthy cholesterol and sulfur levels are highly dependent on your vitamin D levels.Through her research, she believes that the mechanism we call "cardiovascular disease," of which arterial plaque is a hallmark, is actually your body's way to compensate for not having enough cholesterol sulfate.

Sun Exposure Is Likely the IDEAL Way to Optimize Your Vitamin D Levels

To summarize Dr. Seneff's findings, high LDL appears to be a sign of cholesterol sulfate deficiency. According to Dr. Seneff, your body's way of trying to maintain the correct balance is to take damaged LDL and turn it into plaque. Within this plaque, your blood platelets produce cholesterol sulfate, which your heart and brain needs for optimal function.

Her research also suggests that in order to truly optimize your cholesterol levels, you really need to get your vitamin D from sun exposure, and here's why: when you expose your skin to sunshine, your skin synthesizes vitamin D3 sulfate. This form of vitamin D is water-soluble, unlike oral vitamin D3 supplements, which is unsulfated. The water-soluble form can travel freely in your blood stream, whereas the unsulfated form needs LDL (the so-called "bad" cholesterol) as a vehicle of transport. Dr. Seneff suspects that the simple oral non-sulfated form of vitamin D likely will not provide the same benefits as the vitamin D created in your skin from sun exposure, as it cannot be converted to vitamin D sulfate.

If you're still under the mistaken impression that sun exposure is the primary cause of skin cancer, the following explanation may be of great help. Dr. Seneff states that:

"Both cholesterol and sulfur afford protection in the skin from radiation damage to the cell's DNA, the kind of damage that can lead to skin cancer. Cholesterol and sulfur become oxidized upon exposure to the high frequency rays in sunlight, thus acting as antioxidants to 'take the heat,' so to speak. Oxidation of cholesterol is the first step in the process by which cholesterol transforms itself into vitamin D3."

Additionally, distorted omega-3 to omega-6 ratios play a major role in the development of skin cancers too. In 2001, the National Academy of Sciences published a comprehensive review13 showing that the omega 6:3 ratio was the key to preventing skin cancer development. An Australian study14 published in 1993 showed a 40 percent reduction in melanoma for those who were eating fish, which is rich in omega-3s. And this was without any attention to lowering omega-6 fats. Omega-3 and omega-6 fats are both essential for human health. However, the typical American consumes far too many omega-6 fats in their diet while consuming very low levels of omega-3. While the ideal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fats is 1:1, our ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 averages from 20:1 to 50:1.

Evidence of Causal Link Between Vitamin D, Serotonin Synthesis, and Autism Emerges

Vitamin D may also be critical in the fight against autism spectrum disorder (ASD). According to a study15, 16 by the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute, vitamin D may affect autistic behavior by activating a gene responsible for the production of tryptophan hydroxylase 2 (TPH2), an enzyme that converts tryptophan to serotonin in your brain. The research also shows that two other brain hormones associated with social behavior, oxytocin and vasopressin, are activated by vitamin D. As reported by Newswise:17

"This suggests that adequate levels of vitamin D may be required to produce serotonin in the brain where it shapes the structure and wiring of the brain, acts as a neurotransmitter, and affects social behavior. They also found evidence that the gene that makes the enzyme tryptophan hydroxylase 1 (TPH1) is inhibited by vitamin D hormone, which subsequently halts the production of serotonin in the gut and other tissues, where when found in excess it promotes inflammation.

This mechanism explains many of the known, but previously not understood, facts about autism including: 1) the 'serotonin anomaly' low levels of serotonin in the brain and high levels in the blood of autistic children; 2) the preponderance of male over female autistic children: estrogen, a similar steroid hormone, can also boost the brain levels of serotonin in girls; 3) the presence of autoimmune antibodies to the fetal brain in the mothers of autistic children: vitamin D regulates the production of regulatory T-cells via repression of TPH1"

The researchers propose treating ASD with a combination of vitamin D, tryptophan, and omega-3 fats in order to naturally elevate the concentration of brain serotonin without side effects. This isn't the first time vitamin D has been implicated as a contributing factor to rising autism rates. According to previous research,18 there is indeed a link between rampant vitamin D deficiency in pregnant women and the proportionate jump in autism. The reason for this is because vitamin D receptors appear in a wide variety of brain tissue early in the fetal development, and activated vitamin D receptors increase nerve growth in your brain.

It is my personal belief that this may be one of the largest contributing factors to autism and that it is a deficiency of sun exposure to the pregnant mom, and subsequently to the fetus, that puts the child at a massively increased risk for abnormal brain development. I believe one of the most important changes that could radically reduce autism is to make sure ALL pregnant women have their vitamin D levels normalized to 50-70 ng/ml.

Have You Tested Your Vitamin D Level Yet?

Right now, after several months of winter and minimal sun exposure, is an ideal time to test your vitamin D levels to get an idea of what your levels are at their lowest. If you're low, take proactive measures to raise your levels, and then retest in mid-summer.

The D*Action Project by GrassrootsHealth is a very cost effective solution. To participate, simply purchase the D*Action Measurement Kit and follow the registration instructions included. (Please note that 100 percent of the proceeds from the kits go to fund the research project. I do not charge a single dime as a distributor of the test kits.)

As a participant, you agree to test your vitamin D levels twice a year during a five-year study, and share your health status to demonstrate the public health impact of this nutrient. There is a $65 fee every six months for your sponsorship of this research project, which includes a test kit to be used at home, and electronic reports on your ongoing progress. You will get a follow up email every six months reminding you "it's time for your next test and health survey."