Who is Professor Heidi Cross and why has she been in the news lately?
Dr. Cross is a researcher at the Medical University of Vienna. Recently, she has made the case that the reason people who eat soy products have lower rates of cancer is because one of the components of soy, genistein isoflavone, blocks the enzyme that degrades vitamin D and thus raises tissue levels of activated vitamin D. She makes the case that cancer could not only be prevented, but possibly treated, not only by taking vitamin D, but by manipulating the enzymes that metabolize (build up) and catabolize (break down) vitamin D. It's important to lay persons and non-medical professionals because the substances necessary to do all this, vitamin D and genistein are available without a prescription. I should add that Dr. Cross does not recommend lay people do this on their own, she is making the case for further research. However, if you are fighting a serious cancer, the relative risk of taking 10,000 units of vitamin D and 1,000 mg of genistein every day is quite small compared to your impending death. Future Oncol. 2005 Jun;1(3):415-24.
What's the most interesting recent paper about vitamin D?
Dr. Armin Zittermann has again raised the question that vitamin D deficiency is a major cause of heart disease. He has also recommended 2,000–4,000 units of vitamin D (50–100 mcg) daily for those with heart disease. I find this interesting because my father-in-law has heart disease and hypertension. He has had an irregular pulse, called trigeminy, for several years. He recently agreed to take 200,000 units of vitamin D a day for three days and then maintain himself on 5,000 units a day. Two days after beginning 200,000 units a day his trigeminy disappeared and his blood pressure reverted to normal. A week later, after taking only 5,000 units a day for several days, his trigeminy reappeared. A month after taking 5,000 units a day his trigeminy again disappeared and didn't return and his blood pressure remained improved. There is a case study in the literature describing a woman with long standing cardiac arrhythmia (sick sinus syndrome) that disappeared when she started taking vitamin D for an unrelated condition. Prog Biophys Mol Biol. 2006 Sep;92(1):39–48. Epub 2006 Feb 28. Heart Fail Rev. 2006 Mar;11(1):25–33. Geriatrics. 1990 Aug;45(8):83-5.
What role does magnesium play in vitamin D deficiency?
Actually, magnesium and vitamin D have many similarities. Both are dirt cheap. Just like vitamin D, magnesium has been getting a lot of press recently although some experts have been warning for years that magnesium deficiency is rampant and contributes to heart disease. No one really knows how many people are at risk because magnesium blood tests tell you little about magnesium stores, just like an activated vitamin D test tells you little about vitamin D stores. Like vitamin D deficiency caused by health conscious people avoiding the sun and using sunscreens, magnesium deficiency has been made worse by health conscious people avoiding hard water and using water purifiers. Also, just like vitamin D, normal serum levels for magnesium were obtained from deficient patients. Recently, magnesium has been implicated in the vitamin D parathyroid hormone interaction. Many patients with heart disease are both vitamin D and magnesium deficient. Finally, just like the Vitamin D Council, the Magnesium Website, operated by an activist, is trying to spread the word about magnesium deficiency. However, unlike Dr. Cannell of the Vitamin D Council (who will not give you free vitamin D), Paul Mason, president of the Healthy Water Association, will give free magnesium rich mineral water to anyone who drives to Adobe Springs, California to pick it up. Dis Mon. 1988 Apr;34(4):161–218. J Am Coll Nutr. 2004 Dec;23(6):730S-1S. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2004 Aug 1;61(15):1569-76. Osteoporos Int. 2006 Jul;17(7):1013-21. Epub 2006 Apr 5.
Another thing to do, if you must use salt, use real salt and not sodium chloride. Many people think salt and sodium chloride are the same thing. They are not. Salt is salt and sodium chloride is sodium chloride. Salt is a complex combination of minerals obtained from the sea or from land deposits left by ancient sea beds. It was a precious commodity in ancient times. Salt has magnesium as well as numerous other trace minerals. Sodium chloride does not. When you buy most salt in the supermarket, you are actually buying sodium chloride, not salt. The Morton company mines salt, takes out the minerals—other than sodium chloride—and sells them separately; then takes what is left and sells that as salt. It's not salt, it's sodium chloride. When you buy salt, buy real salt. Trader Joe's sells sea salt for a low price. Most mineral water, not bottled water, also contains magnesium.
What's the most interesting paper you've come across recently?
A paper by Dr. David Grimes in the July 1st edition of Lancet raised the question that statins may work, not by lowering cholesterol, but by acting as vitamin D analogues. He presented no chemical evidence, only the epidemiological observations that statins and vitamin D seem to have a beneficial effect on the same spectrum of diseases. The most interesting thing about the paper was that it was published in Lancet
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