Why supplement babies with Vitamin D3?
Mother’s milk is the ultimate super-food, containing just about everything a typical baby needs –- except Vitamin D. This is because humans used to walk out in the sunshine along the equator giving babies all the Vitamin D they needed. But, now this just doesn't happen. According to a Pediatrics study, 5% to 37% of typical infants require a supplement to meet the American Academy of Pediatrics standard for Vitamin D: 400 international units a day.
Bottle-fed babies don’t fare any better. In order to hit that 400-unit mark, an infant would have to drink 32 ounces of fortified formula a day, an amount that little tummies just can’t handle. But, 400 IU per day is the bare minimum for preventing rickets and is not enough to support anyone's immune system. Plus people with Down syndrome have an even more difficult time getting nutrients from food in the first place so it's even more important to supplement.
Mother’s milk is the ultimate super-food, containing just about everything a typical baby needs –- except Vitamin D. This is because humans used to walk out in the sunshine along the equator giving babies all the Vitamin D they needed. But, now this just doesn't happen. According to a Pediatrics study, 5% to 37% of typical infants require a supplement to meet the American Academy of Pediatrics standard for Vitamin D: 400 international units a day.
Bottle-fed babies don’t fare any better. In order to hit that 400-unit mark, an infant would have to drink 32 ounces of fortified formula a day, an amount that little tummies just can’t handle. But, 400 IU per day is the bare minimum for preventing rickets and is not enough to support anyone's immune system. Plus people with Down syndrome have an even more difficult time getting nutrients from food in the first place so it's even more important to supplement.
How much Vitamin D3 is needed?
The best answer I can find: Optimum levels are 60-80 for females (see video below) and 80-100 for compromised males (see study below).
Jett is very fair and we live in Florida and even then, Jett gets 7 drops (400 IU x 7 = 2,800 IU) to keep him at 100. I lower the dose when Jett gets direct sunlight. He's outside with no sunscreen at least an hour a day and still has no visible tan...
Details on Vitamin D levels:
Table of 25(OH)D Blood levels
Vitamin D Levels ng/ml nmol/L
Severely Deficient 0-10 0-25
Deficient 11-20 26-50
Low-normal 21-32 51-81
Normal 33-49 82-124
Optimum 60-80
High, but not toxic 66-100 164-250
Dr. Amen's recommendation for vitamin D levels
"Low levels of vitamin D have been associated with physical maladies like rickets, bone disorders or heart disease, but it's also an important factor in brain imbalances like depression and memory issues," he explains. "If I hope to get my patients stable, vitamin D is something I need to make sure is tested and regulated through supplementation as and when necessary." Amen believes typical recommended levels of vitamin D are too low. "The normal range in lab tests is less than what I've found to be ideal in terms of benefits," he says. "I like to keep vitamin D levels in my patients between 50 and 100 nanograms per milliliter."
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Dr. Lawrence Leichtman, Pediatrician & Clinical Geneticist recommends 2,000 mg/day of Vitamin D for all people with DS, regardless of age.
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Here are 5 short videos below about Vitamin D and sleep. The presenter is a neurologist from Texas. Worth watching!
Why males and those w/autistic tendencies should get even more Vitamin D3
Vitamin D and autism: clinical review.
Source
Institute of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, Caledonia House, Dalnair Street, RHSC, Yorkhill, Glasgow G3 8SJ, UK. eva.kocovska@glasgow.ac.ukAbstract
Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.BACKGROUND:
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder with multiple genetic and environmental risk factors. The interplay between genetic and environmental factors has become the subject of intensified research in the last several years. Vitamin D deficiency has recently been proposed as a possible environmental risk factor for ASD.
OBJECTIVE:
The aim of the current paper is to systematically review the research regarding the possible connection between ASD and vitamin D, and to provide a narrative review of the literature regarding the role of vitamin D in various biological processes in order to generate hypotheses for future research.
RESULTS:
Systematic data obtained by different research groups provide some, albeit very limited, support for the possible role of vitamin D deficiency in the pathogenesis of ASD. There are two main areas of involvement of vitamin D in the human body that could potentially have direct impact on the development of ASD: (1) the brain (its homeostasis, immune system and neurodevelopment) and (2) gene regulation.
CONCLUSION:
Vitamin D deficiency--either during pregnancy or early childhood--may be an environmental trigger for ASD in individuals genetically predisposed for the broad phenotype of autism. On the basis of the results of the present review, we argue for the recognition of this possibly important role of vitamin D in ASD, and for urgent research in the field.
- PMID:
22522213
Best Sources of Vitamin D3
The ideal way to optimize your vitamin D level is through sun exposure or a safe tanning bed. As a very general guide, you need to expose about 40 percent of your entire body for approximately 20 minutes to the sun, between the hours of 10 am and 2 pm, when the sun is at its zenith.
Products
If your child is not getting enough sun/vitamin D3, which can be checked through blood work, look to supplementation with D3 and K2. These are the ones Jett takes but Mercola's products are probably superior.
Vitacost Baby-D's® Liquid Vitamin D Drops for Kids -- 400 IU - 1 fl oz
| Life Extension's Super K or | |
On Vitamin D and brain health, Dr. Mercola says:
In 2007 researchers at the University of Wisconsin uncovered strong links between low levels of vitamin D in Alzheimer's patients and poor outcomes on cognitive tests. Scientists launched the study after family members of Alzheimer's patients who were treated with large doses of prescription vitamin D reported that they were acting and performing better than before.
Researchers believe that optimal vitamin D levels may enhance the amount of important chemicals in your brain and protect brain cells.
Vitamin D receptors have been identified throughout the human body, and that includes in your brain. Metabolic pathways for vitamin D exist in the hippocampus and cerebellum of the brain, areas that are involved in planning, processing of information, and the formation of new memories. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/04/07/ashwaganda-effect-on-alzheimers-disease.aspx
Sufficient vitamin D is also imperative for proper functioning of your immune system to combat inflammation, and other research has discovered that people with Alzheimer's tend to have higher levels of inflammation in their brains.
Excerpt from https://realmilk.comwww.
Vitamin K2 is the substance that makes the vitamin A- and vitamin D-dependent proteins come to life. While vitamins A and D act as signaling molecules, telling cells to make certain proteins, vitamin K2 activates these proteins by conferring upon them the physical ability to bind calcium. In some cases these proteins directly coordinate the movement or organization of calcium themselves; in other cases the calcium acts as a glue to hold the protein in a certain shape.33 In all such cases, the proteins are only functional once they have been activated by vitamin K....
Vitamin K2 may also be required for the safety of vitamin D. The anorexia, lethargy, growth retardation, bone resorption, and soft tissue calcification that animals fed toxic doses of vitamin D exhibit bear a striking resemblance to the symptoms of deficiencies in vitamin K or vitamin K-dependent proteins.... I have therefore hypothesized elsewhere that vitamin D toxicity is actually a relative deficiency of vitamin K2.39 The synergy with which vitamin K2 interacts with vitamins A and D is exactly the type of synergy that Price attributed to Activator X.
[Cheese/butter from grass fed cows are very rich in K2. K2 is heat resistant so pasteurized grass fed cheese still has K2.]
Vitamin D3 and K2 Kills Leukemia Cells
Int J Oncol. 2005 Oct;27(4):893-900.
Combined treatment of leukemia cells with vitamin K2 and 1alpha,25-dihydroxy vitamin D3 enhances monocytic differentiation along with becoming resistant to apoptosis by induction of cytoplasmic p21CIP1.
Iguchi T, Miyazawa K, Asada M, Gotoh A, Mizutani S, Ohyashiki K.
Source
First Department of Internal Medicine, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo, Japan.
Abstract
---
Autophagy. 2008 Jul;4(5):629-40. Epub 2008 Mar 20.
Vitamin K2 induces autophagy and apoptosis simultaneously in leukemia cells.
(Click above for full text.)
Yokoyama T, Miyazawa K, Naito M, Toyotake J, Tauchi T, Itoh M, Yuo A, Hayashi Y, Georgescu MM, Kondo Y, Kondo S, Ohyashiki K.
Source
First Department of Internal Medicine, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo, Japan.
Abstract
Vitamin D3 and K2 Kills Leukemia Cells
Int J Oncol. 2005 Oct;27(4):893-900.
Combined treatment of leukemia cells with vitamin K2 and 1alpha,25-dihydroxy vitamin D3 enhances monocytic differentiation along with becoming resistant to apoptosis by induction of cytoplasmic p21CIP1.
Iguchi T, Miyazawa K, Asada M, Gotoh A, Mizutani S, Ohyashiki K.
Source
First Department of Internal Medicine, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo, Japan.
Abstract
Vitamin K2 (VK2) effectively induces apoptosis in leukemia cell lines, including HL-60 and U937. However, combined treatment of cells with VK2 plus 1alpha,25-dihydroxy vitamin D3 (VD3) resulted in suppression of VK2-inducing apoptosis and pronounced induction of monocytic differentiation as compared with that by VD3 alone. After achieving monocytic differentiation by pre-exposure to VK2 and VD3, the cells became resistant to various apoptotic stimuli including VK2- and H2O2-treatment and serum deprivation. Accumulation of cytoplasm p21CIP1 along with disappearance of nuclear p21CIP1 was detected in cells in response to 96-h treatment with VK2 plus VD3. A stable transfectant, U937-deltaNLS-p21CIP1, which lacked the nuclear localization signal of p21CIP1 and showed overexpression of cytoplasm p21CIP1 without monocytic differentiation, was resistant to apoptosis. These data suggest that a change of intracellular distribution of p21CIP1 from nucleus tocytoplasm along with differentiation appears to be anti-apoptotic. Clinical benefits of using VK2 for treatment of patients with leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) have been reported.PMID:16142303
Our data suggest that VK2 plus VD3 may be an effective combination for differentiation-based therapy for leukemia and also MDS whose cytopenias are mediated though apoptosis.
---
Autophagy. 2008 Jul;4(5):629-40. Epub 2008 Mar 20.
Vitamin K2 induces autophagy and apoptosis simultaneously in leukemia cells.
(Click above for full text.)
Yokoyama T, Miyazawa K, Naito M, Toyotake J, Tauchi T, Itoh M, Yuo A, Hayashi Y, Georgescu MM, Kondo Y, Kondo S, Ohyashiki K.
Source
First Department of Internal Medicine, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo, Japan.
Abstract
Vitamin K2 (menaquinone-4: VK2) is a potent inducer for apoptosis in leukemia cells in vitro. HL-60bcl-2 cells, which are derived from a stable transfectant clone of the human bcl-2 gene into the HL-60 leukemia cell line, show 5-fold greater expression of the Bcl-2 protein compared with HL-60neo cells, a control clone transfected with vector alone. VK2 induces apoptosis in HL-60neo cells, whereas HL-60bcl-2 cells are resistant to apoptosis induction by VK2 but show inhibition of cell growth along with an increase of cytoplasmic vacuoles during exposure to VK2. Electron microscopy revealed formation of autophagosomes and autolysosomes in HL-60bcl-2 cells after exposure to VK2. An increase of acid vesicular organelles (AVOs) detected by acridine orange staining for lysosomes as well as conversion of LC3B-I into LC3B-II by immunoblotting and an increased punctuated pattern of cytoplasmic LC3B by fluorescent immunostaining all supported induction of enhancedPMID: 18376138
autophagy in response to VK2 in HL-60bcl-2 cells. However, during shorter exposure to VK2, the formation of autophagosomes was also prominent in HL-60neo cells although nuclear chromatin condensations and nuclear fragments were also observed at the same time. These findings indicated the mixed morphologic features of apoptosis and autophagy. Inhibition of autophagy by either addition of 3-methyladenine, siRNA for Atg7, or Tet-off Atg5 system all resulted in attenuation of VK2-incuded cell death, indicating autophagy-mediated cell death in response to VK2.
These data demonstrate that autophagy and apoptosis can be simultaneously induced by VK2. However, autophagy becomes prominent when the cells are protected from rapid apoptotic death by a high expression level of Bcl-2.
Sources
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/10/22/carole-baggerly-on-vitamin-d.aspx?e_cid=20111022_DNL_art_1
http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderby/2010/03/23/study-babies-need-more-vitamin-d/
http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderby/2010/03/23/study-babies-need-more-vitamin-d/
http://www.vitamindcouncil.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/04/07/ashwaganda-effect-on-alzheimers-disease.aspx
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2010/oct2010_Integrated-Medicine-Optimizes-Brain-Function_01.htm
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/04/07/ashwaganda-effect-on-alzheimers-disease.aspx
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2010/oct2010_Integrated-Medicine-Optimizes-Brain-Function_01.htm
Vitamin D-Gene Interaction Tied to Food Sensitization
17 October 2011
(HealthDay News) — Vitamin D deficiency (VDD) increases the risk of food
sensitization (FS) in children carrying specific genotypes, according
to a study published in the November issue of Allergy.
Excerpt
Excerpt
Xin Liu, M.D., Ph.D., from Northwestern University in Chicago, and colleagues...
...found that 44 percent of the children had VDD and 37 percent had FS. VDD did not correlate with FS when examined alone, but when examined in conjunction with SNPs there was a significant interaction between IL4 gene polymorphism (rs2243250) and VDD. Children carrying CC/CT genotypes had an increased risk of FS with VDD (odds ratio, 1.79). Similar, weaker interactions were seen for SNPs in MS4A2, FCER1G, and CYP24A1. Considering all four SNPs simultaneously, there was a significant gene-VDD interaction.
"We found that low cord blood vitamin D levels significantly increased the risk of FS among children carrying certain genotypes in a prospective urban U.S. birth cohort," the authors write.
UCLA scientists pinpoint how vitamin D may help clear amyloid plaques found in Alzheimer's
Excerpt
###
The study was funded in part by the Alzheimer's Association and by the National Institutes of Health.
Other study authors included Danusa Menegaz and Antonio Barrientos-Duran of the department of biochemistry at UC Riverside; Jun Zhang and Patrick R. Griffin of the department of molecular therapeutics at the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Fla.; Stephen Tse of the department of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
and the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System; and John R. Cashman of the Human BioMolecular Research Institute in San Diego, Calif.
A team of academic researchers has identified the intracellular mechanisms regulated by vitamin D3 that may help the body clear the brain of amyloid beta, the main component of plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease.
Published in the March 6 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, the early findings show that vitamin D3 may activate key genes and cellular signaling networks to help stimulate the immune system to clear the amyloid-beta protein.
Previous laboratory work by the team demonstrated that specific types of immune cells in Alzheimer's patients may respond to therapy with vitamin D3 and curcumin, a chemical found in turmeric spice, by stimulating the innate immune system to clear amyloid beta. But the researchers didn't know how it worked.
"This new study helped clarify the key mechanisms involved, which will help us better understand the usefulness of vitamin D3 and curcumin as possible therapies for Alzheimer's disease," said study author Dr. Milan Fiala, a researcher at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System.
###
The study was funded in part by the Alzheimer's Association and by the National Institutes of Health.
Other study authors included Danusa Menegaz and Antonio Barrientos-Duran of the department of biochemistry at UC Riverside; Jun Zhang and Patrick R. Griffin of the department of molecular therapeutics at the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Fla.; Stephen Tse of the department of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
and the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System; and John R. Cashman of the Human BioMolecular Research Institute in San Diego, Calif.
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