Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Vitamin D Stimulates Hair Growth

Vitamin D3 analogs stimulate hair growth in nude mice

2002 Nov

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center/University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California 90048, USA.

The active form of vitamin D3 can regulate epidermal keratinization by inducing terminal differentiation; and mice lacking the vitamin D receptor display defects leading to postnatal alopecia. These observations implicate the vitamin D3 pathway in regulation of hair growth. We tested the ability of 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 and its synthetic analogs to stimulate hair growth in biege/nude/xid (BNX) nu/nu (nude) mice exhibiting congenital alopecia. Nude mice were treated with different vitamin D3 analogs at doses that we had previously found to be the highest dose without inducing toxicity (hypercalcemia). The mice were monitored for hair growth and were scored according to a defined scale. Skin samples were taken for histological observation of hair follicles and for extraction of RNA and protein. Vitamin D3 analogs dramatically stimulated the hair growth of nude mice, although parental 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 had no effect. Hair growth occurred in a cyclical pattern, accompanied by formation of normal hair follicles and increased expression of certain keratins (Ha7, Ha8, and Hb3). Vitamin D3 analogs seem to act on keratinocytes to initiate hair follicle cycling and stimulate hair growth in mice that otherwise do not grow hair.
Whenever I increase or come back to my D supplementation, I notice positive effects in my hair growth. I know this may sound hard to believe, but when I increase my D, or maintain an adequate daily intake of 4K+ IUs per day, I start to see new hairs popping up in the center of my chest, most noticeably.

Interestingly, they concluded that 1,25D3 did not have any affect. It isn't encouraging to see such a conclusion about regular 1,25D3... but clearly I am proving this to be inaccurate, perhaps, as I'm supplementing with D3 and seeing hair growth, and not with D analogs. Could this mean that my body is also producing these variant analogs, or do we just convert it to regular good old 1,25D3, and this study is mistaken? Or we humans have a different reaction to 1,25D3?

I'm taking this as just another sign that I'm obviously still struggling with D deficiency symptoms when I'm not supplementing. My theory here is that growing new hairs is a sign that I am doing a better job of becoming D replete, and that my cells are desperately sucking up the activated D and engaging in long awaited differentiation activities, now that it has the raw material it needs. Here again is a clear sign that D is upregulating genes in the skin and that the skin and hair follicles harbor a large number of VDRs.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Vitamin D Could Reduce Heart Attack Risk

The mighty "sunshine vitamin" could reduce heart attacks

Dr. Douglass

More good news about vitamin D! Not long ago, I told you that the vitamin D you get from sunlight can help to battle cancer. Now there's yet another killer that this mighty "sunshine vitamin" can help to combat: heart attacks.

According to a new study, men with lower levels of vitamin D are two and a half times as likely to suffer a heart attack. Dr. Edward Giovannucci of the Harvard School of Public Health authored the study and said, "Those with low vitamin D, on top of just being at higher risk for heart attack in general, were at particularly high risk to have a fatal heart attack."

For 10 years, Dr. Edward Giovannucci studied nearly 500 health professionals between the ages of 40 to 75 who'd survived a heart attack. During the same period, he also studied about 1,000 other men who had no history of cardiovascular issues. What he found was that the men who consistently had low levels of vitamin D were the ones most at risk for heart ailments.

"Perhaps having these chronically low levels of vitamin D may be having these subtle physiological changes in a lot of tissues," Dr. Giovannucci said. He added that there are other ways vitamin D can defend against heart diseases: it might lower blood pressure, regulate inflammation, and or reduce respiratory infections in winter.

Of all the vitamins I'm always telling you to pump into your body, vitamin D is one of my all-time favorites. If you've been with me for some time, you already know the highlights of what it can d it prevents falls in the elderly, helps increase lung cancer survival, prevents multiple sclerosis, and helps treat steroid resistant asthma. I imagine the list is only going to get longer as time goes by and more research is done.

As for me, I need no further convincing. I'm heading outside right now.

One thing that is not mentioned here is the theory of association between chronic infection and microbial toxins being poisonous to the heart and circulatory tissue, and thus weakening it and predisposing the individual to cardiovascular disease.

As well as being anti-inflammatory, Vitamin D (25D) is well known to enhance the immune system. By obtaining more vitamin D3 (25D) you're allowing your body to create increasing levels of activated vitamin D (1,25D3) which are essential for producing the human cathelicidin LL-37, which has broad spectrum antimicrobial abilities in the body. It is capable of puncturing holes in pathogens and destroying them. Cathelicidins serve a critical role in mammalian innate immune defense against invasive bacterial infection.

In short, increasing your D levels will also provide you with better immunity against pathogens that could be involved in cardiovascular disease.

Below is yet another study (published June 3, 2008) that illustrates that D3 increases cathelicidin production in skin, and boosts keratinocyte's ability to destroy Staphylococcus aureus.
Heard of MRSA?

1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D3 regulates cutaneous innate immune function