mardi 24 février 2015

DISTORTION OF HEALTH INFORMATION ON INTERNET

HEALTH INFORMATION ON INTERNET DISTORTED BY COMMERCIAL GROUPS


Low Vitamin D Levels Tied To Increased Risk For Type 2 Diabetes.
HealthDay (2/24, Predit) reports that a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, a publication of the Endocrine Society, suggests that “people with low levels of vitamin D appear to have an increased risk for type 2 diabetes, even if they aren’t overweight or obese.” The 150-patient study could not “tease out, however...whether or not vitamin D played a role in causing diabetes or other disorders that affect the metabolism of glucose.”
        The Endocrinology Advisor (2/24, Foster) reports, “In a scientific statement on the non-skeletal effects of vitamin D, the Endocrine Society notes that research suggests that people with low levels of vitamin D are more likely to be obese as well as have type 2 diabetes, prediabetes and metabolic syndrome when compared to” people whose levels of the vitamin are normal. The Daily Mail (UK) (2/24, Davies) also covers the story.
HEALTHDAY is a commercial provider of Health related news, culled from the Internet and watered down and altered to suit the pressures of the commercial world, to buyers who can then distribute it or quote it.
It is presented as if Vitamin D deficiency leads to Diabetes, regardless of your weight.
Obesity is far more common than normal weight in most countries. This study was done in Spain. They dumped together Pre Diabetes which is not a disease but a laboratory paper construction of few abnormal results which are almost always due to Insulin Resistance, which may lead to Type 2 Diabetes. The numbers were very modest, about 15 people in each arm of the study.
I was not impressed with this study. Instead of rushing out to buy Vitamin D tablets , which I am not sure would increase your Vitamin D levels, eat fish and you see your vitamin D levels rise, go out in the sun and exercise a little, your vitamin D levels would rise.
My feeling is that Insulin Resistance and Low Vitamin D levels may both be caused by the similar objects and we have to find what it is, and try to correct it. So we can take care of all these laboratory values and make people feel healthy again.
If doctors tell their patients they are not healthy based on laboratory tests they will not feel that good.
There is growing evidence that changes in microbiome in the gut and their production of inflammatory substances may lead to Obesity and Insulin Resistance. I am inclined to think that there is a connection between this and Hypovitaminosis D. there is emerging evidence that the vitamin D pathway may be important in gut homeostasis and in the signaling between the microbiota and the host.  There is emerging evidence that the vitamin D pathway may be important in gut homeostasis and in the signaling between the microbiota and the host.
Taking Vitamin D tablets are not going to help you prevent Type 2 Diabetes!
( photo above shows a Bedou woman from Sinai. Studies from Israel show that they are deficient in Vitamin D regardless of the fact they live in the desert)

The Vitamin D question has also looked with the cultural context in mind. Most Asians have low Vitamin D levels, Chinese and Japanese more so. Moslem women who cover themselves them head to toe; regardless of whether they are in the Arabian Desert or KL metropolis have lower Vitamin D levels. The vitamin D levels are higher in non-veiled women than veiled women in Middle East and Europe. 
I remember reading an article when I was a Medical Student in London about Punjabi women migrating to Scotland and subsequently suffering from Osteomalacia... lack of sunshine as well as the enriched flour they were using to make their chapatis was leeching the calcium away?

In my opinion, like Cholesterol, vitamin D levels are an indication that something has gone wrong metabolically and just correcting the numbers are not going to bring back the health they have supposed to have lost due to the deficiency of Vitamin D or excess of cholesterol.
Remember, all that bunk about Low Fat is now laid to rest. A few years ago you couldn’t enter a supermarket without seeing thousands of Low Fat items. My advice to my patients living in Indian reservations is: avoid these terms when you see them on a food package
High
Low
Modified
Hydrogenated
Enriched
Natural
In fact most of these words are used to hide some toxic substances or other which may in fact increase
Your cholesterol
Your Insulin Resistance
Your chance of becoming overweight
Your chance of becoming unhealthy….



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