Monday, February 1st, 2010
By Heather Morgan
Most of you fit-o-holics are up on vitamin D and have even jumped on the bandwagon. If nothing else, you’re aware of the bone-building bennies. But it turns out the level of service provided to us by vitamin D is manifold. And we’re still just at the tip of the iceberg in our knowledge of it! So let’s take a look and see what it can do for your performance now and long into future.
According to Robert Heany, MD, about 99% of what we know about vitamin D has been revealed in the century we are in now. Some of that is because we can more easily measure it, which I’ll get to at the end. One thing we do know is that vitamin D is, in fact, not just a “vitamin”, per se. Vitamins are nutrients that must be brought into the body via the ingestion of food. It is common knowledge, however, that vitamin D can also be synthesized by the body when it is exposed to adequate sunlight with the proper amount of stimulating UV rays, in particular UVB. But really, vitamin D is defined as a “pluripotent pleiotropic secosteroid hormone”. (Thanks for clearing that up, right?) Translation: It’s a prehormone that is able to have many effects on various cell types and body systems. When produced in your skin or ingested, precholesterol (present in your tissues) is turned into cholecalciferol (aka. vitamin D), which is metabolized into [25(OH)D] (remember that for later) which is more like a hormone in structure, and then metabolized in your organs into a potent hormone [1,25(OH)2D]. It is also now known that vitamin D affects around 2000 genes (perspective: that’s about 10% of ‘em, which in the bio-geek world is huge) when previously it was only considered to affect the kidneys and blood phosphate and calcium levels. In other words, vitamin D—misnamed or not—is an over-achiever. An over-achiever that it is woefully under-present in most of us.
It is estimated that 80-90% of Americans are deficient in vitamin D. How was this arrived at, you ask? By examining dietary and environmental links to chronic diseases. Specifically, the higher incidence of cancers in those at living at higher latitudes and with lower sun exposure. “Current research has implicated vitamin D deficiency as a major factor in the pathology of at least 17 varieties of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting, birth defects, periodontal disease, and more.” (Vitamin D Council)
While I’ll be getting to how vitamin D can put the mojo into your workouts, I think we can all agree that nothing throws a monkey wrench into a training schedule like one of those chronic illnesses just listed. The links between vitamin D and these problems are so strong, and the research is so copious now, that many experts, such as John Cannell, MD and others, aren’t just suggesting but screaming from the mountain tops that bazillions of dollars can be saved in chronic disease treatment alone by bringing peoples’ vitamin D levels up to snuff. Cannell, a researcher and vitamin D expert, even put this in the final slide of his renowned presentation on Vitamin D: “We don’t truly know the burden of chronic disease. And we won’t, until everyone has enough vitamin D”. Makes you think.
It’s no shocker that we don’t get enough of the stuff. We work in buildings with artificial (non-UV) light with windows that block UVB rays, we slather ourselves with full spectrum sunscreens and blocks, and we hide from the sun like it’s it the creature in a horror movie and we’re the screaming chick just two more strides from twisting her ankle. But I’m going to save most sun-related stuff for another post because it’s just that kind of topic, so you can get all up in my grill about it then. Rather, I’ll use it as a segue into athletic performance and vitamin D findings. So {segue!} it might interest you to know that Eastern European athletes used UV light as part of their training regimen. German literature documents this and that country’s athletes were certainly known for being dominant in world sports. (And I’m talking about the ones who passed the drug tests). Also, in one study, some Russian sprinters were treated with UV light, another group was not. Then both groups underwent identical training programs for the 100-meter dash. The control group improved their sprint times by 1.7 percent while the radiated ones lowered their times by 7.4 percent.
In a review of historical and current literature, it was concluded that “…[P]hysical and athletic performance is seasonal; it peaks when 25-hydroxy-vitamin D [25(OH)D] levels peak, declines as they decline, and reaches its nadir when 25(OH)D levels are at their lowest. Vitamin D also increases the size and number of Type II (fast twitch) muscle fibers.” And, in another article about vitamin D and athletic performance, its importance in the normal growth and development of muscle fibers and proper immune system functioning was highlighted. So, even if it isn’t cancer sidelining you (and I sincerely hope it never ever is), a bad case of the flu can be enough to keep you out of the game for a while. Harking back to vitamin D’s bone-building role, stress fractures are markedly reduced in those athletes with good vitamin D levels as well. Finally, I’d like to mention that several studies have “…also shown that, among athletes who train outside year-round, maximal oxygen intake tends to be highest in late summer…The athletes, in other words, are fittest in August, when ultraviolet radiation from the sun is near its zenith.” They go on to reveal that these athletes then experience sharp drops—as early as a month later—in maximal oxygen intake even when their training intensity remains the same. If you can get past the sun part for now, and realize they are looking at it from the athletes’ vitamin D production capability, you get the idea: low D = lowered performance.
So what’s an athlete to do in the middle of -8 degree Fahrenheit weather, knowing her summer vitamin-D stores are dwindling, and with no Spring in sight? You got it. Supplementation! If you’re thinking about banging down untold quantities of dairy, head over to last week’s “Truth or Dairy?” post, then come back (grabbing a big spinach salad on the way). And most fortified foods aren’t cutting it—the amount in it is often lower than what it contains, and even more often it’s not well absorbed. Plus, we’re whole food gals! “Fortified” food almost always means “processed” food. No thanks. Your first step is to get your vitamin D levels tested. Specifically you want to get your (remember from paragraph 2?) [25(OH)D] levels tested. Often your doc (for a lot of us this means our GYN) will add this to a blood draw. You can also order a test online if necessary at www.zrtlab.com. This is an imperative first step before supplementing with vitamin D so that you know: a) if you have an insufficiency or deficiency to begin with; b) how severe it is if the answer to “a” is yes; c) how much to supplement with; d) whether or not your supplementation is adequate with subsequent testing. Even if you are absolutely sure you need more vitamin D, your supplementation will be safer and much more meaningful overall if you do this. This is why I won’t continue with current research and opinions about dosage recommendations. For that you’ll need to wait for your results and for an upcoming Model Per4mance MP3 series, part of which will address that topic. {plug plug}
References:
Athletic performance and vitamin D. Cannell JJ, Hollis BW, Sorenson MB, Taft TN, Anderson JJ. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 209 May;41(5):1102-10.
Phys Ed: Can Vitamin D Improve Your Athletic Performance? Reynolds, Gretchen. New York Times Well Blog, Sept 23, 2009. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/phys-ed-can-vitamin-d-improve-your-athletic-performance/
Take Control of Your Health by Joseph Mercola, MD
Dark Deception by Joseph Mercola, MD
Monday, January 25th, 2010
Got milk? I’d pitch it, here’s why…
By Heather Morgan
I’ve avoided this topic for a while. In print at least. I talk about it passionately, but writing it down just seems like an invitation to the National Dairy Council (NDC) to have me locked up. If so, I’m putting it out there that Jodi and I have had several clandestine quiet-voiced conversations about dairy and what we don’t like about it. There, I said it. Now I have a cellmate. I call bottom bunk! Luckily, much more famous and easier-to-find folks have put their anti or notso-pro dairy opinions out there, so I think I’m probably okay. Too bad. Jodi and I could have used the break to do nothing but read, work out, make each other laugh, and then tell you about it. All the same, here are some thoughts to get you re-thinking the white stuff and whether or not it’s “nature’s perfect food”, as the dairy industry would have you believe.
24/24: A sketchy weight loss promo at best
Have any of you reading this actually met anyone who has had success with “milking their diet” (adding more dairy to their diets and losing weight)? “Sally Sue, I just have to tell you… I started banging down milk like there was no tomorrow and my belly pooch and thigh flubber just fell off in the middle of the street during my run! It was amazing.” If you’ve had this conversation with a Dairy Diva, then I can tell you this: she reduced her caloric intake while slugging down the cow’s milk. You see, that ad campaign was based largely (completely?) on a study by one scientist, Michael Zemel, PhD. He had high (RE: amount) dairy eaters and low dairy eaters in the study, and the results showed that the high dairy eaters lost an average of 5% more weight than the low dairy eaters over a period of time. What the geniuses behind the *“24/24” campaign fail to highlight—or even mention—is that all of the subjects who lost weight were on a reduced calorie diet. More studies by the same researcher followed showing similar results. Before you contemplate that, consider also that Zemel is funded by the dairy industry, and he holds the patent to this “method” of weight loss using dairy. A little bit of a financial gain to be made by demonstrating the wonders of milk for weight loss, n’est-ce pas?
I won’t list them here, but there is a whole body of scientific studies revealing that dairy intake has either no effect on body fat levels or weight or that it can actually cause weight gain. (see references) Any of us who’ve dated Ben and Jerry for any length of time can attest to that. Perhaps more relevant is that fact that NO ONE has been able to replicate Zemel’s results. Go look that up, I’ll wait. But we can logic that one out. Cow’s milk. From a cow. For a baby cow. A baby cow that will double its weight at four times the rate a baby human will. The take home message: Cow’s milk is designed for rapid growth. I don’t have one single female athlete acquaintance seeking rapid growth of any sort, particularly in fat mass. Just sayin’. Alright, so milk marketers are big jerks, yadda yadda, we could go on all day about that. Let’s not, let’s consider…
Commercial dairy: Would Louis Pasteur even drink it?
If the subtitle above means nothing to you, Louis Pasteur is the guy who developed pasteurization, a process that started being used with cow’s milk in the early 1900’s when diseases were spreading like wildfire through the milk supply. This method is still being used in commercially produced dairy today, allegedly to prevent disease. This seems a little nonsensical considering the fact that the bacteria naturally found in raw milk produce lactic acid which then protects it from wayward pathogens. This self-defense mechanism is destroyed completely by pasteurization. In fact, it’s the definition of it considering something is deemed “pasteurized” once all of these little defenders are DOA, along with enzymes (like the ones that help you digest milk… hello?!), and other beneficial components (vitamins, amino acids, so forth). This is why folks who are lactose intolerant or dairy sensitive can often well-tolerate raw milk and its products. Same deal with yogurt. While often touted for being chock full of friendly bacteria, even the stuff Jamie Lee Curtis is pimping for pooping is really too low in the good intestinal critters and too high in sugar. Your first clue that that product ain’t right is the fact that they name the “specially created” bacteria “bifidus regularis”. Come on! You are admitting to having to add something back in (because you killed it during processing) and call it something that refers to my morning constitutional? BWAHAHAHAHAHA…! (sorry, digressing…) The real point is that the Mother Nature-engineered bacteria in a food are uniquely qualified to increase the absorption and bioavailability of the nutrients in it. I say don’t fool with it. And certainly don’t add sugar or high fructose corn syrup to it (among other things). Whoo, that’s a whole other blogpost there. So staying on topic…
Want some rBGH with that shake?
A lot (not all, but a LARGE portion) of commercially produced milk comes from industrialized farms where the cows are injected with rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone), a genetically modified growth hormone that keeps them producing milk well beyond that timeframe which is natural for them after giving birth to their offspring. Not only is this cruel because it is very physiologically stressful to the animal, but it makes them more susceptible to infection such as mastitis (aka. inflamed udders). Again, not only very unkind to the udder-owner, but that can mean some pus in your milk. Delish. The FDA has approved the use of rBGH in the US because short-term research on rats indicated that there was no difference between milk from rBGH treated cows and non-treated cows. It should interest you to know that this research was done by the company who created rGBH (heck, I’ll name names: Monsanto, the lovely folks that brought us aspartame and genetically modified crops). What’s shocking is the larger number of studies showing that rGBH animal research subjects develop cancer across the board. Likewise, rBGH is known to increase insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1). This can make existing cancers grow and spread. What’s a nourishment-seeking athlete to do…
Panic, puke, or progress?
Personally I say do the latter. Do the best with the knowledge you have, the ability to access your own logic and intuition, and the budget with which you are operating. And for goodness sakes, don’t take my word for it! Be your own investigator. In fact, most of the information that I had banging around in my noggin, or that I referenced, is decidedly one-sided. These folks don’t like dairy and they want the world to know why. Or, they like it okay, but with conditions. Many of the references are by people who in-fight as well—some think soy is an acceptable alternative to dairy, while others think such advice is straight out of h-e-double-hockey-sticks, for example. The one thing I can say is that I don’t think any of them have anything to gain by you questioning your use and source of milk and milk products. No matter what, my intention is not to scare the ying-yang out of you, but, rather, to get you thinking and researching what you nourish yourself with, dairy or otherwise. In the meantime, to properly fuel your endeavors—athletic or otherwise—here are some tips:
Good luck and great health!
*If you were away from all forms of media in the mid-2000’s, this was the ad campaign where it was recommended that you drink 24 ounces of milk (3 x 8oz. servings/day) to lose weight. Remember the glass that got skinny in the middle like an hourglass? And women drinking a glass while shunning some decadent treat? Ironic, considering the whole “got milk” campaign hinged on making sure you had some milk handy in case a plate of cookies came a-knockin’.
References:
http://www.pcrm.org/news/Virginia%20complaint%20Law%20FINAL.pdf (this is actually a somewhat odd complaint filed against the dairy marketers of Virginia, but it has a lot of great study references in it if that’s your thing)
http://www.nealhendrickson.com/mcdougall/030400pudairyproductsfalsepromises.htm (false promises about dairy consumption, John A. McDougall, MD)
http://www.nealhendrickson.com/mcdougall/030500pudairyanddisease.htm (more from John A. McDougall, purely for those who want to have their hair stand on end with regard to marketing tactics, especially those aimed at children, or, rather, the parents who feed them)
“How to Eat, Move, and Be Healthy” by Paul Chek (book)
Resources:
“Milk the Deadly Poison” by Robert Cohen (book)
“Nourishing Traditions” by Sally Fallon (book)
www.price-pottenger.org
Where you can find raw dairy:
www.realmilk.com
www.localharvest.org (resource for local organic food)
http://www.organicvalley.coop/products/cheese/cheddar/raw-mild-8-oz/ (most of this company’s products are pasteurized, they are at least organic, this is the link to their raw mild cheddar, they have sharp too, can be found in some regular chain groceries)
