PRESS RELEASE
PROFESSOR ROBERT P. HEANEY WARNS OF
"MASSIVE" DAMAGE
February 14, 2004
The Vitamin D Council
9100 San Gregorio Road
Atascadero, CA 93422
805 462-8129
http://www.cholecalciferol-council.com
jjcannell@charter.net
PROFESSOR ROBERT HEANEY JOINS PROFESSOR HOLICK IN WARNING
ABOUT VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY; SAYS DAMAGE "MAY BE MASSIVE"
Michael Holick, MD, PhD, one of the world's foremost
authorities on vitamin D, has written the first book about vitamin D for the
general reader, The UV Advantage. In it, Holick warns of tens of thousands
of unnecessary yearly cancer deaths from vitamin D deficiency. Professor
Holick is not the only vitamin D expert issuing such warnings.
If asked, “Who is the world’s foremost medical expert on calcium
and vitamin D,” most scientists would reply, “Heaney.”
Robert P. Heaney, M.D., F.A.C.P., F.A.C.N., John A. Creighton University
Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine of Creighton University has
published more than 300 original papers, chapters, monographs, and reviews in
scientific journals. He is a frequently invited editorial writer for the major
medical journals, including JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition and the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and
Metabolism. He serves on numerous nutrition and scientific advisory panels.
Like Dr. Holick, Dr. Heaney was a member of the 1997 Institute of
Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) involved in the development of
recommendations for both calcium and vitamin D nutrition. Robert P. Heaney, M.D., F.A.C.P., F.A.C.N.
Recently, Dr. Heaney called for a new understanding of long-latency deficiency
diseases, one of which is numerous internal cancers caused from chronic
vitamin D deficiency. He specifically calls for an end to the confusing array
of terms that surround vitamin D deficiency, such as insufficiency or
hypovitaminosis D. Either you are deficient or you are not. Most importantly,
from the standpoint of the calcium economy, Dr. Heaney says that
25-hydroxyvitamin D levels below 32 ng/ml constitute vitamin D deficiency;
ideal levels are unknown but may be slightly higher. According to Dr. Heaney,
of all the nutrients associated with chronic disease, none have the
"potential payoff" of vitamin D.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2003 Nov;78(5):912-9
A testimony to Dr. Heaney’s character is his willingness to criticize
his own work. Remember, he was on the 1997 Institute of Medicine’s
expert panel that set the current Food and Nutrition Board’s vitamin D
recommendations, recommendation now known to be so inadequate they assure
deficiency for anyone who strictly adheres to them while totally avoiding the
sun. In 2003, while announcing his discovery that normal humans utilize about
4,000 IU (not 400 IU) of vitamin D a day, Dr. Heaney stated that enough new
science now exists to say that the 1997 FNB recommendations now “fall
into a curious zone between irrelevance and inadequacy.” Always a
gentleman, he goes on to say that his use of terms such as irrelevant and
inadequate are not meant as criticism of the 1997 Board. If terms like
“irrelevance and inadequacy” aren’t criticism, I’d
hate to have him upset with me.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2003 Jan;77(1):204-10.
Get your Vitamin D Forte(tm) at
HartAmerica.com
However, evidence exists that Dr. Heaney’s patience is wearing thin.
Late last year, the latest in a seemingly endless stream of articles about
widespread vitamin D deficiency painted a particularly brutal picture of life
in nursing homes. Osteoporosis is severe, fragility fractures are the rule,
and vitamin D deficiency (along with calcium deficiency) is profound enough to
cause the deep unremitting pain of osteomalacia. It seems our grandparents are
painfully melting away in nursing homes as they slowly cannibalize their
skeleton to maintain their calcium metabolism.
J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2003 Nov;88(11):5109-15.
No doubt order sheets in the same nursing homes are replete with the latest
and most expensive medications to treat hypertension, osteoporosis, cancer,
diabetes, autoimmune illness, osteoarthritis and chronic pain. There is some
evidence (not conclusive) that vitamin D may help all of these diseases.
However the evidence is irrefutable, certain, beyond a reasonable doubt, 100%,
etc, that adequate vitamin D treatment cures routine vitamin D deficiency. The
evidence is also irrefutable that vitamin D costs just pennies a day. However,
only one of the 104 patients in the home was receiving supplemental vitamin D.
Ninety-nine of the 104 patients had undetectably low 25-hydroxyvitamin D
levels. That’s right; virtually all of our grandparents’ levels
were too low to measure! In an invited editorial, Dr. Heaney expressed his
frustration at the suffering caused from such an easily treated entity. In an
ominous warning, he noted that “the cost of vitamin D deficiency, while
yet to be fully reckoned, may well be massive.”
J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2003 Nov;88(11):5107-8.
Dr. Heaney goes on to point out that vitamin D deficiency in the USA (and much
of the world) is common, not the exception. Heaney points out that even the
nation’s premier hospital, Massachusetts General, is seriously
afflicted. In 1988, Thomas, et al, using permissive 25(OH)D standards, found
57% of Mass Generals’ patients were vitamin D deficient (and either not
treated or inadequately treated). In fact, using more healthful 25(OH)D
standards, Dr. Heaney points out that 85% of Mass General’s patients
were vitamin D deficient. Surprisingly (except to readers of this newsletter)
was the fact that 43% of the patients consuming the Adequate Intake of vitamin
D (as defined by the 1997 Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition
Board) were still deficient in vitamin D.
N Engl J Med. 1998 Mar 19;338(12):777-83
We are not contending, nor should anyone believe, vitamin D cures or prevents
all these conditions; it should be obvious to all that these disease are
multifactorial and much more research is needed for scientists to know exactly
what role vitamin D may play in each disease. One thing that is known with
absolute scientific certainty: inadequate vitamin D input causes routine
vitamin D deficiency. Both Professor Heaney and Holick now clearly believe
that vitamin D plays a substantial role in numerous illnesses of modern
society and both have published clarion warnings about the clear and present
dangers of vitamin D deficiency. The two were the best known scientists on the
1997 Institute of Medicine's Food and Nutrition Board.
Dr. Heaney says "massive" damage may be occurring.
"Massive" is a word plaintiff attorneys like. Members of the
American Medical Association may soon be paying massive settlements to members
of the American Trial Lawyers Association. Is that what it will take to end
the unnecessary death and disability from untreated vitamin D deficiency?
2/14/04
John Cannell, MD
The Vitamin D Council
9100 San Gregorio Road
Atascadero, CA 93422
805 462-8129
http://www.cholecalciferol-council.com
jjcannell@charter.net
To unsubscribe from the Vitamin D Council newsletter, just send a blank email
to unsubscribedcouncil@charter.net .
THE VITAMIN D SCIENTISTS LISTED BELOW ARE WRITING AND SPEAKING OUT ABOUT THE
PROBLEM OF VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY. ALL ARE WILLING TO SPEAK WITH THE PRESS. NONE
ARE MEMBERS OF THE VITAMIN D COUNCIL.
William Grant, PhD
(Epidemiology)
12 Sir Francis Wyatt Place
Newport News, VA 23606-3660
Phone: (757) 599-9811
Email: wbgrant@infionline.net
Robert Heaney, MD
Osteoporosis Research Center
Department of Medicine
Creighton University Medical Center
Omaha, NE 68131
Phone: (402) 280-4029
Email: rheaney@creighton.edu
Michael Holick, PhD, MD
Vitamin D Laboratory
Department of Medicine
Boston University Medical Center
715 Albany St. M-1022
Boston, MA 02118
Phone (617) 638-4545
Fax 617-638-8882
Email: mfholick@bu.edu
Bruce Hollis, PhD
Departments of Pediatrics
Medical University of South Carolina
171 Ashley Ave.
Charleston, SC 29425
Phone (843) 792-6854
Fax (843)792-8801
Email: Hollisb@musc.edu
Christel Lamberg-Allardt, PhD
University of Helsinki,
Department of Applied Chemistry and Microbiology
P.O.Box 27, FIN-00014
University of Helsinki
Finland
Phone: (358) 9-1-915-8266
Fax: (358) 9-1-915-8475
Email: christel.lamberg-allardt@helsinki.fi
Tony Norman, PhD
Department of Biochemistry
Room 5456 Boyce Hall
University of California
Riverside, CA 92521
Phone: (909) 787-4777
Fax: (909) 787-4784
Email: anthony.norman@ucr.edu
Reinhold Vieth, PhD
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Mount Sinai Hospital
600 University Ave.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5G 1X5
Phone (416) 586-5920
Fax (416) 586-8628
Email: rvieth@mtsinai.on.ca
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