Carole Baggerly is on a mission to spread the word about the importance of Vitamin D for optimal health. She’s neither a physician nor scientist. Rather, she’s a breast cancer survivor who, after undergoing treatments including breast removal, chemo and radiation, thought “there has to be a better way.” As if that wasn’t enough, Carole was then diagnosed with Osteoporosis, which her doctor thought could have been the result of her low vitamin D level. Around the same time, a physician-researcher at the University of California, San Diego had published authoritative data showing the risk for breast cancer could be reduced by 50% with adequate levels of Vitamin D! That was all she needed to hear. She left her career in the software industry and devoted the next chapter of her life to learning all she could about “the sunshine vitamin.” She visited vitamin D researchers from coast to coast and attended medical association conferences. What she learned spurred her to action: An estimated 40-75 percent of the world’s population is vitamin D deficient and little was being done to educate healthcare professionals and patients about the vital role that vitamin D plays in preventing many diseases including tuberculosis, multiple sclerosis, type-1 diabetes and as many as 20 types of cancers.
Her solution? She formed Grassroots Health, a non-profit corporation, to lead the movement to eradicate vitamin D deficiencies through advocacy and education. She criss-crosses the country using her formidable speaking skills and vast knowledge of the latest scientific research to present the case for routine testing of vitamin D serum levels. When she spoke last week at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, I learned that recent studies indicate that daily vitamin D intake should be at least five times higher than the current recommended dose of 400 IU. Here are some other data points I learned:
It is projected that the incidence of many diseases could be reduced by 50% or more, if the occurence of vitamin D deficiency was eradicated.Breast cancer incidence can be reduced by as much as 83% when the serum (blood) level is 50ng/ml (vs the baseline of 25 ng/ml)There’s evidence to suggest that adequate levels of vitamin D in the elderly can help increase muscle strength and reduce falls.The darker the skin the greater the probability of a vitamin D deficiency. Even in southern Arizona, 55% of African Americans and 22% of Caucasians are deficient.Blood-spot test kits, available to consumers via the internet, are just as reliable as the more expensive lab tests used by doctors and hospitals.
If you’re wondering how to get your 25-hydroxyvitamin D serum levels checked, or how much vitamin D is right for you, visit the Grassroots Health website, where many scientific papers and Carole’s presentations are posted. (Tell your physician about it too!) You’ll also find a link to the D-Action campaign, which was launched last year by Grassroots Health to promote education, testing and feedback about vitamin D. More than 8,000 individuals from all over the world have already signed up. Of those, fully 50% of them started with levels below 40ng/ml, which indicates a vitamin D deficiency. When you sign up to participate, you can purchase a blood-spot test kit for home use. More information about the vitamin D home test kit can be found in a previous blogpost I wrote last year when the campaign was first launched.
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