How to treat heartburn naturally – part 2

People in the UK are low in vitamin D because of the weakness of the sunlight and the short summers.  In addition there is greater concern in the UK about getting skin cancer from sunbathing or being out in the sun.  Almost every rheumatoid arthritis sufferer has low levels of vitamin D and this is likely to be true for people with other inflammatory diseases too. Sunshine isn't the only source of vitamin D.  Some foods such as eggs, oily fish such as sardines and salmon are rich in vitamin D too.  Reserachers from the university of brimingham are the lastest to report in the importance of vitamin D.  In a series of tests, they discovered that the immune cells of rheumatoid arthritis pateients could still respond normally to vitamin D by supressing inflammatory signalling - if those cells were circulating in the blood,  but the same cell type when localisec to the fluid around the arthricitc joints, showned no anti-inflamatory reaction to vitamin D.  This is because arthritis leads to vitamin D insensitivity which means that cells no longer respond to it. The research suggest that vitmain D therapy could still work on patients if they are given very high doeses, although standard suplements amy not.  Prof Martin Hewison says that "almost everyone in the Uk has vitamin D deficiency".  High levels of vitamin D can help prevent inflamatory diseases including rheumatiod arthritis. Reference https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896841117304201

Following on from my bowel health checklist.  I want to focus on the large intestine whose job is to take all the remaining water and nutrients our any any food that comes its way and turn whats left into compact stools.  When things start going wrong with your large intestine, you usually get inflamation and this can lead to a range of symptoms including:

• Stomach pain
• Cramps
• Bloating
• Flatulence
• frequent diarrhoea or constipation

A growing body of scientific evidence shows that vitamin D plays a crucial role in disease prevention and maintaining optimal health.  You have about 30,000 genes in your body and vitamin D affects nearly 3,000.  This is in addition to all the vitamin D receptors through out your body. Inflammation is the body's attempt at self-protection; the aim being to remove harmful stimuli, including damaged cells, irritants, or pathogens. While inflammation is a vital part of the body's immune response, it can also be problematic and plays a role in some chronic diseases e.g asthma, arthritis. Researchers investigated specific signalling events that vitamin D suppresses in order to inhibit inflammation.  Research published in The Journal of Immunology called it the "inflammatory cascade"; low vitamin D levels failed to inhibit the cascade while adequate levels did the job.  Researchers concluded that patients with chronic inflammatory diseases who are also vitamin D deficient may benefit from supplementation. Researchers in Turkey, reported in the international Journal of Rheumatic Diseases that chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain is improved with vitamin D.  Fibromyalgia sufferers and other patients with chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain were given 50,000 iu/week oral vitamin D3 for three months.  Afterwards scientists discovered decreases in pain, fatigue upon awaking, lack of energy, tender points and depression.  Significantly there were 30 Fibromyalgia patients at the beginning of the study and only 20 at the end! Next week I want to look at the relationship between low vitamin D levels and common ailments. References Zhang Y, et al. (2012). Vitamin D Inhibits Monocyte/Macrophage Proinflammatory Cytokine Production by Targeting MAPK Phosphatase-1. The Journal of Immunology.

1. http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/heart_vascular_institute/clinical_services/centers_excellence/womens_cardiovascular_health_center/patient_information/health_topics/vitamin_d_and_the_heart.html