June 29, 2017




Director's Letter  

Take stock of your health

Why was GrassrootsHealth founded? To help others have the information available to take charge of their health. And not just blanket recommendations, but scientific evidence to back it up. Do you know how hard it is to get 48 people to agree on anything? On where to go to dinner at night? To even have a restaurant to fit them all, which, by the way, we never did have them all in one room. But 4 8 scientists agree that vitamin D levels of 40-60 ng/ml (100-150 nmol/L) is both the observed physiological range and, the range associated with the most disease prevention of various conditions.

Measure

Regardless of where you want to keep your vitamin D level, it is important to measure. We have seen with both vitamin D and omega-3s that there is a big variability in how a person responds to supplementation (or sun). What is good for one person may not be good for another. The only way to know where you stand is to measure. For vitamin D this is your 25(OH)D serum level measured in ng/ml in the US and nmol/L most everywhere else. For omega-3s this is an Omega-3 Index test which reflects the relative amount of EPA + DHA in red blood cells. It is expressed as the percentage of the total amount of fatty acids present.

Would you start a diet without getting on the scale at least once? To get your baseline?

Learn

After you know your starting point then you can research what to do. What habits will raise or lower nutrient levels? For the few people that are within range at first test - great! But most of us will need to make changes. What will these be? Supplements from our new GrassrootsHealth Wellness Center, daily unprotected sun, changing eating habits? There are many different solutions that you can read about on grassrootshealth.net.

Just like a weight program - you will create a plan of attack - how will you manage your levels?

Change your habits

Here is where you execute on your plan. Some days will be perfect, others won't - but overall you make changes. So, the next day all will be different? No. It can take up to 2-3 months for vitamin D serum levels to change to a new steady level. We recommend testing again between 3-6 months depending on how low you were in the start and how extreme your program.

Just like a weight program - give it time to work with daily, weekly, and monthly goals. 

Measure again

Finally, after your set time, test again. Was there a change? As much as expected? More? Less? This will allow you to make another plan and execute again. For most people in D*action this will take between 3-4 tests before the plan is finalized. What works well for you. Then, people still test every year or two to make sure not much has changed and it is still working.

Give it a try, what have you got to lose?

Onwards!
   
 
Carole Baggerly 
Director, GrassrootsHealth 
Moving Research into Practice NOW!
 
  Are Americans Taking Too Much Vitamin D?


This past week there were many articles in the news with titles such as More people than ever are taking way too much vitamin D, Popular Science, or You Might Be Taking Way Too Much of This Important Supplement, Men's Health. 

Let's play True or False with many of the alarming quotes from this sensational article that was picked up by most of the major media outlets last week.
   
Vitamin D Testing Reduces Healthcare Costs


The researchers in this study knew that vitamin D deficiency could lead to chronic ailments, which in turn increases health care costs. The Veterans Administration is interested not only in the health of their veterans, but also in the reduced costs associated with fewer visits to the VA, and less disease.

This study found that the number of vitamin D tests and percentage deficient were important factors in reducing healthcare costs.
   
Top 1% Most Downloaded Research Paper


In 2016 PLOS ONE published over 22,000  research articles. The GrassrootsHealth Cancer paper was in the top 1% most downloaded. 
 
Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Concentrations ≥40 ng/ml are Associated with >65% Lower Cancer Risk: Pooled Analysis of Randomized Trial and Prospective Cohort Study
Sharon L. McDonnell, MPH et al.
GrassrootsHealth
PLOS One
April 2016
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The GrassrootsHealth Wellness Center
Purchasing supplements and other wellness products helps fund GrassrootsHealth

What is your Health Goal?

(A $120 value)

20% off in June
coupon code RxDHack
 
 

Carole's Vlog
 
What does it take for GrassrootsHealth to move research into practice? 
 

Trends in Use of High-Dose Vitamin D Supplements Exceeding 1000 or 4000 International Units Daily, 1999-2014
Mary R. Rooney et al.
Journal of American Medical Association
June 20, 2017


Many Americans taking too much vitamin D
Pressreleasejet (Reuters Health)


25-Hydroxyvitamin D in the Range of 20-100 ng/ml and Incidence of Kidney Stones
Stacie Nguyen et al.
A GrassrootsHealth Paper
American Journal of Public Health
October 2013


Vitamin D Testing Patterns Among Six Veterans Medical Centers in the Southeastern United States: Links With Medical Costs
Beth Bailey et al.
Military Medicine
2012



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