Vit-D, another tragedy

The Vitamin D Council Newsletter

September 18, 2010

Another tragedy

This is a periodic newsletter from the Vitamin D Council, a non-profit trying to end the epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. If you want to unsubscribe, go to the end of this newsletter. If you are not subscribed, you can do so on the Vitamin D Council’s website.

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Dear Dr. Cannell:

On June 3, 2010, my five and a half week old daughter was introduced to “child protection, who diagnosed her as being a victim of child abuse. I had brought my new born daughter to a general hospital, after she woke up screaming in pain when I moved her arm. Upon multiple x-rays we found out that she had a fracture in her right arm that had a transverse configuration, without any evidence of external injury (we later learned that a transverse configuration is typical in a pathologically fragile bone). Not understanding how this could have happened to my daughter, I had no explanation for the injury.

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Apparently because of the injury and our inability to explain how it happened, the doctors suspected child abuse and contacted the child abuse team who sent social workers to the hospital to interview us. After several hours of questioning, they transferred us to another hospital where we were immediately admitted to the child protection department. After further x-rays and bone scans the hospital found multiple micro-fractures throughout my daughter’s body.

On June 4th 2010, my infant daughter was taken out of my care and placed in the foster care system. The State appointed my daughter an attorney, who has become an angel for my daughter and to my family. Thankfully, my daughter’s attorney took her job seriously and set out to determine the truth of what happened to my daughter.

After interviewing me and my family and reading the transcripts of the initial interviews of my boyfriend and I written by the emergency social workers from the hospitals, my daughter’s attorney requested all of the x-rays, bone scans and medical reports from both hospitals.

Her attorney asked several doctors to look at the medical information and give their unbiased, expert opinions but they refused to touch the case because child protection was involved. Thankfully, she finally reached out to Dr. Patrick Barnes, a world-renowned neuroradiologist who agreed to look at my daughter’s case. He referred her to Dr. David Ayoub a diagnostic Radiologist out of Chicago IL, to look at the x-rays and bone scans specifically. After an initial review of the films, Dr. Ayoub proceeded to acquire every medical record in existence on my daughter including my prenatal records and ultrasounds, my daughter’s delivery and pediatric records and he had me fill out a medical questionnaire survey.

After careful and thorough review of all medical reports he saw that my daughter was suffering from infantile rickets in the state of healing, and that her bones were in a fragile state. He also stated that my daughter’s skull showed poor mineralization along the sutures and large areas or poor mineralization in the center portion of the skull plates. In addition the parietal skull was flattened.

As Dr. Ayoud was evaluating my daughters medical reports, he asked my daughter’s attorney to suggest that I go see Dr. Michael Holick. Upon his full evaluation of me, Dr. Holick found me to be suffering from osteomalacia, essentially the adult form of rickets.

This process took two months to complete and now, because of the lack of follow through by child protection doctors, my daughter has been without one of the things most critical to her young development, a caring and loving mother. And I have been robbed of some of the most precious moments I could have had with her.

Because it took so long to get the proper diagnosis and after being in foster care for almost two months, the child protection people then decided to place my daughter with her biological father who abandoned me when I was 2 months pregnant. He had not seen or even asked about his daughter until he was contacted by them on June 4th, almost six weeks after her birth.

It has now been 3 months since I have had my precious baby girl. Even with two outstanding doctor reports from two nationally distinguished doctors, the child protection people do not seem to care that my daughter was taken from her mother in error. Because they are essentially a law unto themselves, they have no legal obligation to take this new medical information about my daughter and myself and do anything with it.

It would take pages to explain the twisted system that child protection is, because the system is set up in such a way to always protect child protection; there actually isn’t a forum to bring this new information up in front of a judge unless the whole case goes to a trial, which would be months away.

The child protection agencies were set up to protect children, but where are the laws to protect the children and families from these agencies. What do you do when the child protection doctors and social workers are the ones responsible for neglect or abuse?

Still to this day neither child protection or my daughters biological father have taken my daughter to get looked at by a specialist, to make sure that she is getting what she needs to fix her vitamin D deficiency. (Thankfully, Dr. Ayoub assures me that because she has been fed formula since she was removed from my custody, I exclusively breast-fed her for the first 5 weeks, another risk factor for rickets, she is most likely safe from further fractures.) I am not allowed to get any medical information about my daughter as her bio dad has temporary custody. He is only allowing me to see my now 4-month-old daughter one day a week, at a supervised visitation center. In what kind of world does any of this seem right?

I will get her back; it will just take some time. I just hope that other families and children can be saved by being made aware of this epidemic of infantile rickets. Health care providers need to be educated on these issues. Most doctors are not taught to know what to look for when they are dealing with infantile rickets or other metabolic bone diseases. And when neonatal rickets are in the stages of healing the vitamin D and calcium levels are usually normal or high. That’s why it’s important to test, everything. They need to do their due diligence in ruling out every medical possibility before making their diagnoses. They need to help save families, not break them up.

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Helen,

USA

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Dear Helen:

Thank God that the court appointed an open-minded attorney to represent your child; that seldom happens in these cases. Usually the attorneys appointed to represent the children are the most rabid of the lot. Also, thank God you found Dr. Ayoub and Dr. Barnes. As you say, the child abuse authorities are a law unto themselves, they do not have to read your reports, file them in your child’s folder, or give your child back. Now that you have two experts and know what is going on, perhaps you may not feel so alone, feel like everyone thinks you are a child abuser, which is the usual outcome in these cases.

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A few months ago I discussed an absolutely frightening study. Basically, the study found that about 1/4 of all otherwise normal infants have evidence of infantile rickets while they are still in the womb. If these infants were x-rayed right after birth, I suspect they would be found to have multiple fractures from the very real trauma of coming through the birth canal. That is, it is likely that tens of thousands of infants are being sent home from the hospital with multiple fractures because no one has ever done a study looking for asymptomatic fractures.

Mahon P, et al. Low Maternal Vitamin D Status and Fetal Bone Development: Cohort Study (PDF format). J Bone Miner Res. 2009 Jul 6.

As an aside, the editorial that accompanied this study missed the point. Instead of asking for studies to discover what percentage of infants will have broken bones at birth and thus, how many parents are falsely accused of child abuse due to this tragedy, the authors of the editorial simply asked for more money for scientists.

Hewison M, Adams JS. Vitamin D Insufficiency and Skeletal Development In Utero (PDF format). J Bone Miner Res. 2010 Jan 15;25(1):11–13.

The “we care about kids more than you do” child abuse organizations are simply feeding at the trough of the child abuse industry. “According to the late Dr. Richard Gardner, the reason for increasing false allegations can be rationally explained. “There’s a complex network of social workers, mental health professionals, and law enforcement officials that actually encourages charges of child abuse — whether they are reasonable or not.”

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Dr. Gardner was referring to the fact that the Mondale Act of 1974 is responsible for the dramatic increase in child abuse charges because it affords full liability protection for the child abuse industry. They can do the most egregious and wanton things to the children in their care, and their parents, without fear that they will face civil liability charges. The Mondale Act indemnified the child abuse industry, and populated it with people whose livelihoods depend on bringing more and more allegations into the system. Your daughter is simply putting food on someone’s plate.

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The child abuse industry was behind the epidemic of “recovered memories” of child abuse in the 1990s and howled when judges started returning malpractice verdicts against recovered memory doctors, which quickly dried up that particular child abuse industry feeding trough. Now, the bread and butter of the child abuse industry is child physical abuse or battered child syndrome, first described 50 years ago in a seminal paper in JAMA, a paper that caused irreparable harm.

Kempe CH, et al. The battered-child syndrome. JAMA. 1962 Jul 7;181:17-24.

Do not expect this tragedy to be solved soon. Too many mouths are sucking at the trough. Also, the child’s father, the man who abandoned you and his child when you were two months pregnant, is he being paid to take care of his own child? I doubt child protection will tell you but I suspect he is being paid.

For almost 50 years, parents like you have either been sent to jail or had their child taken away or both; we are talking about hundreds of thousands of parents. It is all based on a simple observation loaded with face validity: children with lots of broken bones must have been beaten by someone. Now, it is quite possible that most of those hundreds of thousands of infants were never beaten, never abused, never mistreated, they were misdiagnosed, they simply had infantile rickets.

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John Cannell MD

Executive Director

Vitamin D Council

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Stave Alzheimers w/Vit-B

(This is welcome news and I want to share some thoughts following the article. . . Jan)

LOS ANGELES TIMES

High doses of B vitamins can reduce brain shrinkage, memory loss, study finds

September 9, 2010|

High doses of B vitamins can reduce shrinkage of the brain that is frequently a precursor of Alzheimer’s disease, British researchers reported Wednesday. In the best circumstances, the supplements reduced shrinkage by as much as 50%, and researchers hope that this may mean that the vitamins can delay the onset of Alzheimer’s. A longer trial is now being planned to determine if that is the case. The results are all the more remarkable because of the widely publicized failures of many experimental Alzheimer’s treatments.

Dr. A. David Smith of the University of Oxford and his colleagues studied 168 volunteers with mild cognitive impairment, which is characterized by memory loss, language problems and other mental difficulties beyond those normally associated with aging. It generally does not significantly interfere with daily activities. An estimated 16% of people over the age of 70 have mild cognitive impairment, and about half of those proceed to Alzheimer’s disease.

The rationale for the study was simple:

• High levels of the amino acid homocysteine in the blood are thought to be linked to the development of Alzheimer’s.
• B vitamins are known to reduce homocysteine levels.

Smith’s group gave half the patients daily doses of a Swedish vitamin called Triobe Plus and half of them a placebo. The product, which is dispensed only by prescription, contains 0.8 milligrams folic acid, 0.5 mg cyanocobalamin and 20 mg pyridoxine hydrochloride. That is about 300 times the recommended daily intake of vitamin B12, four times the recommended dose of folate and 15 times the recommended dose of vitamin B6. “This is a drug, not a vitamin intervention,” said nutritionist Helga Refsum of the University of Oslo, a co-author.

The team also used magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain volume. Normally, the human brain shrinks by about half a percent per year. Smith and his colleagues reported in the online journal PLoS One that the brains of the patients receiving the placebo shrank by an average of about 1.08% per year, while the brains of those receiving the supplement shrank by an average of only 0.76%, a decrease of 30%. But in patients who had the highest levels of homocysteine in their blood at the beginning of the two-year study, the shrinkage was reduced by 53%. Although the study was not designed to monitor mental capacity, the patients receiving the supplements scored better on mental tests, the researchers said.

“This is a very dramatic and striking result. It’s much more than we could have predicted,” Smith said in a statement.

At a news conference, Smith warned consumers against taking the high doses on their own, even though the results were “immensely promising.” But when asked whether he would take it if he were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, he replied: “Yes, no hesitation. I would take it.”

– Thomas H. Maugh II

Los Angeles Times

A Little Background Color

Brought my mother to live with me for the last 18 or so years of her life.  Not in good health, many ills. We did however, have a good life.  Celebrated her birthdays, went out for meals every so often.  Good days.  No regrets.  She had Alzheimers which I later understood was the reason for our having different recall of shared experiences.   It helped me to learn that there was a reason for the arguments we had been having over stupid things.  So I changed my thinking  Still, sometimes stuff wasn’t easy.   I share this with you as a way of telling you, I understand about this curse of this disease.  My brilliant, creative mother changed so much.  I know what Alzheimers does to a person.

In the last two years, I was forced to put her in a home which broke my heart and was one of the hardest things I have ever done. (both in California and Ohio).  I could no longer do all that needed doing as she became more frail.  And I was still working.   She died 15 years ago at 85.

There was a time 7 or 8 years ago that I recognized many of the telltale signs in myself.  It stressed me out.  When I finally realized that I was grieving my own demise before I even died,  I began to get a bit of a grip. I did quite a bit of reading and searching on the subject and to tell the truth, just not a whole lot out there. So  I did what seemed to be logical and made a little sense.

Change of attitude was called for.  Finally learned about Abraham and the Law of Attraction.  Worked for me.  Let’s face it – I really needed to “see” a better path before me.  Looking at fear and loss was not the way to go.   Health had been a major love of mine for more than 40 years, so I wasn’t a total beginner.

I experimented with a few things;  took phosphotydal-serine  for a few years, didn’t really notice much help on that.  Had always taken the B-vitamins -  but changed to a stress formula (per old books of Adele Davis).  Heard about MSM and did like that very much and still use.  I buy it by the large 200 gram container (powder) and take a Vitamin C crystal with it as well.  (mix both in about 4 0z water). .or just put both into a morning shake, kinda ALA David Wolfe with raw cacao nibs, hemp seed,  goji berri sometimes a protein powder, or almond milk if I have made some,  coconut oil,  fresh banana, blue berries and strawberries, maybe a handful of chlorophyll tablets   Whole Foods for some things and online purchases otherwise.

I don’t really like giving up time to exercise – never liked it!  I still walk – just not as far as I used to.  Still use my rebounder. . .(have a stationary bike,  a nice Pilates machine and something called a Health-rider,   I think. (if only I would use it all)

Its important to do whatever you like to do to get centered – go within.  Pray, meditate, write poetry, paint -  have joyful pursuits.  Music, the arts. . .any and all can imbue us with a higher vibration – - which in turn allows our body to heal itself.  But nothing equates to the power of “love”.  And that starts with our own self. We must love ourself deeply and completely – - then we have something to give and share with others.

I am fortunate that my nutrition is pretty good, as organic as I can manage and all made at home by me. I don’t use sugar in the house, but do have honey and stevia for the occasional circumstance. I am a devotee of Dr McDougall, but Dr Loren Cordain has pretty well taken over here by now.  I can’t handle as much lean meat as the Cavemen do,  but I manage pretty well.  Have Salmon quite often, big on vegetables and as almost everyone knows – I eat lots of fermented veggies – my biggest saving grace.  They are so loaded with all the bacteria our body needs and the B-vitamins in quantity not found anywhere else.  Plenty of EFA’a,  Ubiquinol (Co-Q-10).  Don’t take multi vitamins (for years now) or calcium.  Vit D 6K daily.  I spray Magnesium Oil on my torso once or twice daily – just the chest (no breast) and belly, upper arm and thighs.   Lastly, I tap.  If I have pain, I tap.  My feeling get hurt, I tap.

Stuff I’ve Learned that Works and is VERY Relevant

#1 Homocysteine    Loren Cordain “The Paleo Diet”

So many things are wrong in the “health-picture” of modern life.  Alzheimer’s is rampant.  Obesity, heart disease,  diabetes,  hypertension have all become commonplace.    We do not have to accept that one in four of us will have dementia – - this is NOT  a natural development of the aging process.  We can change this picture.  We just have to understand what the culprits are  then we can get home free.

The article speaks of homocysteine as a major culprit – there is too much of it in the blood levels and it is strongly linked with Alzheimer High dosage of B-vitamins will control this condition.  The American diet is really not providing enough of the B-Vitamins to people.    Page 18 of the Paleo Diet speaks of higher lean meat consumption by people demonstrating lower levels of homocysteine, a toxic substance which damages arteries and predisposes to atherosclerosis (than is the case with vegans).  Net result: high protein regimen produces beneficial changes in blood chemistry  that in turn reduce overall risks of heart disease.

Elsewhere it says Lean meats are rich sources of B6 and B12 while fresh fruits and veggies are the best food source for folate. Americans don’t eat enough fresh fruits and vegetables which is why intake of folate is low.

#2 Insulin Resistance  (Dr. Richard Johnson, The SUGAR FIX

Dr. Johnson believes the ideal range for uric acid lies between 3 to 5.5 mg per dl – - above this range your risk of developing health problems correlate quite well.   His thrust in this book is on Fructose and how damaging it is to our systems (especially HFCS).  It raises Uric Acid levels, causes heart disease, thyroid disturbances,  lowers the Omega-3 fats,  contributes to HBP which causes brain atrophy, and raises Homocysteine levels.

In the following statement, Dr. Johnson explains just how closely tied uric acid levels are to fructose consumption:

• “If you give animals fructose, they develop diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and fatty liver. And in most of these conditions, if we lower uric acid, we can prevent many of these conditions, [although] not completely.

So lowering uric acid seems to benefit some of the mechanisms by which fructose causes disease.

• A very important point is that if you take two animals and you feed one fructose and feed the other one the exact same number of calories but give it as dextrose or glucose, its only the fructose-fed animal that will develop obesity, insulin resistance, fatty liver, and high triglycerides, signs of inflammation, vascular disease, and high blood pressure.”

So please be aware, we can change all this.  Our choices are causes and in them we do have power.

Hey, I’m still over here messing around and having a ball.  How many people do you know who are up til all hours (it’s past 4 a.m. now) – so please, no one call me in the morning.. . .I’m out here.   Maybe I am sick and just don’t know it.  .  .  .  Jan