Is Vitamin D the Panacea that has Eluded Big Pharma?
By LINDA BONVIE and BILL BONVIE
“We don’t need to develop a new drug. We already have it.”
That’s how the lead author of a new study of one of our most essential nutrients has summed up his team’s surprising new findings about what it can do for people suffering from what continues to be one of our biggest causes of illness and mortality.
The substance involved is none other than vitamin D3 – and the condition he was referring to was heart disease. Or, to be more specific, damage to the cardiovascular system caused by hypertension, diabetes and other ailments, which this latest research has found can actually be repaired with sufficient amounts of the “sunshine vitamin.”
The research was conducted by Dr. Tadeusz Malinski, an Ohio University professor of advanced chemistry, and two graduate students, and is chronicled in a recent issue of the International Journal of Nanomedicine. If the results sound somewhat hard to believe, perhaps it’s because Big Pharma has been trying for so long to downplay the benefits of natural remedies that it can’t patent.
However, dismissing the results of this study, or the credentials of its lead author, could pose some difficulty for those drug-industry naysayers and their media shills.
That’s because Malinski is no run-of-the-mill college professor. He is the recipient of more than 35 international awards and honors, including the prestigious Maria Curie Medal for biomedical research, the Grand Gold Medal in medicine from the French Society of Arts-Science-Letters, and the 2016 Albrecht J. Fleckenstein Memorial Award by the International Academy of Cardiology for his contributions to fundamental research in that field.
And as Malinski explained in a press release from the university, when observed in clinical settings, many heart-attack victims have been found to be deficient in D3. And while that doesn’t necessarily mean such a deficiency is the direct cause of a heart attack, it increases the risk of having one.
In seeking to identify the medical mechanism responsible, what his team discovered is that D3 has a key role in stimulating production of nitric oxide, which is essential to regulating blood flow and preventing clots from forming, as well as significantly reducing oxidative stress to the cardiovascular system.
And finding that out took some real “in-depth” research, involving the use of nanosensors, about 1,000 times smaller in diameter than human hairs, to determine how vitamin D3 affects key cardiovascular components known as endothelial cells, which line the surface of blood vessels.
“There are not many, if any, known systems which can be used to restore cardiovascular endothelial cells which are already damaged,” noted Malinski. But what his team discovered is that “vitamin D3 can do it.” And that was found to be consistent whether the cells being examined came from Caucasians or African-Americans, who are considered more likely to suffer from vitamin D deficiency, which is now estimated to affect two out of five U.S. adults.
“This is a very inexpensive solution to repair the cardiovascular system,” he added – in other words, one that might not only offer patients a highly effective way to bounce back from a heart attack, but do so without incurring humongous medical bills.
And that perhaps is the crux of why these results aren’t being trumpeted as the lead medical story on all the drug-company-sponsored networks. Because as it turns out, what this first-of-its-kind study has revealed are potentials well beyond the treatment of heart disease, which could negatively impact drug company bottom lines were they to be seriously pursued.
According to Malinski, besides restoring the function of cardiac endothelium following a heart attack, vitamin D therapy could also help to rebuild systems damaged by conditions such as diabetes and atherosclerosis, as well as blood-vessel and capillary malfunctions, hypovolemia, a decrease in the volume of blood plasma, and brain ischemia, an inadequate flow of blood to the brain that can result in stroke or the death of brain tissue.
Such possibilities, as noted in the OU press release, are supported by clinical studies showing that doses of D3 exceeding those currently used for osteoporosis “may be highly beneficial for the treatment of the dysfunctional cardiovascular system.”
Imagine that! Heart disease finally being consigned to the ash heap of medical history, thanks to finding new applications for a natural nutrient that comes to us both in the form of “free” sun exposure (as an old song puts it, “the sunbeams that shine, they’re yours, they’re mine”) and from such foods as egg yolks, oysters and fatty fish like wild-caught salmon and sardines.
And then, of course, there are Vitamin D supplements, which may cost a few bucks, but not anywhere near as much as the drugs you’re likely to be prescribed if you suffer from heart disease or any other health problems due to D deficiencies.
And don’t forget – those heart-healing benefits discovered by Dr. Malinski and his research associates are on top of others that we already knew about, including the strengthening of bones by increasing calcium uptake, as well as warding off a host of diseases and infections, ranging from cancer to the flu by enhancing your immune system.
And that’s not to mention what it does to uplift your spirits and keep depression at bay (yes, John Denver was right about the relationship between sunshine and happiness).
That doesn’t mean you should take vitamin D in unlimited quantities. Supplementation of 2,000 IU a day is considered to be a standard dose, and should be taken during months when you’re getting minimal sun exposure. (4,000 IU is generally regarded as a safe maximum, although the Vitamin D Council recommends you draw the line at 10,000 IU per day for three months and that actual toxicity can result from taking 40,000 or more IU for the same period.)
But from all indications, Vitamin D (or a supplement in the form of D3) could be the real wonder drug researchers have been looking for all these years.
