Ronald Peters, MD, MPH
Integrative Medicine

Nancy Brem, L.AC.
Acupuncture

Tammy Leiner
Thermography

Colleen Dugie, LMT
Integrative Massage

Vensa Cupara-Peters
Macrobiotics

Mind > Stress

What's New

Vitamin D better than vaccines and medications at preventing flu

Doctors is Japan have found that you can cut in half your risk of catching the flu by taking vitamin D. The finding has implications for flu epidemics since vitamin D, which is naturally produced by the human body when exposed to direct sunlight, has no significant side effects, costs little and can be several times more effective than anti-viral drugs or vaccine.

Only one in ten children, aged six to 15 years, taking the sunshine vitamin in a clinical trial came down with flu compared with one in five given a dummy tablet. Mitsuyoshi Urashima, the Japanese doctor who led the trial said that vitamin D was more effective than vaccines in preventing flu.

Altogether 354 children took part in the trial, which took place during the winter of 2008-09, before the swine flu epidemic. Vitamin D was found to protect against influenza A, which caused last year’s epidemic, but not against the less common influenza B.

The children were given a daily dose of 1200 IUs (international units) of vitamin D over a period of three months. In the first month children in the group taking the vitamin became ill just as often as those taking the dummy tablet. But by the second month, when the vitamin level in the children’s blood was higher, the advantage of the vitamin was clear.

The Japanese scientists, writing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, say that the anti-viral drugs zanamivir and oseltamivir reduce risk of flu infection by 8 per cent in children who have been exposed to infection, compared with a 50 per cent or greater reduction with vitamin D.

Anti-virals are also too expensive, and possibly too toxic, to be given to the population as a whole whereas vitamin D has additional benefits. The sunshine vitamin not only prevents bone fractures but is also believed to reduce risks of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other illness, including various bacterial as well as viral infections.

The Japanese finding supports a theory that low blood levels of the sunshine vitamin occurring in winter explain why flu epidemics generally peak between December and March.

Vitamin D activates the innate immune system, enabling the body to produce several proteins such as defensin and cathelicidin which trigger cell activity and disable viruses. Dr Urashima said: “Vitamin D and vaccine work by quite different mechanisms. Vitamin D enhances innate immunity while vaccine enhances acquired immunity. So we do not have to select only one way of prevention, rather we should do both ways, I think.”

Dr John Oxford, professor of virology at Queen Mary School of Medicine, London, said: “This is a timely study. It will be noticed by scientists. It fits in with the seasonal pattern of flu. There is an increasing background of solid science that makes the vitamin D story credible. But this study needs to be replicated. If it is confirmed we might think of giving vitamin D at the same time as we vaccinate.”

Mind and Body are One

Your Stress System - A Modern Paradox

The "fight or flight" stress system has helped humans survive on earth for tens of thousands of years. By activating this powerful mindbody system we have run from danger, or, fought to protect ourselves, since the beginning of human life on earth. But now, this same stress system is killing us through stress related diseases such as heart attack, cancer, high blood pressure and diabetes. How do you explain this paradox?

For 95% of life on earth our dangers have been real and physical. The stress physiology prepared our ancestors to run from wild animals or attack them in the hunt. It helped them defend against invaders who wanted to steal the village food supply. Our stress system is well designed to protect us against dangers by running or fighting.

In modern times, however, the dangers are no longer physical. We no longer run from our fears because they arise in our minds daily in the form of worry and anxiety. We no longer fight our enemies, because the enemy has moved inside us in the form or anger, frustration, resentment and depression. “Fight or flight” has become “fear or anger” and this powerful system is responding to imaginary dangers for which there is no appropriate action.

Acute Stress - Adrenaline

Consider for a moment what the acute stress hormone adrenaline does to your body:

Increase blood pressure and heart rate
Increase breathing
Constrict blood flow in your arms and legs
Slow down your digestion
Tense muscles throughout your body
Releases sugar from the liver into the blood stream
Increases blood clotting factors
Activates the immune system (only 20 to 30 minutes)
Inhibits sexual function
And more

Does this orchestra of mindbody preparation help you deal with your home, financial or work-related fears and worries? Probably not; instead, you go home feeling tense, anxious, perhaps with a headache or upset stomach.

Chronic Stress - Cortisol

Actually, cortisol, the hormone of chronic stress, is more likely to be activated by your “everyday dangers”, and it is more involved in making you sick than adrenaline. Consider the well documented effects of chronic cortisol elevations on your mind and body:

Increased appetite and food cravings
Cortisol stimulates fat storage mainly around the abdomen
Increased body fat - obesity
Decreased muscle mass
Insulin resistance and eventually diabetes
Heart disease
Increased blood pressure – high blood pressure
Decreased bone density – osteoporosis
Reduced synthesis of neurotransmitters
Increased anxiety
Increased depression
Reduced concentration
Mood swings (anger and irritability)
Reduced levels of estrogen and testosterone – decreased sex drive
Impaired immune response – frequent colds, flus, infections and cancer
Memory and learning impairment
Physical atrophy of brain cells – Alzheimer’s disease
Increased symptoms of PMS
Increased menopausal side effects

In his acclaimed book, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, Robert Sapolsky writes that when the body “thinks” it is in danger, it shuts down long term projects, such as digestion, hormone production and immunity in favor of immediate survival. In other words, if a hurricane is heading toward your house, you do not go out and paint the garage.

We turn the stress system on automatically with our repetitive thoughts, worries, fears, and frustrations. In this way, the life saving stress system has become a liability. We must learn how to turn it off as well and this modern skill is a key feature of mindbody healing.

In chapter two of my book Edgework, I explain how you can move the “fight or flight” stress system from liability to asset once again. Instead of just troublesome symptoms, the physical signs of stress in your body can be signals for you to look within and understand how you create stress in your life. In this approach you consider the physical and psychological signs of stress as markers for personal exploration using the tools of mindbody healing.

Measuring Stress in Your Body

In order to reduce your stress, improve your health and understand your self better, you need to measure the stress in your body. In my practice, I have used cortisol testing in the tissues as well as Heart Rate Variability Testing

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Testing

When you have worry, anxiety, fear, anger, frustration, resentment, or guilt, the sympathetic branch (SNS) of your autonomic nervous system (ANS) prepares your body for “fight or flight”, i.e. physical action for survival, even though there is usually no “action” to take. With prolonged SNS dominance you develop dis-ease in the body, at work, or socially. The parasympathetic branch (PNS) of the ANS balances SNS activity and maintains immunity, digestion, hormone balance and long term healing allowing for better physical, mental and social health.

HRV is the only objective measure of stress in your body. It determines the balance between SNS and PNS. All chronic diseases, behavioral disorders, and aging are associated with disturbed HRV.

HRV testing is a valuable tool for healing and is especially important in the stressful times of modern living.

Stress of breast cancer treatment weakens immune system

Before beginning chemotherapy for breast cancer, 116 women were given stress questionnaires and natural killer (NK) cell activity tests. Results showed that the higher the stress, the lower the NK cell activity.^[6]

Dr. Peters Says:
The emotional stress of having cancer further weakens an already weak immune system. Then chemotherapy weakens the beleaguered immune system even more. No wonder recurrent cancer is so common. Natural killer cells kill cancer cells and mindbody medicine can improve NK cell function, which can be measured over time. The stress of cancer is a powerful call for comprehensive mindbody healing.