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Published on December 28, 2024

It’s not too late to make your end-of-year donations!

 

Dear GrassrootsHealth Followers,

I recently asked our scientists and experts for their thoughts and feedback regarding what direction to take GrassrootsHealth from here and how we can best carry on the legacy of our founder, Carole Baggerly. I asked how we can continue to support the vitamin D scientists and researchers, and fill the knowledge gaps in all areas of public and personal health regarding vitamin D and other nutrients.

I also specifically asked if there are any new developments or findings that they would like for us to share or assist with as we begin the New Year.

It was encouraging to see that many of the responses from our panel were very similar – they felt it most important for us to continue to counter the misinformation we often see about vitamin D and the resulting guidelines that mislead individuals and practitioners, and to educate about proper nutrient study design and the importance of including all study types when creating such guidelines and making decisions about individual and public health.

I have shared more of their responses below; please read on to see what more they have to say…

I truly believe that continuing to share this information is essential, as achieving optimal vitamin D levels is one of the easiest, most affordable and impactful steps anyone can take towards improving health now and lifelong.

Please donate today! It’s not too late to make your end-of-year donations.

or send a check to

GrassrootsHealth
315 S. Coast Hwy 101
Suite U-87
Encinitas, CA 92024

Here’s to us all working together as we move GrassrootsHealth and vitamin D research into the New Year!

In Health and with Gratitude for You All,
Jen Aliano
Director, GrassrootsHealth

Key Focus for 2025 – From the Vitamin D Scientists & Experts

Below are a few key points mentioned by our vitamin D scientists and experts about what they think key topics of focus should be for GrassrootsHealth as we move forward.

– Continue to emphasize that all types of research contribute to knowledge. RCTs are good but they are not the “be all and end all”; they also have their limitations! That said, we cannot just ignore them when they provide inconvenient answers … We need to reconcile their findings with the other findings.

– Focus on the “bright spots” – eg, cancer mortality and autoimmune diseases. The large RCTs (including VITAL) suggest that there are real health benefits there with Vitamin D. Multiple recent null studies (especially VITAL) have almost completely ended research funding.

Carlos A. Camargo, Jr., M.D., Dr. P.H.

– Consider working with the new administration, other organizations, corporations or companies, and liaison with organizations focused on nutrition and other healthy lifestyle changes (NOTE: How can YOU, our followers, help us with this?)

– Look into additional studies and findings based on GrassrootsHealth data

William B. Grant, Ph.D.

– Continue clearing up vitamin D miscommunication/misinformation

– The concept that proper use of vitamin D could reduce a lot of health problems as a big deal – keep up the good work here!

Bruce D. Hammock, Ph.D.

– When trying to make a difference to the medical community or to policy makers, argue that there are some things for which “level 1 evidence” will never be possible due to challenges in primary disease prevention (see a previous blog by Dr. Vieth on the topic here); publish a paper on the topic to argue against “not enough evidence” for vitamin D in a top journal.

Reinhold Vieth, Ph.D.

– Focus on educating physicians about vitamin D. It is still being very poorly taught in medical school, so most physicians blindly follow the IOM 2011 guidelines out of fear of causing harm, which then causes harm by causing people to remain deficient

– Physicians need to understand the problems with the guidelines and the process used when they reviewed the vitamin D literature.

– Realize that there are 2 forms of toxicity related to vitamin D, and by far the worst form is caused by being deficient.

Patrick McCullough, M.D.

– Too many physicians ignore the relationship between 25OHD deficiency and the pathologies they treat; spreading knowledge about the associations of deficiency with different diseases (as you have been doing) and the new supplementation trials (which finally confirm what we assumed) is the right way to go.

– What level of 25OHD is currently recommended? The appropriate answer is that it depends on the objective of the doctor who prescribes it. If the goal is only bone and muscle health, it is very easy to achieve 30 ng/ml of 25OHD. But if you want to prevent or alleviate diseases such as autoimmune diseases, cancer, diabetes in prediabetic subjects, multiple sclerosis, pregnancy complications, and others, the dose to be administered must be higher, and dosing to achieve higher 25OHD levels is necessary and safe.

– It is worth remembering that in the case of obesity, not only is the basal level lower, but the dose to reach a desired level is higher.

José Luis Mansur, M.D.

– Keep spreading facts; therefore, countering mis- and disinformation

– Perhaps helping us all support each other’s efforts on social media would be one place to start. (NOTE: How can YOU, our followers, help us with this?)

Leigh A. Frame, Ph.D., M.H.S.

 

or send a check to

GrassrootsHealth
315 S. Coast Hwy 101
Suite U-87
Encinitas, CA 92024

How Can You Use this Information for YOUR Health?

Having and maintaining healthy vitamin D and other nutrient levels can help improve your health now and for your future. Measuring is the only way to make sure you are getting enough!

STEP 1 Order your at-home blood spot test kit to measure vitamin D and other nutrients of concern to you, such as omega-3s, magnesium, essential and toxic elements (zinc, copper, selenium, lead, cadmium, mercury); include hsCRP as a marker of inflammation or HbA1c for blood sugar health

STEP 2 Answer the online questionnaire as part of the GrassrootsHealth study

STEP 3 Using our educational materials and tools (such as our dose calculators), assess your results to determine if you are in your desired target range or if actions should be taken to get there

STEP 4 After 3-6 months of implementing your changes, re-test to see if you have achieved your target level(s)

Enroll in D*action and Build Your Custom Test Kit!