The Vitamin D Solution: A 3-Step Strategy to Cure Our Most Common Health Problems [Paperback]

[2012 WARNING: None of the books on the benefits of Vitamin D3 warned about the need to also take vitamin K2! I have to wonder how all these self-claimed vitamin D3 experts, who also claimed so many successes, were ignorant that vitamin A (it seems most of us are deficient in this vitamin too), vitamin D3 and vitamin K (in the form of K2) must come together in balanced proportions. If you take calcium and vitamin D but are deficient in vitamin K, you may be increasing the risk of a heart attack.

Vitamin K is essential not only for preventing potentially deadly blood clots but also for bone building (including delaying tooth decay) and maintenance. Perhaps most important - K has powerful anti-cancer effects. It is known to be helpful for cardiovascular disease, varicose veins, brain health problems, including dementia and even prevents infectious diseases such as pneumonia. Some claim that most people need daily vitamin D3 of at least 2000 IU with 3000 IU of vitamin A and 100mcg of vitamin K2. The synergy between them is vital as there is evidence that the safety of high dose vitamin D is dependent on vitamin K, and that vitamin D toxicity (although very rare with the D3 form) is actually caused by vitamin K2 deficiency.]

Of the 8 books on vitamin D I've now read, this is now my favourite pick. It's practical and he has a way with words: "vitamin D deficiency is our most common health challenge globally", "vitamin D is in a class by itself; its far-reaching effects on the body are aligned with how hormones act to influence metabolic pathways, cellular functions, and the expression of myriad genes", "in some respected medical circles, sunlight is being described as a 'wonder drug'". At 300 pages I also found it thorough and I specially liked the straightforward explanation that sunshine, when it's strong enough, is always better than supplementing with Vitamin D.

Dr. Holick is a professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics at Boston University Medical Center in the USA who has studied vitamin D for over 30 years and has received awards relating to health research and nutrition. He explains that he lost his teaching position as a Dermatologist in 2004 because he refused to agree with his boss and with the Dermatology profession generally that even the tiniest amount of UV/sunshine is bad for us. Unlike most of the other books, which recommend only vitamin D3, he says that either vitamin D2 or D3 is fine.

Of the other books, "The Vitamin D Revolution" by Soram Khalsa was previously the one I preferred while "Vitamin D Prescription" by Eric Madrid is also good but harder to find and more expensive. "Vitamin D" by Rona and "Power of Vitamin D" by Zaidi, both published in 2010, are both brief but quite good. "The Vitamin D Cure" by James Dowd is not basic, comprehensive or practical. Then there is "Vitamin D" by Michael Merrill which was too brief and simply inadequate. At the other extreme is the comprehensive but somewhat technical "Sunshine and Vitamin D" by Frank Murray - mainly brief compilations of hundreds of studies but no practical guidelines, so not really suitable for the layman who wants to experiment with high-dose vitamin D.

There are more and more books - and a great deal of media fanfare - on the recently discovered almost miraculous properties of vitamin D. It's also worth noting that over a decade ago several books were already lauding the much-overlooked benefits of sunshine, the best way to get vitamin D, although the further away from the equator, the less effective. Anyone living above the 35th parallel (England runs from the 50th upwards) is highly likely to have a sunshine/vit D deficiency that can also lead to many common symptoms. (Those who react badly to Vitamin D and/or sunshine may have a rare disease called sarcoidosis.)

According to most of the books on vitamin D, the vast majority of us are deficient in vitamin D whereas adequate levels can alleviate chronic pain, stroke, osteoporosis, heart disease, cancer, autoimmune diseases, depression, arthritis, diabetes, gum disease, psoriasis, fibromyalgia, autism and much more. Perhaps it's just my cynicism from decades of reading endless books singing the praises of so-called miracles such as DMSO, MMS, DHEA, vitamin C, magnesium, iodine, omega 3 EFAs, breathwork, oxygen therapy, hydrogen peroxide, water, thyroid hormone, adrenal hormone, liver cleanses, detoxes, fasts, exercise, neutralising electromagnetic stress, juicing, mangosteen, noni juice, superfoods, organic foods, wholefoods, celiac diets, dairy-free diets, veggie diets, protein diets, carb diets, food combining, acid-alkaline balancing diets, Glycaemic Index diets, high fibre diets, raw food diets, candida/fungus elimination, parasite cleansing - oh dear, the list of my gullibility seems endless.

Yes, I've tried all of these; yes, thoroughly and sometimes repeating them in various combinations and on each occasion with enthusiasm and bright-eyed hope but I saw no measurable benefits. "Trick and Treat" by Groves explains in detail just why so many of my efforts were doomed. Nowadays, when I read about health wonders, I wonder how many claims of success are made up or at least tweaked - and I wonder what proportion of actual patients were successful in any way, much less miraculously so, as is always claimed by books touting miraculous benefits.

I was startled to learn in this book that about a third of the population has kidney disease (which never gets diagnosed until too late and allegedly little can be done for it apart from horrible treatments like dialysis) and that about the same number are obese (hello... anyone making a connection here?) and that their bodies may not be able to produce enough activated vitamin D even when taking high-dose supplements: as compared to the non-obese, vitamin D levels rose only 50% as much in the blood levels of the obese when using a tanning bed or getting a dose of 50,000iu of vitamin D. The obese get a lot of blame for what is not actually their fault: studies now show that calcium also plays a key role in reducing obesity (elsewhere I have seen studies showing large weight loss in about 30% of obese women who take both calcium and vitamin D).

Holick recommends activated vitamin D (calcitriol) for those whose bodies have difficulty converting vitamin D into the active form, such as older people or those who have a wheat/gluten intolerance (much more common than realised). However, none of the books are clear enough that many with poor health simply cannot produce enough activated vitamin D in their bodies even when taking high-dose vitamin D.

Based on my personal experience of taking 10,000iu daily of vitamin D3 for 6 months (but Rona's book mentions Norm Shealy, a physician who has taken 50,000iu per day for 18 months), I'm not convinced that vitamin D supplementation of the non-prescription kind is a panacea, as so many of the books are claiming - and I am not convinced that all these authors got the unanimously fantastic results they allege. While I believe that vitamin D supplementation at 5,000ius daily is beneficial, too many such books have a way of sounding a little overzealous, attributing every malady to whatever deficiency they're tackling and proposing it as the magic solution across the board.

[Later notes: I feel it's important to mention the new mental/emotional healing process explained in "The Healing Code" by Loyd/Johnson/Eble. There are hundreds of personal successes listed in the reviews on Amazon.com.

For those looking for general health improvements, I also suggest:
- "Outsmart Your Cancer" by Tanya Harter Pierce is a considered and thoughtful review of successful alternative remedies - and, anything that can HEAL cancer is also a general healer and should be able to help much else in the body;
- "Never Fear Cancer Again" by Raymond Francis, a brilliant distillation of what is truly needed for health;
- "Trick and Treat", which turns upside down everything governments have told us to eat for health;
- "Transdermal Magnesium Therapy" by Sircus on the amazing benefits of magnesium - a fundamental supplement for a healthy body - particularly magnesium chloride flakes (transdermally), available comparatively cheaply, and
- "The XXL Syndrome", basically a booklet, about the essential part potassium plays in health (food grade potassium bicarbonate powder is also available cheaply.]

Dr Holick has been working in the field of vitamin D for over three decades, and the expertise really comes through in this informative book. I bought the title for an article I was writing on vitamin D, and barely needed to refer to any other expert opinion, as the studies etc. were so comprehensive. It will also doubtless become a regular reference on my nutrition degree course.

Great, well structured and very easy to understand, with plenty of technical details thrown in.

Um...scary book, very scary. I went out and bought a Vitamin D supplement before I was even 1/3 of the way through it. Very easily readable and grabs you like a suspense novel. Part one, the effects of Vitamin D deficiency, gets you wondering 'am I deficient?' so you read on...Part Two, how to tell if you are deficient gets you thinking (unless you work on a chain gang or live in a loincloth in the tropics)'OMG I'm deficient what do I do about it?'...part three is what to do about it. The author repeats the most important information several times throughout the book so you really, really do 'get it'
I only give 4 stars though for one reason - there are several pages of references in the back, always a good thing, but when in the text Dr Holick says 'studies have found that...' he doesn't give a connection at that point to the original reference, so if, like me, you want to read the whole study it's impossible to find the one he is referring to.