Is Too Little Vitamin D Hazardous to the Health of Your Brain?

Monday, December 2nd, 2013 at 9:19 pm 
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I have written before about the dosage of vitamin D that I should be taking, and the toxicity of vitamin D, but here is a new study from the University of Kentucky that indicates that levels of vitamin D that are too low may be associated with brain damage.

The researchers studied animals, so it remains to be seen whether the same effects would be seen in humans. However, I do know that I feel better when I have been able to spend at least some time in the sunshine, so maybe there is a bit of truth here?

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New Nutrition Guidance From the American Diabetes Association

Monday, October 21st, 2013 at 9:26 pm 
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Today I learned that the American Diabetes Association has released updated guidelines for the management of diet in adults with type II diabetes (Evert AB, et al. Diabetes Care 2013;36:3821). At the time of writing this post the full article is available at the Diabetes Care web site.

 
These recommendations are the first update in 5 years, at a time when obesity, which often results in diabetes, has become so common that some experts have defined it as an epidemic.  In my view, the term epidemic does not apply here, because you do not catch diabetes. However, these recommendations are important because they recognize that there is no one diet that will be suitable for everyone. I am sure we have all seen people who seem to eat nothing yet gain lots of weight, and others who eat  large amounts but gain very little weight.  It all seems so unfair, doesn’t it!
 
Now that the American Medical Association describes obesity as a disease, maybe this new position statement from the American Diabetes Association will help more doctors understand how to advise those of us who are overweight to avoid becoming obese, and to avoid becoming diabetic.
 
The recommendations are 22 pages long, so it is going to take a long time to go through them. Also, one of the interesting messages that I have seen is that nutritional advice needs to be given on an individual basis. This is an important step forward in helping everyone recognize that they must take responsibility for managing their own health. Doctors and dietitians, in my opinion, need to recognize  that they need to focus on giving individual patients. The tools that they need, rather than prescribing “lose some weight” for everyone.
 
Let me know what you think in the comments section.