Health Benefits of Coffee

As a certified and confirmed Starbuckeroo for many years, it is extremely gratifying to share with you the following article concerning the health benefits of drinking coffee. Of course, this has long been known by a few, but totally misrepresented by many. Why would Master Fard Muhammad give a nod to coffee in His teachings of How to Eat to Live to His Messenger, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, unless there was some benefit? While fasting, we are only allowed water and coffee! No tea, no jucie, no nothing! Only coffee and water!

I consider coffee to be one of the joys of life, along with good genuine chocolate. We generally have been led to think of coffee as seperate and apart from herbal teas, even though it is made the same exact way. Why shouldn't coffee be considered the ultimate herbal tea? It has way more benefits than any other herb. Why is it so popular despite its demonization, sometimes demonized in the same way as raw whole pure milk? Because people innately know it to be good and good for them.

Among other things, coffee perfects and accelerates thought, reducing computational errors and improving motor performance skills. Coffee of course increase mental alertness and speeds learning. It helps digestion in many ways and has a mild laxative effect. On the heart it is as positive inotropic effect, that is, it increases the force and power of the heart. It helps the kidneys by producing the well known diuresis, or increased flow of urine, helping to purify the body.

Side effects? Yes, if you drink too much. You might get the shakes or have difficulty sleeping. My personal recommendation - no more than 240mg of caffeine, which is about three 8 oz. cups of coffee per day. So, my daily vente bold red eye is right up to the limit!

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Coffee: Drink to Your Health

By Sylvia Booth Hubbard

For many years, coffee was considered a vice, linked with sleepless nights and cigarettes. But scientists have discovered that coffee contains potent antioxidants that can fight numerous ailments, including heart disease and diabetes. According to the American Coffee Association, 54 percent of Americans drink coffee on a daily basis, and they drink, on average, over three cups each.

Most studies examined the effects of caffeinated coffee. When decaffeinated coffee was included, the benefits were usually reduced.

The diseases coffee can benefit include:

• Dementia. Drinking moderate amounts of coffee during middle age — classified as three to five cups daily — can decrease the risk of dementia by 65 percent, according to a 2009 study by Swedish and Finnish researchers.

• Liver disease. In those who drink too much alcohol, those who drank the most coffee — more than four cups every day — reduced their risk of developing alcoholic cirrhosis by 80 percent.

• Heart disease. Research associated with The Nurses' Health Study found that women who drank two to three cups of coffee daily had a 25 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease. Along the same line, a Spanish study found that men who drank more than five cups of coffee each day lowered their risk of dying from heart disease by 44 percent, and that women who drank four to five cups each day reduced their risk by 34 percent.

• Prostate cancer. A recent study from Harvard Medical School found that men who drank the most coffee slashed their risk of developing the fastest growing and most difficult to treat prostate cancers by more than half when compared to men who drank no coffee.

• Gout. Drinking four or more cups of coffee each day dramatically reduces the incidence of gout, say U.S. and Canadian researchers. Men who drank four to five cups daily lowered their risk by 40 percent, and those who drank six or more cups daily reduced their risk of developing gout by 59 percent when compared to men who didn't drink coffee.

• Breast cancer. Coffee can either reduce the risk of developing breast cancer or delay its onset, according to Swedish studies. They found that coffee alters a woman's metabolism and produces a safer balance of estrogens. Women who drank two to three cups of coffee a day reduced their cancer risk by as much as two-thirds, depending on the specific type of breast cancer.

• Diabetes. Enjoying six or more cups of coffee daily can cut chances of Type 2 diabetes by 54 percent in men and 30 percent in women over those who don't drink coffee.

• Parkinson's disease. Several studies show that drinking coffee lowers a man's risk of developing Parkinson's up to 80 percent — and the more the better.

• Colon cancer. A Japanese report found that women who drank three or more cups of coffee every day slashed their risk of developing colon cancer in half.

What's responsible for coffee's healthy benefits? Most researchers believe it's the antioxidants (polyphenols or flavonoids) in coffee, but there are hundreds of compounds in coffee that may be partially responsible.

© 2010 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Will Allen Makes Time 100 Influential List

Here is Will Allen of Growing Power atop a mountain of compost which is the basis for his hoop house system of growing food in the middle of urban 'food deserts' where good food is impossible to find. Urban Agriculture as modeled by Growing Power can make the food deserts bloom, providing low cost nutritious food and jobs and economic opportunities all across America. Congratulations Will!

Will Allen on Time 100 Most Influential List - Pick
Milwaukee(April 29, 2010) – Will Allen, the founder and CEO of Growing Power Inc., has been named to the 2010 “Time 100: The World’s Most Influential People.” The list was released on Thursday, April 29, and the magazine will hit newsstands last Friday April 30th.
The much-anticipated announcement identifies 25 individuals or small working groups who are most influencing the current course of world events in four categories: Leaders, Heroes, Artists and Thinkers. Allen was named in the area of Heroes.
Allen was identified for his powerful advocacy for food security and food justice for all. Through his work promoting urban agriculture, Allen has called attention to the widespread existence of “food deserts” in cities across America, where whole communities lack access to fresh, nutritious and affordable foods.
The solutions Allen has proposed and argued for in the 18 years since his founding of Growing Power, a non-profit urban farm and training center in Milwaukee, include a return to localized food systems and teaching communities where good food is unaffordable to grow it themselves.
“We have seen the results of our reliance on the industrialized, commoditized food system we have built since the middle of the last century: A rapidly rising rate of obesity in generation after generation, leading to alarming rates of diabetes and heart disease, so that for the first time in America, despite all our advances in medicine, our life expectancy is falling,” Allen said.
“Finally, we are learning that treating illness is much less effective than preventing illness by promoting health; and that good food is the best and most fundamental preventive medicine of all.
“Polls now show that 86 percent of Americans want good food, real food; fresh, locally grown food that is safe and free of chemicals and genetic modifications. But there is simply not enough good food being grown for all those who want and need it. I am simply trying to help change that.”
Driving home the point that the Good Food Revolution, as Allen has declared it, is no longer a fad but a fact, Time also named author and food advocate Michael Pollan (“The Omnivore’s Dilemma”) to its list, as well as others such as Valentin Abe, who has successfully introduced tilapia farming to a depleted lake in Haiti.
Time magazine created its first 100 list in 1999, when it named the most influential people of the 20th Century. In 2004, the magazine started the annual list, stressing that the people it names are not necessarily the most public, popular or powerful, but often are the most innovative or inspirational and the most apt to effect change.

How Wall Street Finances Genocide

I first met Dr Leonard Horowitz at the dinner table of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan some years ago. He had just completed his AIDS research published in the blockbuster book, Emerging Viruses, which fully uncovered the secret development of HIV and other viruses as weapons of genocide. The bio-weapons are a means to an end, well documented in NSSM-200, an official government white-paper report authored by Henry Kissinger which explicitly states that depopulation, ie, genocide, is the official policy of the US government.

But if you never thought about it before, murdering 5 or 6 billion people is an expensive proposition, so wouldn't you know it, the Wall Street crowd has moved in to see to it that all the conspirators get paid for their efforts.

The collusion between Big Pharma and Wall Street is the focus of new research by Dr Horowitz.

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Profitable Depopulation Plot Links JP Morgan-Chase
And Goldman Sachs To Vaccination Contaminations
And BigPharma Corruption
By Dr. Leonard Horowitz
4-29-10

A medical investigation into suspicious outbreaks and propaganda used to sell drugs and vaccines has exposed investment bankers at JP Morgan-Chase (JPMC) and Goldman Sachs (GS) for plotting to shock/stress, frighten, poison, and kill billions of people most profitably--pharmaceutically--according to the Editor-in-Chief of Medical Veritas journal. While researching a powerful Partnership for New York City (PFNYC), uniting Wall Street's wealthiest industrialists, Harvard-trained public health expert, Dr. Leonard Horowitz, and investigative journalist, Sherri Kane, discovered shocking evidence of a conspiracy to commit global genocide by generating diseases and death to advance profitable pharmaceutical depopulation. Population planners at the highest levels of government and industry conspired to spread diseases, vaccines, drugs, and death most profitably, according to research published in the latest issue of Medical Veritas. In a related Special Report posted on YouTube, Dr. Horowitz urged humanitarian organizations and activist groups worldwide to issue investigations, alerts, civil complaints, and criminal charges to stop the pharmaceutical depopulation plot because it risks genetic inheritance, new pandemics, and the possible extinction of the human race. "Corruption in the drug industry is rampant and transparent," Dr. Horowitz explains. "Investment bankers at JPMC and GS, who acquired controlling interests in the largest drug firms during mergers and acquisitions, have placed 'depopulation' near the top of their list of geopolitical priorites. Their depopulation agents are now in top positions of government, finance, and industry. The depopulation plan is supported by the world's wealthiest people, including Bill Gates, who admittedly funds vaccinations to reduce global populations by 10-15%. Leading population planners and economic developers advance identical plans to cull the world's population to 1 billion. "Killing 6-out-of-7 people globally, most profitably, requires planning and an unprecedented conspiracy to commit genocide by applying advances in genetic biotechnologies exclusively available and affordable to drug companies controlled by the investment bankers," Dr. Horowitz adds. The doctor points to the fact that US Treasury Department officials previously operated JPMC and GS on behalf of majority stock holders and their partners in pharmaceutical companies heavily represented in the PFNYC and the trade organizations that negotiate multi-billion dollar government purchases of drugs and vaccines. Researchers, including vaccination contamination expert Dr. Viera Scheibner, reports in the current issue of Medical Veritas that polio virus vaccines are produced in African green monkey kidney cell cultures routinely contaminated with transmissible cancer viruses. By reviewing drug company patents, Dr. Horowitz learned that the makers of H1N1 swine flu and rotavirus vaccines use the same cultures risking recombinations, genetic mutations, and unstoppable transmissions of deadly agents threatening new pandemics. "This best explains why public health officials are preparing for vaccine-transmitted H1N1s cloned in monkey cells to recombine with bird H5N1s currently circulating. This threatening and most deadly recombination of flu viruses, officials herald may happen in the Fall," Dr. Horowitz warned. Besides the inadequacies of safety testing new vaccines without using placebo controls, it is this issue of reliability of information that concerns more than half of the medical physicians polled since they became aware that the entire medical industry has been hijacked by Wall Street's pharmaceutical profiteers. Now they are learning from famous people, like Gates, that the world's wealthiest people are administering vaccinations for depopulation. "I love vaccines," Gates stated at a TED conference in February, 2010, while lecturing on ways to reduce global populations to stem environmental pollution. The links between the directors of major drug companies, mainstream media moguls, and investment bankers at JPMC and GS are so obvious and incriminating, and the dispersion of unsafe vaccines so common and disturbing, only profitable depopulation as a planned outcome of pharmaceutical investments can explain the current situation. "Complete censorship was the only option officials have had to prevent a meltdown in public opinion about medicine and the pharmaceutical industry," said Ingri Cassel, a leading vaccine risk awareness activist. "This explains why news of this vaccination depopulation plan has been neglected by the special-interest-influenced media." Investigating conflicting pharmaceutical interests influencing news coverage, Sherri Kane, previously a writer for FOX News in Los Angeles, learned that the majority shareholders in FOX, TimeWarner, News Corp., and the Wall Street Journal, are heavily invested in GlaxoSmithKlein and Merck's CSL Laboratories, both makers of risky drugs and vaccines. Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, became a major shareholder in AstraZeneca following his direction of the company's acquisition of the H1N1 FluMist maker, MedImmune. Blankfein has also leveraged ABC-Disney following their merger with money he raised through GS investors. This resulted in Dr. Oz's heavy promotion of H1N1 vaccines on ABC last year, when officials learned that the vast majority of Americans were unwilling to risk the exposure. Rupert Murdoch and Lloyd Blankfein co-chair the PFNYC, founded by CHASE principal, World Bank ambassador, and America's leading energy industrialist and medical monopolist, David Rockefeller. The PFNYC was chartered by the Royal Family of England--a majority share holder in General Electric--the world's largest company--that controls NBC/Universal/Comcast, and MSNBC with Bill Gates. The PFNYC was pledged to play a central role in reconstructing Ground Zero following the 9/11 attacks, according to Kathryn Wylde, President & CEO of the Partnership and current Director of The Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The organization compiled the economic report on the damage done, advanced financial plans for reconstructing the World Trade Center, and advised leading financiers regarding reconstruction investments. According to 911-Truth movement directors, Wylde and other members of the PFNYC are implicated in the treasonous attacks that scientific evidence says involved thermitic explosives used in controlled demolitions. These allegations and PFNYC connections to 9/11 events implicating investment bankers at Goldman Sachs are additionally scrutinized in a new feature-length film produced by Dr. Horowitz. PHARMAWHORES: The SHOWTIME Sting of Penn & Teller premieres in theaters across North America this summer. (Quicktime and MP-4 downloadable versions are available through PharmaWhores.com.) The PFNYC is co-directed by Jeffrey B. Kindler, the Chairman and CEO of Pfizer--the world's largest drug company. Kindler stewards Pfizer through multi-billion dollar acquisitions also involving JPMC and GS financing. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the drug industry's main trade organization, is also directed by Kindler. PhRMA officials engage White House and Pentagon officials in private negotiations determining pricing for stockpiles of drugs and vaccines. Dr. Horowitz views this covert administration of multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical contracts as symptomatic of the industry's corruption. The "corporate shell game" is played using mergers and acquisitions directed by the same people. Their creation of the PhRMA trade organization provides the illusion of their legitimacy and fair competition. Price fixing occurs behind closed doors, explaining why prices vary so widely internationally. Another gross example of corrupt government pharmawhores sucking Wall Street's slime, is Congressman Henry Waxman's (D-CA) treason against the American people for sneaking dietary supplement regulation language into 'The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009,' (H.R. 4173). For years, Waxman has attempted to pass legislation restricting consumer access to nutritional supplements on behalf of BigPharma. The FDA, largely controlled by BigPharma, contends regulating vitamins, minerals, herbs, homeopathics, oils, colloidal silvers, and more natural products protects consumers. During health care reform negotiations with PhRMA, Waxman feigned concern that drug companies were driving too hard a "bargain" on pharmaceutical prices, but still voted in favor of the cartel's freedom to set their own limits. Most telling and ironic, PhRMA's official negotiator to whom Waxman complained, "PhRMA should contribute more than PhRMA wants to contribute," was Billy Tauzin, the former congressman who held Waxman's job as chair of the Energy and Commerce committee. -end-

Raw Milk Safety (video)

Here is a major presentation on Raw Milk by Sally Fallon who heads up the Weston A Price Foundation here in Washington DC. The Weston A Price Foundation is a prominent proponent of whole food nutrition and is a strong advocate for making raw whole pure milk available everywhere. Sally Fallon was generous enough to donate thousands of raw milk pamphlets for distribution at Saviour's Day 2009. Much of the information I have promoted on raw milk is from the Weston A Price Foundation. Check out these videos and bookmark the Weston A Price Foundation website for future references.

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Water

As salaam alaikum
Dear Brother John
Thank you very much for your question concerning the water we should drink. While water is essential to life and we must have it, yet there is a tremendous amount of confusion, fear and anxiety on the subject. That is because of the corruption of the world in which we live that seeks to take advantage of a natural human need. They are the generators of the fear and confusion in order to push up sales. They, the corrupt ones, want to put a price on water so that they can wax rich from this natural human need and right. Good clean water is a human right and it should be available to all with no price attached.
God sends water down from the sky in the form of rain and up from the earth in the form of spring water - free of charge. These are the best sources of water and they should be kept free. Anybody with a rain barrel can collect pure rain water at no charge. Most people who own a farm or other valuable property have a spring or a well available to them. The rest of us are vulnerable to the schemers who seek to commercialize on our need.
Most people in the world do not have access to clean pure water. They drink directly from rivers and lakes and other sources that may not be pure. Sometimes they spend many hours of the day collecting water. Their health suffers as a result. The lack of clean water is a human rights violation and should be corrected.
In our part of the world, the so-called developed world, we have the full commercialization of water. Many of us have become water connoisseurs. We know and recognize the individual tastes of fine waters from all over the world. There is nothing wrong with this if you can afford it and enjoy it. But to think that water of a particular type or brand is better than other water is a fact yet to be proven to be a fact. Most often the claims made about a particular type of water are just that - claims. Claims that have an economic motive behind them.
Corrupt politicians, in the name of privatization and global free trade, have been turning control over water supplies over to private businesses. These private interests are doing what corporations are created to do - earn a profit. So if you don't have the money, you can't get a drink of water! How tragic! The most basic common show of human hospitality is to offer a drink of water to the thirsty. Now that basic level civilizing human characteristic is being threatened by market forces that have made water a commodity - rather than a product of Nature and a Universal right. An excellent way to jump-start the global economy would be to launch massive infra-structure projects throughout the world to see to it that every human being on earth has access to sufficient clean water to drink, bathe in and for agricultural and other uses.
Near the top of the economic opportunity pyramid for water is the expensive technology to alter the pH of water. Lately, there has been a lot of claims made for higher pH as being better for health. Alkaline is good, acid is bad - so goes the mantra. Except, the facts of the human body do not agree. If the claims about alkaline water were true, and you actually could alter the pH of the body in a significant way, then such water would be deadly. In the human body, life processes are only possible with in a narrow range of pH, hovering around 7.4. Even the slightest deviation from 7.4 in either direction can have deadly consequences. Acidosis and Alkalosis both produce disease. But luckily, the body has awesome ability to maintain a normal pH, and won't allow an alteration. Changes in pH of body fluids such as urine and saliva are just evidence that the body's ability to buffer itself is intact. Otherwise life would be impossible.
Some body tissues are acidic by virtue of their function. How could the stomach digest and sterilize food unless its pH is down around 1.0 - a very strong acid? What benefit would it be to change that? Bile that gets mixed into the food stream later on may have a pH up to 9.0, as the body is now neutralizing the previously acidified intestinal contents. This is an elegantly balanced system that should not be altered. To alter it is to create possible pathological conditions in the body.
Many painful arthritic conditions are due to hyper-alkalinity in the wrong place leading to calcium deposits that cause pain. So, my advise is to allow the body to care for itself in a natural way. The intelligence that governs the body is greater then that of our poorly educated brains.
So, just get some good clean water, filter it if need be, or boil it and drink it, but not too much, only the right amount. Depending on one's diet, you will need a certain amount of water to produce the digestive juices to digest your food. Keep an eye on the color of your urine. Let it be a light yellow. If it is deep dark yellow, that is a sure sign you are dehydrated. There are other more subtle signs of dehydration. Any time you feel less than well, drink some water. You will be surprised how often that will correct the problem.
Don't fall for the commercial hype about vitamin water, smart water, etc. These are highly refined water products that may be dangerous. Clustered water is available in raw milk - 89%.
Because most people in America eat food devoid of minerals, they probably would do well to avoid distilled water or rain water. Of course they should remedy their diet and they should be using liberal amounts of Celtic Sea Salt that will provide more than 92 different minerals the body and brain need in order to function well. Mineral spring water may contain some of these minerals, as does 'hard water'. Don't buy devices that soften water. Milk drinkers and those who fast - one meal a day- do not need so much water.
Once again thank you for your very important question. I am going to share your question and answer with others.
As salaam alaikum
Bro Alim




Abundant Life Health Attainment Center
12164 Central Avenue
Mitchellville, Md 20721
240 245 4147
Symptom Survey:
www.myabundantlife.me
Blogs:
www.lifeabundantly-alim.blogspot.com
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www.haitianjournal-alim.blogspot.com
www.originalscientist.blogspot.com

The Battle for Raw Milk

The article below is about a government police raid in the middle of the night - not on a drug den or a terrorist cell- but on a peaceful Amish family's farm. The reason: the suspicion that raw milk from that farm had crossed interstate lines. As you read you will see numerous violations of Constitutional rights not to mention the basic violation of a family's right to be at peace. At the root of it is the devil's desire that no human being have access to the pure good food that God intended Man to live on. So, like it or not, the Raw Milk Movement had better go on a war footing to protect our right to eat God's pure good food.

Raw Milk Crackdown

By Mike Riggs | Published: 04/26/10 at 1:46 PM | Updated: 04/26/10 at 2:22 PM

“They came in the dark, shining bright flashlights while my family was asleep, keeping me from milking my cows, from my family, from breakfast with my family and from our morning devotions, and alarming my children enough so that the first question they asked my wife was, ‘Is Daddy going to jail?’”

That’s how Amish farmer Dan Allgyer described an early morning visit last week from two FDA agents, two U.S. Marshals, and a Pennsylvania state trooper. Apparently, investigating a single farmer for possibly trafficking raw milk across state lines requires a show of force.

“I became aware of the cars as soon as I walked out on the sidewalk as part of my morning routine around 4:30 a.m. and immediately said to myself something is going on,” Allgyer wrote in a statement for the National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association. “I was watching and noticed three cars were cruising down right behind each other, and immediately thought, hey, that looks like trouble. I watched and pretty soon one car came back and parked on my neighbor’s farm, on private property.”

After tooling around, the cars showed up Allgyer’s property. “They all got out of their vehicles – five men all together–with big bright flashlights they were shining all around. My wife and family were still asleep. When they couldn’t find anybody, they prepared to knock on the door of my darkened house. Just before they got to the house I stepped out of the barn and hollered at them, then they came up to me and introduced themselves.”

Without telling him what is was, one of the agents handed Allgyer an FDA warrant that allowed the agents to inspect Allgyer’s farm. The warrant read: “You are authorized to take all necessary actions, including, but not limited to, the use of reasonable force, to effectuate entry to the above-named premises, the land and buildings located there, at reasonable times during ordinary business hours and to remain thereon to inspect within reasonable limits and in a reasonable manner all portions” of Allgyer’s farm.

Allgyer isn’t the criminal that the FDA is making him out to be. “When Americans first began pasteurizing milk at the turn of the last century, testing was rudimentary and farms were far less hygienic,” Katherine Mangu-Ward wrote in February, the first time inspectors showed up to raid Allgyer’s farm. “Today, the situation is different. Testing for the presence of such pathogens is much more precise, and farms are far cleaner. While processing milk remains a good choice for milk shipped to the population as a whole, there are a group of food rebels who would rather drink their milk straight from the cow.”

When Allgyer asked why the agents wanted to inspect his farm, FDA investigator Joshua C. Shafer said, “We have credible evidence that you are involved in interstate commerce.”

“I went to go talk to my wife,” Allgyer said in his statement. “As I walked away, they held a quick excited conversation and I heard one of them say, ‘I’ll take care of him.’ At that point, apparently, they had designated one of the marshals to stick close to me and dog my footsteps. He followed me as I walked toward the house. I went in the house quickly and told my wife a few words to let her know the situation, then immediately came back out of the house before the marshal had time to follow me in. When I came back out, they were inspecting all the coolers sitting out. They spent about a half hour digging through the packed coolers filled with milk and other food – all private property – taking pictures.”

After watching the agents root through his barn, open his freezers, and dig through his dumpster, Allgyer set about milking the cows, hours behind schedule.

“When I was just about done milking, Schafer and the other agent came in the barn and wanted me to answer some more questions. I told them I would not. The second agent said, ‘Are you gong to deliver those coolers to Bethesda and Bowie Maryland?’ I just looked at him. Then Schafer made a gesture and said, ‘The stickers with those towns names are on the coolers,’ as through to say, you might as well tell me.”

Allgyer refused to say anything and the agents left. Several days later, Allgyer received a letter from the Food and Drug Administration that read, “An investigation by the u.s. Food and Drug Administration has determined that you are causing to be delivered into interstate commerce, selling, or otherwise distributing raw milk in final package form for human consumption.”

The letter does not list the evidence against Allgyer, nor does it name specific violations. In fact, the letter from the FDA says exactly the opposite: “This letter is not intended to provide an all-inclusive list of violations.” Two paragraphs later, the letter instructs Allgyer to report within 15 days “the specific steps you have taken to correct the noted violations.”

“Failure to make prompt corrections could result in regulatory action without further notice. Possible actions include seizure and injunction.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/04/26/raw-milk-crackdown/#ixzz0mmZzLp4W

The Miracle of Vitamin D Goes On

Just when you thought you knew it all about Vitamin D, here comes some more of its amazing powers. It prevents premature births. Keep in mind that in America a very high percentage of Blacks have a deep deficiency of Vitamin D. This is in part due to poor nutrition, but also because pigmented skin converts less Vitamin D than lighter skin does. In the tropics that is protective, in temperate climes it is a health disadvantage.

Large dose of vitamin D in pregnancy cuts premature births: research

Women should take up to ten times the current recommended dose of vitamin D during pregnancy, experts have said after it was found to cut premature birth by half.

By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor

High dose of vitamin D in pregnancy could cut premature births, researchers have said. Photo: PA

In Britain pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers are recommended to take ten micrograms of vitamin D daily but a study has suggested higher doses may be more beneficial.

Lack of vitamin D, which the body can make from sunlight in summer months in Britain, can cause rickets.

It has been estimated that two in ten adults in Britain could be deficient in vitamin D.

Vitamin D is found in foods like fortified cereals, eggs and fish but most people also need around 15 minutes of sunshine three times a week to ensure sufficient levels.

In the 1950s and 1960s it was thought vitamin D could cause birth defects but it is now known that it is vital for good health of the mother and the developing feotus.

Some pregnant women are advised to take doses of up to 25 micrograms a day but doctors have been cautious of higher doses as there is evidence that very high doses can cause calcium levels in the blood to rise causing nausea, thirst, dizziness and headaches.

In the study presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in Vancouver, in British Columbia, Canada, pregnant women were randomly assigned to take one of three doses of vitamin D daily.

The women took either ten microgram doses, 50 microgram doses, or 100 microgram doses.

They were monitored throughout, including calcium levels in their blood, and there were no ill effects at any of the prescribed doses. Their vitamin D levels before the study were the same.

The team from University of South Carolina found the women taking the highest dose were 50 per cent less likely to suffer from problems including premature labour, pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes and infections, than those on the lowest dose.

Dr Carol Wagner, lead author of the study, said: "The spectacular part of the study was it showed women replete in vitamin D had lower rates of preterm labor and preterm birth, and lower rates of infection."

She said the results showed the high dose was safe and effective so they could recommend all pregnant women take 1,000 micrograms of vitamin D daily.

Patrick O'Brien, spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said the study was interesting but the full data was needed before drawing conclusions.

"He added: "When giving vitamin D supplements in pregnancy there needs to be a degree of caution as there have been some theorectical concerns in the past that too much vitamin D could be harmful but the initial data from this study appears reassuring on this aspect.