Disinfectant wipes - Danger. Water melon - Helpful
Doc J Zimmerman discusses weekly health news including pregnancy prenatal care information
Any conversation concerning the health benefits of vitamin D3 most include a discussion of vitamin K2 and the mineral magnesium. Out of all the topics I have written about in the last 25 years of weekly articles, the most written about topic is the virtues of vitamin D3. Not only is vitamin D3 essential for the health of bones and teeth, D3 has been shown to have anti-cancer properties. Studies have shown that D3 supplementation offers a protective relationship, lowering the risk of cancer, particularly colon, breast, prostate and ovarian cancer. Most recently, vitamin D3 has been a hot topic of discussion because of its immune system enhancing benefits. Vitamin D3 has been shown to modulate the body’s innate and adaptive immune responses by providing feedback control pathways that inhibit bacterial activity. A great paper published in the Frontiers of Physiology journal, titled “Impact of vitamin D on immune function: lessons learned from genome-wide analysis” goes into great depth explaining the science of how D3 is essential for immune system health. You may want to take my word on it, as the article, while only a few pages long, took quite a long time to decipher all of the medical terminology. Definitely a reminder on how tough my microbiology and physiology courses were in chiropractic school.
The importance of vitamin D3 came to the forefront during the coronavirus pandemic, as it was found that patients with low levels of vitamin D3 were having severe cases of covid-19. Most patient’s with normal D3 levels (30ng/ml -60ng/ml) were found to have mild cases of covid-19, therefore not requiring hospitalization or less of a stay. Vitamin D3 deficiency then became listed as a comorbidity or underlying condition for covid-19.
The importance of vitamin D3 supplementation is paramount for a healthy immune system response. Proper supplementation of D3, comes with important guidelines. The first thing to be aware of is D3 is the sunshine vitamin. The body’s skin reacts to sunshine and creates vitamin D. Healthy, limited sun exposure of 30 minutes a day is how the body creates normal levels of D3. This is a problem in the colder months, as people tend to stay indoors. This is also a problem for people who have indoor jobs, or people who just do not like the sun. The answer to this problem is supplementation. In the late fall, winter and early spring months where sun exposure is limited, the maintaining of healthy normal D3 levels comes from a vitamin D3 capsule. Most progressive functional medicine doctors, scientists and nutritionists recommend 35 units of D3 per pound of bodyweight. For example, a 150 lb person would require around 5000 units of D3 daily. I take 7000 units a day at 198lbs. Once the weather gets warmer and your sun exposure increases, you can decrease your D3 levels. Please remember this, 30 minutes of sun exposure to create D3, is full body sun exposure, that means in a bathing suit. So if you cannot do that but one or two days a week, it is still important to take D3, albeit at a lesser quantity. I am in the sun a lot in the summer, but I still take 2000 units of D3, daily.
Back to the subject I intended on writing about. Vitamin K2 and magnesium. The mineral magnesium helps to convert Vitamin D into its active form within the body. Magnesium also helps Vitamin D bind to its target proteins, as well as helping the liver and the kidneys to metabolize Vitamin D. Without magnesium present, Vitamin D is stored in the body and not used. Magnesium rich foods include dark, green leafy vegetables, beans and nuts, dried figs, avocados, guavas, bananas, kiwi fruit, papayas, blackberries, raspberries, cantaloupes, and grapefruit. Vitamin K2 helps to ensure the calcium transported by the Vitamin D is absorbed by your bones where it's needed, rather than accumulating in deposits in your arteries. Increasing one's intake of vitamin D without enough vitamin K can cause an increase in calcium levels without the ability to use it effectively, which raises the risk of depositing calcium in arteries and soft tissue. This is can be a problem because calcium deposits in the arteries can lead to heart disease and possible stroke. If you have a healthy diet and eat foods like spinach (again, dark green leafy vegetables), hard and soft cheeses, egg yolks. Chicken, beef, and pork also have levels of K2 in them. Especially organ meat like liver (side note, always buy organic liver, as the liver filters drugs and toxins. Non-organic animals are given anti-biotics, steroids and other drugs which end up in the liver).
I feel it is important to include a K2 supplement when taking D3. 100 micrograms (mcg) per day is plenty. Studies have shown that higher vitamin K2 intake reduces the risk of dying from heart disease by 57%. In one particular study, scientists present evidence that vitamin K2 can reduce the progression of atherosclerosis, which is the blocking of the arteries that can lead to heart attacks and strokes.
The bottom line is that D3 is essential for immune system health, magnesium helps D3 work better and K2 protects the body by placing more of the D3 into your bones and not your arteries.
Latest Statistics On Overall Death Rate in USA: One of the most reliable data points is all-cause mortality. It is very difficult to fudge these statistics because you are either dead or you are not. One America, a national life insurance company reports that people ages 18-64 are dying at a rate of 40% higher than prepandemic. There has also been a major uptick in long term disability claims. It was also noted that covid-19 deaths in 2021 were significantly lower than in 2020, ruling out covid-19 as a significant cause of the increase in deaths and disabilities for 2021.
Covid-19 Update: A Physicians Declaration by the International Alliance of Physicians and Medical Scientists, signed by more than 16,000 doctors and scientists, states that “healthy children shall not be subjected to forced vaccination” as their clinical risk from SARS-CoV-2 infection is negligible and long term safety of the shots cannot be determined prior to such policies being enacted. This letter was sent to medical journals and to the congress of the United States as well as the World Health Organization.
Covid-19 Treatment Study Withheld: Dr. Robert Malone, a virologist who is one of the architects of mRNA vaccine technology has had multiple peer-reviewed papers seeking to repurpose existing medications as COVID-19 treatments blocked from publication by medical journals. In one example, Dr. Malone and colleagues found that combined treatment with celecoxib, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, and high-dose famotidine, a heartburn drug sold under the brand name Pepcid, led to improved outcomes among COVID-19 patients, including 100% survival. It’s been repeatedly rejected for publication. “All 25 patients in the series survived hospitalized COVID-19 without mechanical ventilation or renal replacement therapy (RRT) and were discharged on room air within a median of 3 days (range 1-16 days). Statistically significant improvements from admission to discharge were observed for all aggregated outcome measures. The study received funding and support provided by the Department of Defense (DoD), Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), and the Joint Science and Technology Office (JSTO) of the Chemical and Biological Defense Program (CBDP) under the Discovery of Medical countermeasures Against Novel Entities (DOMANE) initiative.” In my opinion, this once again shows how research on a simple, inexpensive drug like Pepcid, helping fight covid-19 and helping to save lives is swept under the rug in favor of high priced medical treatments.
Covid-19 Hospital Update in NJ: According to Governor Murphy, cases of incidental covid-19 are the major contributor of hospitalizations in NJ. "I think we have a fair number of what I’ve started to call incidental COVID, meaning you went in because you broke your leg, but everyone is getting tested. It turns out you’ve got COVID. You didn’t even know it," said Gov. Murphy. "My wife didn’t know it and still she’s not back in the game, but never had any symptoms." Another reporter further pressed Murphy, asking if people could be brought into hospitals with "a broken leg, car accidents" and then be counted as COVID-positive cases. The NJ health commissioner answered for the governor saying that was accurate.
Atlantic County, NJ and Covid-19: Covid cases have increased from 9,583 new cases in a 14 day span to 11,195 new cases in the last two weeks. Our 7 day average cases reported is 799 cases per day. Atlantic County has had 41 deaths in the last two weeks up from 26 since I last reported. On 1/16/2021, there were a total of 5,835 people admitted in all of New Jersey’s hospitals for care of Covid-19 infections. In the USA, 208,564 million people are fully vaccinated, 63% of the population. 65.5 million people have contracted the Covid-19 virus in the USA. Atlantic County has had 60,570 total cases of Covid-19 and 860 total deaths attributed.
Vaccine Informed Consent Information: Informed consent means that the person to be vaccinated has to be informed about all the risks, the risk benefit ratios, the potential dangers and what is known about side effects. For example, informed consent takes place in all drug advertising. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System data released 1/07/21 by the CDC showed a total of 1,033994 adverse vaccine reactions reported from all age groups following COVID vaccines, including 21,745 deaths. Serious injuries reported in this time period totaled 170,446. New Data for 5 to 11 years olds: 6,399 reported adverse reactions, 142 reported as serious, 3 deaths. This week’s data for 12- to 17-year-olds show 26,631 total adverse events, including 1,530 rated as serious and 35 reported deaths among 12- to 17-year-olds. Severe reactions in all age groups of anaphylaxis include 2,256 people, 3,688 reports of myocarditis and 12,331 reports of blood clotting disorders. This week’s data for pregnancy /prenatal vaccination shows pregnant women had over 4,806 adverse events reported including 1,533 reports of miscarriage or premature birth. VAERS is the primary government-funded system for reporting adverse vaccine reactions in the U.S. Reports submitted to VAERS require further investigation before a causal relationship can be confirmed. The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) database contains information on unverified reports of adverse events following immunization. Reports are accepted from anyone and can be submitted electronically.
Chiropractic and Pregnancy / Prenatal Care: An recent case report was published concerning the chiropractic care of a pregnant patient presenting with hip/pelvic pain and breech baby presentation.
A 37-year-old woman in her 35th week of pregnancy was experiencing right hip and pelvic pain with ultrasound imagining documenting breech pregnancy. Spinal vertebral subluxations were identified in the pregnant patient using Webster’s Uterine Constraint Technique. The pregnant patient received prenatal chiropractic care with the Webster Technique over three visits spanning five days. The pregnant patient was able to give birth vaginally with the baby in the head down position. The conclusion of this case report was that pregnant patients under chiropractic care may benefit beyond symptomatic care.
