Re: Ketogenic Diet - Path To Transformation?
Finduilas495 said:
At the moment, I have stopped taking supplements, but might add a little D3 again.
I'm having my reservations about vitamin D supplements. I think most people find it helpful because it prevents the elimination of intracellular bacteria, which typically causes improvement of symptoms. But in the long term, you want to get rid of those bacteria as it messes up mitochondrial function.
We have discussed this in the past here in the forum, and I noticed Nora Gedgaudas brought it up again in her book PBPM. The story is that Vitamin D3 is really not a vitamin, it is a secosteroid hormone related to our immune system. You can measure your vitamin D levels (25-D), but only measures of both 25-D and 1,25-dyhydroxyvitamin-D (the active metabolite) will help you understand what is really going on. The problem comes when there is an infection with intracellular bacteria such as L-bacteria.
Vitamin D metabolism can be dysregulated by these bacterias so they can proliferate by inactivating the Vitamin D Receptor (VDR) which has a fundamental role in our immune system. In an attempt to activate the VDR and kill the bacteria, the infected cells release inflammatory chemicals which causes 25-D to be converted into 1,25-D; the result is low 25-D levels and elevated 1,25-D levels. Thus, the disease process causes low 25-D, but that doesn’t mean low 25-D is the cause of the disease.
Vitamin D supplementation promotes excess production of 1,25-D in infected people with L-bacteria, which then decreases vitamin D receptor transcription of proteins that have broad spectrum antimicrobial activity against bacteria, viruses, and fungi. This results in less elimination of microbi and thus, an improvement in symptoms which deceptively suggests that you are getting better. However, symptoms may come back in the long-term, as the intracellular bacteria continue to multiply.
1,25-D as a secosteroid hormone is essential for many vital metabolic functions. The vitamin D receptor is responsible for turning on and off a wide variety of genes and chemical pathways. When 1,25-D levels reach a certain threshold, 1,25-D binds not just to the VDR, but to other nuclear receptors that regulate the body's hormones (i.e. adrenals, thyroid, sex), thus, disrupting hormonal homeostasis.
Perhaps it is for this reason why a study involving almost 250,000 people found higher mortality rates when the blood contained extremely low levels of 25-D (perhaps from a lack of cholesterol in the diet), but also high levels as well (less than 2.5 ng/mL or more than 56 ng/mL respectively). The lowest mortality rates were seen with levels of 20 ng/mL of 25-D:
_http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=A%20Reverse%20J-Shaped%20Association%20of%20All-Cause%20Mortality%20with%20Serum%2025-Hydroxyvitamin%20D%20in%20General%20Practice%3A
If you benefit from Vitamin D3 supplementation, make sure most of your intake comes from natural animal sources such as cod liver oil which contains other nutrients necessary for a proper metabolism. It is perhaps for this reason that cod liver oil has proved to fight off infections dramatically. We are likely to see problems if we drift away from natural animal sources. Also, keep in mind that ketosis is by far the best tool against intracellular bacteria since it promotes autophagy which in itself is the best way to get rid of both intracellular viruses and bacteria.
I think that as we go along with the ketogenic diet, our vitamin D levels will stabilize themselves naturally as all those bugs get killed. That is my hypotheses, I guess we'll have to wait and see.
