Dr. Edward Leslie Cole, MD

Most autoimmune arthritis conditions (Rheumatoid Arthritis, Systemic Lupus Arthritis, Psoriatic Arthritis, etc.) have at their core a deficiency of vitamin D. The current "normal" lab levels of 30-100 are inadequate to determine if you have enough vitamin D. First, the lower limit of 30 is just enough to prevent rickets in a child. It is far from the individuals optimal level, which is just that - individual. Multiple studies show that various vitamin D levels below 60 have a significant association with both autoimmune disease and cancer risk. Michael Holick, MD, who is the #2 reference on vitamin D tests done by Labcorp, has just published a paper in 2017 that recommends vitamin D intake of 5000 IU - 15,000 IU daily in normal healthy individuals with blood levels well above 100. Most patients with autoimmune disease have lower levels of vitamin D. Much research has been done on autoimmunity and vitamin D, which has revealed that many autoimmune patients have one or more mutations in their vitamin D processing proteins so they don't utilize vitamin D adequately in their immune system even with "normal" levels. Vitamin D plays a profound role in the immune system, both making it work better to attack invading organisms, but also in decreasing it from causing increased inflammation, autoimmunity & cancer risk. In addition most people with autoimmune disease, including arthritis, have high Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) antibodies.Turns out EBV virus blocks vitamin D receptors! Get your vitamin D levels & EBV antibody levels tested. There are currently tests for vitamin D receptor gene mutations. If you can find a test for alpha-1-hydroxylase (also called CYP27b1) - the enzyme that converts your inactive vitamin D3 (the kind you take) to the active form, have it tested. Finally, have your doctor read the research about vitamin D, vitamin D processing protein mutations (SNPs), EBV and autoimmune arthritis.

Les Cole, MD

The Natural Killer (NK) cells of your immune system are the cells that find & kill cancer cells before they can turn into tumors. They work best under the conditions that make all cells work best. Eat a minimum of 2/3 vegetables at every meal to maximize micro-nutrients. Take a pharmaceutical grade nutriceutical multivitamin, fish oil & probiotic. Exercize 1 hour daily (turns on approximately 400 healthy genes). And most of all as per Dr. Michael Hollick, MD take up to 15,000 IU of vitamin D (make sure it has vitamin K2 with it). If you have frequent UTIs or kidney stones take less. Vitamin D has profound effects on your immune system increasing the function of your NK cells and killing early cancer. There are also NK cell activator supplements you can add after the vitamin D. 15,000 IU of vitamin D will not cause vitamin D toxicity according to Dr. Hollick.

Colds are common in children. I get good results by keeping them on 5,000 IU of vitamin D daily along with a good multivitamin daily, year round. Then at the first sign of a cold I have their parents give them 10,000 IU ov vitamin A 15 mg of zinc, and Silver Hydrosol nasal spray 4 times daily at the onset of symptoms. After the first day or 2, you can usually stop, as by then the cold has generally been averted.

There are many research studies that show people with low vitamin D have a higher risk of cancer as well as autoimmune disease. To prevent this increased cancer risk vitamin D is better kept near the higher range than the lower range. If there is a high frequency of cancer in your family, there may be genetic mutations in one of more of their vitamin D processing proteins such as alpha-1-hydroxylase, which converts inactive vitamin D to active vitamin D, vitamin binding protein carrying vitamin D to the cells, and the vitamin D receptor.