New research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed a correlation between vitamin D levels and various stages of breast cancer development. From Usana Health Sciences

Vitamin D influences pathways related to cancer development, but little is currently known about vitamin D status in breast cancer survivors. Recent data taken from the Health, Eating, Activity and Lifestyle (HEAL) study showed a correlation between vitamin D status and breast cancer survivors. Vitamin D concentrations from 790 female breast cancer survivors were obtained and vitamin D insufficiency was found in 597 individuals - or 75% of participants. Average vitamin D concentrations were even lower among African American and Hispanic women.

Controlling for various factors such as body mass index (BMI), race/ethnicity, geography, season, physical activity, diet, and cancer treatments showed that stage of disease independently predicted vitamin D levels.

In this group of breast cancer survivors the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency was abnormally high. Based on these results, health professionals and clinicians should consider monitoring vitamin D status in breast cancer patients in addition to administering appropriate cancer treatments.

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 88, No. 1, 133-139, July 2008

I feel like I’d be remiss if I did not share something that I watched recently, something that has affected me deeply, something that I can’t stop thinking about.

Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions — motion, speech, self-awareness –- shut down one by one. An astonishing story. Click here to watch her story.

This video is from the Ted Talks series and was passed along to me last week from Tammy Younker, Life Coach.

Comments anyone? At last count there are 476 comments from viewers on the Ted Talks sight. That’s the most I think I’ve ever seen.

Rumoured to be the origin of the word “spam” - unsolicited emails, comments, etc. on the internet, the bane of the web - I found the following clip of a Monty Python skit on a great website today: www.SuccessCREEations.com

I love, love, love the Globe and Mail for posting this article AND all of the related articles on the right hand side of the page.

Please, please, please Friends of mine - especially my fine female friends - START taking vitamin D if you’re not already.

My friends who died of breast cancer were not taking it. My friend who is fighting breast cancer and who is gong to beat it IS. High doses. Read more »

I read an article in the January 2001 issue of the Atlantic Monthly titled “Why McDonald Fries Taste So Good” by Eric Schlosser. It caught my attention because of how much I’ve loved fries all of my life and I was interested and severely dismayed at the following paragraph which discloses what is in strawberry flavoring:

A typical artificial strawberry flavor, like the kind found in a Burger King strawberry milk shake, contains the following ingredients: amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate, benzyl acetate, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamyl valerate, cognac essential oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl acetate, ethyl amyl ketone, ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate, ethyl heptylate, ethyl lactate, ethyl methylphenylgylcidate, ethyl nitrate, ethly propionate, ethyl valerate, heliotropin, hydroxy-phenyl-2-butanone (10% solution in alcohol) x-ionone, isobutyl anthranilate, isobutyl butyrate, lemon essential oil, maltol, 4-methylacetophenone, methyl anthranilate, methyl benzoate, nethyl cinnamate, methyl petine carbonate, methyl napthyyl ketone, methyl salicylate, mint essential oil, nroli essential oil, nerolin, neryl isobutyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, rose, rum ehter, y0undecalactone, vanillin, and solvent.

This didn’t stop me from allowing my son’s request for a strawberry milkshake at Maid Marion’s today. What is wrong with me?

“The current recommended daily allowance seems only to be able to be useful in prevention of rickets in childhood, and the latest information that we have is that levels, instead of 200 [IU], really need to be 2,000 [IU].”

- from this article in the theglobeandmail.com yesterday. Read more »

This is an email from my cousin who lives in the capital of Mynamar, formerly Burma, where she lives with her husband who works for the UN and their two small boys. Unbelievable, it’s so hard to comprehend.
An update i’ve been sending to a few people: Read more »

Well, mine was. Today my son asked me to go on YouTube.com to find a video that he heard about that was supposed to be really funny. We watched it together and admittedly, I stifled laughter while my kids found the following video hilarious (and weren’t the least bit disturbed by the ending). Read more »

Have a look if you haven’t seen this already. 12,303,692 other people have:

I just looked on the bottle of my multi-vitamin that I take and it read 300 iu of vitamin D. I take it twice a day. I’m dead curious after reading an interesting article in the Globe and Mail (you can read it here) whether vitamin D helps ward off cancer. Read more »