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    Unlocking the Secrets of Vitamin D: Understanding Deficiency, Benefits, and How to Achieve Optimal Levels

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    Do you know your vitamin D level? Why is it important?

    Vitamin D is a hormone that helps your body absorb and retain calcium and phosphorus, both crucial for bone health. It also boosts the immune system, lowers inflammation, and promotes heart health.
    Over the past 20 years, I have measured vitamin D levels for thousands of patients. Most were severely deficient, and almost nobody had levels in the optimal range of 50 – 80 ng/ml (125-200 nmol/L). Normal levels are considered by most labs to be around 30 – 100 ng/ml (75-250 nmol/L). Labs will report your results in either ng/ml or nmol/L, and it's important to note that 1 ng/ml equals 2.5 nmol/L.
    While you may not be aware that you are deficient, it is possible that your fatigue, bone pain, muscle weakness, immune challenges, depression, or anxiety may be related to low vitamin D levels.

    What Can You Do?

    You can get your vitamin level tested in the comfort of your home HERE or have your physician or healthcare provider order the test for you.
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    Photo by Vitolda Klein on Unsplash

    If you have a vitamin D deficiency, exposure to sunshine can help maintain good levels, but to raise low levels requires supplementation. This is the one vitamin (actually a hormone) for which there are no foods naturally high in vitamin D. Fortified products like milk and orange juice are available, but you would have to consume them in excessive quantities (gallons daily) to get enough. There is some vitamin D in fish or fish oils, but not enough to rectify a deficiency state.
    Before retiring this past year, I promoted vitamin D supplementation for the past two decades. Infants were advised to take 1000 IU daily, children 2000 IU daily, and teens and adults 4000 or 5000 IU daily. Not one ever reached levels anywhere near the high range of normal, and sometimes double these amounts were required to get vitamin D levels into the optimal range.
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    Click above for at home test kits at a discount!

    Check with your trusted healthcare provider and empower yourself with the knowledge of your vitamin D levels before, during, and after supplementing. It can take months of supplementation to get your levels into the optimal range, and our need for vitamin D is lifelong.
    Click the link below and receive my professional discount when ordering:
    In good health,
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    Dr. Paul

    *This article is informational and not intended to diagnose or treat any condition. Review all health decisions with your trusted healthcare provider. *
  • Published on

    Navigating Childhood Immunizations: Your Right to Choose and the Importance of Informed Decisions

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    Are vaccines required for your child to attend school?

    With summer winding down and schools about to open, parents around the country (USA) have received or will receive letters of exclusion from their child’s school. The letter will state that your child is required to be up to date on their childhood immunizations according to the CDC, or they will not be allowed to attend school.
    You are not told that other than a handful of states that have eliminated both the religious and the philosophical exemptions, you are free to do whatever you believe is best for your child. You can do some, all, or none of the childhood vaccines. Each state may have a different form or process but rest assured; it is the law of your state that you have this right; the freedom to choose.
    To learn more about the specifics for your state, NVIC (National Vaccine Information Center) https://www.nvic.org has all the information you need. 
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    If you live in California, New York, West Virginia, Maine, and possibly Mississippi, the only exemption allowed is a medical exemption. All states allow medical exemptions, which is where a doctor writes a medical exemption. The challenge for doctors is that the states only allow medical exemptions according to the CDC guidelines, which means you can only get exemptions for a vaccine that has caused death or a severe anaphylactic reaction. They essentially don’t allow exemptions for all vaccines. More importantly, doctors who write medical exemptions invite an investigation by their state medical board and risk losing their medical license. This has made medical exemptions something, in theory, one could hope to get, but in reality, and practically speaking, medical exemptions no longer exist.
    So, what do you do if you live in one of the states that only allow medical exemptions?
    Basically, you either must get your child up to date, home school, or leave the state for one that allows religious or philosophical exemptions. If you feel you have no choice but to get your child up to date, I highly recommend that you consult a medical provider to help you figure out the safest way to do this. 
    I am available for coaching at https://www.kidsfirst4ever.com
    I don’t diagnose or treat as I am retired and relinquished my license.
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    Photo by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash

    Parents and guardians, there is nothing more important in your role to nurture and protect your children than how you handle the vaccine situation. There is no one size fits all that makes sense. Each vaccine should be looked at individually, and you should determine if it makes sense for your child, given the prevalence of the disease for which there is a vaccine and the risks and benefits of giving the vaccine or not giving the vaccine.

    Putting our children first is our number one priority!

    To health and wellness,
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    Dr. Paul (retired pediatrician)