More on Vitamin D and Testosterone

Lot's of great comments on my last blog concerning Vitamin D and testosterone. A few commenters rightly took me to task for my less than rigorous data regarding the association between my Vitamin D intake and my testosterone level. So, here is what we can say.

1. For my "n of one" study there is an "association" between between Vitamin D and testosterone levels. However, it cannot be concluded it is causative. It could be that can of "Coke Zero" I drink every day that's doing the trick!

2. It is not outrageous to speculate that there could be a link between Vitamin D and testosterone given chemistry. We just cannot prove it with my results. There is some excellent material on Vitamin D pharmacology put out by the Vitamin D Council (really level-headed stuff not marketing hyperbole) and for those who lean toward the "geeky" side this cite from AACC is nice.

3. It is unlikely my low testosterone stayed high several years after stopping my use of topical testosterone. What I really need to do is stop the Vitamin D for several months and re-check my testosterone to see if it goes lower. The problem is that Vitamin D is good for so many other things that it does not seem appropriate to discontinue it. Perhaps a new Track Your Plaque Virtual Clinical Trial might be useful where we measure "before" and "after" testosterone levels.

We certainly need more clinical data on the relationship between Vitamin D and testosterone. We have chicken data (and more chicken data here - what is it with chickens anyway) and we have rat data that suggests Vitamin D increases male (rat) fertility but we just do not have anything that says Vitamin D increases human testosterone (yet).

Anecdotally Yours,

HeartHawk

Vitamin D and Testosterone: Another "Fountain of Youth" Find

When Dr. Davis of Track Your Plaque first reported his phenomenal success using Vitamin D to reverse coronary plaque I pretty much blew it off as coincidental and too good to be true. But, once again, Dr. Davis has proven to be the "Nostradamus of Heart Disease Reversal" as breaking data continues to support his prediction and clinical evidence.

After much brow beating, I finally decided to try Vitamin D. With some rather interesting results. Let's first set the table for my experience.

When I first became a follower of Dr. Davis (long before there was a Track Your Plaque) I had my testosterone tested and it was fairly low (near the bottom end of normal). Because testosterone can be an effective Lp(a) remedy (my scourge) I tried using a testosterone cream to raise my level and it promptly went up to the high end of normal. But, for various reasons (no effect on Lp(a), lowering of HDL, and it's inconvenient as hell to use) I stopped. But look at my Testosterone (T) blood levels since I started using Vitamin D!

Date	T (ng/dL)	Vit D (ng/mL)	Notes
10/18/01	328	Unknown	Baseline testosterone
02/06/03	774	Unknown	Started topical testosterone
08/04/06	792	53.0	Stopped T 1 year earlier/started 2100IU D
12/26/07	735	40.7	8000IU Vitamin D (increased for winter)
03/06/08	728	69.2	10000IU Vitamin D (needed more to hit TYP threshhold)

As you can see the Vitamin D was just as effective at raising my endogenous testosterone as was using synthetic, topically applied testosterone cream. Also note that I had to signficantly raise my D dosage in winter months to offset the lack of sun. The other goofy thing is that for some reason there is a threshhold effect at around 50ng/mL (although mine kicked in at 40). This Vitamin D stuff is damn interesting. The numbers do not lie and for a numbers guy like me its all the proof I need.

Regards,

HeartHawk

Mammography and Calcium: More Steadfast Denial

It is often absolutely stunning how tradition medicine continues to remain in a state of denial over the efficacy of calcium scoring as a measure of heart disease risk. A new study revealed that women who display arterial calcification on their mammograms are over twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease. Ya think?!

Dr. Michelle A. Rotter (University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington) and colleagues reported their findings in the March/April 2008 issue of Menopause. Dr. Rotter went on to comment, "it has yet to be determined whether screening for BACs is an effective tool in screening for CAD." But that is not the point as the evidence continues to mount and doctors continue to ignore it. Arterial calcium is the strongest predictor of heart disease and future events - period - and it appears that detection via routine mammography can be an important predictive tool much like heart scans.

Although the link between arterial calcification, especially calcification in coronary arteries, has long been established as the single greatest predictor of heart disease, the traditional medical community continues to dither over supportive findings such as this lastest study. It is not as though this were the first time such a study came up with this discovery. Another study published in 2000 found a similar association between breast arterial calcifications and atherosclerosis.

When is traditional medicine going to 'fess up to the truth and stop letting people become so sick they have no choice but to pay big bucks to be butchered on their operating tables. This is utterly repugnant! We already know that arterial calcium is the greatest predictor of future heart disease in asymptomatic individuals and the COURAGE trial proved that non-surgical therapies are just as effective as surgical therapies in non-acute patients. One day, this is going to come back to bite these negligent hospitals, doctors, and insurers in the butt to the tune of billions!

Still holding my nose and holding out hope,


HeartHawk

Additional commentary on this study from Medscape, heartWire

More on Aspirin Resistance, NSAIDs, and Stroke

In an earlier blog I discussed aspirin resistance as a factor in heart attack. A new study now confirms similar results in stroke victims. You are 14 times more likely to have a recurrence of stroke if you are aspirin resistant.

Similar to previous studies, 20% of partcipants were found to be resistant to the effects of aspirin on the interruption of the arachodonic acid cascade that inhibits platelet aggregation (clotting). Of the 87 patients who had recurrent strokes while taking aspirin, 57 (66%) were nonresponsive to aspirin. That an odds ratio of more than 14 times greater. Put another way, of the patients who were aspirin responsive, only 5% were among those who suffered recurrent symptoms while taking aspirin.

In another paper in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, the same researchers found an interesting association between people taking both aspirin and NSAIDs (ibuprofen for example). All of the participants who took both aspirin along with some other NSAID showed signs of aspirin resistance. However, when they stopped taking the NSAID, the aspirin resistance disappeared.

Dr. Gengo, one the head researchers commented in a Heartwire interview, "There are many people out there who are taking an NSAID while on aspirin and therefore putting themselves at increased risk of ischemic events (e.g. heart attack and stroke - HH). This study shows that there are many strokes every year that could be prevented."