A 38 year old women who works for me had 2 children close together and she was having some health issues (besides lack of sleep).  Her hair was thinning, he skin was bumpy and she couldn't drop weight.  I suggested her doctor check her Vit d levels.  By the way, she had a large non-cancerous lump removed when she was 18.  Her tyroid was within normal ranges (if that's accurate) but her vit d level was 18!  He put her on vit d3 and her symptoms are gone.  Her skin is good, her hair stopped shedding and she has dropped 15 lbs.  This is a powerful nutrient and seems to have more benefits than most doctors realize.

Roseann

Shara - I think I need to get that book!  I have lived in the Pacific Northwest for 16 years - so I think my natural absorption of vitamin D is minimal due to our weather and latitude. 

I have read that people in northern states, canada and scandinavian (spelling?) countries have high rates of BC and a theory is lack of natural vitamin D.  Of course, scandinavians get a lot thru diet (salmon etc).  This may have been mentioned earlier in this thread - I have scanned the whole thing, but didn't see it.  Is this mentioned in the book?

For those of you in Ca or Fla I have also read that Vita D is absorbed  well thru your eyes, so sun glasses block absorbtion.  Don't know if this is true or not, but have heard that.

Dear rgiuff,

Since my daughter Lori has been on the BHRT, her D levels went up to 82.6, and before the BHRT, they were 44. So it is all hormones balanced as nature would balance them which brings your body back to normal. I wonder how many years it will take for conventional medicine to finally realize that all humans need every hormone that we were born with, and removing even one, or having too much of one, will cause many diseases.

SharaD...you are so correct as to diet, but unfortunately, unless you are able to purchase all organic foods, you cannot get all the vitamins/nutrients your body requires. The foods are contaminated, and the seeds genetically modified...thanks to Monsanto. Everyone needs to have testing for everything, which of course most conventional doctors never order. There was one country which is not even doing D testing anymore, as they found that everyone who was tested had low D levels. They are just telling everyone to take D3. I will have to get the book you are reading!

Meece, 

Vitamin D is a hormone, not a vitamin.  I know that's strange, but when a name gets stuck to something, it's hard to change

Meece,

I see where you are from California. That's where all these  antiaging specialists are located...or at least the majority of them. LUCKY YOU!!! Dr. Uzzi Reiss (Beverly Hills), has a cancer protocol for his patients. His book "The Natural Super Woman " is one I would recommend to you. Lori got it a few weeks ago, and I must get it also. I hesitate to tell you (after all the horrible posts I have read in the past few days as to SS), that the book Ageless more or less convinced Lori to do her research on BHRT.

Lori finished all her treatments in January of 2008, feeling like a piece of sh$$, and was told....this is the new normal!! Conventional medicine can offer you tons of drugs which only add insult to injury, and eventually will kill you, for they never address the real problems.

Meece,

Lori always had unhealthy hair, no matter what she did! Lori's hair did exactly the same thing after chemo. Then she really started balding on the crown of her head. Then in early Spring she developed shingles for the second time, the first being 2 years before dx. She says she knew she was headed for mets and had to do something. Her immune system was shot, her hormones completely out of whack, as is every person who takes chemo. Her libido...gone...she said she could have entered a convent!! Lori's dx was Stage11A, with bi-focal tumors.

I certainly would never try to diagnose you or anyone else, I am just the mother of a woman dx with TNBC, and I want to know why and how the hell she ever developed bc. It stands to reason if your immune system is compromised and your hormones are not balanced that you...anyone will have problems. Your thyroid (how it is functioning), also contributes to many many problems, and one is the hair.

Lori takes 22 different vitamins/supplements plus the BHRT, has eliminated all sugar and processed foods from her diet, buys only grass fed beef, free range poultry and organic fruits and veggies. She says she feels like she is in her thirties once again, and she will be 48 in April. Her rad onc had a fit when she told him she was on BHRT, and then conceded that this is her body ...her life. She will not tell her med onc, says it is none of his business. Her PCP and GYN know and back her 100%. They think outside the box and they do the research also.

Guess that blows the theory that women who have children at an early age, and breast feed all their children have less of a chance of developing bc!! Lori breast fed her 3 children also. She did read where that is a no no for women predisposed to TNBC. How the hell is a woman supposed to know if she is predisposed for TNBC or BC+ or for that matter any bc? Of course with 1 in 7 women dx with bc...???

The antiaging specialists are not covered by insurance, even though like Lori's doc, he is a MD. Her insurance did cover all the testing, and a small portion of the visits. The insurance companies and the pharmaceuticals are in this hand in hand, as the BHRT cannot be manufactured, like the mares urine (HRT), can!! Of course most conventional docs know very little as to the BHRT, and follow only what the pharmaceutical companies tell them to prescribe so they can get all the kick backs.

Can you tell I am a bit biased in my thinking when it coms to our health?? lol!!

Meece, I think it is absolutely wonderful that you are 6 years out from dx!!! Fantastic sweetie!!

I fell into 0

When my son first brought the Vitamin D Revolution to my attention, I was taking the minimum daily 400iu and not getting much of it in my diet, and not getting much sun. Our first discussion was with the Nurse Practicioner who said "Do not take Vitamin D supplements! We do not want to introduce anything new into your system at this point!" To which my son replied, "You mean, like the Decadron and Emend and Taxol and Carboplatin and Zofran an Compazine and Benadryl and Hydrocordisone that you introduced to her system last week???????"
Then she said "just take a multivitamin" which made no sense since the multi contained the same amount of Vitamin D that I was taking before. Finally it was only my cardiologist who became convinced that I needed my Vitamin D and Magnesium levels checked. Low levels of D and magnesium can lead to heart attack and stroke.  I had arterial heart disease, clogged arteries, and no doc really knew why since I didn't have high cholesterol, didn't smoke, wasn't overweight, no high-bP, nothing. 
I am at a famous research hospital, and I think they are just so focused on finding out what DRUGS will help us, that they don't want anything else to interfere. They want to know if the TAXOL is working, and they don't want to have to wonder if it is other things that I am doing that is making the Taxol work. It's like I would be messing with their data or something. I think they are focused on the CURE and the FUTURE, but I personally need to be focused on MY cure and MY future. I really can't worry about whether or not my data is going to help other women down the line. It would be nice, it would be wonderful....but if the medical community cannot come up with a system that can treat each one of us as individuals and keep data on EVERYTHING that we're doing, it's their pitfall not mine. It seems in this day and age they would be taking down not only our MEDICAL history, but also our diet information, our supplements, even information about our environments and our stress levels. Computers can handle a WEALTH of data and turn around and make sense of it all. Hopefully it won't be long before they wise up, they are missing out on a lot of information about us that could be very valuable to everyone.

Oh Shara... that would all be funny if it weren't so pathetic. And I agree, why not input all that data (supplements, stress levels, exercise type and amount, even things like sunlight exposure, diet, and sleep habits)... even if they aren't prepared to analyze all that data NOW, why not at least COLLECT it for when they can surely analyze it at some point in the future?

Estepp, I had only one risk factor (not having a surviving baby before the age of 30) so I was baffled... but in reality, I know I had a lot more risk factors than that (very little lifetime sun exposure and therefore chronically low vitamin D level, years of consuming microwave-heated BPA-leaching frozen dinners, years of Diet Coke addiction, etc. etc.

Dear all,

I take 5000 IU D3 daily without having gotten my blood D levels tested.

I am firmly of the belief that lack of D was the main culprit in my case. I have no other risk factors that I know of.

I had 0 reasons to get BC

My Vit D levels, that were tested three weeks ago... were 31 and 4. My Onco said there are two types.... ???????????

Dear Estepp,

Here are my levels and if you had the 25-Hydroxy test, your results should read as this does. BTW...do you have a copy of the test? If not ask them to send it to you. Of course you should have a copy of each and every test you have ever had done.

This is what my vitamin D level test from Mayo Medical Laboratories looks like. My vitamin D levels are 66.

25-hydroxyvitamin D2 and D3, S

25-Hydroxy D2                         <4.0    ng/mL</p>

25-Hydroxy D3                           66     ng/mL

25-Hydroxy D Total                     66     ng/mL

Meece, that's what my doc does too but if you ask, they will send you a copy.

Sanaisa,

I had no risk factors either.  It seems like we hear more and more of that now a days. I also took birth control for MANY years and think that may have been the cause.

If only we knew.

Linda

Dear Sanaisa,

There are many many antiaging specialists in California!! You are so lucky! Go see one sweetie!! However....most insurance companies will not cover antiaging specialists, even though most are MD's.

Here in PA we have 2 antiaging clinics and my daughter Lori goes to the one in Pittsburgh. As to the oncs testing for D levels....HAH!!! Most don't even know to what you are referring when you bring this up. If that is the case, then find an onc who does know. Your health is at stake. You have to take care of you!