The Truth About Vitamin D And How Vegan Lifestyles Relate To Menopause

okay so I would like to ask three questions and have each of you try to answer it with just three minutes and this way we could move through quite a bit of material so I realized that a lot will be sacrificed and answering giving answers that are only three minutes but for the point of this panel we’re looking for three minute answers I also want to mention that dr. Katz will be leaving at 4:00 the panel will continue until 4:30 okay the first question the first three questions that I’d like to ask first regarding african-american health there was a study that said community dwelling black Americans is compared with White’s had low levels of total 25 hydroxy vitamin D and vitamin D binding protein resulting in similar concentrations of estimated bioavailable 25 hydro hydro hydroxy vitamin D racial differences in the prevalence of common genetic polymorphisms provide a likely explanation from this observation so the question I guess is for African Americans do they need to take make any special considerations regarding lifestyle or vitamins or minerals or is there anything different that they should take into account um that affects them more than our white people a second question someone complained to me about Brenda Davis last night they said I’m disappointed in Brenda Davis and I said how come I said well first of all she’s thin and she’s pretty and she’s healthy and she’s not representing what’s really happening for a lot of women who were in their 40s 50s and 60s and you asked her twice about the menopause question and Pam popper and the reality is this is a big deal that again women are being told that they should be thin with flat stomach you know high libido lots of energy and the reality for with with pre menopausal menopause is there’s a sick if acun emotional hormonal things going on and the question again is is this something that’s affecting a small percentage of women or is this a gigantic issue that’s just not talked about because it’s just you know it’s just blown off so or it’s just not being adequately validated for women that this is significant things are going on how they should deal with it and then the third question is what work please explain the results of the health professionals follow-up study why do you like this study so those are the three first questions I guess I’ll start with the question about african-american health and d3 first of all I’m kind of glad this question came up because it gives me a chance to metaphorically scream at the top of my lungs it’s not a vitamin it’s not a vitamin it’s not a vitamin it’s a hormone okay they we were all duped into calling 125 dihydroxy council for all a vitamin when the dairy industry decided that they were going to artificially spike their products with this hormone to entice people into purchasing them and again it is it is a hormone that we all would make if we were running around butt naked in the Sun as we were supposed to be okay but since we decided to leave equatorial areas on this earth and move to northerly climates where you would freeze to death or certainly freeze parts of your Anatomy off if you ran around without any clothes we we can’t do that we have to wear clothes we have to remain indoors and as a result we don’t get the sun exposure that we need to make the enough of the hormone to keep us in good health so the question is how much should we should we be making and that or how much should we have within our system oh I gotta keep this to three minutes let me say this if we were running around naked on the Savannah in Africa we probably make upwards of 10 to 20 thousand international units of d3 a day I’m not suggesting anyone take that much but I think everyone should be taking about 2,000 IU’s a day because it’s not only important for bone health it also affects our mood and our immune function so that is true of everyone but it’s particularly true of darker-skinned people because that means that it takes us longer and more sun exposure which again we don’t get because of where we live to make the hormone so we need to be sure that we’re taking an adequate supplement it’s not and means that there’s anything wrong the plant-based diet because it’s an artifact of how we choose to live all right I I’m gonna jump in on the Brenda question she looks about half her age she’s very attractive as she is thin she’ll have to deal with the rest so I apologize on Brenda’s behalf and then I actually wanted to talk about the vitamin D question as well amen it’s a hormone what I’d like to a pen because I think I think you covered that beautifully Milnes is the fact that vitamin D is why we have different skin tone in the first place because if you live in an equatorial climb as we did at our origins the origins of our common family then darker skin protects you somewhat against the equatorial Sun and leaves you able to make sufficient vitamin D as you move away from that level of sun exposure you actually have to be more efficient at making vitamin D and and this was work done I think it was Penn State and it was published in 2015 but there were specific genetic mutations linked directly to vitamin D metabolism that explained our skin pallor problem so you know essentially having a lack of skin pigment is the mutation from our common origins and it related specifically to the advantage in vitamin D manufacture as we moved away from our native equatorial home so it’s configured into the great human diaspora there’s there’s a link really between our often sad inability to see that we’re one family and the metabolism of vitamin D which I find quite fascinating but we if you want to sort of think of it this way at the origins of our common family we were all dark-skinned and we were equatorial and all the rest was mutation and happenstance I loved that and and it’s so true and and we need to recognize it so we just need to recognize it

I will address I guess oh I’ll say in my defense I you know I wish I had a picture of my mom to show you she’s 82 years old and she’s been making good lifestyle choices her whole life and I mentioned before she still weighs about the same as she did when she got married almost well over 60 years ago and these are choices I we can choose to take care of ourselves and I know I inherited some really good genes in my mom didn’t have really symptoms of menopause either and I know that women do suffer even when they make good lifestyle choices and I don’t want to discount that at all the the honest answer is I really don’t know enough I’m not a medical doctor about the more challenging cases and you have a propensity towards really suffering through menopause I would try a lot of different things varying the exercise making more dietary shift some all of those things taking care of stress getting more sunshine all of that and and trying to to see what you can do and if all else fails you can visit your doctor and try other things but but I I think it’s really important especially as a vegan you know the the the reality is vegans are on trial in the eyes of the world and when we blow it we send a really strong message that others are justified in slaughtering animals for food because then they think they need it so I’ve been trying for a lot of years to do the best I can to set an example of health that may I mean my goal is to climb a mountain when I turn 100 I really want to prove to the world that not eating animal products will be an advantage to humankind