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Low Levels Of Vitamin D Linked To Higher Rates Of Asthma In African-American Children, Debunked By Barbadians

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A visit to the asthma bay at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) reveals it to be a hive of activity day and night. Our information is the QEH owns three to four nebulizers, unfortunately all of them are not always in working order.

In recent years the rise in the number of Barbadians suffering from asthma should be of concern to the country at large. A couple years ago the death of sports journalist Terry Mayers brought the condition fully to the public’s eye.  It seems too many Barbadians are happy to resign themselves to the condition by having the ubiquitous nebulizer close by.

It is therefore good news to learn of a recent  study conducted in the USA which discovered in 85 African American children tested suffering from asthma; they all registered a low level of vitamin D in their blood tests. At this stage more research is required to conclusively prove that a low level of Vitamin D is responsible for causing asthma in African-American children. However in light of the early findings from this research, it makes sense for parents of Black children to ensure the diet of their children is rich in Vitamin D.

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93 responses to “Low Levels Of Vitamin D Linked To Higher Rates Of Asthma In African-American Children, Debunked By Barbadians”

  1. Adrian Hinds Avatar
    Adrian Hinds

    People are amaze that I was born an raised on a island and could not swim. I learn to swim at the Y in my neck of the woods. They are mortified when they learn that a significant number of the island’s population are not swimmers.

    Are we now having high numbers of Asthma? If the study is true, with an abundance of sunshine in Barbados why would would there be asthma sufferers there? Maybe lack of vitamin D is not the true cause or maybe Bajans are not enjoying the sun and therefore missing out on it’s abundance of vitimin D.

    http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/80/6/1678S

  2. The People's Democratic Congress Avatar
    The People’s Democratic Congress

    BU,

    Though very short and concise, this article is somewhat enlightening and thought provoking.

    But, could your artcile NOT have been brought more to the point of completion if it had included a bit of information on what is vitamin D, where does it come from, what are the advantages for human beings intaking vitamin D, and esp. with regard to NOT JUST African-Americans BUT ALSO blacks across the world??

    Incidentally, the linked story that you provide does NOT also provide information on what is Vitamin D and where is it sourced.

    But, this link should help many people who do NOT know much about it – understand a lot about Vitamin D -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D.

    PDC

  3. David Avatar
    David

    @PDC

    Your feedback is taken but sometimes we try to let the family contribute to the learning exercise. In this case the BU household is learning.

  4. Inkwell Avatar
    Inkwell

    I find it difficult to believe that a vitamin D deficiency is the cause of the asthma epidemic we are seeing in Barbados. People living in tropical countries should have no shortage of that vitamin as sunshine provides it naturally.

    Could it be that, unlike in the past, present day children are spending most of their time “out” of the sun.

    A simple survey of asthma sufferers might substantiate this and if it is found that lack of vitamin D is not in fact the cause here, that dead end research can be swiftly abandoned and others pursued. The link below will give some valuable information:

    http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2005/06/07/sun-vitamind.aspx

  5. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Adrian & Inkwell are both correct. The rise in asthma in Barbados is definitely not due (or ought not to be due) to vitamin D deficiency since we are bathed in sunlight daily almost throughout the year.

    I will try to have the section of my teaching ppt on vitamins and minerals and their biochemical roles uploaded to satisfy the request of PDC.

    The rise in asthma in Barbados (once a rarity) is due to increased allergens both synthetic via preservatives and additives to food and other contributions from a polluted atmospheric environment.

  6. David Avatar
    David

    @Inkwell

    Your point is well made. The research mentioned was located in Washington and we are correct to question its relevance. The sad position Barbados finds itself is rising numbers of asthma but a lack of rigorous research to determine cause.

  7. Adam Sherman Avatar
    Adam Sherman

    Mr. Porgie, stupid and witless even as laugh-out-loud “theologian”, proves himself (as a “doctor”) to be yet more witless. Where were you trained, sir?

    Allergens: look to the gut, sir. Look to the flora in the gut. Wherever you were trained, you remember the “forgotten organ” syndrome. Correct? You recall the metabolism of the microbiota?

    Look to the gut and the mother’s risk-factors.

    I urge you. Remember our oath: First, do no harm.

    Remember it, sir, and cease to do harm.

    All best wishes to you and yours.

  8. DOLPHIN MOUT Avatar
    DOLPHIN MOUT

    As a dolphin , I never had problems with Vitamin D

    Children need to get off the computers and play cricket in the sun all day, suck canes, eat dunks, gooseberries, ackees,bananas, sour-sop, cheese ‘n’ bread, lemons, golden apples, mangoes, oranges, shaddox, guava, fatpork, grapes, almonds-(dried and yellow), sugar apples, coconut jelly -hard and soft, drink coconut water, eat pomegranates , mammy apples.

    EAT THESE READILY AVAILABLE FRUITS

  9. Researcher Avatar
    Researcher

    Some Recent News Articles on Vitamin D3

    Asthma Worsens With Vitamin D Deficiency
    http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/635427.html

    Vitamin D May Cure Asthma
    http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/06/managing-your-childs-asthma-with-natural-medicine.aspx

    The Healing Power of Sunshine and Vitamin D
    http://www.naturalnews.com/SpecialReports/Sunlight.pdf
    See Dr. Hollick’s website at http://www.uvadvantage.org/

    Study Urges Vitamin D Supplement for Infants
    http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-03-22-vitamind22_ST_N.htm

    Listen to Kevin Trudeau’s interview with author Marc Sorenson, EdD on Vitamin D3 and his book Vitamin D3 and Solar Power for Optimal Health
    Use this link to download MP3 http://m.podshow.com/media/21081/episodes/194036/kevintrudeau-194036-10-27-2009.mp3
    His book is here http://www.amazon.com/Vitamin-Solar-Power-Optimal-Health/dp/B002MY9A3U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268095862&sr=1-1

    Vitamin D Research by Steve Gibson of GRC
    http://www.grc.com/health/Vitamin-D.htm

    Vitamin D3 | Coral Calcium Information by Bob Barefoot
    http://www.barefootandhealthy.com/order-online/supplements/vitamin-d3/
    http://www.barefootandhealthy.com/order-online/bobs-books/barefoot-on-vitamin-d/

    Make sure your Vitamin D is Vitamin D3

    Recent News Articles on Vitamin D

    Vitamin D Essential For Activating Immune System
    http://www.themoneytimes.com/featured/20100308/vitamin-d-keeps-infections-bay-id-10102820.html

    Doctors Explain Why You Need More Vitamin D
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-weil-md/new-recommendation-why-yo_b_446580.html

    Doctors in Canada Urge Immigrants to Take Vitamin D
    http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/02/12/ottawa-immigrants-vitamin-d.html

    Medical Industry Getting on Board with Vitamin D Deficiency
    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/08/MN8T1BEG4V.DTL

    Vitamin D – Still the Best Antibiotic For You
    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life/health-fitness/health/Vitamin-D-is-natures-antibiotic/articleshow/5263795.cms

    People Are Finally Jumping on the Vitamin D Bandwagon
    http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7017005485

    Vitamin D – Curing Better Than a Vaccine
    http://www.naturalnews.com/027385_Vitamin_D_swine_flu_vaccine.html

    Vitamin D Better at Fighting Flu than Vaccine
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article7061778.ece

    Study: Kids Aren’t Getting Enough Vitamin D
    http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2009/08/03/study-kids-arent-getting-enough-vitamin-d/

    Kids Need Vitamin D
    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/26/MN3K1AAH9F.DTL&type=health

    Study Urges Vitamin D Supplement for Infants
    http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-03-22-vitamind22_ST_N.htm

    Despite Anti-Vitamin D Bias, CDC Stumbles on Deficiency Link to H1N1 Deaths
    http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/09/22/Low-Vitamin-D-Increases-Flu-Death-Risk-in-Kids.aspx

    Prevent Heart Disease with Vitamin D
    http://www.naturalnews.com/027674_Vitamin_D_heart_disease.html

    Vitamin D Linked to Cardiac Deaths in Blacks
    http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/634681.html

    Vitamin D Virtually Eradicates Cancer
    http://www.naturalnews.com/028119_vitamin_D_brst_cancer.html

    Cancer Warnings Lead to Massive Vitamin D Deficiency
    http://www.naturalnews.com/028088_vitamin_D_skin_cancer.html

    Cancer Doctors Using Vitamin D for Treatment
    http://www.naturalnews.com/027637_cancer_vitamin_D.html

    Vitamin D is the Key!
    http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-met-vitamin-d-20100309%2c0%2c5174854.story
    a balanced article but read between the lines – either it way it clearly explains Vitamin D is key!

    Reduce Risk of Diabetes With Vitamin D
    http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5gCoh59sz61HJGVAtOlCycP1YmiVQ

    Vitamin D Fights Bowel Cancer
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7048340/Vitamin-D-guards-against-bowel-cancer-research-suggests.html

    Lack of Vitamin D Leads to Sharp Rise in Rickets
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jan/22/sharp-rise-vitamin-a-deficiency

    Statin Drugs Diminish Body’s Vitamin D
    http://www.naturalnews.com/027897_statin_drugs_vitamin_D.html

    Statin Drugs and Vitamin D Deficiency
    http://www.stopagingnow.com/news/news_flashes/6843/Can-Statin-Drugs-Cause-Vitamin-D-Deficiency

    Vitamin D Cuts Risks of Premature Births
    http://www.naturalnews.com/028118_vitamin_D_premature_birth.html

    Vitamin D Produces Less Falls in Elderly
    http://www.naturalnews.com/028214_vitamin_D_elderly.html

    Vitamin D Prevents of Breast Cancer
    http://www.naturalnews.com/027230_cancer_Vitamin_D_brst.html
    http://www.naturalnews.com/027204_cancer_Vitamin_D_brst_cancer.html

    High Blood Pressure Linked to Vitamin D Deficiency
    http://www.privatemdlabs.com/news/Vitamin_D_Deficiency-Diagnosis_and_Treatment_/Study:-Vitamin-D-deficiency-could-lead-to-high-blood-pressure$19382591.php

    Low Levels of Vitamin D Linked to High Blood Pressure
    http://www.naturalnews.com/028220_vitamin_D_blood_pressure.html

    Vitamin D Reduces Risk of Bone Fractures
    http://www.naturalnews.com/028037_vitamin_D_bone_fractures.html

    The Way to Weight Loss – Vitamin D
    http://www.naturalnews.com/028051_Vitamin_D_weight_loss.html

    Vitamin D Deficency Causing Rickets
    http://www.naturalnews.com/028329_vitamin_D_rickets.html

    Epidemic of Vitamin D deficiency sweeping the world
    http://www.naturalnews.com/028357_vitamin_D_deficiency.html

    Lymphoma Battle Worsens With Vitamin D Deficiency
    http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/50452/title/Patients_deficient_in_vitamin_D_fare_worse_in_battle_with_lymphoma

    Scottish Youth Wins Fight for Vitamin D Recognition
    http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/health/schoolboy-wins-vitamin-d-campaign-1.990218

    More Benefits of vitamin D – Treatment for Prostate Cancer
    http://www.naturalnews.com/027534_vitamin_D_prostate_cancer.html

    Cures of the Sun – H1N1 More Prevalent with Low Vitamin D Levels
    http://www.infowars.com/low-vitamin-d-levels-linked-to-proliferation-of-h1n1/

    Vitamin D Key to Healthy Brain
    http://www.naturalnews.com/026811_Vitamin_D_blood_elderly.html

    Take at least 5000IU a day, 10,000IU preferred. Expect to detox for the first time since you may be toxic. Children varies. See above links.

  10. Technician Avatar
    Technician

    So true Dolphin……….

    When you find these fruits, can you let the BU family know.

  11. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Why should we waste the time to research the cause of asthma in BIM when the etiology of asthma is well known, and when we can trace how when and why the incidence of asthma of Barbados and its contiguous islands has increased?.

    Our focus should be on prevention, if this is at possible? Will the populace heed the information given out? Will we reduce the pollutants in the atmosphere? Will we change our diets to suit, inter alia?

    Nice note on causes of asthma

    The complete causes of asthma are unknown. Heredity does seem to play a role as do allergens and environmental factors. According to the latest Expert Panel Report (EPR) in 1997 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s National Asthma Education and Prevention Program, “Atopy, the genetic predisposition for the development of an IgE-mediated response to common aeroallergens, is the strongest identifiable predisposing factor for developing asthma.” There are two categories of asthma: allergic or extrinsic and idiosyncratic or intrinsic. Allergic asthma is a result of an antigenantibody reaction on mast cells in the respiratory tract. This reaction causes the release of inflammatory mediators from mast cells which elicit the clinical response associated with an asthma attack. Idiosyncratic asthma is a result of neurological imbalances in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in which the alpha and beta adrenergic as well as the cholinergic sites of the ANS are not properly coordinated.
    Onset of asthma between the ages of 5 to 15 years usually indicates asthma with an allergic basis. According to Adams and Marano, CDC 1995, asthma affects an estimated 4.8 million children and is the most common chronic disease of childhood. If onset occurs later in life, asthma is more likely idiosyncratic. The incidence of asthma in the population below the age of 15 years is 5% to 15%. An incidence of 1% is found in the adult population.

    http://classes.kumc.edu/cahe/respcared/asthma/asetiol.html

  12. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Technician

    Did you know that from I think it is June 1st every year that one can go down to Haggat’s agricutural station a.ka Soil Conservation Dept and purchase trees that bear these fruits.

    It used to be about $10 Bdos per plant 20 years ago.

  13. Myles Davis Avatar
    Myles Davis

    Asthma is more linked to a polluted environment than to a lack of vitamin D. If there is concern to the country at large about the rise in level of asthma sufferers the government should conduct a study to determine the level of air polltuon in Barbados. I am quite sure that quality of air people are breathing is quite poor.

  14. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    I can not understand why any one would conclude that Vitamin D causes asthma because they found it as an incidental or concomitant finding in a small number of asthmatics in an American city.

    I can understand the need of some academics to write bovine excrement for publication to remain thier position in academia.

    After all the research about the results of deficiencies in Vitamin D are well known and have been well researched– and asthma has never been found to be associated nowhere in the world where this research has been done.

    Basic common sense and the use of one’s betz cells would indicate that asthma in residents in the USA regardless to whether they are meanotic or amelanotic is not very likely to be due to a lack of Vitamin D in a populace which is usually out doors (unless the patient belongs to one of those ethnic groups that cover their entire bodies all the time.

    Nor is Vitamin D deficiency prevalent in the USA because several foods are fortified with Vitamin D to avert this . Even the poor can get these foods cheaply.

    Neither will Vitamin D deficiency be the cause in Barbados since all Bajans except the very ill spend adequate time in the sun and we tend to imbibe foods fortified with Vitamin D

    Basic common sense and the use of one’s betz cells would indicate that asthma in residents in the USA (or Barbados) regardless to whether they are meanotic or amelanotic is more likely to be due to things like
    – fumes from the exhausts fom the increasing number of motor vehicles poluuting the atmosphere
    – emissions of toxic and other fases from factories
    – chemicals inhaled via insecticides, deodarants, hair sprays and the increasing number of products of this naure
    – increasing preservatives in all foods including bread (ever notice that for a while now that we buy “STALE BREAD AT FRESH BREAD PRICES”)
    and we can go on!

  15. michael Avatar
    michael

    Too much of the world wealth is based on the production of the motor car and petrochemical products, and if this industry is the cause of the high rates of Asama in the world and Bim who will be the brave person to say so,when did the number of people suffering with this disorder start to rise in Bim?was it before we had large numbers of cars on the road?some scientists say it is caused by the dust coming from the Sahara desert is there any proof in this statement?has any one done any studies to show what the air was like in Bim in the 1950 compaired to now it would be interesting to know what the answers are

  16. DOLPHIN MOUT Avatar
    DOLPHIN MOUT

    bovine excretement ?
    what is that ?
    LOL

  17. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Bovine excrement is an elegant and politically correct way of saying BULL SHIT Sir!

  18. DOLPHIN MOUT Avatar
    DOLPHIN MOUT

    WE SHOULD NOT BE EATING BREAD AT ALL

    When in season eat baked sweet potatoes and eat bananas , plaitains, buffets, figs –

    Understand why we eat
    one of the main reasons we eat is for energy.

    stop drinking stinking nasty ‘sweet’ drinks

  19. michael Avatar
    michael

    Gp i owe my life to stale bread if i could not have got that i would not be alive to day my mother use to cook it with onions and black pepper and make a meal of it what you saying, it was a staple for my family ps i have not got Asthma

  20. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Michael

    About 30 years ago when we started to see frequent cases of asthma at QEH one of my colleagues from St Kitts noted that he had never seen cases in his home land.

    Throughout my school days or eight years at UWI, I have never seen anyone leave school because of asthma (not saying it did not happen).

    During the 20 years or so that I practiced medicine at home, I saw several cases of school chidren regularly presenting in clinics.

    I had the sad duty to pronounce several persons dead (apparently from asthma- with inhalers in hand or nearby) especially in the colder parts of the island toward what we call “fore day morning.”

    The colleague of whom I spoke returned to Bim to study for his DCH and DM in Paediatrics, and noticed a rise in cases above that which he saw as a med student and intern.

    On returning to his homeland four years later he noticed an increased incidence, which he noticed has risen ever since.

    This account is just empirical and far from scientific. But statistics are available at the MOH where they are recorded annually. Relevant correlations can easily be made. Similar correlations and extrapolations can be made by studying stastitics from other countries.

  21. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Michael
    I am not saying that stale bread was bad. OK
    As boys we went to the village bakery and got lots of stale bread for a penny.

    In those days, the bread not sold was returned to the bakery the next day, and the baker would try to recoup any loss by selling it as stale bread. There was NOT ONE THING WITH IT. It just did not have in any preservatives.

    In my view, it was thus BETTER BREAD than is made and sold today. Contemopory commercial bread contains food preservatives that might be harmful!

    In those days 50 years ago the poor used stale bread and were looked down on. Your mother’s creativity and innovation is to be highly commended, and is charactersitic of the women of that day.

    Today we often buy what 50 years ago was called stale bread, and we bought it at stale bread prices.

    Today we pay fresh bread prices for what is esesntiaslly stale bread with preservatives in it.

    We no longer call it stale bread but stale bread is what it is, you must agree.

    There is certainly no fun for little boys and certain no room for the creativity and innovation exhibited by folk like your mother. Thanks for your anecdote. It supports my point somewhat.

    I would rather by my stale bread (as we do today) at stale bread prices, wouldnt you? .

  22. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    The fact that “85 African American children suffering from asthma; all registered a low level of vitamin D in their blood tests.” is essentially meaningless.

    Any given set of children who are deemed to be chronically ill, will AS A RESULT, not be as exposed to outdoor life in the same way as normal children, and are therefore likely to suffer from below normal levels of vitamin D

    This is a typical chicken and egg situation. I suspect that even MME will support me on this one…. LOL

  23. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    I am having trouble with my key board

    THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE STALE BREAD OF OUR DAY

    IT DIDNT STAY STALE VERY LONG

    CERTAINLY NOT AS LONG AS IT DOES IN THE SUPER MARKET SHELVES TO DAY LOL

  24. michael Avatar
    michael

    Gp
    I believe it has some thing to do with modern living the houses we lived in back then were made of wood now there are made from cement and there are air tight compaired to the wooden ones there are more cars on the roads which mean there are more petrochemical aerosols in the air, grads at uwi should be giving this subject more attention our islands are good labs for this research

  25. Adrian Hinds Avatar
    Adrian Hinds

    I can see why the Study that David highlighted, found low levels of vitimin D.
    ——————————————–
    It is estimated that >50% of African Americans in the United States are either chronically or seasonally at risk of vitamin D deficiency. Nesby-O’Dell et al (67) reported that, in the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 42% of African American women 15–49 y of age were found to be vitamin D deficient at the end of the winter. Holick (22, 26) observed that 84% of African American men and women >65 y of age were vitamin D deficient at the end of the summer in Boston. The reasons for this are that African Americans often have a lactase deficiency and do not drink milk, they have markedly decreased efficiency in making vitamin D3 in their skin, and they avoid the sun because they do not want to increase their skin pigmentation. Women in Saudi Arabia and their children have high prevalences of osteomalacia and rickets, respectively, and vitamin D deficiency because of their practice of wearing clothing over the whole body and avoiding direct sunlight.

    —————————————————

    As with an abundance of beaches and seawater, we are not known for our love of swimming, so to can our abhorrence of the “hot sun” lead us away from a life outdoors, and when we do, we are totally covered. It is possible for Barbadians to have a vitamin D deficiency, and although vitamin D is required for good muscle health and asthma attacks do involve smooth muscle cells in the bronchi constricting, we still need to make the connection or maybe not. Vitamin D should be considered essential for overall health and well-being.

  26. michael Avatar
    michael

    salt bread

  27. Little boy who has lost his home! Avatar
    Little boy who has lost his home!

    **** ******** the nonentity whose singular claim to being noticed is humourless diatribes. Life can be a bitch, after so much effort to end up “unloved” in a back water.

  28. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Major Sources of Vitamin D ppt #2

    a. Sunlight: The skin, where ultraviolet radiation converts 7-dehydrocholesterol to vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol).
    b. Dietary sources of vitamin D3: fish (marine), liver, and egg yolks, butter, cheese
    Fish liver oil is the richest source, human milk also contains water soluble Vit D sulfate.
    c. Foods fortified with vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol): dairy foods, margarine, and cereals Foods: Liver,Egg,Butter,Cheese
    Adequate intake of vitamin D is : 5 1ug/day (in the absence of adequate sunlight)

    Are african Americans that stupid that they dont eat any of these foods?

    liver, and egg yolks, butter, cheese, fish liver oils, margarine, and cereals, icecream DQ blizzards etc ice cream sundaes

    I know they are generally dumb but are they that dumb?

  29. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Accepted Functions of Vitamin D include (ppt #7)
    • 1. Regulation of calcium ion (Ca+ +) metabolism
    • a. It facilitates intestinal absorption of dietary phosphorus and calcium by stimulating synthesis of calcium-binding protein in the intestinal mucosa, in combination with parathyroid hormone (PTH).
    • b. It promotes normal bone demineralization by stimulating osteoblast activity, thus releasing Ca++ into the blood.
    • c. It stimulates Ca++ reabsorption by the distal renal tubules, which also elevates blood Ca+ +
    • It thus effects calcium and phosphorus metabolism.
    • It also enhances bone resorption, and affects collagen maturation.
    • Promotes normal growth.

  30. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Michael
    We would sprinkle water on the stale salt bread and put it near the fire on the stove. This used to sort of freshen it up. As I said there was not a thing wrong with that so called stale bread back then , my friend.

  31. Adrian Hinds Avatar
    Adrian Hinds

    ha ha ha GP I hear you, but I loathe being condesending to African Americans. I am truly trying to understand them, and Barbadians at home should too. Many of their ways are being supplanted in Bimshire.

  32. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Adrian

    I wish you well in trying to understand them.

    I spent 3 months ten years ago working with some in a church in Alta Vista VA. They were not smart, but nice. But then their pastor was a bajan for over 20 years.

    And the folk up there really liked the work he was doing in the summer in his summer camp by keeping about 100 children of the streets for two – three months in the summer.

    Most of the others with whom I have interacted are well………….you know them better than I do.

    West Indian blacks are perhaps the most fortunate black people on earth. Poor but fortunate. I may be wrong but this is my view.

    I guess it means something to come from places where you as a poor poor person has rubbed shoulders with persons who matter in your society at some time. Where you have certain freedoms. Where you can always get away from it all by going to the beach (even though some dont swim ) at no cost to you, and the many things we take for granted.

    When my son was living in Toronto he once said to me Daddy Imagine how often back home I didnt go to the sea, today I went swimming in the nasty public pool!

  33. PETER 7 Avatar
    PETER 7

    enough of this talk about stale nasty bread
    you survived because the human body is a remarkabke machine that can survive under unbelievable conditions that sometimes defy logic

    You did not survive because you ate stale bread.

  34. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    How could bread that was fresh on Monday morning at 7 am be stale and nasty on Tuesday morning at 7 am and bread that remains on the super market shelves not be nasty?

    How much damage is being done to our remarkable machines of the human body by the unnecessary presentation to our liver enzymes by the xenobiotics in the preservatives put into a simple thing like bread.

    If the man asserts that his mother was so poor ( and damn creative and smart) to make a meal of the carbs in the 24 hour old salt bread that she was able to procure more cheaply when the bread was only 24 hours old, then who are we to doubt him.

    His mothers innovation and wisdom and plain economics (which our Government leaders lack) ensured that he had carbs for his energy needs. If he was able to get an exces do you realize that the body coud have transformed some of those carbs into amino acids to facilitate his growth, and enough fats for those functions required by lipids.

    His mothers innovation and wisdom and plain economics also was exercised by using ingredients that did not put his body at risk whats so ever.

    Man I would glad for some old time stale bread now Sir!

    When I mention Mary pone to my former ex HC collegues of the 60’s they go into a thrance at the thought and memory.

    Or when I mention that sweet bread (and it was stale) that came of the altar at Ch Ch Parish Ch and divided among the choir boys………………

    Ask your self why our contemoraries are falling in the fifties and some didnt make it to forty and we have centurions by the score and man batting strong pun eighty this and ninety dat?

    Why 2o years ago I was seeing teen agers with joiunt pain showing X ray changes of degeneration, and the elderly were barely showing these changes. Maybe it was because they had stronger BONES from more VITAMIN D DUE TO MORE TIME IN THE SUN an perhaps some good stale bread and cassava pone!

  35. Crusoe Avatar
    Crusoe

    ‘DOLPHIN MOUT // April 7, 2010 at 12:39 PM

    WE SHOULD NOT BE EATING BREAD AT ALL

    When in season eat baked sweet potatoes and eat bananas , plaitains, buffets, figs –

    Understand why we eat
    one of the main reasons we eat is for energy.

    stop drinking stinking nasty ’sweet’ drinks’

    —————————————-

    Excellent words. I do not each much bread, although it is hard to resist nice salt bread. I eat sliced bread and ….yuck.

    All of that yeast, preservatives?

    As for the sweet drinks (carbonated), awful things, though I do drink one periodically too, I used to drink much more.

    The crux of the matter is that we exercise less, eat rubbish and are faced with all the nasty pesticides in and out of food.

    You know, the neighbour spraying pesticides instead of clearing the garden by hand.

    If pesticides kill plants, do you not think that they will kill humans?

    Especially as the skin absorbs stuff as well.

    Environmental, which includes what we eat.

    By the way, much of the chemicals used here are banned in California.

  36. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    The best way to deal with Athsma is to make sure that it is managed by a competent doctor.

    Corticosteroids and bronchodilators work for me.

    Preventative maintenance is the new treatment. I have been taking Advair for the last few years and it works for me.

    The one thing I learned over the years is that an athsma attack does not subside without medical intervention.

    I am writing from a personal point of view as a 58 year old athsmatic.
    What works for me may not work for other athsmatics.

    The advice of Dr.GP should be taken very seriously.

    My Mum died during an athsma attack at the QEH 25 years ago. She was a chronic athsmatic.

  37. WOG Avatar
    WOG

    Personally I believe that our kids spend too much time indoors playing video games and watching TV and their high performance systems become compromised by the inactivity. In any event maybe we are looking for the cause in the wrong place, according to the medical journals SUGAR is a nasty little rascal and excessive consumption of it, if not the cause could be one of the the causes why our kids more susceptable to Asthma than before. Sugar is not only in the sweet drink, and sugar cake sugar is use by the food manufacturers as a preservative and a flavoring in almost everything, so that its effect is cumulative.
    “Sugar can cause autoimmune diseases such as: arthritis, ASTHMA, multiple sclerosis.
    Sugar can suppress the immune system and impair your defenses against infectious disease.
    Sugar can contribute to eczema in children.
    In juvenile rehabilitation camps, when children were put on a low sugar diet, there was a 44 percent drop in antisocial behavior
    Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children.
    Sugar can worsen the symptoms of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
    Sugar can reduce the learning capacity; adversely affect school children’s grades and cause learning disorders.
    Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in your body: causes chromium and copper deficiencies and interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium.
    Sugar can cause can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline, hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children. Sugar can produce a significant rise in total cholesterol, triglycerides and bad cholesterol and a decrease in good cholesterol.
    Sugar causes a loss of tissue elasticity and function.
    Sugar feeds cancer cells and has been connected with the development of cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, biliary tract, lung, gallbladder and stomach.
    Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose and can cause reactive hypoglycemia. Sugar can weaken eyesight.
    Sugar can cause many problems with the gastrointestinal tract including: an acidic digestive tract, indigestion, malabsorption in patients with functional bowel disease, increased risk of Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis.
    Sugar can cause premature aging.
    Sugar can cause your saliva to become acidic, tooth decay, and periodontal disease.
    Sugar contributes to obesity.
    Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections) Sugar can cause gallstones.
    Sugar can cause appendicitis.
    Sugar can cause hemorrhoids.
    Sugar can cause varicose veins.
    Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses in oral contraceptive users.
    Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis.
    Sugar can cause a decrease in your insulin sensitivity thereby causing an abnormally high insulin levels and eventually diabetes.
    Sugar can lower your Vitamin E levels.
    Sugar can increase your systolic blood pressure.
    High sugar intake increases advanced glycation end products (AGEs)(Sugar molecules attaching to and thereby damaging proteins in the body)
    Sugar can interfere with your absorption of protein.
    Sugar causes food allergies.
    Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy.
    Sugar can cause atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.
    Sugar can impair the structure of your DNA.
    Sugar can change the structure of protein and cause a permanent alteration of the way the proteins act in your body.
    Sugar can make your skin age by changing the structure of collagen.
    Sugar can cause cataracts and nearsightedness.
    Sugar can cause emphysema.
    High sugar intake can impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in your body.
    Sugar lowers the ability of enzymes to function.
    Sugar intake is higher in people with Parkinson’s disease.
    Sugar can increase the size of your liver by making your liver cells divide and it can increase the amount of liver fat.
    Sugar can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney such as the formation of kidney stones.
    Sugar can damage your pancreas.
    Sugar can increase your body’s fluid retention.
    Sugar is enemy #1 of your bowel movement.
    Sugar can compromise the lining of your capillaries.
    Sugar can make your tendons more brittle.
    Sugar can cause headaches, including migraines.
    Sugar can reduce the learning capacity, adversely affect school children’s grades and cause learning disorders.
    Sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha, and theta brain waves which can alter your mind’s ability to think clearly.
    Sugar can cause depression.
    Sugar can increase your risk of gout.
    Sugar can increase your risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
    Sugar can cause hormonal imbalances such as: increasing estrogen in men, exacerbating PMS, and decreasing growth hormone.
    Sugar can lead to dizziness.
    Diets high in sugar will increase free radicals and oxidative stress.
    High sucrose diets of subjects with peripheral vascular disease significantly increases platelet adhesion.
    High sugar consumption of pregnant adolescents can lead to substantial decrease in gestation duration and is associated with a twofold increased risk for delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant.
    Sugar is an addictive substance.
    Sugar can be intoxicating, similar to alcohol.
    Sugar given to premature babies can affect the amount of carbon dioxide they produce. Decrease in sugar intake can increase emotional stability. Your body changes sugar into 2 to 5 times more fat in the bloodstream than it does starch.
    The rapid absorption of sugar promotes excessive food intake in obese subjects.
    Sugar adversely affects urinary electrolyte composition. Sugar can slow down the ability of your adrenal glands to function.
    Sugar has the potential of inducing abnormal metabolic processes in a normal healthy individual and to promote chronic degenerative diseases.
    I.V.s (intravenous feedings) of sugar water can cut off oxygen to your brain.
    Sugar increases your risk of polio.
    High sugar intake can cause epileptic seizures.
    Sugar causes high blood pressure in obese people.
    In intensive care units:
    Limiting sugar saves lives.
    Sugar may induce cell death.
    Sugar dehydrates newborns.
    Sugar can cause gum disease.”

  38. J Avatar
    J

    Georgie Porgie wrote “Are african Americans that stupid that they dont eat any of these foods? liver, and egg yolks, butter, cheese, fish liver oils, margarine, and cereals, icecream DQ blizzards etc ice cream sundaes I know they are generally dumb but are they that dumb?”

    A good number of these foods are milk products and a good number of West Adrican descended people are lactose (milk sugar) intolerant, and lactase pills are expensive. I know I have to buy them for litle Johnny?

    So no. I don’t think that the African Americans are stupid.

    Maybe, they are lactose intolerant, maybe they live in areas with cold weather, and not much sunshine in the winter, maybe they are poor, maybe they don’t feel it is safe to let their children play ourdoors alone in the big cities.

    But no. I don’t think they are stupid.

    Doc you want to send me some money to replenish Little Johnny’s supply of lactase pills?

  39. J Avatar
    J

    Maybe our children are not spending enough time outdoors. Researchers are beginning the link in the rise of diabetes, breast cancer, and multiple sclerosis to the indoor life which so many of us live nowadays.

    Maybe we all need to run outside and play.

  40. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    J
    These foods are real cheap at Walmart or Save A Lot or the Dollar Store.

    Today I had a big 3$ turkey leg from Walmart , and ate nothing else for the day. That one was a whopper!

    I can get a good pint of icecream and almost a lb of American cheddar for 1 $ from from the dollar store !

    Eggs cheap there too and butter What you telling me.
    And they do eat Dairy Queen blizzards ask them.

    You have to be dumb in the USA to have a vit D deficiency. I dont care how poor you are.

  41. Ready Done Avatar
    Ready Done

    Put UWI, BCC and SJPP to document this problem and see if they can find a solution, while ya at it they can do a study about the chemicals (glue) that women use to stick in fake hair with, you ever smell that? cant be good! got to be seaping in them brains and altering behavior.

  42. michael Avatar
    michael

    Gp i accept your point i was just reminiscing at what use to be said by the vendor as he passing by salt breads salt bread 2 cents a bread

  43. michael Avatar
    michael

    Remember when we use to put cabbage bush in rice cabbage bush grew every where in great abundance there were no herbicides or pesticides sprayed around indiscriminately (what my mother called cabbage bush is what Jamaicans call collue and they grow a variety that don’t have the red colouration to it)the reason why i have stated this is because some people don’t know how poor some bajans really were

  44. David Avatar
    David

    See Vitamin D presentation compliments of Doc GP.

    Look how the BU family mash-up this study in less than 20 comments!

    Perhaps those family members living in the USA can call or write the doctors who conducted the research and confront them with some of the views posted on BU.

  45. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Yes Michael
    I too remember when a salt bread was 3 cents each , and when we got about 3 or 4 for the same amount of money the following morning. We used to call one of my buddies (now a top singer abroad) stale bread merchant! This was because he traded coconut branches with the local baker for stale bread.

    My mother always had a kitchen garden, and she would sell its contents to the local supermarket at a time when super markets were evolving, and to the hotels. She sold the cabbage, and put the best of the cabbage bush in rice. The rest went to the pigs.

    @ WOG
    Yes sugar is indeed a drug and should be avoided in excess. However, much of what you write about sugar just does not make sense physiologically, pharmacologically or pathologically. Simple sugars ought to be used sparingly. But you cant run your bodies with out some sugar. YOU JUST CAN NOT.

    It is better to use complex sugars from potatoes and yams and breadfruit in our diets, as we formerly did. The problem is that we don’t exercise (i.e walk and bicycle routinely, and engage in manual labor) .as we once did.

    @ DOLPHIN MOUT
    Bread and wine is the staff of life according to the Word.
    Nothing wrong with bread. Its complex carbs. As we get older and especially if we are diabetic or pre diabetic or want to lose weight we must reduce our intake. But for normal folk, they aint a thing wrong with bread.

    Sweet drinks (carbonated), or not contain simple sugars and ought to be treated as for simple sugars. Essential for energy for the young and active, as when we ate our red JU-C and cheese cutter at break time at school, and played vigorously at lunch time, and burned all those carbs up.

    BIOCHEMICALLY YOU CANT LIVE WITHOUT SOME CARBS (SUGARS)! ALL METABOLIC PATHWAYS IN THE BODY REVOLVE AROUND THE BURNNG OF GLUCOSE IN GLYCOLYSIS AND THE KREBS CYCLE!

    YES If pesticides kill plants, and some do kill humans because they can indeed beabsorbed both by inhalation and also via the skin.

  46. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    I hope that I can find the time to deal with the rampant bovine excrement in much of the unproved hype about Vitamin D in the phlethora of articles linked by Researcher on April 7, 2010 at 11:33 AM

    It is good to have a PC, internet access, the ability to use Google and other search engines, and it is good to be able to express a view on BU. But with that privilege comes responsibility, because many folk believe that everything in print is “gospel” and interpreting the Medical literature is even more difficult to do than those seeking to interpret and exegete the Bible without Hermeneutics!

    MR PDC, you will see that David has uploaded the section of my ppt on Vitamins and minerals per your request.

    Perhaps serious onlookers will refer to it as we discuss the important things that we need to know about Vitamin D.

    Slides 1-6 deal with the sources, daily requirements .and basic metabolism of Vit D
    Clearly they ought not to be Vit D deficiency in Bim because the sources of Vit D are all readily available. (I trust that one can still buy liver cutters at that shop in that little alley next to the Olympic.)

    It is noteworthy that the issues raised in Slides 1-6 are the facts repeated over and over in all the articles linked as FACT! Much of the other info specifically says MAY this MAY that . So I am saying may day! may day! And caveat emptor!

    Clearly the scenarios reflected in Slides 8-20 due to Vitamin D Deficiency are not seen in Barbados. (The bandy legs you might have seen are due to other orthopaedic issues- but not rickets!) Consequently the articles below have no relevance to us!

    Epidemic of Vitamin D deficiency sweeping the world
    Vitamin D Deficency Causing Rickets
    Lack of Vitamin D Leads to Sharp Rise in Rickets
    Vitamin D is the Key!
    The Healing Power of Sunshine and Vitamin D
    Doctors in Canada Urge Immigrants to Take Vitamin D
    Study: Kids Aren’t Getting Enough Vitamin D
    Kids Need Vitamin D
    Study Urges Vitamin D Supplement for Infants

    Note also that the contents of the following articles do not say anything new. This is common knowledge and practice.
    Study Urges Vitamin D Supplement for Infants
    Vitamin D Cuts Risks of Premature Births
    Vitamin D Produces Less Falls in Elderly
    Vitamin D Reduces Risk of Bone Fractures

    Next I would like to turn your attention to slides which deals with Vitamin D toxicity, because I see that some of the morons in the articles cited in the links advocate taking more than the RDA. The vignette in slide 22 ought to deter you from such madness.

    Note that Vitamin D toxicity
    – occurs because unlike water-soluble vitamins, which are excreted in excess amounts, vitamin D can be stored in liver.
    – is associated with hypercalcemia secondary to bone demineralization; i.e you will break down your bones and lead to osteoporosis .
    – is associated with hypercalcuria (increased calcium in the urine), resulting in kidney stone formation
    – is associated with irreversible kidney damage due to calcium deposition in the kidney tissues

    I know a man who believed in taking Coral Calcium. He cock up and dead with kidney disease last November.

    Readers may now google the results of hypercalcemia and see if you like the consequences of all its other associated maladies.

    Maybe I can find the animation of the passage of kidney stones (don’t know if David can get it to work).

    I hope that “onlookers” will bear these basics in mind when you are reading the bovine excrement in the links cited.

    Last August when I suggested strongly that Caster Semenya was not taking anabolic steroids or testosterone but was just not converting testosterone to estrogens etc, I was scoffed at.

    You may scoff again now, but I put it to you folk to day that the issue here is not Vitamin D levels in the body that is the problem per se but calcium levels and phosphate concentrations, since calcium is very much involved in the pathogenesis of cell death………………….but that is another story.

    Friends work some sardines on your toast at breakfast (don’t remove the bones.).
    Friends get back to the cod liver oil (capsules)
    Friends walk bout a little in the sun in the early morning or late evening.

    Send your Vitamin D money to me or David for providing you with this good education on Vit D! (even though its only 3/10 teaching and not cream! LOL)

  47. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    If any of you took the time to read the articles linked by researcher you will note that it appears that EVERY MALADY UNDER THE SUN IS RELATED TO LOW VIT D LEVELS.

    But what is it that is NOT MENTIONED ONCE IN ANY OF THESE ARTICLES?

    NEITHER THE CALCIUM LEVELS OR THE PHOSPHATE LEVELS?

    Huh? you are asking.

    Well since Vit D effects calcium and phosphorus metabolism, then the calcium and phosphorus ought to be measured concomitantly with the Vit D levels, Dont you think?.

    If the Vit D levels are low and the Calcium levels HIGH, why is not symptoms of hypercalcemia reported in all of these patients with all these diverse maladies?

    And if both Vit D and Calcium levels are low, from whence cometh the calcium that is necessary for injury to cells since cellular injury due to what ever cellular insult is associated with calcium influx into cells?

    Something not making sense to me?

    I hope dat wunnuh can follow that non cream 3/10-teaching by a buffoon! LOL. sorry (sniper)

    I am sure that Annonymous can google something from somewhere to help explain away my (sorry challenge) my theory/thesis. LOL

  48. David Avatar
    David

    Here is another presentation submitted by Doc GP.

  49. WOG Avatar
    WOG

    @ Georgie Porgie – Before you dismiss sugar as the cause of or one of the causes you need to expand your understanding of the concept of simple & complex sugars. FYI when your body notices that excess sugarglucose is accumulating in your blood it doesn’t care whether the source of the excess sugarGlucose is simple or complex it simply knows that it is time to start pumpingmanufacturing insulin into your system to control the glucose. Fructose is a simple sugar because of its’ chemical structure yet it does not trigger a rapid increase in insulin and is considered to be of low glycemic value on the other hand potatoes, rice, despite their complex chemical structure all cause a rapid increase in blood insulin and are therefore considered to be foodstuffs with a high glycemic index.
    Said differently it isn’t the type of sugar that compromises our system and causes the disease it is the excess insulin that is manufactured & released in response to the excess glucosesugar, so in other words your high-complex-carbohydrate diet is nothing more than a high-glucose diet which triggers the pancreas to manufacturepump insulin. Eventually our bodies become insensitive to the insulin and we become insulin resistant. Insulin resistance is the basis of all of the chronic diseases. …Couple that with fast food joints , TV, refrigerators and the fact that we drive every where we go and we have just touched on the source of 2/3 of our health issues.

  50. Crusoe Avatar
    Crusoe

    Personaly, I am confident in the ideas put forwards here by GP, aside from this being his area of expertise, not mine, what he has said meshes with what little I know on the subject from a while of voluntary research, for lifestyle choices.

    WOG, from my own little reading, rice and potatoes are simple carbs, not complex. Sweet potatoes and some other root items are complex.

    The glycemic index directly reflects what are complex carbs.

    Maybe GP will confirm.

    As for ‘fructose’, much processed foods contain ‘high fructose corn syrup’, reportedly one of the worst things to injest, due to the high simple carb intake from this. Anytime I see this ingredient, I run from the item.

    Yes, I check ingredients before I buy a product.

    Course, cannot resist a lil brown sugar in my coffee, but ‘brown sugar’ is the best, nothing sweeter…..sweet, sweet, sweet….

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