The vital, lifesaving importance of vitamin D
Leading ladies – and ladies a-leading
D-lightful D-clarations, part one
At the beginning of every winter, I write at least one Daily Dose article about the vital, lifesaving importance of vitamin D. That’s because winter is the time of the year that most folks (except skiers) run the greatest risk of plummeting into a bone-brittling, immunity-compromising, cancer-risk increasing deficiency of vitamin D.
Why? Because the NUMBER ONE BOON to bodily vitamin D supplies is sun exposure, specifically the ultraviolet rays so maligned by the medical mainstream today. In the cold season, most folks stay huddled up inside, away from the life-giving rays of our closest star (but they wouldn’t if they knew how much harm they were doing themselves).
But finally, in the last year and a half or so, some in the mainstream have grudgingly acknowledged not only the crucial importance of vitamin D, but also the vital role that sunlight exposure plays in fortifying your body with this lifesaving vitamin (Daily Doses, 11/26/2004 and 3/1/2005). And now, just in time for winter, another mainstream medical group pays homage to the basic truth of the message I’ve repeated most over the last 30 years.
According to a recent Reuters Health online article, the American Medical Women’s Association, an organization of 10,000 female doctors and medical students, has increased its recommendations for daily vitamin D intake for men and women over 50 years of age to roughly TWICE what the Institute of Medicine currently recommends. This new estimate for maximum bone strength: 800 to 1,000 international units (IU) per day.
Of course, I know for a fact (and at least one Canadian study validates me) that there’s no harm in taking even several thousand IU of vitamin D for the vast majority of people. The wise lady-docs of the AMWA recommend dietary supplementation as the best way for most older Americans to get their much-needed vitamin D – but they also cite sunscreens, sun-blocking clothing, and our tendency to avoid the outdoors as contributing factors in the great American vitamin D dearth.
Here’s the best part about this story: These courageous, mainstream-bucking MDs came up with these specific recommendations at a summit PAID FOR BY PHARMA-GIANT MERCK. That’s right: The pharma fat cats shelled out to assemble these smart ladies in one place – no doubt to promote some patented medication – and they emerge from the junket with a recommendation that’s all natural and drug free!
Now that’s class and guts – and poetic justice, too. My hat’s off to these brave, truth-telling colleagues
I wonder if a group of exclusively male doctors would have the integrity and steadfast clinical judgment to resist the charms of some all-expense-paid convention in Hawaii or some other dream destination, and instead come up with a sensible, drugless plan that’s completely in line with the medical facts, not Big Pharma’s hype?
But let me clarify something. I am not in favor of sex-oriented medical organizations any more than I like race-oriented organizations. It’s nice that the lady doctors did the vitamin D thing but, in my experience, most of them are just as self-serving and arrogant as their male counterparts. This polarization by sex and race is an unhealthy trend, in my opinion.
****************************************************
Gimme an S, gimme an E, gimme an X! What’s that sell – er, spell?
Despite the women’s rights and feminist movement of the last 40 years, there are still far more male doctors out there than female MDs. Mind you, I’m not saying that’s a GOOD thing or a BAD thing, only that it’s a fact. And drug companies leverage this sex disparity among practicing MDs for all it’s worth.
Not long ago, it was with things like steak-and-cigar dinners, sporting event tickets, golf outings and drug conferences at certain meccas of sex and greed, like Las Vegas. But lately (especially since the Vioxx debacle), pressure on the drug business from both the Feds and the public at large to clean up its image has forced Big Pharma to get more creative about how they push their largely male clientele’s buttons. One way they’re doing this is by HIRING CHEERLEADERS as drug reps.
According to a recent New York Times article, pharmaceutical companies are combing the college campuses – and even the sidelines of pro football teams – for comely young pitch-persons for their poisons. One college cheerleading coach cited in the article claimed he regularly gets calls from Pharma recruiters looking to mine the “talent” on the University of Kentucky’s national-champ cheerleading squad. Never mind the girl’s major, the coach says, as long as they have exaggerated smiles and motions, oodles of enthusiasm, and a talent for getting people to do what they want, Big Pharma will come calling.
The trend is so pervasive that there’s even a headhunting firm called Spirited Sales Leaders that specializes in converting bubbly, bouncy cheerleaders into sales reps that exert their charms on office-bound, patient-weary, stressed-out male doctors with maximum prescriptive effect.
Makes you wonder what the average drug rep actually knows about the products they’re hawking, doesn’t it?
Cheering the ladies, jeering what’s shady,
William Campbell Douglass II, MD
