Transcription
You know, when I heard this statistic, up to 80% of all women develop some type of fibroid by age 40, mind-blowing. Like, why? That is so weird. And the last thing that a woman wants is a hysterectomy with all the side effects, not to mention a fibroid. So, I pulled a string and I found something fascinating. I want to share with you.
Let's first take some clues about fibroids. Number one, they actually decrease after menopause. That's interesting. So, why would that be? Well, it's probably related to estrogen, right? We're going to get there. When a woman goes through pregnancy or is exposed to HRT or birth control pills, there can be an enlargement of the fibroid, which sounds like it's also related to estrogen.
Then we have the relationship between obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and polycystic ovarian syndrome, all increasing the risk of fibroids. Why is it that black women are three to nine times more at risk for getting fibroids? And of course, the common theme with this is estrogen. Estrogen is a growth hormone. It's a primary driver of fibroids and endometriosis.
All right, let's look at what a fibroid is. Uterus tissue. What is a uterus? It's a muscle. And so the difference between the fibroid and uterus is, a fibroid is a growth from the uterus. And so it grows out of the uterus tissue. In a fibroid, it's very non-elastic. There's a lot more collagen in a fibroid, that's why it's hard. But there's some very interesting differences between a fibroid and the uterus. In a fibroid, you have a much greater sensitivity for estrogen, which means that a fibroid is very sensitive to estrogen. Okay, it can grow a lot faster with estrogen than the actual uterus. And a fibroid has more receptors for estrogen. There's also more of this enzyme called aromatase going on in a fibroid.
Now, what's aromatase? That's an enzyme that converts androgens, which is more for men, to estrogen. The environment in this fibroid has a lot less oxygen than the uterus. That's called a hypoxia environment. We'll come back to that. And lastly, what's unique about a fibroid is that it has a lot more inflammation than the uterus.
So, here's the question: What do all of these clues have in common? So, there's one common thread that goes throughout all these clues, and that is a low vitamin D situation.
Now, regarding research in this area, which I'm going to cover in a little bit, there's mixed reviews on research with vitamin D. And I really think that has to do with the frequency and the amount of vitamin D that they give people in certain studies. The amount of vitamin D needs to be a lot greater than the usual vitamin D that's given to people because most of the studies are operating off of this old, outdated information that we need a very small amount of vitamin D, like 600 to 800 IUs. And all that research is mainly for bone, skeletal calcium, and not the immune system, the uterus, the prostate, the skin, the brain, the muscles. This is a completely other system that needs a lot more vitamin D.
Vitamin D will inhibit the growth of fibroids. Number two, vitamin D also helps regulate other growth factors as well. And since we're dealing with a fibroid, we're really dealing with something that's out of control as far as the growth. Vitamin D also is an aromatase inhibitor. It blocks that enzyme, preventing excess amounts of estrogen. Vitamin D increases apoptosis, which causes the fibroid cells to commit suicide, preventing the growth of a fibroid. But vitamin D also is anti-inflammatory. Anytime we have inflammation, we can have a growth of a tumor or even cancer. Well, guess what? Vitamin D is the most potent anti-inflammatory someone can take.
This is also interesting. Vitamin D doesn't seem to work in an environment where there's not enough oxygen, a hypoxic environment. Now, the very nature of a fibroid, it's creating this low oxygen hypoxia because it's so dense with irregular collagen and things like that. So, this could explain why normal amounts of vitamin D won't even come close to dealing or penetrating this fibroid in doing anything. You have to use much higher amounts.
Vitamin D downgrades estrogen. There are two different receptors for estrogen. One estrogen receptor increases tumor growth. The other one, called estrogen receptor beta, decreases or shrinks the cells that actually are turning into a tumor. Well, guess what? Vitamin D supports this one that helps shrink it and inhibits the other one that is making it grow, which is very cool. And also, vitamin D helps to increase the certain hormone in the liver to help lower the amount of free estrogen that's throughout the body.
So, if we look at this whole situation, estrogen is the primary driver, but we don't have the brake pads. And that is the vitamin D, simply because the majority of the population is deficient in vitamin D, especially black people and black women. Why? Because of the melanin in the skin blocks vitamin D. And so here we have this population which is already low in vitamin D, and then they actually have these spikes of estrogen. They're going to get more fibroids than people that have enough vitamin D.
Now, let's take a look at obesity, for example. Obese people are always deficient in vitamin D because vitamin D gets diluted into the fat cells. So, an overweight person needs a lot more vitamin D because it gets diluted and it's less effective. Now, as far as type 2 diabetes, there's always low vitamin D. High blood pressure, I think the majority of that is low vitamin D that's really behind high blood pressure because if you give a person more vitamin D, their blood pressure goes down. And then, of course, you have polycystic ovarian syndrome. That's a situation where we have way too much insulin.
Now, this is very interesting information because it provides a solution to a very common condition that occurs with up to 80% of all women. But I do not think you can create a dent into this problem unless you take enough vitamin D. And I'm going to get into this, but I first want to just talk about a few studies involved and also some anecdotal case studies that I want to share with you next.
So, the question is, is there research on vitamin D shrinking fibroids? Well, it's a bit mixed, but I want to show you why it's mixed. And I'm not going to show you some of the positive results right now. There was a study in 2013 in Reproductive Science that showed a significant decrease in the size of fibroids within 12 weeks, taking 25,000 IUs of vitamin D3 once a week. Now, if they took that every day, I think the results would be even better.
Here's another study in 2014 on African-American women. And these women had low vitamin D in their blood. They found a high percentage of women with fibroids have a lower vitamin D level than those that had a higher level of vitamin D in their blood. They gave them 50,000 IUs of vitamin D3 every two weeks, and then in 10 weeks, they saw a significant decrease in the fibroid size. And I'm even surprised that they saw those results because taking it every two weeks is just not going to be sufficient. You want to take it every single day.
Here's another study by C. Vantini. These are women who took vitamin D, and they found the group that took the vitamin D did not experience any fibroid growth versus the other group who didn't take vitamin D had a 40% increase in fibroid growth. In vitamin D3, doctors even discourage women from taking 10,000 or 20,000 or even 50,000 vitamin D every day because somehow it's toxic. When I said I was taking 50,000 IU, when I said that to my GP, he he was white as a sheet. He says, "That can't be. You took 50,000 IU? You know that's toxic." I said, "No, it's not toxic." That's what they all say. Yet the research shows that you'd have to take hundreds of thousands of vitamin D3 for months to create any toxicity. And really, the only toxicity is excess calcium in the blood causing kidney stones. But you can even greatly minimize that side effect by taking magnesium, vitamin K2, drinking a little more water, two and a half liters of water a day. Those are all the co-factors that will minimize that toxic effect. Which, personally, I think that if you're taking 50,000 IUs or less, you're not even in that range of having any toxicity.
Now, there's a really good book that I'm going to recommend down below on using high doses of vitamin D3. And this particular author, his name is Jeff Bowles, has a website, and you can search on his website. Now, these are anecdotal, they're not based in any studies, but it's worth listening to. Here's one: "I had a large fibroid tumor, and the doctors recommended surgery to remove my entire uterus. Well, guess what? After remaining on a high dosage of vitamin D3 with the proper K2, magnesium, zinc, and calcium balance, and of course, changing my diet, my last MRI showed that the tumor is now in a necrosis status. What's ironic is my doctor at Emory in Atlanta dropped me because I refused to have the surgery."
Let's show you another one right here: "I am a 50-year-old RN and a patient medical advocate with the vitamin D levels of 30 nanograms per milliliter. I didn't know what a difference having a high vitamin D level would do for me until now. I've taken 10,000 IUs for some years and felt a slight positive difference. But when I added the K2 and did the higher dosage of 50,000 IUs per day for one month, I've stabilized at 25,000 IUs and continue to feel the benefits. After two years, cured fibroid uterine tumors in early 2014, and I continue to experience no aches and pains. I keep my blood level at 150, which is high normal."
"I said, you know, look at me. I'm healthy as a horse. In fact, my numbers are even better than they were before." Right? He says, "Well, I don't think so. I think there's a problem here. We, we just, I think we have to look at this again." I said, "Look, the fibroid is gone. I don't need to do a hysterectomy. I don't need to remove my, you know, my womb. I don't need to do anything. You probably need to start telling your patients about this stuff. Why don't you read about vitamin D? Actually, there's a lot out there."
So, the other thing we're facing is what they don't want us to know about. They love evidence-based medicine. And they said, "Well, doctor, you believe in evidence-based medicine." And I said, "Well, yeah, but the problem is, you can't get at the evidence. It's either being censored, or you put it behind a paywall. Go down some rabbit hole of science, and you're looking at something, and you finally get to where the meat of the matter is. Boom! It's locked behind a paywall unless I buy a $100 for every article or whatever. I can't get it."
So, I really think there's enough data to seriously consider taking more vitamin D, as well as the co-factors, to potentially do some positive things about shrinking fibroids. But I think with a lot of things in the news with scares about vitamin D, it's very important to get all the details, especially with the scare of a toxic level of vitamin D. And if you haven't seen my video on the history of vitamin D, that I think exaggerated the toxicity levels, you should check out this video right here.