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Vitamin D and Health

Are you taking enough Vitamin D? Most of us are not according to the avalanche of evidence that is coming out saying that Vitamin D is vital for your health. I will summarize a few of the recent articles.

Fighting Infections with Vitamin E: Nature Medicine April 2006

Key Points:

In 1895 Niels Finsen of Denmark effectively treated tuberculosis with exposure to high-intensity light produced from an electric arc lamp. This improved the disease in 95% of the affected people. He was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1903 for this treatment. (Think the big pharma companies would have been trying to discredit him if he discovered this today?)

Sunlight stimulates the synthesis of Vitamin D which upregulates the expression of a microbe-fighting peptide, LL-37. This peptide, part of your innate immune response, stimulates the white blood cells to more effectively kill a variety of infections, such as bacteria.

American Blacks are particularly susceptible to infection by tuberculosis because they have substantially lower serum vitamin D levels than whites.

Our current recommendations are based on the minimum vitamin D requirements to sustain the health of our skeleton. This study reports that the optimal functioning of our innate immune system might require more vitamin D.

Picture of Dr. Christopher Quigley

Dr. Christopher Quigley

“I was majoring in chemistry at Villanova University when my path turned to chiropractic. I was going on interviews to be a pharmaceutical sales representative, and they always asked me what I wanted to be doing in five years. My answer was always the same: “I want to be helping people, enjoying my work, while making a difference.”

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Why Chiropractic Care Should Play a Bigger Role in Public Health

Looking for a Boston chiropractor focused on conservative, drug-free spine care? At Charles Street Family Chiropractic in Beacon Hill, Dr. Chris Quigley helps patients with back pain, neck pain, sciatica, disc problems, and recurring spinal conditions. Chiropractic care can support mobility, function, and active living while reducing reliance on medications and invasive procedures. Even major medical centers, including the University of South Florida Neurosurgery program, are integrating chiropractic care into collaborative spine treatment and research.

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Before Back Surgery: What Three Important Studies Say About Nonsurgical Spinal Decompression

The number that should stop every elective-surgery patient in their tracks is 94%.

In a large 2017 Journal of Pain Research study of 1,842 people who had undergone lumbar spine surgery, 94% reported some degree of residual low-back pain. That does not mean 94% had severe pain, nor does it mean 94% of the operations were surgical failures. But for an invasive procedure that many patients understandably hope will eliminate their back pain, the persistence of any low-back pain in such a large proportion of respondents is difficult to dismiss.

The same study found that 20.6% met the researchers’ criteria for failed back surgery syndrome —roughly one out of every five patients. Residual numbness was reported by 69.8%, cold sensations by 43.3%, and paresthesia such as tingling or abnormal sensations by 35.3%.

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