Big screen baddies and their skin conditions unpicked by dermatologists

Bulbous noses, warts and dark circles under the eyes are among the skin conditions commonly used by filmmakers to indicate villains, researchers have found.

A study by a team of US dermatologists has highlighted that while heroes of the silver screen typically have barely a mark on their features, characters with dubious morals are often depicted with all manner of skin traits – an association that, the researchers say, is damaging.

“It something that has been perpetuated in film, sometimes maybe even unintentionally, but it is something that has become more and more prevalent over the years,” said Julie Amthor Croley, co-author of the research from the University of Texas.

“It is not only perpetuating this tendency towards discrimination towards people with skin disease but it also does affect the person on an individual basis,” she added.

For the research, published in the journal JAMA Dermatology, Amthor Croley and colleagues began by scrutinising the appearance of the top ten heroes and villains as rated by the American Film Institute.

Top of the list of ne’er-do-wells was Hannibal Lecter, from The Silence of the Lambs, followed by Norman Bates of Psycho, Darth Vader of Star Wars, and the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz. The virtuous list, meanwhile, was topped by Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird and included, among others, James Bond, TE Lawrence, and Rocky Balboa.

American Film Institute all-time top 10 villains and associated dermatologic findings. Photograph: American Film Institute/Julie Amthor Croley et al

The team found that while skin features or conditions were common among the villains, cropping up in six of the ten cases, they were largely absent among the heroes – only Indiana Jones from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Rick Blaine from Casablanca were found to have scars, and then only single marks. What’s more, these scars belonged to the actors rather than being the handiwork of makeup artists, and were subtler and shorter than those of villains.

Baddies, however, had a host of skin problems ranging from warts, as found on the chin of the Wicked Witch of the West, to a condition known as rhinophyma which can cause a bulbous, red nose – such as that of the Queen in Snow White who, when in her hag-like disguise, was also found to sport deep wrinkles.

Regan MacNeil of The Exorcist also appeared on the top ten list of evil characters. The dark circles under her eyes and scars on her face are features also seen – together with deep wrinkles, grey skin and alopecia – in Darth Vader when he takes off his mask. The result, according to the authors, is that Vader “manifests sheer evil and incites apprehension and fear of the unfamiliar.”

“All these associations of skin findings with film villains date back to the silent film age in a time when all filmmakers had to communicate [with] was visual cues, they didn’t have spoken word,” said Amthor Croley, adding that one villain often sported multiple skin conditions, designed to hint at a nefarious character. “With specific reference to scars, filmmakers may use them to illustrate a sort of a stormy past filled with violence,” she added.

Beyond the top ten lists, the team point to other features which have frequently been linked to movie villains, including albinism – a condition seen in killers in the Da Vinci Code and Cold Mountain, among other films.

American Film Institute all-time top 10 heroes and associated dermatologic findings. Photograph: American Film Institute/Julie Amthor Croley et al

While the study does not consider whether many features such as hair loss were intended, prosthetic or just a natural feature of the actor, and only considers a small range of characters, experts say the research highlights an important issue.

“Skin disease is often trivialised as being nothing more than cosmetic disfigurement, but as this study shows, society holds deep-seated stereotypes about the association between skin appearance and personality,” said Kim Thomas, professor of applied dermatology research at the University of Nottingham, who was not involved in the research.

“Such stereotyping can be psychologically devastating for people suffering from common skin condition such as vitiligo, warts, acne and hair loss,” she added. “At a time when cash-strapped health services are talking of limiting medical treatment for cosmetic conditions, it is timely to be reminded of the wider impact that visible disfigurement can have on those affected.”

James Partridge, chief executive of the charity Changing Faces, said that findings of the study were not surprising. “For years, facial differences, such as dermatological conditions, scars or alopecia, have been used to indicate a villainous character. What concerns us is that this type of visual shorthand is used without any thought as to how it might affect the lives of real people with a visible difference,” he said.

“We want the film industry to take a more balanced approach,” he added. “Why can someone with a disfigurement not play the kind parent, the supportive teacher, the famous actor or even the president?”

Big screen baddies and their skin conditions unpicked by dermatologists

Heal thyself: meet the doctors living with the conditions they treat

The dermatologist with skin problems

Bav Shergill: As a teenager I was terribly embarrassed about my skin – I had really bad acne from the age of 15. It took me until I went to medical school to find the courage and confidence to change my GP and get a hospital referral.

Now, when i’m treating patients with acne I can reassure them by drawing on my own experience. I can say: “I was on this drug, too, and my head didn’t fall off.”

This connection between my own experience and relating to patients increased in my late 30s when I discovered I had rosacea. This causes severe redness and inflammation and can develop into acne-like spots, accompanied by a stinging, burning sensation.

Rosacea breakouts can be triggered by a number of things, including caffeine, alcohol and stress – in my case, I was preparing to go on TV while working full-time and trying to look after a poorly, heavily pregnant wife and small child at home when my face flared up. I’d treated rosacea before, so I knew what it was, but mine was the worst case I’d ever seen.

A nurse I worked with said: “It’s OK, there’s a whole range of products for rosacea and acne-type skin. We can cover this up.” I would never have considered make-up, but watching the programme later, I couldn’t see a blemish.

So that’s a tip I was then able to pass on to patients. If they were worried about putting cream on their painful skin, I was able to reliably tell them that the discomfort would pass and I was living proof the medication worked. I know only too well how difficult it can be to face the world during an outbreak, so I don’t brush aside that aspect of it at all. I’m aware how much it can impact on someone.

I have also learned that it’s possible to compromise – with rosacea you’re advised to avoid red wine and coffee, both of which I enjoy. I can help patients make an informed decision. I’ll say: “Look, life’s short and if you want a cup of coffee, go ahead. Your skin may look worse tomorrow, but it’ll get better.” It becomes more of a collaborative situation, where we share experiences and I do think the fact I’m candid about it helps patients relax.

I know very well what it’s like to wait three months for an appointment and then have 10 minutes with the doctor and think: “That was a lot of build-up for not a lot of time. Have they really understood me?”

I’m not saying every doctor has to suffer with the disease they specialise in to excel in their field, but I do think it increases your understanding and empathy levels.

Dr Bav Shergill is a consultant dermatologist at Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead

The psychiatrist who suffers from depression

Linda Gask: ‘When I meet a patient, I now think this is a person like me, with similar problems.’ Photograph: Alex Telfer for the Observer

Linda Gask: In psychiatry there’s an emphasis on “strength”. I can only think of one other senior psychiatrist who’s come out and said he’s had depression. There are still people within the profession who I am sure would view my problems as my own personal weakness.

In my family everyone experienced mental health problems of one kind or another. It wasn’t the easiest environment to grow up in. By the time I went to university to study medicine I was often overwhelmed by anxiety.

Following a particularly debilitating period of depression, I got in touch with the psychiatrist who had treated me and asked if he thought it was something I could do. It was the area of medical training I felt most at home in. I felt my ability to understand how people felt was helpful. To my delight, he agreed.

I’ve experienced three or four prolonged episodes of depression and I’ve taken antidepressants for more than 20 years. I’m aware some of my colleagues would take issue with that – some think medication doesn’t work or can even be dangerous. But I know how helpful it has been for me.

I don’t think being a psychiatrist automatically makes you aware of your own processes. It’s not a matter of insight, of being able to heal yourself. There’s never just one simple solution and sometimes you need someone to talk to – someone who won’t try to offer reassurance, as a friend might, by reminding us of everything that’s good in our lives.

My own experience of therapy has taught me how important it is to engage your patient. You can’t just sit back and think: “Have I asked the right questions here? What’s the diagnosis and what’s the treatment?” as if working through a recipe. Instead, I’ve learned to think: “This is a person like me, perhaps with similar kinds of problems to the ones I’ve had. How can I reach out to them and help?”

Patients have occasionally picked up on the kind of questions I’ve asked during a consultation, or when I’ve given an example that particularly resonated with them. I’m well aware of how difficult it can be just to make it to your appointment in the first place – how some days, even getting out of bed can become impossible. I’ve had patients say: “I think you might have experienced this as well? Have you?” In those instances, I have to step back and say: “Well, yes, but this is your time so we won’t talk about me, but I do understand quite a lot how you are feeling.” It’s possible to retain a boundary while still offering a glimpse of your humanity and, though that approach isn’t encouraged, some patients told me they really appreciated it.

I’ve never felt any need to hide the fact I was seeking help myself, either. I’ve been treated by colleagues and told I could wait in private, away from the waiting room, as if I’d be worried about the risk of being spotted by a patient or colleague who recognised me. But I’ve always made a point of sitting with everyone else. We really are not being honest with ourselves if we say that we’re against stigma, but we won’t sit and wait with those we treat. I’ve spent years telling people that mental health issues are nothing to be ashamed of, so why would I do otherwise?

Professor Linda Gask’s The Other Side of Silence: a Psychiatrist’s Memoir of Depression, is published by Vie Books at £9.99. To order a copy for £8.49, go to bookshop.theguardian.com

The fertility expert who couldn’t conceive

Shannon Clark: ‘Having been through infertility, it’s now much harder to see another woman experience it.’ Photograph: Felix Sanchez for the Observer

Shannon Clark:The first time I saw a baby being born, the course of my life changed. That first delivery took place in an operating room, a very sterile environment, and we all wore masks and gowns. I was completely overwhelmed – no one could see, but I was crying.

I decided to specialise in high-risk obstetrics, and for a long time I thought I’d be OK if I never experienced motherhood myself. My goal in life was to be the best doctor I could be.

That altered when I met my future husband, René. Suddenly, the desire to have my own children became strong. We married within a year and a half and started to try for a baby – I was 39. Obviously, I knew all about the biological clock, but somehow felt it didn’t apply to me. I was healthy, I didn’t drink or smoke, I worked out and didn’t have any medical problems. Everything I ever wanted to achieve I was able to with ease. I guess I felt becoming a mother was no exception. But I was wrong.

I became pregnant within a few months of marrying, but miscarried. The next thing I knew, I was 40 and panic set in. We were told that our best option for conceiving was IVF.

Over the next 18 months we went through five cycles. Meanwhile, I was still working and delivering babies for other women. It was hard not to think: “Why not me?” But I couldn’t let it overwhelm me.

Those IVF cycles produced only one embryo that was chromosomally normal. It was transferred, but failed, so we decided to try donor eggs. The first two donor egg embryos failed as well, but we tried again in March of last year. After two years of infertility treatments, I became pregnant with twins.

As a physician, I was all too aware that twin pregnancies are high risk. But I knew I couldn’t have been in better hands. I was very lucky to make it to 31 weeks when I went into labour and had my babies by emergency C-section.

It all happened so quickly. I didn’t get to see my son, Remy, and daughter, Sydney, until nearly 24 hours after they were born. Although I knew what to expect, I was still startled at how small they were.

Now they’re both thriving, healthy and five months old, and I’ve just recently started back at work. Before the twins, I’d deliver babies and hand them to the paediatrician straight away. Now I want to hold them a little longer, spend more time at the mother’s bedside.

When you’re a physician and you’ve gone through something your patients are going through, you have to read that patient to see if it’s appropriate to say: “Well, I went through it too.” But at least I can understand a little more and I’ll choose my words more carefully, I’ll take more time with her. There are little things I can do to try and make it better.

Some parts of my job are a bit harder now. After maternity leave, the first time I delivered a baby that didn’t survive I just broke down. Having been through infertility and pregnancy loss myself, it’s much harder to see another woman experience it.

That’s one of the biggest things I’ve learned. A pregnancy loss before there’s even a heartbeat can be just as devastating as later on. I need to give all women the time they need to grieve and heal. I understand that better now.

Dr Shannon M Clark is a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at UTMB-Galveston, Texas, and founder of BabiesAfter35.com

The oncologist who survived cancer

David Carbone: ‘I suspected I had lung cancer as I’d seen patients present in exactly the same way.’ Photograph: Andrew Spear for the Observer

David Carbone: One of the things that attracted me to lung cancer was the intensity of the doctor- patient relationship. Almost all my patients come to me with a diagnosis in advanced lung cancer. They’re hearing this totally new vocabulary, meeting a new set of people in whom they are trusting their lives.

Seventeen years ago, I was an associate professor in my second academic job and 44 years old. I was shaving before going into a meeting and noticed my neck veins were sticking out. I knew I didn’t have a cardiac condition, so the first thing that came to mind was superior vena cava syndrome, caused by a mass in the chest. When I got home from the meeting I ordered a chest x-ray, which indeed revealed a mass in the centre of my chest, and a lung mass as well. A CT scan backed this up and I suspected I had stage III lung cancer, because I’d seen patients present exactly the same way.

To be an oncology physician in that situation is both easier and harder than being a patient without medical training. Easier because I knew the physicians I could trust with my life; but also harder because I’ve seen how ugly cancer can be and how horribly people die.

My father was an oncologist, too, and I phoned him and said: “Dad, it’s c… It’s c…” I couldn’t even say the word. It took me a few tries to get it out. It was the start of a rough few years. My wife ended up leaving me. I’m now happily remarried, but it showed me that you can never predict how people will react.

Once part of my left lung had been removed and the mass in my chest biopsied, it turned out I had a large cell lymphoma, rather than lung cancer. On the face of it, that was good news, but the first medical articles I read still only gave me a 17% chance of five years’ survival. I was afraid, largely because I worried about what would happen to my children. Age from six to 12, each of them had a different level of understanding. The eldest was aware that he might lose his dad. The youngest ones saw my hair falling out during chemotherapy and became frightened I had something contagious they were going to catch.

That really brought home to me the importance of family and friends in the cancer patient’s experience. Some patients have family members around them every single time they see me, others always come alone. They catch the bus in to get their therapy and they take it back home, and it’s pretty sad to see that – even 20 or 30-year-old people sometimes suffering alone with no support system.

I always dealt empathetically with my patients, but until I lived their experience, I don’t think I fully understood it. I survived my cancer, but I still lost part of my lung, had multiple rounds of multi-agent chemotherapy and radiation, thoracic surgery and inadequate pain control – I’ve experienced how bad the side-effects of therapy can feel. I actually enjoy taking these desperate patients and trying to make them comfortable with me as a partner in fighting this disease. I give them my phone number and often see them every two or three weeks until they die. As I said, it’s an intense relationship, but a meaningful one and often a rewarding one, too.

Dr David P Carbone, MD, PhD is a director at the James Thoracic Center, James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, Ohio State University

Heal thyself: meet the doctors living with the conditions they treat

Ireland to legalise cannabis for specific medical conditions

Ireland is set to legalise the use of cannabis for treating specific medical conditions, after a report commissioned by the government said the drug could be given to some patients with certain illnesses.

The Irish health minister, Simon Harris, said he would support the use of medical cannabis “where patients have not responded to other treatments and there is some evidence that cannabis may be effective”.

The report said cannabis could be given to patients with a range of illnesses including multiple sclerosis and severe epilepsy, and to offset the effects of chemotherapy.

“I believe this report marks a significant milestone in developing policy in this area,” Harris said. “This is something I am eager to progress but I am also obligated to proceed on the basis of the best clinical advice.”

Last November, Harris asked Ireland’s Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) to examine the latest evidence on cannabis for medical use and how schemes to facilitate this operate in other countries.

The study found “an absence of scientific data demonstrating the effectiveness of cannabis products” and warned of “insufficient information on [the drug’s] safety during long-term use for the treatment of chronic medical conditions”.

“The scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of cannabis across a large range of medical conditions is in general poor, and often conflicting,” it added.

However, it added that any decision on legalising use of cannabis was ultimately for society and the government to make.

Harris said he wanted to set up a “a compassionate access programme for cannabis-based treatments” and was now considering any changes in the law needed for its operation.

The new medical cannabis scheme will run for five years and will be constantly monitored by Irish health service experts.

The big policy shift came in the same week that the Fine Gael-led coalition in Dublin backed the idea of a “safe injection” room for heroin addicts in Ireland’s capital.

The Temple Bar Company, which represents bars, clubs, restaurants and other businesses in the cultural-entertainment quarter on the south bank of the Liffey in Dublin, expressed opposition to locating any of the injection centres in or close to the tourist district.

The Temple Bar chief executive, Martin Harte, said businesses in the tourist centre collected 1,500 syringes from the streets around the area every year.

“We are bracing ourselves for an increase in the level of syringe disposals and related antisocial behaviour,” he said.

“Addiction centres make no provision for what happens outside of opening hours … The Temple Bar Company is not opposed to tackling issues with drugs in Ireland, but we are opposed to proposals that exacerbate and fuel an injecting epidemic in Dublin city.”

Last year, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, the former Irish Labour party junior health minister, became the first politician to call publically for a safe injection centre for the more than 20,000 registered heroin addicts in Dublin alone.

Ó Ríordáin also said he favoured making the possession of heroin, cocaine or other opiates for personal use no longer an arrestable offence.

Although he is no longer in government, after last year’s election, Ó Ríordáin’s suggestion of partial decriminalisation of drugs among users won the backing of rank-and-file police officers in Ireland, who said it would free up resources.

Ireland to legalise cannabis for specific medical conditions

"The worst conditions in memory": NHS doctors describe their week in A&E

The Guardian asked a number of doctors working in A&E departments across the country to explain how their departments have coped over the past seven days, said to have been the worst week ever for NHS emergency departments. These are some of their responses:

‘We are devastated by underemployment’

It’s been like an absolute war zone recently. The government at the moment, not to mention my regulatory bodies, are ignoring the worst hospital conditions in my memory. We have a brilliant team, but are devastated by underemployment and underinvestment. We have two permanent registrars on a rota of seven places.

On a recent shift, I walked in to patients waiting four and a half hours to see a doctor. This means every patient has failed the “breach” target by the time they’re seen. A diligent staff nurse asked me to take a look at a patient she was a ‘bit worried about’. The woman was devastatingly ill with a perforated bowel, and could have easily become fatally unwell. She survived thanks to the observational diligence of my colleague, and later our excellent surgical team.

The London ambulance service is similarly overwhelmed. They couldn’t provide me with a transfer ambulance for another emergency case, and 11-year-old with a sight-threatening infection, in less than 70 minutes. The target is eight minutes. It is a miracle the child didn’t lose an eye.”

‘Nothing can be done’

Our hospital is crumbling and is unsafe on a daily basis. On Thursday, there were 75 patients in an department that has 18 majors’ beds. Thirty-five of those were medical patients awaiting beds, 20 hadn’t been seen as there was nowhere to see them or no staff to triage them.

We have expressed our concerns verbally, via formal emails to trust, incident reports etc, but nothing can be done as it can’t elsewhere either. Medical professionals are talking about quitting as they believe soon someone will die on our watch … [It is] completely out of control. Maybe it has already happened and we just don’t know. I’m talking about a cohort of 11 doctors. God knows what people feel nationally. It scares me what we are heading for.

When a family member got admitted last weekend I panicked, not because it was that serious but I actually felt they may not be safe in hospital.

I am angry that it is being ignored and swept under the carpet. I am angry that we are left to pick up the pieces and apologise for a system we’ve put our hearts and souls into, but now have no control over.

‘It’s not acceptable to practise medicine in this way’

This past week in A&E has been horrendous. There are no beds in this busy teaching hospital. There are more than 20 patients queueing in the corridor at any given time. We’re seeing, treating and discharging patients in the queue. It’s undignified to ask a miscarrying pregnant woman about her blood loss in a queue, never mind in one filled with loud drunks. It’s just not acceptable to have to practise medicine in this way, but what choice do we have?

Patients in the queue have a substandard quality of care. Fact. So much for calling 999 in an emergency, then waiting an age for the crew to arrive because they’re all waiting in the corridors of A&E to unload patients. Even once you arrive at the department with said emergency, you’ll be waiting hours for any sort of assessment or treatment. My collusion in this depravity is solely in an attempt to keep my patients as safe as possible, but mistakes are being made and this is not sustainable.

‘We were truly swamped’

I was on call at night for the last week at a small district general hospital. We had to put the hospital on divert. There were 15 ambulances waiting for entry and consultants doing their assessments in the back of them. On surgery, despite phenomenal work from the registrar on call, we were truly swamped.

‘These are just some of my experiences this week in A&E …’

A four-bedded resus unit expected to make capacity for eight patients; leaving a shift to come back 24 hours later and finding some of the same patients still in resus; being in charge of the emergency department [ED] overnight with rota gaps; and requesting a divert for a few hours to allow us to catch up, only to be told that the policy has changed and capacity issues now had to be dealt with internally.

‘Everybody is terrified’

In the accident and emergency department where I work there is provision to keep up to 12 people overnight in case the wards are too full. On Tuesday night there were 27 sick patients all requiring hospital treatment who were kept on corridors and in the laundry room, being cared for by three nurses and one doctor.

It’s normal at the moment for 20 to be there overnight. We are having to send patients home we would rather admit, with little to no access to social care. Everybody is terrified. Everybody is waiting for something terrible to happen, because no matter how hard you work, there are too many cracks that are widening for patients to slip through. Stafford is where everything went down a few years ago. It seems the same situation is now happening on a nationwide level. I hope desperately that nobody I love or care about needs to be admitted to hospital right now. I just can’t believe how bad it is compared to last year.

‘The entire system is crumbling’

There are not enough staff and 12 ambulances regularly sitting in the corridor. There are designated corridor nurses. In this ED the patients can wait for eight hours. The emergencies do get seen first, as do the strokes, and the triage nurses pull the sickest out the corridor but sometimes they are seen in the corridor. A consultant is designated for the corridor to ensure safety.

A consultant has been staying overnight often lately due to the safety concerns, but that is unsustainable and they are burning out. No one is bothered about breaches anymore, it’s the 12-hour trolley waits because the CCG [clinical commissioning group] has to know then and trust board get involved. The entire system is crumbling. On New Year’s Eve our hospital asked for a divert when the wait was eight and a half hours with only 14 ambulances left on the roads in Merseyside. This is not uncommon. The divert was denied because the wait was not the longest, and every other department was in the same situation.

‘We have a daily lack of beds’

I’m a registrar in one of the busiest emergency departments in the country. This past week saw our busiest day on record with nearly 200 people waiting in our department at one point. There was a five-hour wait just to be seen, and a 14-hour wait for beds. I have people queuing to get a space in resuscitation and it regularly becomes dangerous. We have a daily lack of beds due to poor flow of patients out of hospital backing up to the emergency department. Patients are coming to harm and there are undoubtedly deaths arising from the current state of emergency medicine.

"The worst conditions in memory": NHS doctors describe their week in A&E

11 Health Conditions Onions Can Help You With

Onions are native to Asia and The Middle East. Onion is the most cultivated species of the genus Allium, and the cultivation goes back to over 5000 years. It has also been used in traditional medicines since ancient times for its health promoting and curative properties.

The flavonoids in onion, which are responsible for many of the health benefits, are usually more concentrated in the outer layers of the bulb. To get the maximum benefit, try to peel as little of the outer skin as possible.

Nutritional Value Of Onions

Vitamin C – 11.1 milligrams. 19% RDA (Recommended daily value)

Folate – 28.5 micrograms. 7% RDA

Potassium – 219 milligrams. 6% RDA

Manganese – 0.2 milligrams. 10% RDA

Fiber – 2.6 grams. 10% RDA

Vitamin B6 – 0.2 milligrams. 9% RDA

11 Proven Health Benefits of Eating Onion

Prevents Diabetes

Onions are good for people who have diabetes, and people should include red onions regularly in their diet. A single serving of onions contains 27% of your biotin DRI. Biotin has many positive impacts on your health, one of which is combatting symptoms associated with type 2 diabetes. Early research suggests that a combination of biotin and chromium might help regulate blood sugar and even decrease insulin resistance.

Fight Cancer

Onion extract is rich in a variety of sulfides, which provide some protection against tumor growth. Some studies have shown, regular consumption of onions helps to reduce the risk of several cancers such as colorectal cancer, oral cancer, laryngeal cancer, stomach cancer, esophageal cancer, and ovarian cancer.

Builds Strong Immunity

Due to their polyphenol content, onions can help boost your immunity by protecting your body against free radicals. Plus, onions contain a trace mineral selenium that helps improve immunity by initiating an immune response and also preventing an excessive immune response.

Lowers bad cholesterol

Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong show that onions can help reduce the levels of bad cholesterol. Studies show that consuming half a raw onion daily can help to raise the good HDL cholesterol by 30%. Chives, garlic, and shallots are also effective. They all come from the Allium family.

Relieving Earache

A few drops of onion juice may actually prove immensely beneficial to individuals suffering from an acute earache. The ringing sound in the ear may be cured by applying onion juice through a piece of cotton wool.

Tooth Decay

Raw onions may make our breath stink, but they can actually improve our oral health. Simply chewing a raw onion can strengthen teeth and eliminate bacteria that can lead to tooth decay. Two to three minutes of chewing on an onion can kill most germs in the mouth.

Improve Digestion

Onions are high in fiber, which is good for maintaining a healthy and regular digestive system. Fiber prevents digestive pain and breaks down food can keep it moving.

Boosts Sexual Drive

Onions are said to increase the urge for a healthy sex life. One table spoon of onion juice along with one spoonful of ginger juice, taken three times a day, can boost the libido and sex drive.

Stimulate Hair Growth

Onion is rich in sulfur which is one of the essential nutrients in promoting hair growth. A study has shown that applying onion juice on scalp twice a week for 2 months will stimulate hair regrowth.

Sinus Relief

For a clogged nose and sinusitis problems, onions can help to loosen mucous, clearing the nasal passages and making breathing easier.

Reference & Sources:

1) https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/herbs-and-spices/onion.html

2) http://www.healthfitnessrevolution.com/top-10-health-benefits-of-onions/

3) http://www.informationng.com/2013/04/15-amazing-health-benefits-of-onions.html

4) http://www.top10homeremedies.com/kitchen-ingredients/10-beauty-and-health-benefits-of-raw-onions.html

11 Health Conditions Onions Can Help You With

7 Major Benefits of Lycopene (Include preventing cancer and heart conditions)

7 Major Benefits of Lycopene (Include preventing cancer and heart conditions)

Getting To The Root Cause Of Autoimmune Conditions

Every day in my practice, I come across patients suffering from autoimmune conditions like lupus, crohn’s, celiac, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Type 1 Diabetes and so many more.  Many of them have tried conventional approaches without much success and they are left with more questions than answers.  The point of this paper is discuss how autoimmune conditions are created, who gets them and how our practice would determine the best approach to improving them.  We look at many different paradigms that have been successful in our practice and many functional medicine offices from around the world.  They are different than just suppressing the immune system to limit the inflammatory response.  We will only provide high level explanations due to timing but they will give you a general idea on how you can address your disease.

There are three primary reasons why you get an autoimmune condition in my opinion.  The first is a genetic predisposition to the disease.  You must have the genes in your DNA that can be potentially activated in the future.  For example, “celiac patients have HLA DQ2/DQ8” 1  Crohn’s disease is related to “chromosomes 5 and 10.  Variations of the ATG1GL1, PRGM, and NOD2 genes increase the risk of developing Crohn disease. The IL23R gene is associated with Crohn disease. “ 2  The second reason why autoimmune conditions get activated are due to environmental triggers or lifestyle preferences.  For example, when celiac patients eat gluten, they inflame their intestines and cause harm to their microvilli and intestinal lining.  Smoking and stress have been known triggers that I see in my practice of causing flare ups with crohn’s patients.    The last point that must addressed when dealing with autoimmune conditions is leaky gut.  In layman’s terms, this is where your small intestine is not bound by tight junctions and antigens or other foreign substances can pass through your small intestine and into the bloodstream.  The intestinal lining of the small intestine is only one cell deep so when it is compromised, the toxins, microbes and undigested food particles have complete access to your bloodstream and subsequently your immune system.

So What tests would we run to get to the root cause?  There are so many at our disposal like your typical blood panel from your primary care physician, vitamin D, vitamin B status, etc.  This will give you a great idea on plasma levels, immune system response, etc.  However the two best labs and methods of testing I find helpful are a gut test for parasites, bacteria and yeast infections as well as a toxicity panel that measures the levels of toxins in your system with mercury being a main one.  The best lab that we use now is called the GI MAPS lab and this is excellent for looking at your gut flora, potential pathogens and the overall health of your gut.  Many autoimmune conditions are exacerbated by parasites or bad bacteria present in your gut.  Once we eradicate them, many patients feel much better.  The second lab I want to focus on here is the Quicksilver Blood Metals Panel which checks for toxicity and mercury in the body.  Mercury and toxicity have been shown in my practice to cause issues for autoimmune patients.  I highly recommend them.

Without divulging too much information on a short paper, there are different approaches to treating the patients once we have all of this information back.  The information we ascertain from the aforementioned labs gives up the necessary data augmented with the clinical presentation of the client to create a specific protocol.  This will include nutrition, sleep recommendations, physical fitness, lifestyle modifications and so much more.  We are always here to help people from around the world as health and vitality are paramount to a fulfilled life.

1 http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1790189-overview?pa=XyQtRwkkjjXzPKjqaNX9FAjPWcUIG8%2BUHzy%2F58fxOGN%2BnYPcglMzZEXmIHKcsHNzoiPw6aj8Zj28%2Fy2KIvi7JbMb2%2BAxf%2Fl0jKoGV08O1Sc%3D

2 https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/crohn-disease

Mike, FDN, PT

www.mikedaciuk.com

info@mikedaciuk.com

About the Author:

After completing his Degree at Ryerson University and spending 15 years in Corporate, he graduated from the Functional Diagnostic Nutrition program in California and is now the CEO of Interactive Body Balance where he oversees a vibrant functional medicine health practice. Transitioning from Corporate to the entrepreneurial paradigm has involved seeing patients and clients via the conventional method but also virtually. He has authored the popular self-help book titled “The Transformation From Within” and the Functional Medicine Book ” How To Restore Your Health”, hosts the highly ranked ITunes Podcast called Interactive Body Balance, is creating multiple online health courses while also presenting to audiences around the world.

Getting To The Root Cause Of Autoimmune Conditions

Silent, not deadly how farts remedy conditions | Dean Burnett

It appears like it was only final week that a study by the University of Exeter exposed that smelling farts cures all manner of fatal illnesses, which lead to a lot of media coverage about the healing properties of nether-region emissions.

Some cynical varieties experimented with to fight this, metaphorically lifting the duvet from the developing cloud of excitement. Positive, the actual research was far much more complicated, and did not especially reference farts, just hydrogen sulphide, a gas developed by all-natural bodily processes that provides flatulence its unpleasant odour. The examine claimed that targeted delivery of compound called AP39 causes a lot more hydrogen sulphide to be produced by an ailing cell, and hydrogen sulphide in little doses can prove protective to the cell’s mitochondria, which supplies the cell’s power and is usually damaged by conditions. Hydrogen sulphide avoiding this mitochondrial damage as a result can help cells resist the progression of several diseases.

Of program, for a lot of in the media, “hydrogen sulphide delivery assists prevent condition damage in cells in certain condition models” will constantly be trumped by “farts cure cancer” when it comes to headlines. But, for after, it turned out that the wild extrapolations had been true, and smelling farts really did remedy key illnesses. And as 1 may anticipate, the consequences of this were sudden, unpleasant, and lingered for a lengthy time afterwards.

First of all, a good deal of the underlying science had to be re-written. It was broadly believed that inhalation of high concentrations of hydrogen sulphide was very hazardous to well being, not advantageous. It was also believed that smelling a fart simply meant the component gases entered the lungs and were largely just exhaled again, not absorbed effectively and delivered to diseased cells.

A lot of scientists also wondered why this phenomenon hadn’t been observed before now, thinking about that the regular person is supposedly farts about 14 instances per day but there have constantly been a lot of sick individuals close to in spite of continuous publicity to these human emissions. The clear counter to this argument is that, without having the healing properties of flatulence, sickness costs could be considerably greater than they are. On best of this, studies exposed that men and women hardly ever break wind around the terminally sick, due to awkwardness and worry of saying some thing insensitive resulting in elevated “clenching” of the related sphincters.

When the existence-sustaining properties of flatulence have been extensively identified, there have been a lot of social consequences. Individuals who openly farted about others have been no longer taken care of with disdain but with grudging respect. But contrastingly, farting misplaced a good deal of its humorous associations, as individuals came to see a fart becoming made for comedic effect as a fart that could now not be utilised to save a existence, as if the dispenser had just poured a litre of blood down the drain for a joke. This kind of items were deemed unacceptable. When the Red Cross adopted the phrase “Pull my finger” as the slogan for its campaign to enhance donations of flatulence for disaster victims, a classic joke was in essence misplaced forever.

For a long time, the major supply of flatulence for medicinal functions was that donated by humans. As human flatulence has never conformed to a predictable routine, personal waste-gasoline assortment attachments, or “belt balloons”, became a frequent web site. As use and demand boost, much flatulence was ultimately harvested from domestic cows, a practice which had the sudden but appreciated consequence of slowing global warming.

With flatulence encouraged, folks started out eating much more flatulence-creating foodstuffs, especially these foods that included beans and a lot of spice, resulting in Mexican cuisine reaching global dominance in underneath a month.

As is usually the situation with significant social adjustments, specific men and women were unable or unwilling to adapt. These who refused to embrace flatulence and donate their emissions simply because they regarded it rude or vulgar were ultimately labelled “too grand to guff”, and in a cruelly ironic twist, sooner or later became social outcasts.

There have been, of program, a lot of damaging consequences. The makes use of of flatulence in mainstream medication lead to the underlying ideas getting seized on and speedily corrupted by alternative medication adherents. The concept that “if a single bodily emission cures illnesses, they all do” rapidly took hold, and lead to an improve in spread of illnesses as sick individuals had been coughed on, sneezed on, belched on or… worse, by people who claimed that carrying out so would help them.

A lot of also criticised the reversal of the public smoking ban in the Uk, which occurred following effective campaigns based on the truth that improved flatulence had now created public areas smell far worse than cigarette smoke ever did. Individuals who complained about the dangers of passive smoking were invariably dismissed by people who pointed out that the healing properties of farts will cancel them out. Some pubs and dining establishments experimented with to introduce focused “farting areas” on their premises, but these so-referred to as “Dutch ovens” never ever actually caught on.

And as ever, it was Ryanair who delivered the most shameless attempt to money in on the therapeutic positive aspects of intestinal gasses, by cutting back on the air filtering on their flights and charging passengers an extra “indirect gaseous medicinal administration” fee.

At this stage, you might be thinking “but this is nonsense none of this occurred, it is just somebody with a media platform extrapolating wildly from anything an individual else wrote and presenting it as fact”.

Yes, that is precisely what it is. But as we saw in the initial 2 paragraphs, this sort of issue is apparently fine.

Dean Burnett prefers to supply his unpleasant outbursts by way of the odourless medium of Twitter, @garwboy

Silent, not deadly how farts remedy conditions | Dean Burnett

Conditions spread in weeks. Epidemic study requires many years. This should modify | Jeremy Farrar

In 1976 a thermos of blood from a Flemish nun who had died in Zaire arrived at the Antwerp lab the place Peter Piot, the fantastic microbiologist, was education. Exams soon unveiled that the lead to of death was not, as suspected, yellow fever. It was a new and really deadly virus: Ebola.

Later that yr Piot travelled to Zaire the place he played a essential position in containing the Ebola outbreak that killed 280 of the 318 men and women it infected. This spring, as he retraced his journey in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, yet another Ebola epidemic began to sweep via Guinea. The death toll passed 200 final week.

In the 38 years separating these epidemics, techniques for containing Ebola have been standardised. Nevertheless our knowledge of how to treat patients or build a vaccine has not moved on at all. It is nonetheless a matter of quarantine and protected funerary practices: shut you away and bury you nicely. These continue to be the most effective public well being tools we have, but also the bluntest and most brutal. Can it be correct to depend on them nevertheless? Is it ethical to have manufactured no progress due to the fact these epidemics impact people far away from the centres of political gravity?

It is straightforward to think of Ebola as an outlier, a uncommon and exotic condition that is especially hard to learn about due to the sporadic nature of its outbreaks, the remoteness of the communities it affects, and the trouble of containing transmission from its animal hosts. There are also ethical troubles with research in which informed consent can be hard to accomplish. These factors do make it a difficult virus to realize. But ahead of we rest as well simple we must not feel we have made significantly progress with numerous other infectious illnesses that pass significantly closer to the world’s centres of healthcare excellence.

We have turn out to be better at identifying the begin of epidemics, observing their passage, measuring their effect, charting their spread and counting the bodies. But as well frequently we have left it at that, as if improved surveillance can do the task alone. We have to do far better. We want to move in direction of better treatment method and knowing of what to do when the alarm is raised.

Flu is a prime instance. In April, a Cochrane Collaboration assessment suggested that oseltamivir (Tamiflu) is not a clinically efficient treatment method for influenza. The researchers argued that hundreds of hundreds of thousands of pounds invested by governments on stockpiling the antiviral for pandemic defence had therefore been wasted. There are methodological questions in excess of the Cochrane method, which refused to think about observational studies that might have indicated critical rewards. But the assessment raised a substantive level that stands: there is far also minor reputable prospective proof about whether this frontline method to flu operates. We do not know which drug to use, which individuals to deal with, which dose to use or for how extended.

Researchers said that the hundreds of millions of lbs spent by on stockpiling Tamiflu for pandemic defence had consequently been wasted. Photograph: Hanodut/EPA

Why is this nevertheless so? Influenza occurs each and every year, and in 2009, when Tamiflu had currently been stockpiled, we experienced H1N1 swine flu. With 1.5 billion individuals contaminated it ought to have presented an best possibility to investigate the effectiveness of Tamiflu, and the best techniques of generating it effective, in true world circumstances. Nevertheless this crucial study was not done. The scientists who wished to perform it ran once more and once more into bureaucratic brick walls.

When an emerging infectious disease strikes, such as the Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers) circulating in Saudi Arabia, the 1st wave of infection can whip by way of a population in just a handful of weeks. However a 2011 review by the Academy of Healthcare Sciences located that it requires an common of 621 days in between launching a trial and treating the first patient. The delays come from the bureaucratic challenge of securing numerous ethical approvals for trials, and putting contracts in between institutions in area. These primarily duplicate one particular one more without having improving patient safety.

This bureaucracy has a noble motive: healthcare ethics matter, which is why the Wellcome Believe in invests heavily in the discipline. But we have more than-challenging clinical research with a thicket of approvals and contracts that do tiny for sufferers or communities. A doctor who observes an exciting treatment method result at the bedside, and wishes to analysis it, have to create hundreds of pages of trial protocols and engage in dozens of meetings and conference calls before the review can get started. The difficulties grow nonetheless far more acute for international analysis – and viruses, bacteria and parasites do not recognise borders.

We require research to get smarter and much more nimble. The Uk has moved in the appropriate direction by introducing a single Well being Investigation Authority and far more streamlined approvals. But we also need to have pre-accepted, harmonised, open entry study protocols that can spring into action as quickly as an epidemic arrives we require far more innovation in the design and style of analysis that maximises its worth we want to ensure that all study is published and disseminated right away. In quick, we need to have a new paradigm for clinical analysis that allows us to discover from public well being threats as we tackle them. Without having it we will carry on to miss opportunities to save lives.

Conditions spread in weeks. Epidemic study requires many years. This should modify | Jeremy Farrar

Exactly where Do Scary Conditions Like SARS and MERS Come From? Animals

Middle-Eastern Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, has a great deal in common with other emerging condition threats: we possibly acquired it from animals.

MERS has sickened at least 500 men and women, like two who traveled to the U.S, and has caused 145 deaths.  It is induced by a sort of coronavirus, a household of illnesses that also consist of a microbe that causes Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS. According to the Centers for Illness Management and Prevention, the viruses that cause each sicknesses are closest to coronaviruses seen in bats camels can also infect humans. That means they are each most likely to be zoonotic conditions, which is the science identify for illnesses that can be passed in between animals and humans. Other major zoonotic diseases include anthrax, influenza, Lyme ailment, malaria, Ebola and West Nile. In accordance to the Globe Overall health Organization, that is just the tip of the iceberg: more than 200 diseases are zoonotic.

MERS-CoV (Photograph credit: NIAID)

Zoonotic diseases account for about 75 percent of not too long ago-emerging infectious condition threats, in accordance to the CDC, and more than half of all human pathogens had been acquired from animals. Any infection acquired from an animal can be termed “zoonotic” after the virus appears to attempt making the jump everlasting, it can be called an “emerging infectious disease.”

The most latest zoonotic disease that you might have caught was the 2009 H1N1 swine flu. It bore no resemblance to the strains circulating at the time in humans as an alternative, it came from the guts of pigs, exactly where influenza viruses can reassemble. It’s not clear how often pathogens striving to jump to people fail — in truth, we’ve only recently developed the technologies to track the spread of disease from animals to humans at all.

MERS is a single of several emerging infectious ailments that seem to be making an attempt to turn into human viruses. At first, there had been animal contacts for the circumstances. Now it appears to be jumping in between folks. It is not totally clear that the changes in the virus will make humans more susceptible. Probably we are seeing a random fluctuation in the number of men and women who are contaminated perhaps we’re just seeing much more circumstances because we’re watching much more closely.

Even so, we have been seeing a lot more symptomatic circumstances and greater clusters than ahead of. More well being care workers are getting to be ill, and a greater proportion of the situations are in healthcare staff — which includes both U.S. instances. Most situations until finally not too long ago had been zoonotic — that is, in the sense that they have been acquired directly from animals. But clusters involving 12-48 people are now springing up, with a single man or woman infecting as numerous as 12. That alter may also be due to greater surveillance, but I doubt it.

That indicates we most likely should begin getting ready for the virus to start spreading far more quickly. The patient who was handled in Florida came into get in touch with with 500 men and women whilst flying and the CDC is currently striving to track them all down. It was on the journey in between Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and London that this individual first started to come to feel sick. But simply because it’s not clear how or when MERS is transmitted, these folks may be fine. MERS generally isn’t dormant for longer than 14 days, so we will hear about any extra infections quickly, if there are any to hear about.

Of course MERS may not go worldwide it may continue to be isolated. But rather of waiting to discover out, it could be prudent to phase up condition surveillance and start to think about therapies. Antibodies to the respiratory syndrome have presently been located, so with some function, we could build a therapy — or, greater, a vaccine.

Nevertheless, if we’re concerned not just with MERS but with “the subsequent MERS,” no matter what that may possibly be, it behooves us to commence hunting very closely at the animals in our surroundings. We know in which many of these emerging illnesses come from — and now it’s time to pay consideration just before they jump to humans. Perhaps subsequent time we’ll be far better-prepared.

Exactly where Do Scary Conditions Like SARS and MERS Come From? Animals

Vitamin D - could it quit "modern" conditions?

The report, published in 2004, gained support from the late Sir Richard Doll, the eminent epidemiologist who co-discovered the link between smoking and lung cancer. He had completed a clinical trial which found that people who took vitamin D supplements may live longer – and had he lived had wanted to do another. It has taken eight years to get that clinical trial started with Professor Julian Peto of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Called VIDAL, the trial is looking at benefits of supplementation and for any increase in life expectancy in over 65s.

Highlighting the benefits of vitamin D has led to at least some degree of change in official attitudes. We are now advised to spend some time in the sun at midday, while vitamin D supplements are advised for breastfed (but not bottlefed) babies from the first month of life.

My belief is that we could go much further – that vitamin D, given freely to all women in pregnancy, could be used to curb or prevent some major diseases including multiple sclerosis, diabetes, schizophrenia, asthma and several cancers; and that it might also be used to treat established disease, at least in early stages.

One crucial piece in the jigsaw has come from the study of birthdays. Links between birthdays and future life events have long been the territory of clairvoyants and mediums; and when evidence first emerged about a decade ago that people born at the end of winter were more likely to get multiple sclerosis and those born in autumn less so, many scientists found it hardly credible.

“It looked as if we were interested in star signs and futurology,” said George Ebers, emeritus professor in the Department of Department of Clinical Neurology at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, whose career has never deviated from scientific correctness. “But now we know that MS is associated with end of winter births, when shortage of sunshine is demonstrable and vitamin D levels are lowest. This suggests, in line with other observations, that vitamin D protects against the disease.”

THE POWER OF THE SUMMER SUN

Summer sun is at its maximum in June and July but vitamin D, generated in the skin by sunlight, takes two or three months to get into the general circulation. So we reach our maximum level of vitamin D in about September. Babies born in October or November have the best chance of a relatively high level of vitamin D during their final months in the womb. And this, the birthday evidence suggests, can protect them from MS, while the risk is higher for babies born at the end of winter.

This seasonal pattern in the risk of MS has now been found in eight different countries including Australia, winning over previously sceptical scientists. Less well known is the link between end of winter birthdays and an increased risk of several other diseases. Studies of thousands of birthdays in Europe, Canada and Australia over some 30 years have found that people born at this time are also at greater risk of type 1 diabetes, coeliac disease (gluten intolerance), schizophrenia and autism.

_{People with winter birthdays are at greater risk of type 1 diabetes}

For a long time experts did not know what to make of this data, since these diseases had no obvious links. But now more conditions are being added to this list by the Oxford team. Writing in the peer-reviewed journal, BMC Medicine, in July 2012, Professor Ebers, working with Dr Sreeram Ramagopalan, has shown that the risk of rheumatoid arthritis, a digestive disease called ulcerative colitis and a distressing condition called systemic lupus erythematosus follows the same pattern of seasonal births. These are all autoimmune diseases, which occur when the body is attacked by its own immune system. Diabetes type 1 is also an autoimmune disease and in the case of coeliac disease the immune reaction is to wheat in the bowel. To date, at least 18 autoimmune diseases have been linked to low vitamin D levels – more than enough to demonstrate a pattern.

”These immune-mediated diseases are one of the most common disease groups in modern economies today, affecting some 10% of the world population. Vitamin D deficiency is the most obvious risk factor” says Dr Ramagopalan. To test this theory Dr Ramagopalan has examined blood taken from the umbilical cords of 50 healthy babies born in November and 50 born in May when, after winter, levels of vitamin D are low. The May babies had a far higher frequency of newly generated white blood cells called T cells which are normally programmed to react against infection by an outside agent and to tolerate the body’s own tissues.

However certain types of T cells react against the body tissues and they may cause autoimmune disease later on if they persist. These unwanted T cells are normally removed from the body in the first year of life by a clever arrangement – they are deleted in the thymus gland, a process that requires vitamin D. So a low vitamin D

level leaves the baby at risk. Dr Ramagopalan has explained his findings in detail in the open access, peer-reviewed PLOS Genetics, 2009, in which he writes: “The prevalence of diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, and rheumatoid arthritis correlate positively with latitude and reduced ultraviolet radiation exposure which is the primary determinant of vitamin D levels.”

The scientific jigsaw is now making more sense, but some pieces still do not seem to fit. Why should schizophrenia, a mental health condition, be linked to season of birth? In fact the birthday evidence on schizophrenia has provided a vital scientific clue to a disease which has puzzled doctors for over 100 years. Researchers now recognise that schizophrenia also has features of an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks its own tissues.

Schizophrenia and MS are both diseases of the nervous system. In MS myelin nerve sheaths deep in the nervous system are attacked by an immune reaction. If this can happen in MS, surely it is not so strange that schizophrenia may be explained similarly by an immune attack on crucial areas of the brain.

Dr John McGrath, international expert in schizophrenia based at the University of Queensland, Australia, says the evidence suggests that sun exposure in pregnancy and early life protects against schizophrenia and “raises the tantalising prospect that optimising vitamin D status during pregnancy may lead to the primary prevention of the disease”.

“Being born in the country where there is more opportunity for sun exposure is associated with a lower risk of schizophrenia – while moving subsequently to an urban area where more time is spent indoors does not seem to increase the risk,” he points out.

Could lack of vitamin D in pregnancy also explain autism? The latest evidence suggests that a low vitamin D level in the mother’s body during pregnancy may induce her immune system to make antibodies which can damage the baby’s brain, as well as causing certain genes to malfunction. Last month, Rhonda Patrick and Bruce Ames from the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, in California, published research findings that these genes normally make the chemical serotonin.

Too little of this neurotransmitter is associated with abnormal social behaviour while too much in the digestive tract causes sensitivity to foods which may explain some autistic children’s difficult eating habits.

Patrick and Ames, both well-respected scientists in the field of autism, suggest: “Supplementation with vitamin D and tryptophan [which is made into serotonin in the brain] is a practical and affordable solution to help autism and possibly ameliorate some of the symptoms of the disorder.”

But the vitamin D jigsaw puzzle is not finished yet. Some 15 or more different cancers have been consistently associated with low vitamin D levels in a way that accords with established criteria, according to epidemiologist Dr William B Grant, from the non-profit organisation the Sunlight Nutrition and Health Research Center in California. In his paper published in 2009, the link is most clearly seen in breast and bowel cancer. Insufficient vitamin D leads to loss of control of several genes which regulate proliferation of cancer cells and inhibit the cell cycle.

In fact there are more than 900 genes that Vitamin D is now known to switch on and off – and in doing so alters our vulnerability to disease. The large number of genes involved explains how so many quite different diseases can be caused by insufficient sunshine. In this way sunshine exposure directly alters the action of genes which may actually be passed on in their altered state – a newly understood process known as epigenetics. So it is possible to see how some diseases may emerge for the first time in one generation and be passed on to the next.

There is understandable opposition to these theories from some in the medical establishment. In an editorial published last December,the journal The Lancet argued that failure of “gold standard” clinical trials of vitamin D to treat disease in adults disproves the possibility that insufficient vitamin D is a causal factor.

In my view, this ignores a wealth of experimental and observational evidence associating low vitamin D levels with higher risk of certain diseases. Also, vitamin D given in adulthood cannot necessarily be expected to cure a condition that has arisen through lack of vitamin D in early life. This is an error in scientific reasoning which I call the The Lancet’s “gold standard fallacy”.

INDOOR LIFESTYLES BLAMED

At the same time researchers are finding links between vitamin D and chronic disease, the world is facing an epidemic of these same conditions, caused by our indoor lifestyles. Even in the height of summer people in cities often have sub-optimal levels of vitamin D, and so babies born at any time of year may develop these diseases. It’s well recognised that multiple sclerosis has become increasingly common in the UK over the last century. Today, in cloudy Orkney, off the north of Scotland, one in 150 women suffer from MS, believed to be the highest prevalence in the world.

Less well known is that a generation ago the disease was much less common in southern than in northern Europe. But MS has increased rapidly in the Mediterranean over recent years, reflecting the increased movement of people away from rural subsistence farming to town and a life in urban apartments. In the Greek island of Crete MS has increased almost four fold over the last generation.

_{Between 1989 and 2006, the incidence of MS in Iran increased more than eight fold}

One striking example of the rise in MS is in Iran where, after the Islamic revolution in 1979, women were compelled by law to wear the veil outdoors together with clothing covering most of the body. Between 1989 and 2006, the incidence of MS in Iran increased more than eight fold, from an incidence of about one case in 100,000 to nearly one in 10,000 in the city of Isfahan.

“The Islamic revolution can potentially explain the observed increase in MS incidence in Iran in just over 30 years,” said Dr Ramagopalan. “Veiled women have lower vitamin D levels compared to unveiled women, giving an increased risk of low vitamin D in pregnancy which can account for the increase in MS.”

There have been similar increases in other autoimmune diseases, some rare or even unknown a century ago. Type 1 diabetes has seen an annual 4 per cent increase across Europe in a generation, with larger increases in the under-fives and the number of cases in this age group expected to double between 2005 and 2020. Crohn’s disease, a life threatening inflammation of the bowel, has since the 1930s become increasingly common in most developed countries.

Between 1965 and 1997 the incidence of schizophrenia doubled in London’s Camberwell. Much, but not all, of the increase is attributed to second generation dark-skinned immigrants who have a five times greater risk of the disease than their parents or people with white skin. Dark skin blocks absorption of weak northern sunlight, preventing vitamin D synthesis.

Autism was also rarity a generation ago. Between 1988 and 1995 the incidence in UK children increased some five fold, according to a nationwide survey by a 1000 GPs; arguably such a large rise cannot all be explained as improvements or changes in diagnosis of the condition, which is generally held to be difficult to miss. A similar increase occurred in the United States in the 1990s.

Over the last generation there has also been a global increase in asthma. Tests on frozen blood show that the epidemic is not caused by changes in diagnosis. Allergic reactions to mixed pollens, animal dander and house dust mites have increased by 4.5 per cent per decade in the UK during last quarter of the 20th epidemic has been followed closely by a rapid increase in food allergy. In extreme cases allergy can cause anaphylactic shock which has increased in England by 50 per cent between 2001 and 2005.

Professionals dealing with overflowing clinics are talking about a ‘double tsunami’ – a giant wave of asthma followed by a second wave of food allergy, suggesting that they are two parts of a continuing epidemic. Two distinguished professors, Augusto Litonjua and Scot Weiss, from Harvard University School of Medicine calculate that some 300 million people worldwide now suffer from asthma and blame social changes: “…as populations grow more prosperous and more westernised”, they say, “more time is spent indoors and there is less exposure to sunlight, leading to vitamin D deficiency, subsequently resulting in more asthma and allergy.”

Why has the wave of food allergy followed the wave of asthma rather than occurring simultaneously: and why are second generation immigrants more at risk of diseases such as schizophrenia or Crohn’s than their first generation parents? The new science of epigenetics explains how the environment can influence genes which are then passed on in an altered state, in apparent contradiction of classical genetics.

Women who are severely vitamin D deficient may pass on de-activated genes, which make their children more vulnerable to disease. Multiple sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes, Crohn’s, schizophrenia, autism, asthma and food allergy have all been increasing in the same overlapping time frame and all have links to low vitamin D and low sunshine exposure. A further 11 autoimmune diseases have been linked to serious vitamin D deficiency in an Oxford study published in BMC Medicine in 2013. This makes at least 18 autoimmune diseases clearly linked to low vitamin D levels – more than enough to demonstrate a pattern.

PREVENTION IS CRUCIAL

Although The Lancet may insist otherwise, some clinical trials have shown that people with MS, asthma or Crohn’s may do better or have fewer relapses when they take vitamin D, if disease is not too advanced. For example, MS begins with optic neuritis, a temporary form of blindness, in 20 per cent of cases. Doctors at Isfahan University, Iran, have shown in a clinical trial that giving vitamin D (about 7,000 IUs per day) at this early stage can reduce risk of a relapse in blindness by 68 per cent and lower the incidence of lesions and “black holes” in the brain. They are hopeful that vitamin D may delay the usual conversion of optic neuritis to subsequent MS. Symptoms of Crohns’ disease can be reduced dramatically by 5,000 IUs per day of vitamin D according to a clinical trial at the Center for Molecular Immunology, University of Pennsylvania. Another study at Massachusetts General Hospital, described in the journal Inflammatory Bowel Disease, 2013, shows that risk of surgery is reduced in Crohns’ patients who took a vitamin D supplement that increased their blood level to normal.

While the Lancet remains trapped in its “gold standard” fallacy, doctors working with these autoimmune diseases, previously sceptical, are now privately hopeful that vitamin D will prove to be a useful addition to treatment. But increasing vitamin D later in life cannot always restore what has been lost when vitamin levels are low: for example, in the case of diabetes type 1, an enterovirus may attack the islet cells in the pancreas that make insulin, wiping them out. This is why prevention is so crucial: the link between high vitamin D levels in pregnancy and a reduction in diabetes risk was shown as long ago as 2001.

_{The UK has arguably one of the unhealthiest climates in the world}

BRITAIN’S CLOUDY SKIES ARE BAD NEWS

THE UK has least sunshine of almost any advanced economy; our cloudy weather is arguably one of the unhealthiest climates in the world. And even when the sun shines we spend too much time indoors, detained by our computers and TVs. Fear of sunlight has been spread by misguided advice from cancer charities urging people to “seek the shade” rather than enjoy the sun safely and often. Extensive use of suncreams since the 1970s, has reduced exposure to UVB, the part of sunlight which generates vitamin D. The Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally Davies, has said she is “profoundly ashamed” at the return of rickets in the UK. But the increase in rickets is small compared with the pandemic of immune system disease, the cost of which can be calculated in billions. MS costs the UK £3 billion a year, type 1 diabetes £9 billion, and schizophrenia £12 billion

IN 1942, when Britain was besieged by German submarines, the government was eager to maintain the nation’s health by providing all children with cod liver oil, the best natural source of vitamin D. Since then successive governments have pursued a false economy and restricted free supplies of vitamin D supplements to a small percentage of pregnant and breastfeeding women and under-fives who are on state benefits.

I believe a great advance could be made by returning to heroic wartime thinking, providing all pregnant women and babies with free vitamin D supplements. I would argue that an intensive programme reaching 80-90 per cent of people, as modern vaccinations do, would greatly reduce and might even virtually eradicate MS, type 1 diabetes and several other autoimmune diseases.

Even lesser measures could at least halt or slow the pandemic. At little cost, the government could encourage voluntary fortification of foods such as milk and bread with vitamin D and give better advice on benefits of sunshine and how to enjoy the sun safely. Failure to act soon will be a cause for profound national shame.

Oliver Gillie is an award-winning writer and scientist. His report Sunlight Robbery: Health benefits of Sunlight are Denied by current Public Health policy in the UK can be downloaded from http://www.healthresearchforum.org.uk/

Vitamin D - could it quit "modern" conditions?