Nexus - 0804 - New Times Magazine-pages

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Chlamydia, as one of its mechanisms of increasing risk of heart attack.!"""'” Dr Grimes links respiratory infections and chronic bronchitis, called "the English Disease", to poor immunocompetence due to sunlight deficiency, worsened by ciga- rette smoking. (In southern Europe, smok- ing rates are much higher, but recurrent res- piratory tract infections are scarce.) Glasgow, Scotland, has high rates of osteo- malacia and rickets, which he says are defi- nitely the result of sunlight deficiency. Dr F. A. Spencer has noted a higher incidence of heart attacks in winter; he has related this to low levels of vitamin D and to depression from the winter months.' Also, Crohn's disease (regional enteritis or intestinal irritation) is much more com- mon in cloudy northwest England than in sunny southern Europe—that is, if we accept that Crohn's is a microbial disease, as current research confirms, probably due to Mycobacterium paratuberculosis. Once again, sunlight in the Mediterranean area could be protective through immuno- enhancement.'* There are other risks. An Alabama researcher found that lack of enough sun- shine exposure may increase the risk of hypertension in blacks and other dark- skinned people. Those with greater amounts of pigment in the skin require six times the amount of ultraviolet B (UVB) light to produce the same amount of vita- min D3 found in lighter-skinned people." And Dr Esther John of Northern California Cancer Center reported that daily exposure to sunshine, without sunscreen, appears to lessen the risk of breast cancer.''® oo Staying completely out of the sun may also increase the risk of heart attacks and much more by another route. David Grimes, MD, at Blackburn Royal Infirmary in Blackburn, UK, notes that heart attacks are commonest in the parts of the world— such as northwest United Kingdom—that have the least sunshine. And Asian popu- lations in the British Isles have a particular- ly high risk of death from heart attack that cannot be explained on dietary grounds. Having come from countries in which the sun is so strong that exposure must be min- imised, they have a cultural tendency to avoid the sun. Dr Grimes traces causation of many cases of CHD (coronary heart disease) to the microbe Chlamydia pneumoniae and low immunocompetence from too low a level of vitamin D among those avoiding sunshine. Sunlight could determine whether squalene, the precursor to both vit- amin D and cholesterol, converts into vita- min D (in the presence of enough sunshine) or into excessive cholesterol (if sunlight is deficient.)'" A deficiency of vitamin B6 promotes infection, e.g. by H. pylori and About the Author: Joseph G. Hattersley in 1953 completed every- thing then required for a PhD degree in econom- ics, except a dissertation, at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1976, at age 54, a seem- ing nutritional miracle launched his career of writ- ing on a wide range of health topics. Joe seeks to integrate differing views on a subject from com- peting research teams. Several of his proposals have been confirmed three to five years later in mainstream medical and scientific journals. His special interests are prevention of heart disease and cot death. His article, "Soybean Products: A Recipe for Disaster", was published in NEXUS 4/03, April-May 1997 issue. Editor's Note: The complete text of this article, together with endnotes, is posted at the NEXUS website, www.nexusmagazine.com. 82 = NEXUS JUNE — JULY 2001 The Healing Power of Full-Spectrum Light Continued from page 81 www.nexusmagazi ne.com