Please join me in welcoming Professor Bruce Hollis! Professor Hollis’ research has provided a new understanding of the importance of vitamin D and its full range of functions.
Vitamin D has been understood as an essential nutrient for skeletal integrity and maintaining blood calcium levels. As microbiology and research developed, researchers found that many cells that had nothing to do with the skeleton could respond to vitamin D, including cancer and immune cells.
Vitamin D exists in different forms inside the body. When you take a supplement or sunlight hits your skin, you’re dealing with the inactive form of vitamin D. It is then turned into a compound called 25-hydroxy vitamin D, the intermediate form of vitamin D that stays in the blood for weeks. This form is picked up in blood tests but isn’t easily accessible by the tissues that might need it.
The final form of vitamin D is one of the most potent hormones, 125 di-hydroxy vitamin D. Vitamin D is converted into the active form in the kidney but can also be converted inside the cells.
The vast majority of studies substantiating our information on vitamin D in the U.S. have several problems and have produced inaccurate results. There is also no agreed-upon range on “normal” vitamin D levels.
Professor Hollis has conducted research and has seen significant results using vitamin D to prevent birth complications in women in Iran, in patients with low-grade prostate cancer, and in lactation. He also explains the importance of magnesium, a key cofactor for vitamin D metabolism.
Professor Hollis wants people to understand that few physicians recommend or acknowledge the benefits of vitamin D because national organizations have yet to properly understand and recognize them.
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