VPF News
Janurary – February 2010
Newsletter to be Published in February
Managing Editor of The VP Foundation Newsletter, Joanne Yount, reports to members that "Our January issue recently became a February issue."
Oxalate data for broccoli raab, radicchio, watercress, papaya, and
Bosc pears will be reported in The VP Foundation Newsletter,
Number 33, during February 2010.
She explains, "One fabulous reason for the delay is that at the end of December the University of Wyoming reported a bonanza of new data for the oxalate content of foods to the Foundation. The Department of Family and Consumer Sciences tested almost twice as many foods and food products during fall semester as usual. Indeed, they tested eighty foods," a record number, according to Ms. Yount.
The foods analyzed for oxalate content were requested by members of the Foundation and contributors to the VPF's Oxalate Testing Fund for Foods and Beverages. They include a fascinating comparative study of raw and roasted nuts and seeds, sprouted grain breads, commercial cereals, seaweeds, teas, and more.
"Our small staff has been busy formatting the data for the Newsletter." Also to be published in this issue are letters from recovered and recovering members, a comprehensive article on vitamin D (see below), the launching of the VPF's 2010 Drawing, and more.
All that is needed now, says Ms. Yount, is a bit of patience, and possibly getting the latest prescription for your reading glasses filled! "It's a whopper."
Vitamin D Sabotages Recoveries
In 1986 a biomedical research scientist, Clive C. Solomons, Ph.D., discovered that women who suffered with chronic vulvar pain, not helped by any known treatments, were at times excreting greater than normal amounts of oxalate in their urine.
Calcium oxalate, known to scientists as "oxalate," is a strong organic acid that is poisonous. It is widespread in nature, and is found in plants such as almonds, anise, beets, buckwheat, curry powder, kidney beans, black tea, chocolate, cinnamon, citrus rind, eggplant, kiwi, spinach, rhubarb, soybeans, sweet potatoes, turmeric, whole wheat, and more. Oxalate can cause pain in susceptible persons, especially burning pain.
Like thousands of other chemical compounds involved in human metabolism, oxalate is usually harmless in small amounts. Because early twentieth century research implicated calcium oxalate in the formation of oxalate kidney stones, by the 1980s there was a body of basic knowledge about oxalate that a scientist could access.
Between 1986 and 2006 Dr. Solomons worked actively with nearly 3,000 participants in a large research study. Their partnership revealed that a low oxalate diet and calcium citrate without vitamin D were powerful tools in reducing the pain of a syndrome that also includes interstitial cystitis, fibromyalgia, and irritable bowel.
Vitamin D enhances calcium absorption through the lining of the intestine and into the bloodstream, to possibly be used for bone formation. Calcium citrate without vitamin D prolongs the opportunity for calcium to combine with oxalate in the intestine, and be eliminated. Thus, calcium prevents oxalate from passing through the lining of the intestine into the body's tissues, to contribute to pain.
During the past three years, physicians and manufacturers of vitamin D have aggressively promoted supplementation. Recovered VPF members, past participants in Dr. Solomons' research study, and others have experienced and reported painful flare-ups of enormous magnitudes on taking calcium citrate with vitamin D.
The Foundation published information about vitamin D, including how safely to get sufficient vitamin D without causing painful flare-ups, in The VP Foundation Newsletter, Number 27 (October 2006) and Number 31 (December 2008). You may go to the VPF Newsletter to order these issues. In Newsletter 33, to be published in February 2010, a major feature article will repeat and expand the information published earlier.
According to Joanne Yount, Executive Director, "Since 1992 The VP Foundation has helped thousands of people get out of pain. The VPF continually sponsors new research related to the highly effective treatments developed by Dr. Solomons. We offer guidance for both established protocols and new developments."
Everyone who wants the next issue of the VPF's Newsletter, and additional benefits of membership, may join or renew by going to Memberships.
