Diane:

I've been doing quite a bit better since doctors at the University
Washington in Seattle began taking my Vitamin D insufficiency/deficiency
seriously and prescribed a megadose of Vitamin D.

For years, I've been getting pneumonitis and flu-like illness every winter
and nobody could explain it. Doctors would prescribe an antibiotic and
assume that I would get better even though they were ineffective. So
here's my hypothesis:

Vitamin D is now known to be a strong immune modulator in that it reduces
immune response. At least one major study found a strong association
between Multiple Sclerosis--an autoimmune disease--and low levels of
Vitamin D. In my case, I suspect that chronic low levels of Vitamin D
allowed my immune system to become overactive resulting in chronic
systemic inflammation. The inflammation allowed opportunistic infections
from pathogens such as paratuberculosis which usually only affect humans
when they are immune deficient.

I'm normally sick by October but this year I'm not. Still, it's far too
early to see how I'll fare through the winter.

BTW, most of the doctors I'd seen previously denied the possibility that I
could have low levels of Vitamin D because I didn't have Rickets. It turns
out, I had osteopenia in my lower back and lab tests indicated low levels
of Vitamin D which could have expleined the osteopenia, but they didn't
know any of this becauce they wouldn't order the tests since I didn't have
Rickets.

The general assumption by the medical community is that low Vitamin D is
caused only by malabsorption in the intestines, specifically the terminal
ileum where Vitamin D is primarily absorbed. My problem getting the low
Vitamin D taken seriously was compounded by the fact that a
gastroenterologist could find nothing seriously wrong in my intestines to
explain an apparent gluten hypersensitivity and/or Crohn's disase. There
is, however, another apparently extremely rare condition in the liver that
could explain low serum Vitamin D in the absence of intestinal
malabsorption. After being absorbed, Vitamin D has to be hydroxylated in
the liver before it can be used in by body tissues. If the liver is
missing the specific enzyme responsible as happens in rare cases due to a
genetic defect, the Vitamin D will be absorbed as raw Vitamin D but will
never appear in lab tests because they look only for Vitamin D in the
forms of 25(OH)D2 or 25(OH)D3 which are the hydroxylated forms.

Anyway, we'll see how it goes.

-- Dale
<http://DaleRoose.com/>

On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:41:30 -0700, Diane Fagen <dianef84@...>
wrote:

> Hi Dale
>
> Thank you so much for emailing me this article, I have already posted it
> to my website, www.crohnscanada.org
>
> How are you doing healthwise, I hope you are alright. Anyways take
> care. Diane
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Dale Roose
> To: paratuberculosis@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 1:35 PM
> Subject: [paratuberculosis] FWD: Pathogen That Causes Disease In
> Cattle Also Associated With Crohn's Disease
>
>
> <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080807144309.htm>
> Pathogen That Causes Disease In Cattle Also Associated With Crohn's
> Disease
>
> ScienceDaily (Aug. 11, 2008) — People with Crohn's disease (CD) are
> seven-fold more likely to have in their gut tissues the bacterium that
> causes a digestive-tract disease in cattle called Johne's disease. The
> role this bacterium may or may not play in causing CD is a top research
> priority, according to a new report released by the American Academy of
> Microbiology.
>
> The reports points out that the cause of CD is unknown, and the
> possible
> role of this bacterium—which could conceivably be passed up the food
> chain
> to people—has received too little attention from the research
> community.
>
> The report, Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis: Incidental Human
> Pathogen or Public Health Threat?, summarizes conclusions and
> recommendations from a colloquium convened by the American Academy of
> Microbiology in June 2007 that brought together experts in
> microbiology,
> medicine, veterinary pathology, epidemiology, infectious diseases, and
> food safety. Colloquium participants described the state of knowledge
> about the relationship between Mycobacterium avium subspecies
> paratuberculosis (MAP) and CD and developed a research agenda to move
> the
> field forward.
>
> Scientists largely agree that multiple factors cause CD, including an
> environmental stimulus, a genetic propensity, and an overactive
> inflammatory and immune system triggered by an unknown event. There is
> mounting evidence that the unknown trigger may be infectious in origin,
> with several bacteria currently under consideration. "This complicated
> network of causation has confounded efforts to understand CD, says
> Carol
> Nacy, Ph.D., CEO of Sequella, Inc., who chaired the colloquium and is
> the
> report's co-author. "MAP may be one of the causes of CD," Nacy adds,
> "since, among other things, multiple studies identified the pathogen in
> tissues of CD patients. Treating some of these patients with
> antibiotics
> that target Mycobacteria provided relief from symptoms."
>
> Johne's disease is a severe and fatal bacterial infection that strikes
> cattle, sheep, and other livestock. MAP has long been identified as the
> cause of Johne's disease. Despite efforts to limit the spread of MAP,
> roughly 68% of cattle herds in this country are infected, meaning one
> or
> more animals in the herd carry the bacterium and may develop Johne's
> disease or spread the infection to other animals. MAP has been found in
> some dairy products—milk and cheese—and beef on supermarket shelves.
>
> The critical steps for research now, according to the report, are to
> determine whether humans are exposed and infected with MAP by eating
> infected meat and dairy products and whether MAP causes or incites CD
> or
> whether it is only incidentally present in those afflicted with the
> disease. The prospect that MAP could play a role in the incitement or
> development of CD is a sobering one, and, once the situation becomes
> clearer through research, there could be important changes in store for
> agriculture, food safety, and public health. It is in the best
> interest of
> the public that the possible connection between MAP and CD be explored
> exhaustively, according to the report.
>
> The research agenda, however, is seriously hampered by the lack of
> reliable methods for isolating and indentifying MAP and for diagnosing
> people with MAP infection. Public health laboratories and U.S. Centers
> for
> Disease Control and Prevention laboratories have made it clear they
> cannot
> grow MAP in the laboratory—an inability that hinders diagnosis and
> screening. The report recommends establishment of a task force to
> develop
> a specific road map for improved methods for MAP detection and
> diagnosis.
>
>