Active vitamin D helps remove toxic aluminum in chronic kidney disease patients

Thursday, March 06, 2014 by: L.J. Devon, Staff Writer
Tags: active vitamin D, aluminum toxicity, chronic kidney disease

(NaturalNews) As various amounts of aluminum begin showing up in food products tested at the Consumer Wellness Center Forensic Food Lab, it's becoming clear how metals like aluminum can build up unnecessarily in the body, taxing the organs over time.

A percentage of ingested aluminum is naturally retained by the food going in as it passes through the body. This is denoted by the metal retention factor, a concept discovered in gastric acid solution, pioneered by lab director Mike Adams. (Higher metal retention factor is better.)

Still, a percentage of the aluminum going in is released into the gastrointestinal tract. As the body processes the food, aluminum can make its way to the kidneys while the organs try to sort it out. Over time, the aluminum can accumulate in organs like the kidneys, where it begins to breed toxicity, leading to kidney disease.

What is active vitamin D?

Specific antioxidants, vitamins and minerals are being studied for their ability to help remove metals such as aluminum from organs like the kidneys.

A study from the Department of Pediatrics, of the Ankara University School of Medicine, found that active vitamin D can help remove pent-up aluminum from the kidneys of chronic kidney disease patients.

Active vitamin D is a form of vitamin D called calcitriol, which acts as a steroid hormone with a role in regulating phosphorous and calcium levels. Many cells in the body have receptors for vitamin D, showing how the human body is intended to connect with sunlight's natural vitamin D.
The sunlight's vitamin D3, or cholecalciferol, is created in the skin from the molecule 7-dehydrocholesterol when the sun's light energy is absorbed.

If a person is deficient in vitamin D3, they will need to receive additional vitamin D from plants, which is vitamin D2, or ergosterol.

The vitamin D present must now be metabolized and activated in the human body to work. Carrier proteins transport the vitamin D in the blood to the liver, where it is hydroxylated by the enzyme 25-hydroxylase. Then, on its way to the kidneys, 25-hydroxycholecalciferol becomes a substrate for 1-alpha-hydroxylase, yielding 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol, or calcitriol, the biologically active form of vitamin D.

Study shows how biologically active vitamin D removes aluminum from kidneys

How might active vitamin D restore calcium and phosphorous levels to normal in people? For one, it may remove toxic aluminum accumulation that can block needed minerals and their benefits.

The researcher's focus was to investigate interactions between serum aluminum concentrations, the parathyroid hormone (PTH) and active vitamin D in chronic kidney disease.

In the study, 10 pediatric chronic kidney disease patients were enrolled alongside 20 healthy controls. From the onset, researchers analyzed the blood levels of aluminum, PTH, alkaline phosphatase phosphorus and calcium in the patients. A regimen of oral calcitriol (active vitamin D) was administered for four weeks.

Active vitamin D did not necessarily affect PTH or alkaline phosphatase. In those short four weeks, it did not noticeably change values of calcium or phosphorous either, but it did show significant impact on aluminum levels in the kidneys.

In control patients, changes in aluminum levels in the kidneys were not statistically significant.

Remarkably though, aluminum levels in all participants, starting at a median of 27.2 ng/ml and range of 11.3-175 ng/ml, declined significantly to a median of 3.8 ng/ml and range of 0.64-11.9 ng/ml after oral calcitriol was administered for just four weeks.

Sunlight activated in the body is medicine

This evidence may help us understand how to help chronic kidney disease patients by dealing with the root cause of metal toxicity. In this case, sunlight can be the best medicine, reconfigured in the kidneys and liver to become biologically active. In its active state, vitamin D can go into the kidneys and remove environmental toxicity factors like aluminum.

Sources for this article include:

http://science.naturalnews.com

http://www.vivo.colostate.edu