Virtually every change to the status quo is opposed
Changes which can considered to be potential threats (e.g. loss of job) are strongly opposed
Changes which upset paradigms are opposed
Change examples: equal opportunity (race, women, immigrants), taxes, minimum wage
Changes which seem to be too good to be true or not understood are typically ignored
Changes typically need to provide 3 times more benefit to be even considered
Change is more likely to be accepted if others have successfully made the change
If others have changed without problems there is less unknown to be afraid of.
My history with change and Vitamin D
- I have personally informed many people of benefits of vitamin D. They then increased their vitamin D (4,000 to 10,000 IU of vitamin D) and got benefits within weeks, However, every time they then told their doctor he said that much vitamin D could be toxic and had them decrease to 2,000 IU of vitamin D, and the benefits disappeared.
- I have personally also described the benefits of vitamin D to friends with Multiple Sclerosis, Diabetes, and Parkinson’s, They ignored my recommendation, as I am not a doctor and it seemed too good to be true.
- Back in 2010 I (mistakenly) thought that doctors would change once that randomized controlled trials had proven that vitamin D works. Now, in 2016, there have been over 500 trials proving that Vitamin D works – for 68+ health problems, but doctors have not changed and they now say that they do not yet understand why vitamin D works, so are not ready to recommend it.
I now realize that there are at least 10 reasons that doctors are reluctant. - Doctors correctly fear possible loss of jobs. One doctor went out of business in 2012 after he got all 2,000 of the patients in his clinic to a vitamin D level of 80 nanograms. They, on average, dropped the number of visits from 4 per year to only one per year – they were excessively healthy with that much vitamin D. Our 5 minute video mentions the job loss problem of vitamin D.
- I have decided to focus on those organizations which will benefit from increased vitamin D, One example is a Health Maintenance Organization – where profit is made when people are healthier, increased health (due to vitamin D) attracts more customers.
Which health problems to focus on?
| Consideration | Examples | |
| Most impressive results – prevention and/or treatment | Multiple Sclerosis, Pregnancy | |
| Most studies – a proxy for best results and most interest | Pregnancy | |
| Most cost savings – to Health Maintenance Organization | Pregnancy, Multiple Sclerosis | |
| Most cost savings – to Hospital | ||
| Most cost savings – to Health Insurance | Aetna | |
| Most cost savings – to Individuals (with/without health insurance) | ||
| Most benefit to individuals – short term | Pain relief | |
| Most benefit to individuals – prevention | ||
| Most benefit to individuals – treatment | Multiple Sclerosis | |
| Least change to doctors – augment conventional therapy | ||
| Likelihood that success in that area will spread use of vitamin D to other areas | ||
| Likely to be adopted by doctors | Pregnancy | |
| Likely to be adopted by patients | ||
| Fastest results | Pregnancy, pain relief | |
VitaminDWiki Categories having lots of items
| # of items | Topic | Interventions (many are RCT) |
| 234 | Breathing | 24 |
| 292 | Cardiovascular | 12 |
| 294 | Diabetes | 26 |
| 270 | Infant-Child | 24 |
| 223 | Multiple Sclerosis | 10 |
| 232 | Obesity | 10 |
| 426 | Pregnancy | 30 |
| 230 | Seniors | 7 |
| 319 | Skin - Dark | 8 |
| 289 | Intervention | |
| 220 | Meta-analysis | |
As of March 2016
Methods to encourage Vitamin D change include
- VitaminDWiki
- Google Adwords of some VitaminDWiki pages – in various languages
- Facebook, other social media
- Publish in Amazon - example Multiple Sclerosis
- Contact Health Maintenance Organizations
- Contact Health Insurance companies
- Seminars for people
- Seminars for health professionals
- Videos
- Instructional material for people
- Instructional material for health professionals
- Create a Vitamin D dosing equation (accurate, web-based)
- Create a Vitamin D story:
Why people have become deficient.
How vitamin D helps.
Why does vitamin helps so many health problems,
One size does not fit all,
Problems if lots of vitamin D without lots of co-factors
Truth passes thru 3 phases (comment by Dr. Grant)
All truth passes through three stages
- First, it is ridiculed.
- Second, it is violently opposed.
- Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Vitamin D is now in stage two.
Initial thoughts of strategy for Mulitiple Sclerosis and HMOs
- HMOs stand to reduce losses of about $10,000 per MS patient per year by adding vitamin D
- HMOs (as well as doctors elsewhere) do not see any RCT proof that MS can be totally treated by Vitamin D
- Perhaps if an HMO experiences the benefits of adding high dose vitamin D to conventional MS therapy they will change
Consider ways to encourage that experiment/trial: via patients?, via doctors?
Rough comparison of HMO net cost savings
| Pregnancy | Multiple Sclerosis | |
| Proof that vitamin D will help | Extensive | Minimal |
| Cost savings for 1 year | $1,000 per pregnancy (50% fewer premature births) | $10,000%%%(MS drugs are VERY expensive) |
Summary: Multiple Sclerosis provides 10 times the cost savings, but has far less proof
Note: Insurance Companies such as Blue Cross and Aetna may also be interested
- Blue Cross parent lost $1.5 billion on individual health plans last year March 2016
Being forced to insure people who are not healthy (MS is an example) is very very expensive