Page 32 - Spring2020

reacts with nitric oxide to produce S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO), which I or poor health in general). The intervention
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believe serves as a temporary storage form of NO. Almost miraculously, involved daily oral supplementation with one
visible light (green, blue and purple) can catalyze the release of NO from thousand mg of calcium and eight hundred IU
glutathione. Not only does this cause a relaxation of the blood vessels, of vitamin D3. However, to reduce the risk of
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but it also frees up glutathione to react with hydrogen sulfide gas to vitaminosis D, the study excluded women who
produce sulfate. took calcium supplements, as well as women
As illustrated in Figure 3, glutathione reacts with reduced sulfur to with a history of bladder or kidney stones, renal
form glutathione persulfide (GSSH), and this can catalyze the oxidation failure or hypercalcemia. Despite the near-ideal
of the extra sulfur atom to sulfur dioxide in the presence of superoxide. experimental setup, after a median follow-up
eNOS binds to flavins that respond to visible light by releasing electrons period of twenty-five months, there was no
that convert oxygen to superoxide. The sulfur dioxide produced by eNOS significant difference between fractures in the
is then oxidized to sulfate by sulfite oxidase. What this means is that the treatment group compared to the control group.
visible light in sunlight is crucial both for the release of NO from the Another three-year study compared three
skin and the synthesis of sulfate in the skin—and both of these results different doses of vitamin D—four hundred
are crucial aspects of the beneficial effects of sunlight exposure. IU/day, four thousand IU/day and ten thousand
Note that eNOS is a “moonlighting” enzyme. As described at length IU/day—specifically looking at bone density.
in a paper I published with colleagues in 2015, eNOS is able to switch Surprisingly, those on the highest dosage had
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between two synthesized products: nitric oxide and sulfur dioxide, de- a statistically significantly worse outcome in
pending on electromagnetic signaling that it receives from the circulating terms of bone mineral density. I would argue
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red blood cells. that systemic sulfate deficiency drives calcium
These results might prompt medical professionals to advise people in into the arteries, leaching it from the bones—
higher latitudes to take a vitamin D supplement.However, as we by now and excessive vitamin D increases the rate at

can guess, a large study on vitamin D supplements and hip fractures gave which this happens.
disappointing results. The study involved women over seventy years
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old who had at least one self-reported risk factor for hip fracture (low SUNLIGHT AND THE EYES
body weight, previous fracture, maternal history of hip fracture, smoker Sunglass marketing ads have trained us to

FIGURE 2. Population blood pressure (BP)
correlates with latitude. Each point represents a
country. Male systolic population BP is plotted
against the latitude of the geographical mid-
point of each country. BP values are from 1980
MRC-HPA data. See Weller, 2016 for details. 2

32 Wise Traditions SPRING 2020