#102 - The "Vitamin D" Conundrum: When a Vitamin Is Actually a Hormone (Part I) | Dr. Stasha Gominak (Grüner Veltliner)

Send us Fan MailWhy don’t the clinical trials agree with the science?During the COVID epidemic “vitamin” D became front-page news. Because low “vitamin” D levels were associated with poor COVID outcomes most of us now recognize that D is not just a ‘’bone vitamin” but plays an important role in many parts of our body, especially our immune systems. This increased interest in D has also revealed an important mismatch between 80 years of scientific study of ‘’hormone’’ D and D’s use in routine medical practice.  Over the last 50 years “vitamin” D deficiency has been shown to be related to numerous chronic illnesses. There are thousands of scientific articles documenting that D is a hormone playing an important role in almost every organ in the human body. Because of these important scientific findings many prospective treatment trials are being performed. These trials are meant to answer a specific question: If hormone D deficiency shows up along with diseases that are common in our human population could giving hormone D help prevent or cure these same diseases? Why have so many of the recent human treatment trials shown negative results? Because of the continued, inappropriate use of the word ‘’vitamin” most of the D treatment trials have been designed as fixed-dose, public-health “vitamin” studies. Because of the way these studies are designed they have consistently reported negative results. Because of these negative trials doctors are currently being advised not to test vitamin D levels or even recommend vitamin D supplementation. About our guest:Dr. Gominak grew up and attended college in California, moved to Houstonfor medical school at Baylor College of Medicine, where she received an MDdegree in 1983. Her Neurology residency was done at the Harvard affiliated,Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She practiced Neurology in theSan Francisco Bay area from 1991-2004 then moved with her husband to Tyler,Texas.Starting in 2004 she began to dedicate more of her practice to the treatmentof sleep and sleep disorders. In 2012 and 2016 she published two pivotalarticles about the global struggle with worsening sleep, the possible causes andsolutions, related to vitamin D deficiency and the intestinal microbiome.In 2016 she retired from her office practice to have more time to teach.She currently divides her time between RightSleep® coaching sessions forprivate individuals and teaching other clinicians the RightSleep® method ofsleep repair.Resources Mentioned:The Vitamin D ConundrumConnect with Dr. Gominak:WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramThe hashtag for the podcast is #nourishyourflourish. You can also find our practice on the following social media outlets:Facebook: The Eudaimonia CenterInstagram: theeudaimoniacenterTwitter: eu_daimonismFor more reproductive medicine and women's health information and other valuable resources, make sure to visit our website.Have a question, comment, guest suggestion, or want to share your story? Email us at [email protected] the showThe hashtag for the podcast is #nourishyourflourish. You can also find our firm, The Eudaimonia Center on the following social media outlets:Facebook: The Eudaimonia CenterInstagram: theeudaimoniacenterThreads: The Eudaimonia CenterFor more integrative reproductive medicine and women's health information and other valuable resources, make sure to visit our website.Have a question, comment, guest suggestion, or want to share your story? Email us at [email protected]