Blog — Vitamin D

By Dr. Zane Hauck, ZRT Laboratory Growing up, I never thought of myself as a runner, or really a good athlete in general. I played every sport possible as a kid, but I was never great and didn’t play high school sports. As an adult, I started playing team sports again and eventually was convinced to run a 5k. I ended up running the Warrior Dash and enjoyed it, so I continued doing 3.2-mile training runs. For the rest of my 20s I continued running 5k races with friends and played volleyball, softball, and some casual intramural sports, but was...

*By Jim Paoletti, ZRT Laboratpry Many patients who produce sufficient hormone from the gland still suffer from low thyroid symptoms. Hypothyroidism is defined as: “lack of thyroid hormone production from the thyroid gland.”  When thyroid levels are not within normal ranges, many conventional treatment protocols rush into thyroid replacement therapy. Two problems exist with this approach: If the patient has normal levels of T4 and T3—but a slightly elevated TSH—they are classified as “Subclinical Hypothyroid” and continue to suffer from symptoms. If the patient has low levels of T4 and/or T3, they are given thyroid replacement therapy—even though they may produce...

By Lissa Gienty, ZRT Laboratory Quick Takeaway: Studies suggest high blood levels of 25-OH vitamin D may prevent melanoma [1] and appropriate D levels may affect the prognosis in both primary [2] and metastatic melanomas. [3] Keep your levels in blood between 50-80 ng/dL. Additionally, melatonin and its metabolites protect the skin from sun and help guard the DNA there when faced with the mixture of cancer-inducing ultraviolet rays and oxidation.  The Full Story Like so many, I figured it was never going to happen to me. Until the day that one of our docs (thank you, Dr. Alison McAllister) turned to me in a meeting and said: "I really don't like...

By Dr Kate Placzek, ZRT Laboratory We love talking about the sun! We grumble about it being hidden away behind heavy rain clouds for months at a time in the winter; we delight in the first breakthrough rays in the spring, realizing our pagan longing for it, watching, as if for the first time, as everything around us wakes up from a deep slumber; we marvel at its delightful, almost intoxicating warmth in the early summer; and yes, we find it irritating when the temperature goes a dash over 80 degrees, or if stays too hot for too long into...

By Candace Burch, ZRT Laboratory If you cannot figure out why you are gaining weight or can no longer shed pounds easily like you used to – despite your best efforts to eat right, exercise, and take your vitamins every morning– you might be walking around with a hormone imbalance that has you hardwired to put on pounds. Even when we think we’re being healthy, hormonal triggers to unwanted weight gain are too often neglected or overlooked. Testing can help you find the answer. But in the meantime, let’s boil this down to the collective wisdom on eight big culprits...