Do not fall for the nonsense coming from
Dr. Stephanie Seneff of MIT
A substantial number of articles on the Internet have been written over the last few years that claim that supplementing with vitamin D does not work. This is just one of many different health positions being advocated by Dr. Stephanie Seneff at MIT. In effect, she claims that sunning oneself is the only strategy that is effective at preventing heart disease.
Her health positions are so laughable that one wonders why a response is needed at all. Nevertheless, due to the huge volume of loony articles on the Web that always manage to reference Dr. Seneff, here is what everyone needs to know about her.
Their central argument is that Dr. Stephanie Seneff claims that supplementing with vitamin D is NOT effective. So, who is this Dr. Seneff? Here is what we have found out. Stephanie claims to have studied biology at the undergraduate level. She actually has a B.S. degree in Biophysics.
"Biophysics looks for principles that describe patterns. If the principles are powerful, they make detailed predictions that can be tested."
In other words, Dr. Seneff recieved a B/S degree from MIT, at the undergraduate level. That pretty much explains why she is misleading the public about ALL her health claims. The Natural Health Perspective proclaims that an undergraduate degree in biochemistry would have been impressive, but biophysics and other B/S degrees most certainly are not.
Stephanie Seneff, herself, claims to be a Senior Research Scientist at MIT in the field of the computer science specializing in conversational language systems. Stephanie Seneff has fairly recently published to-date somewhere between 8 and 12 papers on health related topics. She has been claiming expertise on a wide range of topics: Alzheimer's disease, autism, brain trauma, Celiac disease / gluten intolerance, cholesterol sulfate, glyphosate / Roundup herbicide, and high-Carb diets among other topics.
Dr. Stephanie Seneff Interviewed
As far as vitamin D goes, she is claiming that a) supplements do not work, and b) it is really cholesterol sulfate that is preventing heart disease. While many people pretend that she is talking about cancer, she usually claims that it prevents heart disease. Then beyond that, Seneff advocates an animal-based diet versus the plant-based diet that is being promoted on the Natural Health Perspective. Thus, Dr. Seneff has made a lot of presentations for the Weston Price Foundation.
Furthermore, she has not published a single genuine research study on any of her topics. All of her published papers can at best be described as speculative essays that do little more than repeat the usual arguments that are commonly being promoted on the Web. That is certainly a very wide range of topics to be covered in just eight published papers, don't you think? Claiming expertise on any one of them would be bad enough, but collectively on all of these areas makes Seneff's health claims little more than ludicrous, to say the least.
Now compare those 8 published papers of Dr. Seneff to the 118, 280, 296, 400, and 470 papers published respectively by some of the top vitamin D researchers that have been cited by the Natural Health Perspective.
Her 8 published papers are so laughable that they are hardly worth reviewing.
In her paper on the metabolic syndrome, for example, it would be tempting to claim that she basically copied Lustig's position on fructose, who she mentions in at least one of her videos, and then adds the bit about a relatively low fat, low cholesterol diet in order to make her position seem somewhat different.
Dr. Seneff has not bothered to publish a paper on vitamin D. The Natural Health Perspective would be tempted to say that if an interviewer were to ask her about that she would claim that she is working on getting one published, which would basically mean that she has been unable to con a research journal into publishing a paper on that topic.
Most of her thunder is coming from her numerous slide show presentations that are available on YouTube. Much like the contestants on America's Got Talent Dr. Seneff has learned a lot from watching other academically oriented speakers.
After watching a few of her videos, one cannot help but notice that most of them are nothing but a poor rip-off of some of the main speakers who have been featured in a video on the Natural Health Perspective. Admittedly, however, Seneff does a lot better job of animating her Microsoft PowerPoint Slide Presentations, which expertise is no doubt coming from her computer background.
Then the most damning evidence against her claim that it is actually cholesterol sulfate rather than vitamin D that prevents cancer is two published research studies that have documented that cholesterol sulfate is a known marker for two different types of cancer: prostate cancer for males and ovarian and uterine cervical cancer for females. If cholesterol sulfate is so good at preventing cancer, why then can it be used to diagnose cancer?
In conclusion, Dr. Seneff appears likable on video. But, there is something off about her that at first is hard to put a finger on. The tip-off is without any advanced degrees in Health, or years of research experience, Stephanie presents herself as an expert on just about every topic imaginable.
Stephanie Seneff provides enough fluff for those who do not understand anything at all about how science works in order to support the delusions of people that strongly believe they can get enough sunshine in the States in order to save themselves from both heart disease and cancer. Sure sunning yourself is possible, but in most cases that would require using some type of a sun lamp on a daily basis. Using a lamp to artificially stimulate vitamin D production is no more "natural" than supplementation. The most delusional of them all seems to be Stephanie herself who resides in Boston, Massachusetts.
Not satisfied with the attention Dr. Seneff has gotten on just the vitamin D issue she has branched off on many other topics such as vaccines, dementia, autism, and the evils of the Roundup herbicide.
Vitamin D Supplements Work!
We have one entire article devoted to the health benefits of vitamin D.
On the Natural Health Perspective at least, vitamin D supplementation has NEVER been marketed as a quick fix for heart disease. Nor, is it being advocated as a quick fix for cancer, since it takes at least 3 years of daily supplementation. The evidence that supplementation with vitamin D effectively prevents cancer is quite solid. After over 30 years of research, the physical proof of effectiveness goes way beyond mere association.
- At least ten different physical mechanisms of action explain why vitamin D and calcium supplementation would be effective against age-related cancer.
- Vitamin D prevents cancer by controlling gene expression
- Vitamin D supplementation prevents cancer by boosting your natural immunity.
Furthermore, it has NEVER been about just vitamin D supplementation, since other nutrient cofactors are involved, such as calcium, magnesium, and selenium. These vitamin D cofactors can be effectively obtained from a healthy diet and / or by supplementation.
Of course, the gold standard of proof on the effectiveness of vitamin supplementation are randomized control trials (RCT). The definitive RCT research study to date on the effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation in preventing cancer is the Lappe Trial. Of course, there have been other randomized control trials on the effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation.
Whether or not sunning brings other factors into play is besides the point since RCTs have shown vitamin D supplementation, alone, to be effective.
Furthermore, the Natural Health Perspective advocates at least six different ways to prevent age-related cancer.
Stephanie Seneff on the Web
