Mr. Nypon,

In my previous post, I concluded that you are probably not deficient in vitamin D. So I think we are on the same page!

From what I have read and experienced personally, I do not believe that yard work and manual labor will cause Dupuytren's, but it can be a co-factor. In other words, for someone who is not predisposed to getting Dupuytren's, that person could do yard work forever without ever developing Dupuytren's, but for the person who is predisposed, that person will probably get the Dupuytren's sooner than if he/she had never done the yard work.

As for those persons who are predisposed to getting the disease, I beleive that it is a combination of a genetic predisposition, coupled with some other external problem with their personal health, due in part to some failure in their endocrine system, or a poor diet of vitamins and minerals, or a poor lifestyle, or a combination of all three.

Here's that link again, lots of information that rings true to me. I've had Duputren's since '99, NA with Dr. Eaton in May '04, and I'll need to visit Charlie again this year because of a strong recurrance. Diet and adequate sleep are no doubt important factors in the preservation of one's health; how can these variables NOT have an effect on controlling, or perhaps eliminating Dupuytren's? Admittedly, I was a walking lab experiment in vitamin and nutritional supplements until about five years ago when I discovered ridges on my right palm. In addition to a potent vitamin regimin, I was taking glucosamine/condroitin (Move-Free), as well as DHEA and creatine, while spending 1-2 hours/4 days a week in the weight room. Nothing but a daily multi-vitamin now. Also, I notice that after drinking alcohol, enough to feel inebriated, 4-5 cocktails perhaps, that my fingers seem stiffer and slightly more curled the next several days than before the party. Stretching and hot water helps. Kevin's site and other anecdotal evidence one can find on the internet suggest that diet IS an integral factor in checking the proliferation of Dups, if not the cause.

http://www.dupuytrens-a-new-theory.com/pages/1/index.htm

This is just a start, believe me, but Kevin is doing what very few people, researchers, or particularly physician's ever do. He is putting pieces of this puzzle together. I will be writing to Kevin directly, but let me tell everybody now- the answer to many, if not all "collagen-build-up" (my term) disorders MAY be in the "ACTIVE" form of vitamin D-calcitriol. Your kidneys and liver make this from oral or sunshine-derived vitamin D. There are papers out there now showing that giving this "active" form of vitamin D to patients (careful-it can be very toxic) can stop and reverse collagen fibrotic diseases. That's what I'll say for now, but I would have not even looked at this if it weren't for Kevin. God bless you.

Send me an email, and I will send them to you. Some are abstracts, but I have one in particular where the patient was essentially cured of a desmoid (that's what I have, along with Dupuytren's), with calcitriol. I COULD be wrong, but I just wonder if all of these collagen-related fibrotic diseases to have enough biochemistry in common for this drug to work for many.

I'll put the abstract links here, but I've worked in healthcare for 23 years, and it seems lately that there's a ton of research on vitamin D, both the "inactive" and "active" forms, mostly for cancer (breast, prostate, lung, etc.). By the way, two of these papers are free for download. And it does not mean that someone has to be "deficient" in vitamin D in order for calcitriol to work. It actually seems to have a collagen-degradation activity.

Links:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15371466&query_hl=1

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15607567&query_hl=3

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=10926872&query_hl=7

Hope this helps.

Frank