Vitamin D shows promise but research still lagging

That made the front page of the Chicago Tribune today. Usually I just toss that "pamphlet" into the recycle bin, but the headline made me look.



I don't think I buy that argument. Healthy people at higher latitudes also show deficiency of D3, so being ill cant be used to as an argument that the illness is causing the deficiency... right? The healthy people just haven't gotten sick yet.
And yes I know- association is not causation.

Funny how skeptical they'll be of Vit. D but they readily accept the causative direction of being obese causing metabolic diseases.

Those are fat soluble, so is vitamin D. Conventional dietary guidelines dictate the diet that will be used in clinical trials which test the potency of vitamin supplements. The current nutritional guidelines say that we must eat low fat high carb. It's only natural that fat soluble vitamins will test poorly with such a diet. In other words, we aren't actually testing the vitamin supplements but the diet's ability to provide the nutrients in the first place. However, since we don't test different diets with these supplements, or at least I presume that we don't, we can't really conclude anything from these types of trials. So if a vitamin D trial fails to show the supplement's potency, then we can blame the low fat diet for that failure and not the supplement itself.

As for the other nutrients like selenium given in the list of examples, I bet that if we look at the diet, we will find that it was a low fat high carb diet and that supplementing with selenium, or any other nutrient, will be that much more effective if the base diet is low carb high fat. But then again, cutting carbs already has such a significant effect on health.

But the thought is, if your immune system is compromised, then it is possibly time to have your vitamin D checked and raise it. Illness does not cause the deficiency. The deficiency is keeping the body from working at its optimal best to fight the illness. Vitamin D deficiency also inhibits more than just the immune system, so one should not speculate that since one does not catch colds or the flu, then your vitamin D levels must be optimal. Vitamin D suffiency secures the body's ability to protect, and improve many maladies including metabolic disorders and depression. Plenty of sunshine does not equate to plenty of vitamin D. The majority of the American population are deficient in vitamin D and surely are not aware of it.

I dont think anyone should have objection to people testing themselves regularly and keeping their levels at 60+ (ng/ml). Its well within the acceptable range.

Even those who shudder in horror at hearing 10,000IU/day or more. If someone needs that much to "maintain" at 60+ (still staying well below 100) - whats the problem ?

Unless there are some who question the range itself ... like MP and its followers.

Testing regularly (every 6 months or less) is good in any case. Blind supplementation can be harmful.

I'm currently at 58.4 ng/ml and taking 4000 UI/d. Should I increase my intake of D3 ?

Thanks,

Patrick

You can take 5,000, you need to get your levels to betweein 60 ng/ml and 80 ng/ml.

Bruce Hollis, a vitamin D expert, keeps his levels around bwtween 100-120 ng/ml.

Interesting article.....I swear by my Vitamin D....My endo had me taking a prescription of 50,000 IU pill daily ( 350,000 IU weekly) , yes 50,000 every day for a month last month...then he had me take that same dose this month, but only one pill per week...Ugghhh this month I have been tired, moody and just very fatigued..I am tomorrow going to call and insist he put me back on the dose daily, instead of weekly...this is the only change in my life and has to be the reason for my sudden fatigue...I dont know about anyone else, but this is my experience...thanks for sharing the article Karen....

I love my Vitamin D! I take 120,000 IUs a week! I feel fantastic and as a topper.. no more leg cramps anymore!!

Thats great....I have leg cramps from my cholesterol meds and I think that helped me also....I was just curious is your dosage a script or over the counter??...I was researching tonight in case my doc wont refill my script and I could not find the high dosage that he was giving me.....I think the highest over the counter dosage I found was 5000 iu....thats pretty low, when I am used to 50,000 iu....I am pretty sure he will order more blood work and then re-fill me script, I am just so darn tired and he already has my thyroid meds regulated so we know it isnt that....

I have a script for 50,000 IU a week. I also supplement with 10,000 IU per day with that. 50,000 + 70,000 = FEELING GREAT!

I've been on the Vit D for about a month or two now and I just realized the loss of cramps. I was having leg and foot cramps at least 2 or 3 times per week. Been that way for years. Finally, no more!
Now if I could just get rid of my occasional restless legs!

My dad was wondering about vitamin d, the inactive kind, whether there was a benefit to increase levels of that, beyond its effect of increasing levels of the activated vitamin d. Maybe the weaker kind modulates the active stuff, the ratio of active/inactive determining the actual effect in the body? Part of the danger of hypervitaminosis d might be that it takes the system beyond the kidney's ability to regulate this ratio.

The theory that vitamin d levels are low as a symptom of some other problem; even if the theory is true, that still doesn't answer the question of whether to supplement. A symptom can still have consequences in and of itself. I think the burden of proof lies on anybody claiming that low vitamin d levels are in some way protective, which is something which would need to be true if correcting vitamin d levels is to be discouraged.

biotech-pharmacal.com

In researching vitamin D, I have found that the unactivated vitamin D3 is best. It is non-patentable, very inexpensive, and can be activated, when and where needed, by just about every part of the body beyond the kidney.


The activated kind of D3, outside of the amounts converted by the body, are really D3 derivatives that are under patents, very expensive and, since they bypass the self-regulating body controls of D3 activation, very easily cause hypercalcemia.