Have your Vitamin D level checked

[hotwheels]

I was taking a 1,000 units Vitamin D supplement daily for years. I took it during the winter and also during the summmer, because I was always wearing sun protection, which interferes with Vitamin D production. In sunlight, your exposed body can produce over 10,000 units worth of Vitamin D. I thought that with decent nutrition and the supplement my Vitamin D needs were covered. I was not quite wrong, but almost.

Last September I had my Vitamin D 25 Hydroxy level checked. The normal range is 30-100 ng/ml. 60-80 ng/ml is good level to aim for.

Last September my blood test showed 28.9 ng/mL , which is just below normal.
Based on my physician's advise I upped the supplement to 5,000 units per day.
Another blood test in November showed an increased level of Vitamin D 25 Hydroxy at 30.7 ng/ml, which is just above normal. I upped the supplement to 10,000 units per day and had another blood test done a few days ago. My D25 Hydroxy level has actually fallen to 30.3 ng/ml. I have not yet talked to my doc about increasing the dosage again.

Since December I have not been out in the sun much, which has definitely contributed to the still low level of D 25 Hydroxy dspite the large quantity of D3 supplementation.

I should mention I consume a good amount oif dairy, fish and eggs to begin with, but that alone is not enough to ensure a sufficient amount of Vitamin D. Since Vitamin D, which is actually a precursor of a hormone, is primarily produced by the expsoure to UV light, wearing sun protection can lead to vitamin D deficiency just the same as long and dark winter months.

Vitamin D is extremely important to many processes in the body, so asking your doctor for a D25 Hydroxy check, a sinple blood test, is a good idea.

hotwheels

 

[Turk]

Yep, my Wife's D level was at 6.
6 !!!

Her bones hurt bad, got her on 50,000 IU 3-4 times a week and she was
MUCH better.
Now she takes 5,000-10,000 IU's a day.

 

[Azeem]

Had mine checked by luck last month-was 14 ng/ml.

Darker people need more sun to replenish Vitamin D vs Lighter-colored ones.

Don't be surprised if you are depressed and your sole treatment is Vitamin D.

 

[reemoe2]

I take 2,000 IU a day (a good, safe amount). It's the only supplement I take. So many benefits to stay healthy (I rarely get sick) and many anti-cancer properties, as well!

 

[tinmanSC]

3 years ago when I had mine checked and it was 18. I started taking D3 regularly and it went up to 25, but a 1 IU (International Unit, which is how D3 is measured) is only 0.000025 mg. That's right, twenty five millionths of a milligram. There is not much Vitamin D in Vitamin D. And that's assuming that your supplements actually contain the correct amount of Vitamin D, a recent study found that only 4% of the supplements tested actually did. http://www.ag.ny.gov/press-release/ag-sc...ments-dna-tests

If you are still worried about it, ask your doctor for a script. The Vitamin D you get from your pharmacy, which is normally 50,000 IU of D2, are normally very close in dosage.

 

[hotwheels]

Vitamin D3 has supposedly better bio-availaibility than D2 and also a longer half-life once ingested. My doc tells me to take D3. I have no idea how efficiently the D3 from supplements is used by the body. For example, I am takig per suggestion by my doctor a prescription Vitamin B complex called Metanx. It is natural Vitamin B made from kelp instead of synthetic B. Research has shown that natural Vitamin B has far superior bioavailability. It's costly though at about $180 for a 45 day supply.

hotwheels

 

[Cadenza]

Make sure to add vitamin K if your taking big doses of D to help alleviate calcification in the bloodstream.

 

[NothingNew]

Originally Posted By: Cadenza
Make sure to add vitamin K if your taking big doses of D to help alleviate calcification in the bloodstream.


Specifically Vitamin K2. More info on Vitamin D can be found at https://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

 

[JHZR2]

I don't wear sunscreen. I avoid exposure and then cover appropriately when I have to be out. There are many reasons to do this.

That said, on occasion I still take D3, especially in the winter. Ive heard of MANY people recently being VERY low in D.

Think Ill go take one now...

 

[OneEyeJack]

Vitamin D is really a hormone, not a vitamin at all.

Vitamin D

 

[hotwheels]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
I don't wear sunscreen. I avoid exposure and then cover appropriately when I have to be out. There are many reasons to do this.

That said, on occasion I still take D3, especially in the winter. Ive heard of MANY people recently being VERY low in D.

Think Ill go take one now...


I spend at least 3 hours a day outside in the sun. On off days I spend even more time outdoors. I always have sunscreen on my arms, hands and face. if I wear shorts, I protect my legs. I see too many people with prematurely aged skin, precancerous lesions and skin cancer everyday to do otherwise.

hotwheels

 

[hotwheels]

Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
Vitamin D is really a hormone, not a vitamin at all.

Vitamin D

It's a precursor to a hormone, but it commonly goes by the name Vitamin D. The same goes for Vitamin A.

 

[aquariuscsm]

The vitamins I take daily says 1600IU of vitamin D on the label. I also work outside 9-10 hours m-f and wear 100+ spf on all exposed skin.

 

[Patman]

I take 1000mg a day, but I also get a lot of D from the sun as well. In the warm months I am outside every day, I also use the tanning booth at my gym once a week in the cold months. My wife and I just got back from 4 days in Florida and all 4 days had brilliant sunshine so I've got some nice color in my skin right now

There is a lot of misinformation out there that having a tan is bad for you, and I agree that if you sunburn it's bad but as long as you know your limit, being out in the sun and using tanning beds are perfectly safe.

 

[hotwheels]

I know I can withstand a mid-winter noon sun for about 15 minutes. After that I quicky start looking like a lobster. In the summer, my shoulders will burn through a regular t-shirt.

You know where most older people get skin cancer? On their hands, in the face and especially on the helix of the ears. So maybe that hair growth on top of the ears is our defense against skin cancer? I wear ballcaps, so I always have to protect my ears. Those with darker complexion that can get away with wide-brimmed hats are lucky.

One of my neighbors used to be work outdoors all his life. He's in his sixties now. For the past ten years he has the dermatologist remove skin cancer twice a year from his face. His face looks then all mottled with scabs for a couple weeks. He also uses an extremely expensive cream, $1,000 for a little tube, that chemically removes skin cancer, but that does not work as well.

As far as sunscreen is concerned, I avoid the ones with exotic chemcials that tend to break down under UV light and that produce their own carcinogenic and mutagenic byproducts. I stick with clear zinc oxide, because I don't want to look like a harlequin. The issue with the clear mineral blockers is that the particles are nano-sized, which maybe potentially be harmful. The thick white zinc oxide, or a layer of mud, is the safest sun blocker.

hotwheels

 

[Shannow]

As a family, we found getting sunburned on our US holiday a near impossibility...we weren't intentionally going out to get burned, but three days in Disneyland, a day at tombstone, and no-one even started getting pink.

As a family, we don't use sunscreen much, but rely on cotton loose fitting clothes, and baseball caps and shade...we DO have some Mercola branded zinc/coconut sunscreen that we use when we are going to be sitting at an event out in the sun like a car show.

We are careful with the children, and have instilled in them awareness, but not fear of being in the sun...the schools and media are trying to instill terror

At 47 I do have a few spots (on my forehead, my parents never bothered with sun stuff when I was little, and I had some horriffic sunburns wearing fairly loose weave synthetic clothes) that can be removed via the use of Radium wort.

Have a few friends who had melanomas removed (Oz is the capital), and I'm still not sure that it's entirely sun exposure that causes it...one had it in his armpit, another in a labial fold, and another on the sole of the foot...only one on the upper tanned part of the shoulder.

Funnily, the best way of preventing a repeat bout of melanoma is adequate Vit D.

 

[hotwheels]

I'm 49 and I grew up without using sunscreen much. Come summer, we'd lie down in the sun and fry half a day to develop an initial tan. Usually the skin on at least my back ended up peeling. I never got a tan more brown than the color of a café Iatte. I probably did a lot of significant damage to my skin, and the damage you suffer at an early age will likely affect you later. I started wearing sunscreen in my twenties to make up for my earlier negligence. So far I have been lucky.

hotwheels

 

[Triple_Se7en]

Were you taking 1K-D3 prior to the diagnosis? How long now with D3 and is it a cheap / moderate or expensive brand-name?

You should not need a 5K dose to being that level up. What other pills, supplements......etc.... are you taking? One of them may be interfering with your improved numbers.

For example: My potassium was out of whack for a long time, only to find out three years later it was the water-pill brand I was taking for High Blood Pressure, that caused it to drain low.

 

[Dave Hess]

What brand vitamin D are you guys taking ?

 

[dblshock]

As I understood dosing should be 35IU per lb. of body weight and K2 is critical as it directs calcification to teeth and bone.