Thank you for the info. The reason i asked the question is we live on the east coast and my wife recently had a blood test and was for the first time diagnosed with low vitamin D
She has worked in a large shopping centre for 4 years now, previously a lot more time was spent outdoors.
In this time she has experienced more colds and gets fatigued much more easily and has just come down with a bad dose of broncitis, symptoms we atributed to being in air condiyioning and getting older, interesting to read this info.
Thank you
Editor, New York Times:
We have closely followed the stories in the Times about the mammography controversy. The coverage has been thorough and superb.
The controversy is about a procedure that, at best, reduces mortality by 15% and does nothing toward primary prevention.
It is not widely realized that most breast cancer is preventable. While the scientific literature reveals many strategies for prevention of breast cancer, the simplest is elimination of the vitamin D deficiency. This is the main known cause of breast cancer. Raising the serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level to 40-60 ng/ml could prevent 75-80% of breast cancer incidence (and deaths, of course).
While deciding on the issue of mammography, action can be taken today to raise the serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D to appropriate levels.
Sincerely yours,
Cedric F. Garland, Dr. P.H., F.A.C.E.
Professor
Department of Family and Preventive Medicine
University of California San Diego
I really am sceptical.
But Ive bought my Vitamin D
Now what dosage do you recommend?
Says 1000IU a day.
I live on the coast get a fair amount of sun but cover up.
take 5,000 IU per day for 2–3 months, then obtain a 25-hydroxyvitamin D test. Adjust your dosage so that blood levels are between 50–80 ng/mL (or 125–200 nM/L) year-round.
Thanks M/W I'm on it!
7000IU
Wow.
Would that vary if your in the sun enough to tan?
Why not just take the supplements and forget about the sun?
Vitamin D made in the skin lasts at least twice as long in the blood as vitamin D ingested from the diet. When you are exposed to sunlight, you make not only vitamin D but also at least five and up to ten additional photoproducts that you would never get from dietary sources or from a supplement.
Old Mother Nature is pretty parsimonious with her creations, and I suspect she wouldn’t have five to ten photoproducts circulating around if they didn’t do something good for us. Just because we aren’t advanced enough yet to figure out what it is they do, doesn’t mean they don’t do something.
Dr. Michael Hollick is one of the top vitamin D researchers in the world
Supplementing with vitamin D of up to 10,000IU per day is now thought to be very safe, although in the past many medical authorities have been concerned about the possibility of side effects with doses of this magnitude. Hathcock et al have applied the risk assessment methodology used by the Food and Nutrition Board in the USA to derive a revised safe Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) for vitamin D3
Their risk assessment based on relevant, well-designed human clinical trials of vitamin D3 concluded that the UL is 10,000IU vitamin D3 per day, that is, it is safe to take up to 10,000IU of vitamin D3 per day. Even with plenty of sun exposure, supplementing even up to this dose appears to be quite safe.
To illustrate the safety limits of supplementation, Kimball and Vieth reported in 2008 the cases of two men who had been supplementing with vitamin D.16 One had been taking 8,000IU per day for three years. This resulted in a blood level of 260nmol/L, and no changes in any measured parameters of calcium.
The second, a 39 year old man with MS, had been steadily increasing his self-prescribed dose of vitamin D over four years, from 8,000IU per day to a whopping 88,000IU per day. This latter level would be expected to produce some toxic effects. In fact, the amount of calcium in his urine started to rise, and then blood calcium levels started to go up, with a vitamin D level in his blood of 1,126nmol/L. He displayed no symptoms though.
At that point he stopped taking vitamin D, and within two months, all his blood tests were normal, although vitamin D levels remained high at 656nmol/L. While not recommended, this at least shows that it takes very large doses of vitamin D to produce any increase in calcium levels and toxicity.
As for calcium, like many other heavily-marketed supplements, now that the evidence is coming in, we can see that it pays to be very, very selective about what supplements to take. Supplements need to be taken for a good reason, with a therapeutic aim in mind, and utilising the best available evidence to support their use. For people with adequate vitamin D levels (and for people in most geographic regions this means supplementation with relatively large doses of vitamin D in winter), calcium supplementation is completely unnecessary. For those who avoid the sun or cannot get much sun in winter, and those with osteoporosis, supplementation with at least 5,000IU of vitamin D daily is recommended, rather than with calcium. Calcium supplementation, on the basis of current evidence, poses too great a risk to human health, and is not recommended.
This is interesting: from http://www.overcomingmultiplesclerosis.org/html/newsletter.php?id=ef9ad172
Seems like I can get my wife off the calcium as Vitamin D on it's own is enough...
The Blood Pressure Regulator You Need to Know About: One Vitamin Could Replace ACE Inhibitors Altogether
By Dr. Jonathan Wright on 01/07/2009
You wouldn't think a roomful of doctors would get excited about vitamin D. But it turns out there's some news about it that is causing quite a stir””at least it did when I presented it at a conference a few years ago. Judging by the reactions I got from other doctors at that conference, this news could turn a whole line of heart health therapy on its ear. So, I think it's important to take a few more minutes to share this information with you, too.
There's actually quite a lot of solid research behind the use of vitamin D as a blood pressure regulator. In fact, it might just rival one of the major blood pressure drug categories in effectiveness””for a whole lot less money out of your pocket.
Is where you live raising your blood pressure?
Epidemiologic studies have shown that people living near the equator are less likely to have hypertension. It's also been observed that blood pressures tend to be higher in the winter, when we get less sunlight, which your body uses to synthesize vitamin D. One recent large study demonstrated a distinct connection between increases in blood pressure and the distance people live from the equator. [1]
Another study, published several years ago in the Lancet, reported that ultraviolet light exposure, which increases the body's internal vitamin D production, lowered blood pressure in individuals with mild essential hypertension. [2] And two other small clinical trials showed that vitamin D supplementation reduces both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. [3,4]
Taken together, these studies and observations strongly indicate that vitamin D is nature's leading blood pressure regulator.
Vitamin D goes one step further than ACE inhibitors””without the dangers
Vitamin D achieves its blood pressure lowering effect by addressing one of the major causes of high blood pressure””a substance called angiotensin II.
Angiotensin II is produced by another substance called angiotensin-converting enzyme, or ACE. When ACE is allowed free rein, it sometimes produces too much angiotensin II. Excess angiotensin II constricts blood vessels, which raises blood pressure. But that's not all that excess angiotensin II does.
Among many other bad effects, excess angiotensin II also leads to abnormal thickening of both the heart muscle and blood vessel walls. It increases output of adrenaline and similar substances, increases the output of another blood pressure raising hormone called aldosterone, and increases salt retention by the kidneys. All of this tends to raise blood pressure.
So blocking ACE, and thereby lowering excess angiotensin II, is actually a logical strategy for lowering blood pressure””and, frequently, it works. But until recently, the best way to block ACE was with patented medications called ACE inhibitors. ACE inhibitor names generally end in the syllable "-pril" (enalapril, captopril, etc.), but they're sold under trade names including Vasotec, Lotensin, Zestril, Altace, Capoten, and others. Like most patent medications and synthetic molecules, ACE inhibitors can cause a number of negative side effects-cough, headache, and dizziness at best; skin rash, kidney problems, and swelling of the face, lips, and throat at worst.
But vitamin D might be able to go one step further-without the added disadvantages of the synthetic ACE inhibitors””by preventing the formation of excess angiotensin II in the first place.
Two years ago a study appeared in the Archives of Ophthalmology that showed that people who ate more foods with vitamin D, or took vitamin D supplements in lieu of eating foods high in vitamin D, were less likely to have age-related macular degeneration, the foremost cause of blindness in older adults.
(Vitamin) D: As far as hearing is concerned, a deficiency in this vitamin has serious consequences and has been associated with otosclerosis (abnormal bone growth in the middle ear), unexplained and bilateral cochlear deafness, presbycusis, and sensorineural hearing loss. Researchers had to conclude that vitamin D deficiency is likely one of the causes and supplementation should be considered in persons with hearing loss. Vitamin D can be inhibited if there is also a magnesium deficiency. If there is a magnesium deficiency, this will also affect calcium intakes. As you can see, not just one nutrient can be isolated as being a cause or cure of something.
It's an important hypothesis as it explains why it is better to use daily, weekly supplements rather than rely on large doses at extended intervals.
keeping 25(OH)D levels stable will prevent the need for fine tuning of the immune system and shorten the time where there is imbalance between activating (25- and 1a-hydroxylase) and the metabolizing (24-hydroxylase) enzymes.
If you are vitamin D deficient, the medical literature indicates that the right amount of vitamin D will make you faster, stronger, improve your balance and timing, etc. How much it will improve your athletic ability depends on how deficient you are to begin with. How good an athlete you will be depends on your innate ability, training, and dedication.However, peak athletic performance also depends upon the neuromuscular cells in your body and brain having unfettered access to the steroid hormone, activated vitamin D.
How much activated vitamin D is available to your brain, muscle, and nerves depends on the amount of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in your blood. In turn, how much 25-hydroxyvitamin D is in your blood depends on how much vitamin D you put in your mouth or how often you expose your skin to UVB light.
Doctors and scientists can be confusing sometimes.
First they say get out of the sun, b/c you'll get skin cancer.
Now they're telling us to go back out again and get a tan.
"The number one risk factor for melanoma is an inability to tan; people who tan easily or have dark pigmentation are far less likely to develop the disease."
~ David E Fisher MD PhD, Director, Melanoma Program, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Professor in pediatrics, Children's Hospital Boston
HIGHER BLOOD LEVELS, QUICKER TAN
Dr. Dixon presented fascinating evidence that high vitamin D blood levels prevent sunburn! Of course, it makes sense. When vitamin D levels are low, the skin stays as white as it can to make as much vitamin D as it can. When vitamin D levels are high, the skin rapidly tans to prevent excessive vitamin D skin production. A number of people have emailed me that observation: now that their levels are high, they tan very quickly. I've noticed the same thing.
The final conversion of vitamin D in the skin requires heat and the heat of sunburn will increase the amount of vitamin D made by any one sun-exposure. Thus, sunburns evolved for a reason. Nature cares less if you damage your skin with sunburn; Nature cares more that vitamin D deficient people maximize any one sun-exposure. That is, people with low 25(OH)D levels have a reason to burn, they make more vitamin D.
Easy sunburning and sun sensitivity may simply be a symptom of vitamin D deficiency. This is also a good study for some young vitamin D scientist to do.Vitamin D sufficient people do not need any extra vitamin D from the sun, so the extra heat in the skin generated by sunburn is not needed.
(As an aside, I also predict that 25(OH)D exerts negative feedback on 7-dehydrocholesterol, vitamin D's precursor molecule.) Vitamin D sufficient readers will see, when they go into the sun this spring, that it takes longer to burn, that their skin is less sun-sensitive, and that when redness does occur, it is often gone the next day.
However, beware: vitamin D sufficient people can still sunburn, it just takes longer. Sunburns increase your risk of melanoma and other skin cancers.Also, some fair-skinned people have a genetic variation that prevents their skin from making melanin pigment. Theoretically, vitamin D should not help them from sunburning.
But don't confuse fact with theory. The fact is that some skin type 1 people cannot make much melanin; the theory is that vitamin D will not protect their skin from sunburn. However, I know of some very fair-skinned, blond-headed, blue-eyed, skin type 1 people whose skin became less sensitive to the sun after taking 5,000 IU/day.
Diets rich in vegetables, fruits, and omega-3 fats””and the absence of appreciable quantities of omega-6 and trans-fats””also protects your skin from burning. The people who get sunburned are modern humans who live and work indoors, avoid fruit and vegetables, love french fries and chips, hate salmon, and go to the beach two or three times in the summer to roast themselves.
Frequent sunburns, especially in childhood, are but one factor in melanoma””genetics and diet are more important.
Besides reducing inflammatory cytokines, vitamin D does one more thing: it increases concentrations of glutathione””The master antioxidant and Detoxifier.
SHOWERING AFTER SUNBATHING
Dr. Cannell:
Does showering after sunbathing wash off the Vitamin D?
Sarah,
Oklahoma
Yes, but how much of the skin's total production? Agnes Helmer and Cornelius Jensen published a remarkable human/animal study in 1937, showing that significant amounts of Vitamin D are made on the surface of human skin. Reverend Jensen, the senior author, was a professor of biophysics as St. Thomas Aquinas, the precursor of the University of Dayton.
The authors collected surface oils from young men before showering, irradiated the oils, and showed those oils contained large amounts of Vitamin D, enough to cure rickets in animals. Then, they tested a very practical question; can those oils be removed by washing? Indeed they found washing, even with plain water, removed much of the Vitamin D from the surface of human skin. Holick, et al's, landmark 1980 study showing most human Vitamin D production occurs in the deep epidermis was incomplete. It was based on surgically obtained (and assumedly surgically prepped) skin samples that had any remaining surface oils removed by washing with hot water.
Indeed, to accurately address the question of where Vitamin D is made, one would need to obtain unwashed human skin, difficult to do even from cadavers. It appears to me that the percentage of Vitamin D made on the surface of the human skin, compared to that made inside the skin, is unknown at this time and in need of additional and careful research.
Furthermore, if the percentage made on the surface is significant, studies of cutaneous Vitamin D production in modern humans””unless from skin that went unwashed for several weeks””will not give accurate estimates of Vitamin D production in early man. Thus, these studies cannot give an accurate estimate of the "natural" 25(OH)D levels present when the human genome evolved in Northeast Africa.
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