Clients are often surprised at the high levels of Vitamin D3 that I recommend: new research has shown that the 400 iu available in most vitamins is far too low and children today, indoors or covered with sunscreen, are getting rickets. If you were uncovered at noon in the equatorial regions where we evolved, you would get 25,000 iu of Vitamin D in a couple of hours. So unless you work out of doors in the South, don’t wear sunscreen and only wash with water (soap within 48 hours interferes with the body’s manufacture of Vitamin D), you aren’t getting enough from the sun. (See my last post where people living in Hawaii exposed to the sun were not getting enough.)
And if you go to the Vitamin D Council website, you will see ample discussion of the new recommendations. I personally take 10,000 iu daily, which is the minimum to raise your blood levels and a level that is reasonable to avoid toxicity even if you don’t take blood tests. For clients with cancer I suggest four times that dose, but they get tested.
Toxicity is rare, not documented in the literature except anecdotally, and in levels of 120,000 iu daily for protracted periods. Levels of 300,000 iu given once weekly by prescription are generally acknowledged as safe, but usually require testing. Persons with scleroderma or abnormal calcium metabolism should not take high levels (and should watch calcium as well.)
Vitamin D is a pro-hormone, rather than a vitamin, important for all kinds of metabolic function and affecting 2000 of our genes. Current research has implicated vitamin D deficiency as a major factor in the pathology of at least 17 varieties of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting, birth defects, periodontal disease and infectious diseases. Now there is evidence that the vitamin affects susceptibility to the flu.
Here is information from the Flu Wiki forum discussing Vitamin D and the flu:
Vitamin D Status and Susceptibility to Influenza and its Complicationsby: The DoctorWed Jul 01, 2009 at 23:30:43 PM EDT |
| A considerable quantity of research data published in the peer reviewed medical literature over that past 2 decades has shown that many people within the developed and underdeveloped world are vitamin D deficient. There are a variety of reasons for this finding including diet, lifestyle and use of supplements.With regard to risk for pandemic influenza, the most important thing this data suggest for those deficient in this key vitamin is that they are much more likely to contract influenza than the vitamin D replete and are at higher risk of experiencing severe complication from this infection including cytokine storm, post influenza pneumonia and death. |