Vitamin D: Are you getting enough?
Nature’s design is to offer us the ability to easily get enough Vitamin D. We were born with the ability to convert sunlight to vitamin d. Cool, huh?
The only problem is we’re deficient in sunlight.
Most of us work indoors. And we’re taught by the “authorities” to be scared of the sun because it’s dangerous and can cause skin cancer. It’s said we must slather ourselves in sunscreen or wear protective clothing whenever we go outdoors.
We’ve created a Vitamin D deficient society by virtue of our lifestyles.
By protecting yourself from the sun, you prevent the more benign form of skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma. You do nothing to prevent the deadly form, malignant melanoma.
And by allowing yourself to become Vitamin D deficient, you put yourself at risk for more serious forms of cancer than you prevent by avoiding sunlight. Incidences of colon, prostate and breast cancer are significantly higher in the Vitamin D deficient person.
So what exactly is Vitamin D and what does it do?
Vitamin D is actually not actually a vitamin. It’s a prohormone and it’s responsible for over 2000 genes in the body. Vitamin D fat-soluble and is naturally present in very few foods. The main naturally occurring dietary sources are cod liver oil and salmon. The only significant plant sources of vitamin D are mushrooms, in particular shitakes. When mushrooms are exposed to UV light, the level of vitamin D increases dramatically.
Some foods are fortified with Vitamin D, such as homogenized milk. It is also produced endogenously when ultraviolet rays from sunlight strike the skin and trigger vitamin D synthesis. The Vitamin D you get from sun exposure, food, and supplements is biologically inert and needs to be activated in your body. There are two activations, called hydroxylations required to produce active Vitamin D. The first occurs in your liver, which converts pro- vitamin D to 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D], also known as calcidiol. The second occurs in your kidney and forms 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D [1,25(OH)2D], also known as calcitriol.
The main role of Vitamin D is to promote calcium absorption in your gut and to maintain the level of calcium in your blood. Without sufficient vitamin D, bones can become thin, brittle, or misshapen. Together with calcium, vitamin D can help protect you from osteoporosis.
Vitamin D has other roles in your body in controlling cell growth, neuromuscular activities, immune function, and reduction of inflammation. There are many genes controlled by vitamin D, including those that regulate cell growth, differentiation, and death.
Common Conditions and Symptoms Associated with Vitamin D deficiency
1- Obesity and excess weight
2- High blood pressure
3- Osteoporosis and osteopenia
4- Autism
5- Autoimmune conditions (such as Hashimotos, lupus, ankylosing spondylitis, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis)
6- Cancer
7- Depression
8- Asthma
9- Migraines
10- Cystic fibrosis
11- Diabetes(both types 1 and 2)
12- Multiple sclerosis
13- Schizophrenia
14- Epilepsy
15- Osteoarthritis
16- PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome)
17- Musculoskeletal pain, including joint pain and low back pain
18- Muscle weakness
19- Poor balance
20- Systemic inflammation
21- Fibromyalgia
Tips to Improve Your Vitamin D Status
- Get outdoors and enjoy the sunshine for at least 20 – 30 minutes a day during, preferably when the sun is highest in the sky.
- Avoid sunscreen for a full 20 – 30 minutes.
- Expose your arms and legs. You need to expose 40% of your skin to make sufficient Vitamin D.
- Be sure to avoid washing the exposed parts with soap for at least 48 hours to give your body a chance to absorb all he Vitamin D it produced as a result of the sunshine exposure.
- Get tested for vitamin D. The 25, hydroxyl vitamin D test is the one most commonly used.
- Supplement with Vitamin D if you’re low.
The older you get the more unhealthy you are, the harder it is for you to make Vitamin D. During the winter in all locations north of Atlanta, Georgia, it is virtually impossible to get enough vitamin D, even with mid day sun exposure. If you are darkly pigmented, you’ll need more sun exposure to make sufficient Vitamin D.
Vitamin D Supplementation
If you’re unable to get your daily dose of sunshine, then take a vitamin D supplement. Vitamin D3 is best absorbed and utilized. It’s usually from lanolin, which is from sheep. If you prefer a vegan source, the only one I know about is Vitamin Code Raw Vitamin D3. Vitamin D2, a less well absorbed form of vitamin D, is another vegan option.
In general, Vitamin D supplementation is much less effective than sun exposure. It’s best to get sunlight exposure as much as possible and only use the supplements when sunlight exposure is not possible. However, it’s best to test to determine whether you’re getting enough. So many factors affect how well you derive Vitamin D from sunlight. Most people just don’t get enough. Even if you get plenty of sun exposure, it’s possible to become Vitamin D deficient.
You can overdose on Vitamin D. That’s why I recommend a baseline test before starting supplementation. You cannot overdose on Vitamin D via sunlight exposure, but you can with supplementation.
According to Dr. Mercola, you may need 3000 units of vitamin D per 100 lbs of body weight to correct a deficiency. In the case of cancer or severe auto immune disease, optimal may be in the range of 5000 units per 100 lbs of body weight. The human body, given the right conditions, can make up to up to 20,000 units in a day!
Vitamin D supplementation can be helpful for combating acute infectious disease, like the flu or a cold. In this case, you should take 2000 units /kg per of body weight each day for 3 days.
Vitamin D has a long half life, which means that you can take it once a week rather than daily.
Vitamin D Testing
Testing for Vitamin D is very important to make sure you optimize your levels and avoid overdose. You should test 25-Hydroxy vitamin D not the more expensive 1,25 dihydroxy vitamin d.
You can get tested by going to Directlabs.com
Learn more about Vitamin D testing at Lab Tests Online. This is a site where you can find information about any lab test. It is very thorough and informative.
I have found in my practice that it’s SO important to get vitamin D tested …not just once but every 3 months until your levels are in the optimal range (I target for 75 in general, but since there are so many factors involved, I tailor my recommendation to the person).
Vitamin D Levels — what’s optimal?
| >100 ng/mL | Excessive vitamin D |
| 75-100 ng/mL | Proposed optimal range |
| 50-75 ng/mL | Suboptimal |
| <50 ng/mL | Deficient |
| <20 ng/mL | Seriously deficient |
For anyone with levels below 20 I generally recommend 10,000 and sometimes more for 3 months then recommend retesting.
In many cases the levels come up to the 30s by then and I recommend the same for another 3 months. If the levels come up higher than 30′s, I’d probably drop that down a bit and retest in 3 months. If lower, I would increase the dose and monitor again soon.
The key is testing. If someone is really low and has serious conditions, like autoimmunity, I often recommend higher doses and retesting sooner.
If you decide to skip the test and just supplement with 2000-4000 IU you run the risk of not correcting the problem. If you supplement with 10,000 – 20,000 without testing, you run the risk of vitamin D excess.
It’s important to work with a trained practitioner. Fortunately it doesn’t have to be one on one anymore. I’ve pioneered training people to assess themselves with my guidance in cost-effective group programs, where you do the assessment and can ask me questions to guide you. The program is called Assess Your Own Body Chemistry and it’s intended to teach you to read your own body’s signs, symptoms and lab tests so you can create a nutrition plan customized to your needs.
Additional reading on Vitamin D from Dr. Joe Mercola
[1] Mercola.com “Daily Sunlight Can Keep Cancer Away” August 7, 2008
[2] Mercola.com “Lack of Sunshine Causes One Million Deaths a Year” August 24, 2007
[3] Dr. Joe Mercola Comments How Much Vitamin Do You Need?
[4] Video by Dr. Joe Mercola. 1 hour video with lots of details about Vitamin D
Medical research papers on the Vitamin D cancer connection
[1]Annals of Epidemiology April 14, 2009 Dr. Cedric Garland
[2] Annals of Epidemiology July 2009, Volume 19, Issue 7, Pages 468-483
[3] Science Daily, “New Model of Cancer Development: Low Vitamin D Levels May Have Role” May 26, 2009
[4] The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology March 2007; 103(3-5):708-11
[5] American Journal of Clinical Nutrition June 2007; 85(6):1586-91.
[6] American Journal of Epidemiology October 12, 2007
Question of the day:
Have you been tested for Vitamin D yet? If yes, what was your level? How much are you supplementing if low?
With Love and Gratitude,
Dr. Ritamarie
Tags: breast cancer, cod liver oil, deficient person, dietary sources, Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, Dr.Joe Mercola, DrRitamarie, malignant melanoma, skin cancer, sources of vitamin d, ultraviolet rays, Vitamin D, vitamin d testing
Posted in Autoimmune, Cancer, Vitamin D
Nutritional Supplements: Do You Need them, or Can Your Nutrient Needs be Completely Supplied By Food?
That’s one of the questions we get most frequently here at Fresh ‘n Fun Living headquarters.
In an ideal world, you’d able to meet all of your nutrient needs by simply eating a balanced diet. Stress, pre-existing imbalances and genetic variations can result in increased nutrient needs while depleted soils, modern agricultural techniques and food processing lead to foods with decreased nutrient density.
In this episode, we will talk about the most important nutrients your body needs, how to determine whether you’re getting enough or too much, and what foods best supply these nutrients. We’ll discuss how to determine if you need supplementation, and if so, what types of supplements best supply what’s missing.
Do you have questions about vitamins and supplements? Email them to Tracey@DrRitamarie.com before the
show and we will answer them live on the air.
DATE: Wednesday, April 28, 2010
TIME: 10:30am pdt, 11:30am MDT, 12:30pm CT, 1:30pm EDT
Listen Live: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/dr-ritamarie
Tags: B12, Dr. Ritamarie, greens, natural supplements, Raw Foods, supplements, vitamin B12, Vitamin D, vitamin d testing, vitamin deficiency, vitamins
Posted in Holistic Nutrition, Vibrant Health
Is Sunscreen Increasing Your Risk of Cancer?
Perhaps you’ve been brainwashed by the media about the dangers of the sun and how important it is to wear sunscreen every time you go outdoors. My son was told in health class that he should NEVER go outdoors unless he’s wearing sunscreen, even at night, because the UV light can “Get Him” even in the dark. Being a saavy health information consumer, he argued with the teacher, explaining to her the importance of daily sun exposure for adequate Vitamin D production. She, of course, wasn’t buying the information, especially since the source was a fifteen year old.
Perhaps she’ll change her tune if she watches the following videos from reputable sources…MSNBC and the University of California Medical School. Maybe some of the references below from medical journals will be convincing. According to Dr. Cedric Garland of UC Medical School, about 50,000 cases per year of breast cancer and and 51,000 cases of colon cancer can be prevented by maintaining adequate blood levels of Vitamin D.
How do you get adequate blood levels of Vitamin D? Daily sun exposure is the best way. When you can’t get sun exposure, a vitamin D supplement is prudent.
Everyone who uses sunscreen or spends most of the day indoors should get a vitamin D blood test. Based on Dr. Garland’s Research, the ideal blood level of vitamin D for cancer prevention is between 50 and 60 ng/dl.
For details about how Vitamin D and sunshine work, watch this very entertaining video by Dr. Michael F. Hollick, an MD researcher from Boston. His slides are humorous, his presentation style fun and his information sound. I disagree with drinking 3 glasses of milk a day, but most of the other recommendations make a lot of sense. His website http://www.vitamindhealth.org/ is a wealth of information.
Another good source of Vitamin D research is Dr. Mercola. I particularly enjoyed the research that linked washing with soap and sunlight exposure through windows to Vitamin D deficiency.
Finally, there’s the issue of the safety of sunscreen. There have actually been studies that report an increased risk of cancer with the use of sunscreen because of carcinogenic compounds like benzophenone or its derivatives (oxybenzone, benzophenone-3), found in most sunscreens. Benzophenone is one of the most powerful free radical generators known to man and it’s activated by ultraviolet light. For more info about the link between sunscreen and cancer, visit
http://www.vvv.com/healthnews/dsunscre.html
If you’d like to really get into the technical details and cancer statistics, as well as the proposed mechanism by which Vitamin is believed to prevent cancer, take a look at this video by Dr. Cedric Garland http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PsyaYNX1dw
Here are a few medical research papers that support the Vitamin D cancer connection
[1]Annals of Epidemiology April 14, 2009 Dr. Cedric Garland
[2] Annals of Epidemiology July 2009, Volume 19, Issue 7, Pages 468-483
[3] Science Daily, “New Model Of Cancer Development: Low Vitamin D Levels May Have Role” May 26, 2009
[4] The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology March 2007; 103(3-5):708-11
[5] American Journal of Clinical Nutrition June 2007; 85(6):1586-91.
[6] American Journal of Epidemiology October 12, 2007
Here are some of Dr. Joe Mercola’s Vitamin D articles and videos
[1] Mercola.com “Daily Sunlight Can Keep Cancer Away” August 7, 2008
[2] Mercola.com “Lack of Sunshine Causes One Million Deaths a Year” August 24, 2007
Let me know where you stand on the issue. Do you get enough sunshine? How do you plan to get your Vitamin D levels into the optimal range and protect yourself? Comment below!
Tags: cancer prevention, sunshine, Vitamin D, vitamin d testing
Posted in Articles, Cancer, Vitamin D, Vitamins and Minerals
