There are a few things you might get tired of hearing me say. One is, “don’t’ fear fat” the other is “Take Vitamin D and take enough of it to give you the benefits.” When visiting my sister over Christmas I noticed that the bottle of excellent Vit. D I had given her last year was still on the shelf in her kitchen. “Yo, sis, what’s up with this?” She squirmed and had a reason or two why she wasn’t taking it. (I’m not a nag I just care about her health.) Many people have reasons why they don’t take their supplements. I feel the reasons for that are these:
they can’t feel or see a difference when they do take them
they don’t know the benefits
they don’t trust what they hear or read because of the dissenting opinions out there
First of all, often times we don’t feel differently taking supplements because the improvements they make are an inside job. In the case of vitamin D–really a precursor hormone–much of its work will not be felt or seen but you might not get sick as much, might get better faster, have improved blood glucose levels and way more.
The benefits comprise a long list. Let’s start with heart health. Optimal vitamin D levels correlate with arterial flexibility, lower blood sugar, lower risk of stroke, better cancer survival rates in those that do get the disease and less cancer rates overall, lower rates of dementia. It is also being reported to help with metabolism overall.
Two of the 4 newsletters I get each month written by the docs I trust-Dr. Stephen Sinatra and Dr. Julian Whitaker–featured the need for Vitamin D as the lead story. Winter is the worst time to try to get sufficient Vit. D from the sun, mainly because it’s too darn cold to go out half naked and there is less sun overall.
Here’s a cool set of statistics from Dr. Whitaker’s newsletter for January. “In areas nearer the equator, where Vitamin D levels run high due to sun exposure, disease rates are lower than in areas up north where there is less sun and deficiencies are the norm. Type 1 diabetes for example, affects 22 per 100,000 children in Rochester, Minnesota, 3 per 100,00 in San Diego, CA. and is virtually non-existent in sunny Cuba.”
Did I mention bone health. One thing I’m sure you want is strong, fracture free bones right? Vitamin D is vital for bones. Supplementing with calcium at high doses–1200-1500 mgs/day is no longer recorded because it is implicated in calcification. Taking vitamin D lowers your need for calcium.
Supplementing with Vitamin D3 is inexpensive and safe to very high levels but the recommended conservative dose is 2000 mgs per day for adults and 1000 mgs per day for children. Optimal levels run between 40 – 60 ng/mL according to Dr. Sinatra and 50 – 80 ng/mL in Dr. Witaker’s opinion. I go with 5000 mgs per day which is what my doc told me to take during cold and flu season. (I also had low levels–30 ng/mL even though I was taking 2000 per day. I think it was an absorption thing so I switched brands, bought a gel cap cause it’s a fat soluble vitamin vs a tablet and will get tested again in 5 months to see where I’m at.)
In case you worry about toxicity listen to this one from Dr. Whitaker. “From 1955 to 1990, all East German babies received 600,000 IU of Vitamin D every three months from birth through 18 months of age–a total of 3,600,000 IU. No toxicity was reported and East German children were surprisingly healthy despite substandard living conditions.”
I rest my case and encourage you to buy some of this critical nutrient and add it to your arsenal for better health.
Even if you aren’t a supplement person and don’t take anything else, I’d make this one an exception.
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