Scientific
The Vitamin D Situation Is Worse Than We Thought
- Sun (via maessive)
We've talked about our collective vitamin D deficiency before. But today's New York Times chronicles the trouble in greater detail, and the news is pretty bad. Here's the trouble: All of our tissues, from the brain to the heart to the immune system, rely on vitamin D, and we evolved a system for getting our vitamin D from the sun back when we were running around in the sun all day near the equator without any clothes on. Now that we wear clothes and live indoors, there's just not enough vitamin D in food, even with supplements in milk and cereal and OJ, to meet our needs. And it's not like we can simply shrug it off. Vitamin D deficiency is linked to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and lots of other bad stuff. So what should you do? Dr. Michael Holick, an expert on vitamin D, suggests the following:
- Try to build up your vitamin D supply for the year during the summer (which is possible — our bodies can store it up). To do this, go outside in the sun without sunscreen on (expect on your face) and wearing minimal clothing 2-3 times a week for five to ten minutes during peak sunlight hours.
- Take a daily supplement of 1,000 to 2,000 units.
One bit of good news — it's hard to get too much Vitamin D. If you're getting it from the sun, your body has an automatic cut off. If you're getting it from supplements, it takes a mega-overdose to cause real trouble.
- Charity D.'s blog
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Comments
I love any prescription that tells me to go out into the sun with minimal clothing. DONE.
Submitted by librarianjess on 07.28.10 at 12:19.
After more research, I ended up buying cod liver oil online, best price and apparently the best brand.
Submitted by spindig on 07.28.10 at 01:01.
That seems like quite a high dose on the supplements - DoH recommends 10mcg/day which is more like 400 units. Can someone please define "mega-overdose" for me...
Submitted by londontransplant on 07.28.10 at 03:28.
1,000 units is pretty much agreed upon...
Submitted by michlny on 07.28.10 at 05:00.
A note on mega overdoses. From the Times piece: "Healthy adults have taken 10,000 I.U. a day for six months or longer with no adverse effects. People with a serious vitamin D deficiency are often prescribed weekly doses of 50,000 units until the problem is corrected."
Submitted by Charity D. on 07.29.10 at 12:50.
I was recently found to have only about 1/4 of the amount of D necesary. I'm taking massive supplements but won't know for another month whether it's having any effect. I like the idea of getting out in the sun 2-3 times per week but, a) am not sure when peak sunlight hours are and b) I live in San Francisco and don't see the sun much.
Submitted by sunset45 on 07.29.10 at 01:31.
I take 5,000 units a day on the advice of my doctor. But I managed to be deficient taking 2,000 units a day, and had to do the 50,000 IU weekly pill for a few months. So I think it really must be very hard to overdose.
With cod liver oil, the vitamin D is usually refined out and added back in. Unless you're buying the super-expensive, awful-tasting "naturally fermented cod liver oil," you're getting the same stuff you would get in a pill. But there's really nothing wrong with synthetic vitamin D3. It worked fine to correct my deficiency.
Submitted by sadie on 07.29.10 at 02:08.