Get Your Vitamin D Checked: Why And How?
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Why You Need Sufficient Levels Of Vitamin D
So a few months ago, I talked about the many various positive protective effects of vitamin D: radiation, skin cancer (how’s that for irony?), Rheumatoid Arthritis and many others. Well, vitamin D has been on my mind a bit more lately (you’ll soon see why) and I have come across some more info on the benefits of vitamin D.
For starters, height and body fat in adolescent girls is affected by vitamin D status:
Approximately 59% of subjects were 25OHD [vitamin D3] insufficient (≤29 ng/ml), and 41% were sufficient (≥30 ng/ml). Strong negative relationships were present between serum 25OHD and … measures of visceral and sc [subcutaneous] fat… In addition, weight, body mass, and imaging measures of adiposity at all sites were significantly lower in women with normal serum 25OHD concentrations than women with insufficient levels. …there was a positive correlation between 25OHD levels and height.
The demarcation line of “sufficient” is quite low as well, so no telling what we’d see with people that have levels in the 40, 50, or 60 ng/mL range.
It’s been found before that higher levels of vitamin D correlate with better breast cancer outcomes. Now we know why: Vitamin D Found To Stimulate A Protein That Inhibits The Growth Of Breast Cancer Cells
Calcitrol, the active form of vitamin D, has been found to induce a tumor suppressing protein that can inhibit the growth of breast cancer cells
Athletes, muscle power is increased by vitamin D (at least for girls).
After controlling for differences in the girls’ body weight, the girls with the highest vitamin D levels had the highest jump speeds, jump height, power and force.
Want to think clearly in old age? Get enough vitamin D
The study found that as levels of Vitamin D went down, levels of cognitive impairment went up. Compared to those with optimum levels of Vitamin D, those with the lowest levels were more than twice as likely to be cognitively impaired.
And if you want a cold or the flu, keeping your vitamin D levels low will help.
In the largest and most nationally representative study of the association between vitamin D and respiratory infections, people with the lowest blood vitamin D levels reported having significantly more recent colds or cases of the flu. The risks were even higher for those with chronic respiratory disorders, such as asthma and emphysema.
Here are a few more peculiar things vitamin D supplementation has done for Dr. William Davis’ (of The Heart Scan Blog) patients.
Test Your Vitamin D
So it’s glaringly obvious that vitamin D has a huge impact on health. Given that, it’s important to know what your vitamin D status is. Enter D-Action – “A Consortium of Scientists, Institutions and Individuals Committed to Solving the Worldwide Vitamin D Deficiency Epidemic”. Basically, you sign up, they send you a vitamin D test kit, and you send it back to get your reading. It’s part of a 5-year long study and is cheap.
I had mine checked and boy was it a surprise. The laboratory reference range was 32-100 ng/mL. My value was 30 ng/mL, exceptionally low. Of course, I don’t live in a tropical area (the last 2 months have brought mostly 20-degree days and an ice storm), so I get little in the way of sun, but I do eat lots of egg yolks, liver, and take fermented cod liver oil. I certainly didn’t expect my D levels to come back deficient.
As you know, I’m not a big fan of supplementing individual vitamins, but vitamin D is an exception. The main issue is that it’s nearly impossible to get sufficient vitamin D from food and few of us get enough sunlight to produce the levels of vitamin D enjoyed by our ancestors. Until modern times, food would not have been thought of as the main source of vitamin D. As such, I am supplementing with a hefty dose of vitamin D3 (the same form produced by the skin when exposed to sunlight) daily to bring my levels up more around the 60 ng/mL level.
For $30, you can get your vitamin D tested every 6 months. I only signed up for the initial test, but will retest my levels in July, about six months after my previous test to see how supplementation will help.
Disclosure: Mike and I have no connection with Grassroots Health or D-Action.
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“various positive effects of vitamin D: radiation, skin cancer…”
I’m assuming you meant “positive protective effects” or something similar?
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Amazing how simple health can be, and how we screw it up so much when we don’t live the natural way we were meant to be:
“Humans evolved naked in sub-equatorial Africa, where the sun shines directly overhead much of the year and where our species must have obtained tens of thousands of units of vitamin D every day, in spite of our skin developing heavy melanin concentrations (racial pigmentation) for protecting the deeper layers of the skin. Even after humans migrated to temperate latitudes, where our skin rapidly lightened to allow for more rapid vitamin D production, humans worked outdoors. However, in the last three hundred years, we began to work indoors; in the last one hundred years, we began to travel inside cars; in the last several decades, we began to lather on sunblock and consciously avoid sunlight. All of these things lower vitamin D blood levels. The inescapable conclusion is that vitamin D levels in modern humans are not just low – they are aberrantly low.”
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/51913.php
and Dr Davis’ Blog is loaded with Vit D info at Heart Scan Blog. Like this about pills vs oil for supplements:
“Taking, say, 6000 units vitamin D as tablets over 3 months yielded blood levels of 24-30 ng/ml. Taking 6000 units in an oil-based form, and blood levels would commonly be 60-70 ng/ml.
In other words, tablets are very poorly absorbed. I also saw very erratic absorption with tablets, with tremendous variation in blood levels.
Oil-filled gelcaps are no more expensive than tablets (or perhaps a dollar more). Health food store employees and pharmacists don’t know this. I have had many patients come to the office claiming they changed to tablets because that’s all their health food store or pharmacy carried and the person behind the counter assured them it was the same. Blood level of vitamin D to confirm: right back down to the starting level or near it–little or no absorption.
But, in my experience, having checked vitamin D blood levels thousands of times, gelcaps never fail; tablets fail over 80% of the time.”
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Angel, thanks for catching that. Fixed.
Mike, good word. The more I read, the more I’m starting to wonder if vitamin D deficiency is not the major factor in so many of our diseases of civilization. It’s all very interesting and just with my supplementing in the last month, which has likely increased my levels very little, I feel better. I felt better before I even knew my levels were so deficient, which tells me it’s not entirely a placebo effect.
Cheers
Scott
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Wow Scott. I don’t get that much sun exposure either (good old UK weather plus working in an office) and from the sounds of it my diet contains less vitamin D food sources than yours. Perhaps I need testing too?
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Super post! Nearly everyone I know, no matter where the live or what they eat, has lower 25 (OH)D levels than they expect when they receive their initial results, usually at the bottom of the reference range or even deficient, unless they are supplementing with D3 (not D2) at a fairly significant level. People often think they are covered by the synthetic D2 that is added to their milk (D is fat soluble so skimmed milk is worthless anyway!) or their multi vitamin or calcium supplement. But the dose is usually woeully insufficient, the wrong kind, or both.
To get my family’s results into the optimum range (over 60 ng/mL) we have found we need to take D3 oil capsules or drops at a dose of 1000iU per each 25 pounds of body weight (Vitamin D Council’s recommended starting dose for people who aren’t in the sun a lot, adjusted according to test results). That’s 5000iU D3 daily for me, 8,000iU daily for my husband, and 3000iU daily for our son (during the school year, I’ll lower it in the summer for him).
And as we live in the *San Diego* region, a mild sunny climate isn’t necessarily an assurance one gets enough midday sun to make the Vit D needed. Nor is a suntan a good indicator of Vit D status, as increased pigmentation actually filters and blocks the UV rays. In fact, darker skin, especially in northern latitudes, is a big risk factor for Vit D deficiency and all of the diseases mentioned in the post.
Additional D tidbits – heavier people seem to need more Vit D. Also, the skin’s ability to synthesize Vit D from sun exopsure decreases with age, beginning around age 40. Elderly people probably make very little Vit D. Any wonder our bones lose minerals and become more brittle as we age?
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Tom, for $30, I think it’s a good idea to get tested. I assume they’re shipping kits to the UK. It’s as simple as a finger-prick and dropping some blood.
Anna, your comments on my earlier vitamin D post are what prompted me to get mine checked, otherwise I might’ve just overlooked this D-Action thing. I now think it’s a bad thing to assume we’re in good vitamin status, especially with vitamin D.
Cheers
Scott
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Why not use injectable D3? I assume its no different than a diabetic injecting himself with insulin daily.
kevin
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Thanks so much for the tip on vitamin D testing. I don’t have a GP, so I can’t just pop in and ask for a 25-OH D test. I was pleased to see that Canadians aren’t excluded from the testing and study – so far, at least. Registration was automated, so we’ll see.
I’ve been taking about 5000 IU per day, in the form of a product called D Drops. One drop = 1000 IU. It’s economical and I much prefer the drops to a pill. I hope it’s absorbed as easily as the oil capsules Dr Davis recommends. I guess I’ll soon find out.
(ETA) Aw… where’s my gravatar? *sniff*
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Kevin, most people aren’t going to inject themselves, though I can’t see why that wouldn’t work if someone were willing to do so.
Kristine, did you create a Gravatar at Gravatar website?
Cheers
Scott
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I’ve got no problem injecting myself with B12.
Thanks for the note,
kevin
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Scott,
Awesome post. I recommended it to my friends. In conjunction with it I read this which kinda coincides with yours
http://www.westonaprice.org/moderndiseases/sunlight-melanoma.html
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How do you get your blood tested? Can you send blood to the lab yourself or do you need a doctor/nurse to send it?
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Troy, quite interesting that the sun actually protects against skin cancer in many instances huh? And that the worst skin cancer possible occurs in areas that don’t receive much sunlight. Curious indeed!
Kevin, you sign up at D-Action and they send you a kit, which you return to them and they give you your results. No doctor needed.
Cheers
Scott
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[...] Read the full article here. [...]
I assume there have been many healthy HG cultures (e.g. Inuit) who lived in northern latitudes where it was almost impossible to get any vitamin D from the sun during long winters (e.g. Inuit.) How did they keep their D levels up? It seems that diet in no substitute for sun?
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Todd, I’d assume the vast quantities of cold-water fish and whale (blubber and organs included) supplied huge amounts of vitamin D. Cod Liver Oil is a good dietary source of D and the Inuit were eating lots of that kind of stuff.
Cheers
Scott
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I would like to test for Vitamin D status. The local lab said that they will send me nurse, who will take blood sample – take back to lab then send it overseas!! for testing in Chicago (as they dont have the equipement to do it locally).
Please help! I am so anxious about the accuracy/precision of blood taking handling – so how to assure that the blood sample taken is safe from things like: light, heat effects, etc…or doest it really matter at all!
*I know that in “Vit A testing” they take blood in covered (aluminium foil wrapped) vial. To protect the sample, ensure accurate results, etc.
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Tala, I’m not sure how much it matters for vitamin D. I used the D-Action study to get mine taken, but I just did it in my bathroom. Not sure!
Cheers
Scott
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The D-Action study blood tests or Vitamin D status can be ordered internationally. I’ve seen reports online from folks in the UK who have used the tests. The blood drops go onto a test blotter paper and are dried, so no worries about nurses collecting samples, vials, or blood storage.
www dot grassrootshealth dot net (remove spaces and “dot” and replace with .)
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Someone mentioned tablets are better than capsules. It depends on the tablet-if you are using tablets for vitamin D put one in water and see how quickly it breaks up. As long as it breaks up within 15 mins it is OK. Some of the really cheap ones are like bricks and they will pass through you. The smaller ones are usually the best. Take a look at http://www.vitaminD3world.com It has good summaries of the data
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A couple years ago I was tested and my D levels were 13.1. The most obvious symptom (that I learned about later) was I kept tipping over. I’d be walking down a hallway and just fall into the wall. That winter I began lying out in the sun at any temperature above 40 and continued all summer.
It’s so easy to become deficient working indoors all the time and then spending hours outside on the weekends covered in sunscreen. What an unnatural life we civilization humans lead.
I wrote an article on sunbathing and sunscreen you might be interested in:
Benefits of Sunbathing and Risks of Sunscreen
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Vitamin D ‘is a hormone’
Washington (PTI): A new study has suggested that vitamin D isn’t really a vitamin at all — it’s actually a hormone made inside the body without any help from the sun.
An international team has carried out the study and concluded that the increase of vitamin D in our modern diets is based on a common belief which is actually a misconception with potential consequences.
“What we have confirmed with our recent research is that vitamin D is a hormone that is made by the body itself.
Our bodies hormonal control system was being overwhelmed by the amount of external vitamin D,” lead researcher Prof Trevor G Marshall at Murdoch University in Australia said.
The researchers go on to explode another long held belief about this secosteriod previously known as vitamin D.
“You don’t have to ingest any vitamin D in order to be perfectly healthy,” Prof Marshall said.
So no more need for expensive supplements, no more basking in the sun to put us in a better mood? And what about the thinking that suggests vitamin D is vital in production of serotonin, an essential element linked to helping maintaining normal brain chemical function?
“What we’ve shown is that all forms of vitamin D from outside the body are counterproductive to body’s own ability to regulate its own internal production,” he said.
This conclusion doesn’t mean a dramatic change of lifestyle where we must all suddenly shun the sun but the researchers do acknowledge that people have only been at risk of vitamin D overexposure from about the same time as when bikinis made an appearance.
“Historically the amount of sunshine which people have typically been getting was adequate, certainly up until the mid twentieth century when we started to do silly things like sunbathing and wearing bikinis, and before that time people were already sourcing enough vitamin D from everyday foods like fish, mushrooms and eggs,” Prof Marshall said
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Link, please, to the study.
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just learned to cut and paste. a search on the doctor or university would find something for you.
i copied the article from hindu times. http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/01hdline.htm
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http://www.hinduonnet.com/holnus/099200904251053.htm
better yet
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It’s a pretty poor article that doesn’t include a reference to the study.
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Deficiency in vitamin D has been widely regarded as contributing to autoimmune disease, but a review appearing in Autoimmunity Reviews explains that low levels of vitamin D in patients with autoimmune disease may be a result rather than a cause of disease and that supplementing with vitamin D may actually exacerbate autoimmune disease.
Authored by a team of researchers at the California-based non-profit Autoimmunity Research Foundation, the paper goes on to point out that molecular biologists have long known that the form of vitamin D derived from food and supplements, 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-D), is a secosteroid rather than a vitamin. Like corticosteroid medications, vitamin D may provide short-term relief by lowering inflammation but may exacerbate disease symptoms over the long-term.
The insights are based on molecular research showing that 25-D inactivates rather than activates its native receptor – the Vitamin D nuclear receptor or VDR. Once associated solely with calcium metabolism, the VDR is now known to transcribe at least 913 genes and largely control the innate immune response by expressing the bulk of the body’s antimicrobial peptides, natural antimicrobials that target bacteria.
Written under the guidance of professor Trevor Marshall of Murdoch University, Western Australia, the paper contends that 25-D’s actions must be considered in light of recent research on the Human Microbiome. Such research shows that bacteria are far more pervasive than previously thought 90% of cells in the body are estimated to be non-human increasing the likelihood that autoimmune diseases are caused by persistent pathogens, many of which have yet to be named or have their DNA characterized.
Marshall and team explain that by deactivating the VDR and subsequently the immune response, 25-D lowers the inflammation caused by many of these bacteria but allows them to spread more easily in the long-run. They outline how long-term harm caused by high levels of 25-D has been missed because the bacteria implicated in autoimmune disease grow very slowly. For example, a higher incidence in brain lesions, allergies, and atopy in response to vitamin D supplementation have been noted only after decades of supplementation with the secosteroid.
Furthermore, low levels of 25-D are frequently noted in patients with autoimmune disease, leading to a current consensus that a deficiency of the secosteroid may contribute to the autoimmune disease process. However, Marshall and team explain that these low levels of 25-D are a result, rather than a cause, of the disease process. Indeed, Marshall’s research shows that in autoimmune disease, 25-D levels are naturally down-regulated in response to VDR dysregulation by chronic pathogens. Under such circumstances, supplementation with extra vitamin D is not only counterproductive but harmful, as it slows the ability of the immune system to deal with such bacteria.
The team points out the importance of examining alternate models of vitamin D metabolism. “Vitamin D is currently being recommended at historically unprecedented doses,” states Amy Proal, one of the paper’s co-authors. “Yet at the same time, the rate of nearly every autoimmune disease continues to escalate
i would think that California-based non-profit Autoimmunity Research Foundation
would check credentials before publishing. maybe not.
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Interesting, yet controversial D. Some links to that article/subject:
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20092404-19052.html
http://aaemonline.org/blog/category/vitamin-d/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Marshall
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I know of no credible authority on vitamin D who thinks that Marshall’s theories on Vitamin D hold any water.
Certainly, if you think Marshall’s theories might have validity and the others are wrong, absolutely, check them all out. All theories under consideration need to be put to the test repeatedly.
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If you are interested in vitamin D you should take a look at http://www.vitaminD3world.com The Canadian Cancer Society now recommends that everyone take vitamin D to prevent cancer. The site has good summaries of the data and offers a new preparation of vitamin D in a micro-pill formulation. The pills have been formulated with cellulose which absorbs water very quickly. This ensures that the pill breaks up very quickly to provide for maximum absorption. The micro pill is tiny and tasteless. Many vitamin D pills on the market have very poor dissolution properties resulting in poor absorption.
The site also offers to supply customers with a free supply of 400IU for their children and it also has a good newsletter.
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[...] 4 to 6 times as much vitamin D [...]
There is some interesting data suggesting that keeping your vitamin D level optimal will prevent colds, flu and in particular H1N1 (swine Flu).
Here are links to two interesting articles:
August 2009-Vitamin D3 deficiency and its role in influenza
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs026/1102452079631/archive/1102685428884.html
Sept 2009-More on Vitamin D3 and influenza
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs026/1102452079631/archive/1102728693089.html
If these links don’t work go to http://www.vitaminD3world.com and click on ‘In the news” to find these updates.
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Its pretty amazing what your getting your Vitamin d at the correct levels will do for you.
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