As you know, I've done a lot of vitamin D research.

I've developed this 2 page Vitamin D Facts sheet that I've copied into a 1 double-sided page handout. I've given out over 100 copies of it.

I think this is my final version. Please feel free to share it.

Vitamin D Facts

• If it hurts to press firmly on your sternum, you might have chronic vitamin D deficiency.
• Adequate vitamin D levels achieved through exposure to sun, consumption of oily fish, and supplements can prevent 80% of D deficiency related diseases and cancers.
• 30 times more cancer deaths are attributed to vitamin D deficiency from lack of sun exposure than skin cancer deaths from too much sun exposure.
• Always take calcium and magnesium with vitamin D supplements. Vitamin D will pull calcium from the bones if adequate calcium is not ingested. Magnesium assists in calcium uptake.
• Per day: 1,000-12,000 IU vitamin D3, 1200-1800 mg calcium, and 600-1200 mg magnesium. Required vitamin D dose depends on season, resident latitude, skin tone, weight, age, dress or cultural mores, and presence of D deficiency symptoms.

Vitamin D, D3, is not really a vitamin; rather it is a powerful steroid and a super hormone that tells your body how to work. It controls hormones and cellular growth; it helps to absorb calcium for strong bones and teeth; it ensures muscle strength and balance; and it protects against immune diseases, prenatal physical and neurological disorders, birth defects, diabetes, hypertension, inflammation, depression, and cancers. Vitamin D deficiency has been implicated in over 70 illnesses and diseases and has been proven to prevent or remit 28 kinds of cancers, most noted are breast, ovarian, prostate, colon, and lung cancers.

It’s been said that vitamin D is toxic in high levels and no one should take more than 800-2,000 IUs per day. That is not true and is just perpetuation of old, outdated information relating to man-made vitamin D.
• Natural vitamin D, cholecalciferol, is named D3; manmade vitamin D, ergocalciferol, is named D2.
• Natural vitamin D, D3, has been tested at 20,000 IUs per day over a 5 year period and found non toxic.
• No incident of natural vitamin D toxicity has resulted in death.
• Cases of proven natural vitamin D toxicity have been the result of industrial accidents or accidental mega doses in excess of 1 Million IUs per day over a prolonged period.
• Hypercalcemia (high amounts of calcium in the blood) has been pointed to as an indication of vitamin D toxicity; however, hypercalcemia is also, and more often, a symptom of vitamin D deficiency.
• Vitamin D toxicity arises at a blood level of >250 ng/ml.
• Vitamin D levels can be easily tested with a 25(OH)D test.
--Ignore the lab ranges for normal on this test as the norms were established using a D deficient population.
--Any reading below 60 ng/ml is deficient.
--Any reading of 75-125 ng/ml is optimal.
--Individuals in the tropics naturally have vitamin D levels ranging from the mid 100s-200 ng/ml.
• Vitamin D supplements are safe for all ages including fetus and infant. Vitamin D is essential in the development of fetal bone, brain, and nervous systems, and prevents birth defects.
--Children born in June-August are seven times more likely to have learning disabilities, mental retardation, low Apgar scores, low birth weight, and dyslexia than those born in cooler months.
--Adults born in winter or spring have higher rates of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression.
--A 2 year old was given 4 Million IUs of vitamin D over a 5 day period resulting in vitamin D toxicity. His symptoms were diarrhea, stomach ache, and hypercalcemia. He was treated for the hypercalcemia over a period of 3 months and fully recovered with no negative results.
--Prior to 1985 infants and children in Finland, Norway and Sweden were given 2,000-4,000 IUs a day of D3. Those countries then had the lowest rates of juvenile diabetes, and developmental, and childhood illness of industrialized nations. These children, now adults, have the lowest rates of cancer compared to those who were not supplemented.
--27 sickly children ages ranging from 2-12 were given 9,000 IUs a day of vitamin D3 for six weeks one winter; they stopped getting sick.
--Experts recommend pregnant and lactating women take 4,000 IUs of D per day, and children up to 60 pounds be given 1,000 IUs of D per day, or enough vitamin D in each case to achieve blood levels of 60 ng/ml.
• People with dark skin pigmentation need 20-30 times as much exposure to sunlight as fair-skinned people to generate the same amount of vitamin D.
--Blacks are 10 times more vitamin D deficient than whites.
--Young Black women are 24 times more vitamin D deficient than young white women. Of those tested, almost 50% had vitamin D levels <15 ng/ml.
--Blacks have higher rates of D related illnesses: hypertension, diabetes, hyperthyroid, hyper parathyroid, cancers—especially prostate, breast, colon, cervical, and ovarian cancers, multiple sclerosis, obesity, and renal and heart disease.
• People with very pale skin that won’t tan and those of Northern European heritage genetically have fewer vitamin D receptors in their skin and can not generate adequate vitamin D levels from the sun.
• People of orthodox religions or those having cultural mores that limit the amount of skin that is exposed are prone to vitamin D deficiency.
• The ability to make vitamin D decreases with age.
• It’s impossible to get adequate amounts of vitamin D from diet alone. Sunlight exposure is the only reliable way to generate vitamin D in your own body. When adequate sunlight is not available to produce vitamin D, supplements must be taken.
• Chronic vitamin D deficiency cannot be reversed overnight: it takes months of high dose vitamin D supplementation and sunlight exposure to rebuild the body's bones and nervous system.
• Suggested vitamin D use by the body has been put at 4,000 IUs per day.
• Proven vitamin D use by the body has been shown at 7,000 IUs per day.
• The best time to produce vitamin D from sun exposure during the day is between the hours of 10-2, the time most people are indoors, and the very hours that people are advised to avoid the sun.
• Use of sunscreen/block of even SPF=8 cuts 95% of vitamin D production.
• Vitamin D cannot be produced by sun shining through glass.
• The further you live from the equator, the longer exposure you need to the sun in order to generate vitamin D. Canada, the UK and most U.S. states are far from the equator.
• There is no possible vitamin D production from the sun during winter for those living above 41 degrees latitude north or south of the equator.
• Daily vitamin D needs cannot be met from the sun during winter 37 degrees from the equator.
• Clouds, aerosols and thick ozone events reduce the duration of vitamin D synthesis considerably, and can suppress vitamin D synthesis completely even at the equator.
• Rates of vitamin D deficiency diseases: high blood pressure, Alzheimer’s, MS, autoimmune, Crohn’s heart, Hodgkin’s, and Parkinson’s diseases, schizophrenia, mental illness, alcoholism, fibromyalgia, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes type I & II, and cancers rise with distance from the equator.
• Having kidney disease or liver damage can impair your body's ability to activate circulating vitamin D.
• Sufficient levels of vitamin D are crucial for calcium absorption. Without sufficient vitamin D, the body cannot absorb calcium, rendering calcium supplements useless.


Vitamin D_Obesity Link
Vitamin D is stored in fat. Vitamin D controls insulin…insulin causes hunger/cravings and stores fat…fat captures vitamin D and makes it not available for the body to use…Resulting in less vitamin D which means less insulin control …higher insulin causes more hunger/cravings and stores more fat…fat captures vitamin D and makes it not available for the body to use…and on and on.

Obesity and the vitamin D deficiency--related condition osteomalacia often go hand in hand. Osteomalacia is characterized by extreme bone and muscle pain and weakness. When an obese person has osteomalacia, the bone and muscle pain and weakness make it virtually impossible to participate in any sort of physical activity that might help the individual manage his or her weight. As a result, the individual becomes even more obese, which will in turn worsen his or her vitamin D status and exacerbate the osteomalacia.

Further, for these people initial weight gain leads to more clothes covering the body, and less time spent outdoors in the sun due to practical and esteem-related reasons. When the obese are outside, less skin is exposed to the sun for vitamin D production which leads to greater vitamin D deficiency and continues the above cycles. Obese individuals, depending on weight, require 2-4 times the vitamin D supplementation of normal weight individuals because some amount of vitamin D is captured in fat and not bio-available.

After reading I started taking vitamin D, and in just three weeks I really am feeling better and my mood has noticably improved. Thanks for bringing this to light.

I'm glad it helped. I'm glad you were receptive to the information.

I'm on a crusade to make people aware and educated about the need for and benefits of vitamin D.

Here's info for the men. I'll make this into a 1 page double-sided flyer to hand out too.

How vitamin D can benefit men's health
John Cannell, MD, Vitamin D Council, 31 May 2005


How can we get American men interested in vitamin D? Most men could care less. Say vitamin D did something men find really important, like improve athletic performance or induce hair growth? Or, say it improved sexual performance or increased virility? Nothing would get men treating their vitamin D deficiency like a study that showed vitamin D increased organ size!

Sixteen years ago, Professor Walter Stump first made the case that vitamin D is intimately involved with sex and reproduction. Male genital tissue contains lots of vitamin D receptors but their significance and function remain unknown. One researcher actually gave a vitamin D-like-drug to see if it improved sexual performance in patients with renal failure! To bad for the instant popularity of vitamin D, the results showed no improvement.

Vitamin D does appear to improve virility. Conception peaks in the summer, when vitamin D levels are highest, and ebbs in the winter, when vitamin D stores are low. Vitamin D deficiency has profound effects on rat testicles, including dramatically reducing spermatogenesis. Vitamin D deficient male rats were 73% less likely to successfully father pups than vitamin D sufficient males. Vitamin D restored virility to vitamin D deficient male rats and should do the same for vitamin D deficient male humans.

What else are men interested in besides sex? Hair growth! In fact, hair follicles have large numbers of vitamin D receptors but their function is unknown. Although there are no human studies showing vitamin D will grow men a new head of hair, vitamin D like drugs do grow hair in mice. (By the way, both my wife and my barber have told me my head has stopped balding and I've kept my 25(OH)-vitamin D level around 50 ng/ml for several years.) One relevant animal study should get the attention of men; the title contains two of their favorite words: “nude” and “hair growth.”

What about weight? Can you see the headlines in the men's' fitness magazines: “Vitamin D Reduces Weight.” Although dozens of studies have found that those with the highest 25(OH)-vitamin D blood levels weigh the least, most vitamin D scientists explain this by pointing out that vitamin D is stored in fat tissue, thus lowering blood levels. Of course that does not preclude vitamin D from also having either a direct or indirect effect on weight.

One study tried to answer that question by looking directly at vitamin D intake and body weight. The authors found an inverse correlation. That is, the more vitamin D in your diet, the less you weighed! If you have a few minutes, test your knowledge by taking our quiz on obesity and vitamin D.

Finally, we turn to athletic performance. After sex, hair growth, and obesity, improving athletic performance would certainly make American men pay attention to vitamin D. Actually, what we are asking is: “Does the most potent steroid hormone system in the human body have any effects on balance, muscle strength, muscle mass, reaction time, etc?” When asked that way, it would be surprising if it had none. In fact, dozens of studies suggest vitamin D will improve athletic performance.

If vitamin D improves athletic performance, then we'd predict physical fitness should peak in the late summer when 25(OH)-vitamin D levels peak. The only two studies that looked at season of the year and athletic performance of trained athletes found physical fitness peaked exactly then.

Genetic ablation of vitamin D receptors caused profound impairment in the motor functions of mice. Furthermore, mice without the vitamin D receptor gene showed increased anxiety; performance anxiety is something all men want to avoid. Babies born to vitamin D deficient rats are permanently and irreversibly brain damaged, proving that vitamin D has profound effects on developing neural tissue. Muscle strength is important to athletes and it correlated with 25(OH)-vitamin D levels in older men. A vitamin D like drug improved muscle strength in vitamin D deficient older women. In fact, it did the same thing to a group of vitamin D deficient younger women. Furthermore, improved lower extremity function was directly associated with higher 25(OH)-vitamin D levels.

Athletes need to be quick. A single injection of 600,000-units of vitamin D significantly improved reaction times in older adults. Furthermore, higher 25(OH)-vitamin D levels were also independently associated with better reaction time and better performance time.

Athletes need good balance. The beneficial effect vitamin D has on balance (reduced falls) is not limited to profoundly vitamin D deficient populations; a vitamin D-like-drug improved balance in the general elder population, even those with “normal” 25(OH)-vitamin D levels. A more recent study showed higher 25(OH)-vitamin D levels correlated with better gait speed, balance and muscle strength.

Vitamin D also appears to maintain muscle mass in older people but, no one has reported similar studies of young adults. A recent review concluded that vitamin D is an authentic strength preserving hormone, at least in the elderly. There is no reason to think it has any less effect on vitamin D deficient younger persons.

Finally, debilitating chronic pain sidelines many athletes. One Mayo clinic study found that virtually all patients treated for chronic pain have low 25(OH)-vitamin D levels. Furthermore, in what must be one of the largest open studies ever reported, 360 patients with low back pain in Saudi Arabia responded exceptionally well to treatment with physiological doses of vitamin D. Like virtually all areas of vitamin D research, we are still awaiting definitive research.

An impressive scientific literature suggests that vitamin D may improve athletic performance. This should surprise no one as other steroid hormone systems improve athletic performance. One difference is that the U.S. government is going to find it hard to regulate the vitamin D steroid hormone system; the sun is both a free and robust source of vitamin D. Of course, oral vitamin D is toxic in overdose and vitamin D toxicity would greatly impair athletic performance. Smart athletes would get enough sun, or take enough cholecalciferol, to keep their 25(OH)-vitamin D levels around 50 ng/ml, year around. But then, smart non-athletes would do the same.

What would happen if researchers gave physiological doses of cholecalciferol to men for a year or two and studied their sex life, hair growth, weight and athletic performance? Would vitamin D improve men's sex life? Would it make them more virile? Would they stop going bald? Would they lose weight? Would they become better athletes?

We don't know. However, a rapidly expanding scientific literature indicates vitamin D lowers their risk of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune illness, depression and seventeen different types of cancer. It now appears likely that vitamin D has an important role in treating those killer diseases as well.

But that doesn't really interest most American men. Men want to know about the important stuff. Why not start taking 2,000 units of cholecalciferol every day and see if your sex life improves, your hair grows back, you lose weight, and you become a better athlete? (And, don't forget to measure down there; after all, you never know).


FACT: Vitamin D, D3, is not really a vitamin; rather it is a powerful steroid and a super hormone that tells your body how to work. It controls hormones and cellular growth; it helps to absorb calcium for strong bones and teeth; it ensures muscle strength and balance; and it protects against immune diseases, prenatal physical and neurological disorders, birth defects, diabetes, hypertension, inflammation, depression, and cancers. Vitamin D deficiency has been implicated in over 70 illnesses and diseases and has been proven to prevent or remit 28 kinds of cancers, most noted are breast, ovarian, prostate, colon, and lung cancers.

Wow glad I found this forum I was researching to find out if my taking high doses of cod liver oil could be to much vitamin D when I came across this forum. Looks like I found my answer thanks for sharing your research here.
Rick

You won't get too much vitamin D from cod liver oil but you could get too much vitamin A from it.

Hi Zuleikaa, I just signed up after reading all your threads about Vitamin D, wow, you did some great research, and thank you for sharing it here.

I have a question about the cod liver oil, I've been taking a tablespoon daily, and would like to keep taking it. How many IUs of D3 would you recommend to start with, in addition to it?

I have so many of the symptoms on that list, it's not even funny. As a matter of fact, my knees have been in bad shape, doctor says it's arthritis, and I'm scheduled to get injections of Hyalgan this coming Wednesday. I've been searching for information on it, and so far haven't found too many negatives, the worst that can happen is no improvement, it seems.

Now Im wondering if I should postpone and give the Vitamin D a chance to help. I do not look forward to those shots in the knee cap, no sir!

Continuing to take the cod liver oil with whatever vitamin D you take should be fine. I can't make an exact recommendation because everyone is different and I don't know where you live though I do know you are probably severely deficient because you say you have many of the deficiency diseases.

So in general in the north it's 4,000 IUs during the winter for a normal, none vitamin D deficient, average weight individual. For an overweight person it would be 8,000 IUs, with multiple deficiencies it's 12,000 IUs per day until spring or reversal of deficiency. Been there, done that. Ouch!!! IMO it depends just how bad your knees are. If you are literally walking on bone than yes you need the shots, the knee is too far gone. If not and it's more pain than function you can give vitamin D and glucosamine chondroitin a try for a while before the shots.

Thanks for the fast response, I never made it to the Health Food store this evening, had to work overtime, but will go on my lunch hour tomorrow. Can't wait to get started on the Vitamin D, I just know it's going to help. I called my daughter at college and told her to get some, she's been living low carb on and off for a while now, and has come to realize how much it helps her feel better and have more energy. She had so many allergies and some asthma as a child, and moodiness, esp. when it was going to rain (took us a while to make the link, but now she will call me sometimes and ask "Mom, is it going to rain, I feel so bad...)

Sorry I'm rambling, I am just so excited to have found this place and you and your great help with the supplements.

I guess I will get the shots in one knee and see how it does. I am scared of the pain, but if it helps, it's worth it.

Thanks again,
Barb

for knee pain, I would recommend

glucosamine

fish oil

more info

http://www.vitacost.com/articleResu...k=articles&ss=1

Thank you Kebaldwin, I think right now I'm too far gone in one knee to get benefits fast enough from the glucosamine. I've been taking the cod liver oil since the fall, and it does seem to help sometimes, but I've had arthroscopy and one of the incision sights is hurting every step I take. I think bone is rubbing on bone, and like Zuleikaa correctly stated, I need to give the shots a chance, keep your fingers crossed!

However, I'm going to start a regimen for better health, including the glucosamine and the vitamin D etc.

Thank for all the help,
Barb

Bumping it.

Bumping it.