Contrary to many threads on this forum about Vit D, recommended levels for general health, and specific benefits for a whole range of diseases, a new long review of the evidence.

How Much Vitamin D Do You Need to Stay Healthy?
Most people naturally have good vitamin D levels. Overhyped claims that the compound helps to fight diseases from cancer to depression aren’t borne out by recent research

https://www.scientificamerican.com/...-stay-healthy/?

I personally have been given this new advice by an osteoporosis specialist. High levels of Vit D, my goal range 50-99, has been correlated with increased fracture risk. Details of these new studies and more in the latest issue of Scientific American.

Other experts still advise higher levels. Vitamin D fans will not be happy, Dr Holick is called out for his books and hype.
Make of it what you will!

I wish I knew what to make of it. I’ve been taking high dose vitamin d for years.

Hmmm... certainly food for thought! I will cut back on it. I've been taking 5000 iu daily for years now. My doctor thought my D3 was too low at 20-something.

Being a skeptic since I was a young lad, I’m finding you can’t have it both ways in the article. It’s true as the author points out earlier in the article that RCTs are the only way to assess causation, but she’s also confirming the above quote is purely speculative regarding the possibility vitamin D impacts the CNS and results in falls due to balance issues. Vitamin D is essential, and I’m not concerned that supplementing with it is potentially risky. I’m not concerned that it doesn’t have a positive impact on CVD or cancer. I never thought it did. As for muscle preservation and bone strength, I firmly believe that it is a combination of lifestyle behaviors that prevent or correct osteoporosis and improve one’s lean mass influences on metabolic health. It’s really a cascade of behaviors of which vitamin D levels play a role rather than being a primary contributor to a miraculous correction.

. My OP doctor has all her "ladies" on a Vit D supplement, 800-1000 of D3, and she likes to see a level above 30. In the same breath if you are taking 4 or 5,000 of D, she will cut back on that, with the caveat if you are very obese, you do need a higher dose. She is not a fan of any other supplements, even calcium! it's OK to take a dose like 600, but over 1500 there are two meta-analyses showing the calcium correlated with increased CV events. I’m with her on the calcium, until recently hadn’t watched how much I get in food and, only now, top up the difference.
https://youtu.be/X4N4NHgQyYM?si=F7UBqxV5CMjmNXcQ

Dr JoAnn Manson's work was featured in a Harvard Health article back in 2019, which I ignored at the time. https://www.health.harvard.edu/stay...-bones-not-help

This new advice is different from my GP, oncologist and the REMS doctor I saw Wednesday. That office took a new blood draw for Vit D. Last April mine was 73.

"Challenging" isn't the word. Try "miserable."

I was under the impression that once the sun is below about a 45° angle in the sky - basically much of late fall/winter in the North - you can't produce a useful amount of vitamin D. People I know who ski can get a burn, but that takes all day. A rule of thumb I heard (probably here somewhere) is that once your shadow (or the shadow of a tall thing like a lamp post) is longer than it is tall, there won't be much vitamin D production.

I can easily see how people today don't get enough sunlight in winter. Do they not have tall buildings in Boston? Toronto, for example, is a wind tunnel. A cold-baby like me living in downtown TO would probably go straight from their condo to the subway station connected to the building, walk through the Path to work, do their shopping there after work, go back the same way, and rarely even go outdoors. Suburbs are just as bad: kids in my neighborhood get chauffeured to school and back, even though the school is almost immediately behind our townhouse complex. It's probably worse in the US where walking anywhere is dangerous.

Throw the SAD on top of that, and you're in trouble.

I think they're underestimating how many people can fall into this category.

Boston definitely has its share of wind tunnels. I walk every day here in Vermont but only my face is exposed to the sun in much of the fall and winter, and if it’s cold enough I wear a balaclava so only my eyes and a bit of my forehead are exposed to the sun.

The studies cited in the article, gold standard or not, do not prove that Vitamin D doesn’t help prevent disease. They only prove that under the conditions of the study, no improvement was noted. We would need to see the studies cited to evaluate the conclusions. Without the data available there is no way for us, reading this article, to make that evaluation. What kind of vitamin D was given? was 2000iu sufficient to show a change? where did the people live? how old were they? what happened after 5 years? What were they eating?

In other words, the jury is still out on Vitamin D.

I'm part of a long-term vitamin D3 study. It's been going on for well over 10 years. Participant D3 blood levels are tested twice a year. The study group of participants with the highest D3 range have 85% fewer fractures than the general population and 60% fewer fractures than participants in the lowest D3 range which is about 32-35.

Vitamin D3 cannot be produced from sun exposure in Boston from November thru March...the last day of any possible sun generated D3 in Boston was November 11. There are calendars for this. In fact a lot of weather reports now include a D3 generation index.

I wouldn't believe anything a general practitioner, oncologist, or D.O. said about D3. I've found they are generally 6-10 years behind in knowledge of D3 research.

I've been studying D3 for over 25 years. Most vitamin D3 experts...real experts...keep their D3 levels over 100. In fact, I have personally spoken to two, Drs. Holick and Hollis, and heard of others that keep theirs in the 120-135 range.

I've seen and heard of D3 miracles related to all kinds of ills/diseases. My family members have experienced quite a few of them.

Oh, and getting enough vitamin D isn't as simple as taking a D3 supplement alone. For optimal results, cofactors such as magnesium, calcium, and vitamin k2 in sufficient amounts are also required. Calcium without k2 is useless.; k2 directs calcium to bone and not tissue. Not enough calcium will cause D3 to leach calcium from your existing bone structure leading to factures and osteoporosis.

My advice is to do your own research via pubmed.

You do you. I'll stick with D3.

Zuleikaa, I understand that you have been in a big Vit D study and know Dr Holick. I wasn’t attempting to change your or anyone's mind about how much Vit D to supplement, if at all. I haven't even made up my own mind!
The more I learn, the more confused it becomes, and then I decide to think about Vit D tomorrow. But now Tomorrow is coming next Tuesday to discuss my latest Vit D level, still too high according to some.

But I know other cancer survivors and women with diagnoses of potential osteoporosis on this forum, so that I wanted to share that my doctors are now recommending not to supplement except for special situations. There are many forms of Hormone D and the tests I have been taking are not adequate, etc. I’ve been reading Jim Stephenson's Facebook page, the NYT "Vitamin D, the Sunshine Supplement, has Shadowy Money Behind It " and other sources that question the current guidelines.
As of this month I am as "middle of the road" as I can get, but want to be opened minded to new evidence. Thank you for sharing all you have about Vitamin D in your thread. It has always been helpful.

I take no offense. All knowledge starts with a journey.

I've read a lot of the negative publicity around Dr. Holick and other vitamin D experts for years; IMO, they've been deliberately demonized and it started way before D3 became mainstream.

As far as I've read and know, Dr. Holick has made no secret of his funding sources. his studies have been peer reviewed, duplicated, and results replicated.

However, as I've said, I've been studying vitamin D3 for over 25 years. In the beginning and probably to this day doctors advocating for testing vitamin D levels and supplementing with vitamin D3 those from the U.S., the U.K, Canada, and India were deliberately targeted and pilloried by Big Pharma. Big Pharma paid writers to write articles against them...in fact in many cases Pharma wrote the articles and paid people and scientists to submit them under their names. Pharma also paid scientists to form studies to disprove the benefits of D3 by deliberately designing studies where the D3 given was too low to be effective, no cofactors or cofactors in insufficient amounts were given to participants, and/or study durations were shortened so no positive or negligible results were manifested.

Pharma also lobbied many countries oversight boards, i.e.,, FDA types, to omit vitamin D experts from testifying and recommended "experts" to downplay benefits of D3. Like the expert testifying before the F.D.A. that said that D3 was only good for bone health and that supplementing with 1,000 IU was more than sufficient for good health but was later discovered to have applied for over 35 patents of D3 derivatives to treat different types of cancer. D3 as a supplement is cheap and not patentable while derivatives are custom, patentable, and worth big bucks. Yes, you always have to follow the money...You just have to find the truth of where the money is coming from.

As my cousin always tells me, Big Pharma doesn't want to cure disease. They learned the lesson with polio...when polio was cured all polio related industries collapsed and disappeared.

Cancer treatment is big business and a cash cow, so are chronic diseases. Pharma doesn't want preventative care, they want ongoing care.

Oh, and Dr. Holick' s deal with Quest Diagnostics? Dr. Holick's team discovered and created the correct test for measuring active D3 in the body. They freely published that information. LabCorp was the only lab at the time doing the D3 test...they were doing the wrong one and refused to listened to Dr. Holick and change the test. Quest was willing to listen.

I remember years of paying out of pocket to have the correct test done because my Dr. ordered the one from LabCorp which was useless at the time.

Vitamin D3 tests are now measured correctly. It only took 6 years for LabCorp to come around, lol.