The claims have been sensational. Martin Mittelstaedt checks up on the research behind the hype
MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

March 8, 2008 at 9:32 AM EDT

In the summer of 1974, brothers Frank and Cedric Garland had a heretical brainwave.

The young epidemiologists were watching a presentation on death rates from cancer county by county across the United States. As they sat in a lecture hall at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore looking at the colour-coded cancer maps, they noticed a striking pattern, with the map for colon cancer the most pronounced.

Counties with high death rates were red; those with low rates were blue. Oddly, the nation was almost neatly divided in half, red in the north and blue in the south. Why, they wondered, was the risk of dying from cancer greater in bucolic Maine than in highly polluted Southern California?


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/serv...pageRequested=1

Me:

Pretty good artical read the hole thing.

I just wish I knew how much to take. Can't seem to find any agreement on that. I take 3000 IU per day of vitamin D3. Don't know if it's too much or not enough, but sounded like a good number, based on the all over the place recommendations.

Interesting article.

I take a 5000 IU vitamin D3 capsule - not quite daily (I can be quite forgetful) but near enough.

I was at a presentation last week at our county medical society dinner and the doctor giving the lecture was talking about vitamin D.....he suggested 1,000IU minimum for adults and 500IU for children under 75-pounds....(and very specifically oil based capsules of D3 or cod liver oil)....and said data hasn't found toxicity until exceeding 10,000IU per day from supplements. He also said he takes 2,000IU per day himself, but not in the summer when he's outside a lot without sunscreen.

Dr Eades recommends 10,000 IU during the winter months and plenty of sun during the summer. I have been taking 10,000 IU for about 5 months now and so far no ill effects and I have been feeling greate. We have been giving the kids about 1300 IU. If you think about it, if it only takes 10 to 20 min to generate D3 from the sun then taking that much a day should be no problem. Can't wait for it to warm up so I can get the real thing and a tan.

How are you getting your kids to eat that? I know my kids are deficient, but can't get them to swallow pills. They're OK with the Omega 3 chews, but even those are plant based, not the real deal.

Can D3 pills be ground up and added to other stuff?

Cardiologist Dr Davis of the Heartscan Blog says pills don't do anything.
http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/s...d%20vitamin%20D

Vitamin D must be oil-based

As part of the Track Your Plaque coronary plaque reversal program, we advocate vitamin D supplementation. Vitamin D has been shown to reduce blood sugar and reduce pre-diabetic tendencies, reduce blood pressure (it's a renin antagonist, a blood pressure hormone), it's far more important for bone health than calcium, and it may help prevent colon cancer, prostate cancer, and multiple sclerosis.

And, oh yes, it may facilitate coronary plaque regression.

One lesson I've learned is that vitamin D MUST be taken as a oil-based capsule or gelcap. You'll recognize it as a transparent or translucent, sometimes opaque, capsule. The list of ingredients may say something like "cholecalciferol [vitamin D] in a base of soybean oil", indicating that the active ingredient is oil-based. Oil-based vitamin D3 skyrockets blood levels of 25-OH-vitamin D3 in to the normal range reliably and easily.


Tablets are a different story. These are generally white powdery tablets. The rise in blood levels of vitamin D3 are minimal, sometimes none. Women will often say "I get vitamin D with my calcium tablets."


People taking this form almost always have blood levels of vitamin D that are low, as if they were taking nothing.
If you're going to take vitamin D, the oil-based capsules are the way to go. They're not necessarily any more expensive. We've had good experiences with the Nature's Life 2000 unit capsule, as well as preparations from Life Extension. We have had negative experiences with the preparations from GNC, Sam's Club, and Walgreen's, all tablets and non-oil-based.

That's interesting. I take D in a form called 'Allergy D' designed for people who are allergic to fish. Its a capsule. I'm not allergic to fish, but I've only ever found 1 brand of gel cap that wasn't made with soy, and it goes rancid too quickly and upsets my stomach. I wonder if they were careful to have people take their D tablets with fats.

A couple of years ago I was diagnosed as being severely deficient in Vitamin D. My MD prescribed 50,000 IU (prescription--one green gel cap) one time per week. My blood was monitored regularly. It took about three months for my Vitamin D levels to settle into the normal range.

My MD currently has me on 2,000 IU Vitamin D3 daily. It is in one very small capsule, not a gel cap. Allergy Research Group is the manufacturer on the label. Other ingredients listed are: gelatin, rice flour, rice oil, silicon dioxide. There is no soy in this formula. I don't believe it can be purchased over the counter, but if you need a soy free D3 supplement, ask your doctor if this would work for you.

In addition to the D3 supplement, my MD has instructed me to get about 20 minutes of sun daily. This can be done even in the winter on a sunny day. I sit or lay down in front of a sunny window--much the way you would treat an infant with jaundice.

Vitamin D is stored and not flushed through like Vitamin C. Higher doses may be okay for awhile if you are deficient, but they may catch up to you after awhile. I encourage anyone who is taking more than 2,000 IU daily to have their Vitamin D levels monitored by their doctor through a blood test. Too much Vitamin D can cause serious health problems.

There's recent study that even 10,000 iu a day over a very long term isn't a problem. They're using doses like that in people with certain diseases. But sure, get your levels tested!

Again this is another issue that isnt made known to the general public, so this summer we will still see mothers, keeping their children out of the sun, covering them in sunscreen (and what chemicals are in them??) and the media and medical advice will still be to cover up or stay out of the sun with no mention of vitamin D!!

DS gets cod liver oil during the winter....he doesn't seem to mind the liquid.

Some sun is good, a bad sunburn is not. My MD told me to get 20 minutes of sun daily, then cover up or use sunscreen.

I think you might need to do some research on vitamin D on your own because there is some misinformation on vitamin D out in the general public and even in the medical community.

1. Vitamin D cannot be generated from sun shining through glass though sitting in front of a sunny window does make you feel better.
2. In most parts of the country the winter sun is not strong enough to generate vitamin D through the skin from October thru March even though sitting in the sun makes you feel better.
3. The green gelcap of prescription vitamin D is vitamin D2; that's why it takes longer to raise blood levels of vitamin D.
4. Though oil-based gelcaps are most efficient, powdered vitamin D3 is just as efficient in raising blood levels of vitamin D when taken with fat.
5. Too much vitamin D can cause serious health problems. Too much of anything can cause serious health problems but vitamin D3 has been proven safe at doses as high as 50,000 IU/day over a two year period. Vitamin D experts are recommending that the FDA raise the Safe Upper Limit to 10,000 IU/day from the current 2,000 IU/day.

6. One size supplementation dose fits all and no one should dose over the current Safe Upper Limit of 2,000 IU/day. Again, vitamin D experts disagree. They say everyone's blood level of vitamin D3 should be monitored and that a person should take whatever amount of vitamin D is needed to maintain optimum vitamin D levels; they also say that that amount has a wide and very individual range depending on lattitude of domicile, skin color, weight, culture, season, and the presence of any vitamin D deficiency or vitamin D deficiency diseases.

For instance, it's been proven that the heavier/fatter you are the more vitamin D you need for it to be effective because up to one-half the vitamin D you ingest, depending on your weight, can be captured by your bodyfat and therefore prevented from being bioavailable to the body.

7. Vitamin D is toxic at levels over 10,000 IU/day. See #5. The common diagnosis of vitamin D toxicity is made when blood calcium levels are too high (hypercalcemia). When taking vitamin D, supplementing with adequate calcium and magnesium is essential. Vitamin D regulates calcium in the body. In the absence of adequalte calcium in the body, vitamin D will pull calcium from other body systems thus raising blood calcium levels.

http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/s...n%20vitamin%20D

Friday, June 22, 2007
Prescription vitamin D

Niacin:
Over-the-counter: $2-5 per month
Prescription: $120 per month


Fish oil:
Over-the-counter: $3-6 per month
Prescription: $120 per month


Vitamin D:
Over-the-counter: $2 per month
Prescription: $70 per month

With vitamin D in particular, the prescription form is vastly inferior to the over-the-counter preparation. This is because the prescription form is ergocalciferol, or vitamin D2, not the effective human form, vitamin D3 or cholecalciferol.

When you're exposed to sun, what form of vitamin D is activated in the skin? It's all vitamin D3, no vitamin D2 whatsoever. Vitamin D3 is also far more effective than D2. People taking D3 (as long as it's oil-based) easily obtain healthy levels of vitamin D in the blood. People taking 50,000 units per day of D2 (the recommended quantity) remain miserably deficient, with minor increases in vitamin D blood levels. In short, D2 barely works at all. D3 works easily and effectively.

Moreover, D2 is the plant-based form. It is a form not found naturally in humans. D3 is the mammalian form, the same found in humans that exerts all its biologic benefits.

Then why is the prescription form of vitamin D2 (brand names Driscol and Calciferol) more expensive?

It's the same old pharmaceutical industry scam: Look for something patent protectable, regardless of whether it's superior to the non-patent protectable product, then sell it for exagerated profits. Though it is inferior and the science and clinical experience prove that it's inferior, you can still fool lots of people, including prescribing physicians. So what if you only make $50 or $100 million?

Don't fall for it. Prescription doesn't necessarily mean superior. In fact, the prescription form may be significantly inferior, as with vitamin D2. But the pharmaceutical industry carries such power and persuasion, who's going to know?

Posted by Dr. Davis