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Vitamin D - dosing data
Note: This article is ONLY about the dosages needed for Vit. D, not its benefits or uses. For that See the article on the vitamin itself HERE.
Contents
What does does YOUR doctor recommend?
Doses of Vitamin D provided by your health professional will certainly vary according to his/her ability to take the time to actually read the latest research in this burgeoning field. Some years ago, it was generally thought that dosages of D vitamins were sufficient if one received around 400 i.u., (international units)/ day.
Unfortunately many physicians of all stripes are still recommending that minimal level.
Blood levels
The latest evidence show that this is a serious error. If you put on your bathing suit and spend some time out doors in the sun, in a few hours your body will manufacture some 25-30,000 IU of Vitamin D. So, how can it be that 400/day is enough to keep you healthy? It simply is not. If you get your Vitamin D levels checked in a simple and not particularly expensive blood test, covered by most carriers, which can be ordered by your Doctor of Chiropractic (in most States), you are likely not to see a level greater than 20-30. The new norm appears to be around 50, which means that some 95+% of Americans are deficient in Vitamin D.
Can I get sick from too much?
Certainly one can in fact become seriously ill from overdosing on Vitamin D. See Hypervitaminosis D for details. However, it appears there have been only tow documented loci of Hypervitaminosis D in the United States in the past 20 years, and both involved laboratories making custom D supplements for specific "nutrition merchants", not physicians dispensing reliable products in their offices; and in BOTH cases, the patients were taking approx. 1 MILLION IU/day unknowingly. According to the data, no cases of overdose have been reported in adults taking less than 77,000 IU/day of D.
What are the benefits
There are several really well made documentaries available on Youtube, done at the University of California, (San Diego) School of Public health which address this issue:
Vitamin D and Cancer
Vitamin D and CardioVascular Disease
