You were told as a child to drink your milk to make sure you have strong healthy bones. Turns out Milk in its natural state only contains about 30-70 IU’s per quart. Let’s do the math. There are 4 cups in a quart. Even at the high end, you are only getting less that 20 IU’s per cup. The food and nutrition board recommends 200-400 IUs per day. Back in the 1940’s there was a condition called Ricketts. This is a softening of bones in children potentially leading to fractures and deformity. You can read more about this if you go HERE. The milk producers figured out if they supplement the milk with vitamin D they could reduce the cases of Rickets. Doing so reduced the incidence rate of juvenile rickets by 85% in the United States.
So what is vitamin D?
First of all, it is not actually a vitamin. It is a hormone. A hormone is a chemical messenger that is produced and secreted by specific glands and cells within the body of animals. It is classified as a vitamin for nutritional and public health reasons. So, Vitamin D is a steroid vitamin, a group of fat soluble prohormones, which encourages the absorption and metabolism of calcium and phosphorous.
Why do we need vitamin D?
Its main function is to maintain blood calcium in a normal range. It does this by telling the intestine to absorb more calcium from the food we eat. If it can’t find calcium in your blood, it will start to leach calcium from your bones. Our country has one of the highest rates of osteoporosis rates in the world. Partly because the US is suffering a extremely high Vitamin deficiency rate. I am not saying that this is the determining factor in osteoporosis. There are other factors including low level of physical activity and smoking. It has also been proven that excess protein is a factor. A normal adult needs about 25 grams of protein daily. The typical American diet will consume upwards toward 200 grams a day. Your body cannot use this amount of protein. Protein is also not stored in the body, so the liver and kidneys have to find calcium and magnesium from the body to neutralize the acid that the protein produces. What do you think happens when the liver and kidneys can’t find enough calcium in your blood? They look for alternate sources like your bones and your brain. There are also multiple studies to support the following needs for vitamin D. It is also a factor as an immune system regulator. Although more studies need to be done it also may be important to the immune system against disorders like a common cold, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and depression. Studies also show a correlation between weight gain and vitamin D deficiency. Studies are now coming out that are proving very promising that vitamin D fights cancer cells.
How do I get vitamin D?
Vitamin D is known as the sunshine vitamin. You don’t actually get vitamin D from the sun. Vitamin D is formed in the skin when ultraviolet light of the correct wavelength, UVB, strikes bare skin. Enormous quantities of cholecalciferol are rapidly made in the skin if the sun is high in the sky (midday and the summer season), your skin is not covered by clothes or sun block, you stay in the sun until your skin just begins to turn pink (not red), you are not behind glass. Glass blocks virtually all UVB, preventing vitamin D from being made. There are also a few foods that contain vitamin D that I recommend. One is wild salmon the other is shitake mushrooms. I also recommend a liquid form of vitamin D. I used carlson’s D drops. You can find them here
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Sunlight Exposure (full body exposure)*
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3,000 – 20,000 IU
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Salmon (3.5 oz. of fresh, wild salmon)
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600 – 1,000 IU
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Salmon (3.5 oz. of fresh, farmed salmon)
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100 – 250 IU
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Fortified Whole Milk, 8-oz. glass**
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100 IU
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Fortified Multi-vitamin
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400 IU
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For the D drops, here are the recommends amounts
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Age
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Dosage
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Below 5
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35 units per pound per day
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Age 5 - 10
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2500 units
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Adults
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5000 units
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Pregnant Women
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5000 units
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WARNING:
There is no way to know if the above recommendations are correct. The ONLY way to know is to test your blood. You might need 4-5 times the amount recommended above. Ideally your blood level of 25 OH D should be 60ng/ml.
How much sun exposure do I need?
I recommend sun exposure to the arms and legs for 10 to 15 minutes. Unfortunately, in the winter months, the amounts of UVB rays are minimal. The question arises about tanning beds being a suitable replacement for the sun. Both the sun and tanning beds emit two types of ultraviolet rays, UVA and UVB. Most tanning beds will emit UVA rays. Make sure that the beds are calibrated for UVB.
If you or anyone you know is pregnant, please make sure you get your Vitamin D levels (25 hydroxy D) regularly checked during pregnancy. Levels need to be above 50 ng/ml to protect you and your baby from some of the most serious complications of pregnancy such as premature delivery and preeclampsia. This is a potentially deadly increase in blood pressure and fluid accompanied during pregnancy. Preeclampsia and related disorders is suspect to cause 76,000 and 500,000 infant deaths every year. These deaths could have been prevented by simply optimizing vitamin D. It is not standard practice to check vitamin D levels during pregnancy. You have to ask your doctor. U.S. researchers Drs. Hollis and Wagner also found that over 87 percent of all newborns and over 67 percent of all mothers had vitamin D levels lower than 20 ng/ml, which is a severe deficiency state.
What about sun Screen?
If you wear a sunscreen with SPF [sun protection factor] 8, it prevents 95 percent of your skin's production of vitamin D. When you get to SPF 30, production is almost zero.
Which is more important for humans, vitamins D2 or D3?
Both forms are present in nutritional supplements. It is debated that both forms are equally effective, but I have to go with nature on this one. D3 is produced in your skin. Make sure it is Cholecalciferol.
The fact that you will get 20,000 IU’s of Vitamin D produced in the skin after just 30 minutes of sun exposure begs for the question , Why did nature develop a system that delivers huge quantities of a steroid precursor after only brief periods of sun exposure? The benefits of vitamin D are just starting to surface in large quantity. I had my kids on vitamin D all winter and they may have had one small cold each.
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