If you haven’t heard of Vitamin D yet, you will be hearing more and more about it in the media in the near future. Current research is showing vitamin D deficiency to be a major factor in the development of at least 17 varieties of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting, birth defects, periodontal disease, and more.
A simple blood test tells us whether you have enough vitamin D in your system, and it is one of the first things I run for most of my patients. Thankfully many doctors are now running vitamin D for their patients as well. If you need to ask your doctor to order the test it is important to make sure it is the 25-OH vitamin D3 (called “25 hydroxy vitamin D”), most medical doctors have not been used to running this test and instead run 1,25 OH Vitamin D3. This is a different test and does not give us a good indication of what your vitamin D status is. The common reference ranges list anything above a score of 30 as sufficient. Most progressive vitamin D experts believe this is insufficient, and we suggest an optimal score is in the 60-80 range.
There is a lot of fear in the conventional medical community about the dangers of vitamin D, and there are some concerns of overdose, but it is very rare. Except in rare instances of disease (such as sarcoidosis and auto-converting lymphomas), doses need to be well above 10,000 IU for prolonged periods of time to cause any toxicity.
Nonetheless it is prudent to keep your dose between 2000-5000 IU per day unless under the guidance of a physician.
Bottom line: Research is suggesting that getting and keeping your vitamin D in optimal ranges is one of the simplest and most effective things you can do to maintain good health and reduce your risk of at least 17 varieties of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting, birth defects, periodontal disease, and more.
Resources:
- To learn more about Vitamin D, here is a 1 hour video on vitamin D given by expert Michael Hollick, MD, PhD.
- Here is another 15 minute video about the connection between Vitamin D and cancer.
- The Vitamin D council is a good website resource to learn more about vitamin D.
What are your thoughts? Have you started taking Vitamin D? We’d love to hear your thoughts, share them with us below?