Posted on 12/23/2011 7:15:07 PM PST by Pining_4_TX
Another day, and another vitamin has failed to live up to all of its hype. This time it’s vitamin D.
The reality check is coming from two new research reviews published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The reviews, which looked at hundreds of previous studies of the “sunshine vitamin,” conclude that there’s little evidence that vitamin D protects against cancer or heart disease.
They also show that vitamin D doesn’t prevent fractures when it’s taken alone. Pairing vitamin D with extra calcium does appear to help prevent broken bones in the elderly, however.
“For many years, the enthusiasm for vitamin D has outpaced the evidence,” says JoAnn Manson, MD, DrPH, who heads the division of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
“The evidence is actually fairly thin,” especially for any benefits beyond bone health, she says.
(Excerpt) Read more at webmd.com ...
4000IU pf D3 is not nearly enough to help you get up to where you should be....my doc wants me 50-60....I am taking about 12,000IU this winter....but, I believe I may need it more due to some hereditary issue....don’t know for a fact...just sense it. Will get tested in spring to see if I’ve come up.
From various sources:
There are two sources of vitamin D, it is made in the skin by exposure to sunlight and there are a few dietary sources, such as oily fish, eggs, and fortified foods including margarine (which is required by law to contain vitamin D), some yogurts and breakfast cereals. There is very little vitamin D in milk and in fact only trace amounts and in the UK milk is not fortified with vitamin D.
Milk contains all the vitamins required by mammals. The fat soluble vitamins, A, D, E, and K, are found primarily in the milk fat; milk has limited amounts of vitamin K. The B vitamins are found in the aqueous phase of milk. Fluid milk in the US is fortified with additional vitamin D. Vitamin A is also added to milk in some other countries.
Vitamins are essential organic compounds required in the diet. Most are not synthesized in the animal (there is some synthesis by the microflora in the intestine). Therefore, milk levels can be influenced by dietary levels. Milk contains all of the B vitamins and fat-soluble vitamins, except perhaps vitamin K.
The fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) are associated with the milk fat globule.
Vitamin A : retinol : Yellow milk fat of Guernsey cows is due to lower efficiency of conversion of ß-carotene to retinol. In some countries milk is fortified with vitamin A.
Vitamin D : antirachitic activity : Involved in bone metabolism, Ca absorption in the intestine, and has other tissue functions. Milk is often fortified with vitamin D.
Vitamin E : tocopherol : Antioxidant, protects lipids. Only low levels are present in milk.
Just this week I got a call from my doctor’s office telling me my Vitamin D was extremely low. I just started taking supplements last week but apparently, they want me to take a prescription strength Vitamin D.
Vitamin B12 works pretty well for that hangover.
Well, I’m going to do whatever my doctor suggests. I believe in holistic medicine as much as possible. Have been taking fish oil for a year or so and my blood pressure dropped to normal levels. Feel great.
I can't fix a ruptured spleen and kidney (left side hit during a blizzard).
But I do appreciate the docs that removed those bloody pulps, kept me open long enough to stop the rest of the bleeders (except the one in the left lung, and they finally found that one. Ouch. Chest tube. Wide awake..) and kept me alive.
I play hard, I hurt hard. 3 broken ribs, 1 fractured vert, one ruptured spleen and trashed left kidney. 17 units of blood. 2 weeks in ICU or TC.
Doc said I looked like a gut-shot deer when he got in there. They called the family, and the family dragged my coffin off the shelf.
Family did, however, leave it on the workbench for me to put back up.
I can't heal everything that vexes me. And my MDs don't want to see me sick and broke.
Paint with a less broad brush next time.
/johnny
/johnny
That.
“After having a blood test for the first time,”
Should have said first time blood test for vitamin D levels.
Granted, l should have had it done 30 plus years ago. But who
knew?
Deficient vitamin D levels is deadly. I guess testing for vitamin D in RomneyCare Massachusetts is more expensive than letting someone die.
Nice ‘research’.
I think the first recorded documentation of that was at the Walls of Troy.
Sergeants have been using it ever since. I certainly did, with a short story about Troy. Everybody knows about the Trojan Horse....
What good is a life that's not lived, with gusto?
/johnny
ping
Vitamin D Council has lots of good info; explains the 25-hydroxyvitamin D, or 25(OH)D, test necessary to determine D3 level and deficiency.
My doctor prescribed 2000 units of D3 a day because mine was slightly low last year. Is that a big dose, small dose???? I haven’t had a blood test lately to see if I have brought my level up.
It’s five times the silly “RDA” or “recommended daily allowance.” Whether it’s appropriate or not is impossible to figure. No one could say without knowing what your baseline was, what your level is now, how much sunlight you get, where you live, how you dress, how much pigmentation you have in your skin, and such factors.
I cannot personally put much stock in these “studies.”
Four years ago I started taking 5000 iu of D3 daily. I have not been sick a day since. Anecdotal? You betcha! Am I going to stop? Would you?
IMHO, Vit D3 capsules from Wal*Mart are cheap insurance.
D-3 insufficiency has been positively related to affective disorders. Without going into detail, I now supplement at 10,000 IU/day. My labs test low average, but I feel alive again. The USRDA for D-3 is a joke.
It is not overhyped. Not every form of D is as good as another. Making it naturally generally is the best way.
Vitamin D is naturally made in the body by exposing skin to sunlight. The body converts cholesterol into vitamin D.
You want lower cholesterol and more D? Get decent sun exposure every day without sunscreen. A little time in the morning and a little in mid/late afternoon.
No. Quality of life on an optimum dose of Vitamin D is 200% better. I used to think it was normal to get colds, flus, or stomach viruses. Since I tested myself repeatedly to reach the optimum dose for health for me, I have never once gotten sick, including during pregnancy when sometimes you will be a “better host” for viruses because part of your immune system is “relaxed” to support the little one.
I can on;y imagine the cancer prevention.
You’d be a fool not to get tested and titrate your dose until you get over 50, better over 60. You are asking for illness without it. Screw what your doctor says, seriously. They NEVER ask about it and test for it. They just let you get flus and pneumonias and every cold known to man. You simply wont catch them on Vitamin D (except I am sure for really rundown people).
From what I’ve read, there is NO WAY they can deny the link between low sun exposure (due to climate and/or latitude) and various neuropathies like MS.
There also seems to be a high correlation with low Vit D levels and some of the deadliest internal cancers.
These clowns need to actually read the science. They have created radioactively tagged vitamin D3 and then used it in folks and mapped out where it ends up.
Vitamin D has THOUSANDS of receptor points in the body, it’s used all over the place.
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