Posted on 10/09/2018 11:25:59 AM PDT by ETL
Well then you just proceed to follow their directives and avoid the sun at all costs. Glam on sunscreen before leaving the house, long sleeve shirts and wide brimmed hats.
The costs are plenty.
My reaction was about the antagonists to bone health, something even doctors take for granted (the public is oblivious).
For example, drug & alcohol use, including pharmaceuticals, combined with poor gut health (low absorption) and kidney function (same).
There’s also another factor pertaining to hormonal imbalance which I believe triggers the body to sap calcium from the bones, but they probably won’t figure out that one for another few decades (if ever; no money in prevention). I can’t recall if they have a scientific name for that factor, but they do for the effects: Rickets/Osteomalacia. Thyroid health is a biggie, something which I believe pertains to a majority of the population (most people I speak with have more than a few symptoms of impaired thyroid health which shouldn’t be ignored, but they do anyway...until an unpleasant symptom expresses).
Cortisol is the one hormone many people fail to grasp/understand, as it’s not just “stress”. I’m a heavy critic of crossfit training as a non-athletic lifestyle to maintain health. I do not believe the elevated cortisol levels are healthy and if you look for it there’s evidence to support that assertion.
The only people who need D2/D3 are those who live in northern latitudes due to lack of sun exposure. Seasonally I take it from time to time, but certainly not for anything related to bone health. Others who have a perceived need are probably for other reasons which should be explored, not masked by consuming a supplement (symptoms are markers for investigation; who paints over dry rot?).
True story: When I realized I had an imbalance of D years ago it was after I responded to one of those radio commercials about a free trial (something I almost never do). After a bit of research, I called and took them up on it. I realized no perceived benefit from the 30 days of the D3, but the following year I had been struggling with fatigue (this was prior to my health recovery when I was a hormonal wreck. Male, btw).
I was engaging a yard project and realized in retrospect after working 2 days in the sun (WITH a shirt) I felt energized. It was like I plugged into some recharging station. 2 weeks later the fatigue returned and I worked in the yard for a mere 2 hours this time: Same recharging results. In hindsight, I now know that I had a combined hormonal imbalance, poor kidney function and lousy absorption due to gut issues. I haven’t had the need to take D for several years now, but it’s in my cupboard if I start feeling the fatigue (unless I have some work to do outside).
To be clear, I am a proponent of real food and “real food supplements” and opponent of ingestion the prior PLUS USP and pharmaceutical chemicals for either prevention or symptom abatement without first investigating other factors (good luck doing that with an orthodox “doctor”).
Self-medication can be more dangerous than doing nothing at all, the result suddenly presenting after decade(s) of progressive damage.
Pertinent supplemental information since most people don’t have a clue the complex biological processes behind what supplement manufacturers proffer to fix with “a pill” (sorry for not formatting...too busy):
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin. It exists in four different forms: cholecalciferol, calcifediol, calcitriol, and ergocalciferol.
Forms of Vitamin D
Cholecalciferol: This form is also called vitamin D3, and it’s made from cholesterol in your body when your skin is exposed to ultraviolet light. For most of us, it takes about 5 to 30 minutes of sun exposure two days each week to make sufficient amounts of vitamin D though it varies based on weather conditions and time of year. Cholecalciferol is not biologically active; it has to travel through your bloodstream to the liver where is it converted into another form of vitamin D called calcifediol.
Calcifediol: The storage form of vitamin D is called 25-hydroxyvitamin D or calcifediol. It’s also the form of vitamin D that’s measured in blood tests when your health care provider wants to determine when you have symptoms of vitamin D deficiency. If your calcidiol levels are low, you may not be making enough vitamin D, which can lead to a softening and weakening of your bones. In children, this is called rickets and in adults, it’s called osteomalacia. Osteomalacia can result in osteoporosis.
Calcitriol: Your kidneys take calcifediol and convert it to the biologically active form of vitamin D called 1,25-hydroxyvitamin D, or calcitriol. This kind of vitamin D promotes calcium absorption and helps balance the blood levels. It also has a role in normal cell growth and nerve and muscle function. Calcitriol is also necessary for a healthy immune system and may help to reduce inflammation. Your body regulates your blood levels of calcitriol very carefully, so it isn’t a proper form for testing or monitoring vitamin D deficiency. In fact, calcitriol levels may remain normal while calcifediol levels begin to drop.
Ergocalciferol: Vitamin D2, or ergocalciferol, is similar to cholecalciferol, but it’s the form of vitamin D synthesized in plants. Your liver can convert ergocalciferol to the calcifediol. It isn’t converted to calcidiol as efficiently as cholecalciferol, but it appears to be sufficient for use as a dietary supplement.
Where Does Vitamin D Come From?
Vitamin D isn’t found in many foods unless they have been fortified, such as milk, yogurt, soy milk and breakfast cereals. Small amounts of vitamin D are found in oily fish and beef liver.
Your body makes vitamin D when your skin is exposed to the ultraviolet B (UVB) rays in sunlight. About 5 to 30 minutes of exposure to the skin on your face, arms, back or legs (without sunscreen) two times every week is enough.
But, too much exposure to sunlight is a risk for skin cancer, so you should use sunscreen after a few minutes in the sun, even on hazy or cloudy days.
The amount of exposure also depends on the time of the year. In the northern hemisphere, the UVB rays are more intense during the summer months and less intense during the winter months. In fact, if you live north of the 42-degree latitude, you’ll have a difficult time getting enough sun exposure from November through February.
Picture a map of North America. If you live north of a line drawn on a map from the northern border of California to Boston, Massachusetts, you will probably need to get more vitamin D from the foods you eat (or from supplements) during the winter months, even if you do go outside every day.
The intensity of UVB rays is also reduced by clouds and pollution. The UVB rays will not travel through glass so sitting next to a window will not give you enough sunlight to make vitamin D.
Why Do You Need Vitamin D?
Your body needs vitamin D to absorb and utilize calcium, which keeps your bones and teeth strong, and is essential for normal blood clotting and muscle and nerve function.
A vitamin D deficiency can happen if you don’t get enough sun exposure, if your kidneys cannot convert the storage form to the active form, or if you can’t absorb vitamin D from due to problems with your digestive system. A chronic lack of vitamin D leads to weakened bones and diseases called rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults.
Research published in the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology suggests that vitamin D supplementation does not prevent fractures or falls.
Dr Robert Clarke, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Oxford, said:
“The report included all available trials of vitamin D, but such trials included too few participants, used an insufficient dose of vitamin D, and had an insufficient duration of treatment. Hence, the study lacked the ability to reliably test the effects of vitamin D on risk of hip fracture. So, it is too soon to suggest making changes to health recommendations on vitamin D for bone health based on this study. We should wait until the results of the five ongoing trials of vitamin D, involving total of 57,000 adults, that will be available in the next year or so.”
Prof Adrian Martineau, Clinical Professor of Respiratory Infection and Immunity, Queen Mary University of London, said:
“A major limitation of this study is that people with low vitamin D levels (i.e. 25-hydroxyvitamin D <25 nmol/L) – who potentially stand to benefit the most from supplementation – were in a small minority in the trials that were included in the analysis. Moreover, the authors failed to obtain data from individual trial participants for their meta-analysis. This limited their ability to determine whether individuals with low baseline vitamin D levels benefit more from vitamin D supplementation than those with higher baseline levels.
“We know from meta-analyses that have managed to obtain individual participant data that the health benefits of vitamin D supplementation tend to be most marked in people who have the lowest vitamin D levels to start with. While it’s easy to pool published summary statistics relating to treatment effects to come up with a negative overall answer, this simplistic ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach is a blunt tool that has limited ability to explore whether the effects of a given intervention vary according to key characteristics of individuals who take part in clinical trials, such as whether or not they are deficient in a micronutrient at baseline.
“The authors of this study acknowledge that “trials of vitamin D supplementation in individuals with marked vitamin D deficiency … might produce different results”. This caveat has important implications, since more than 1 in 5 of the UK population is vitamin D deficient. The potential for vitamin D supplementation to reduce risk of fractures and falls should not be discounted until further trials in populations with 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels <25 nmol/L have been conducted.
“Public Health England’s recommendation that everyone needs 10 micrograms (400 international units) of vitamin D per day are designed specifically to elevate vitamin D levels out of the deficient range (i.e. to bring them over 25 nmol/L). Achieving this target in the whole UK population would save lives by preventing the most extreme manifestations of vitamin D deficiency (seizures and heart failure in infants), which occur every year in the UK. The findings of the new paper do not provide any reason to revisit or reconsider this sound advice.”
Prof Martin Hewison, member of the Society for Endocrinology, professor of molecular endocrinology and deputy director of the Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research at The University of Birmingham, said:
“Almost all trials for vitamin D supplementation have shown that supplementation is only effective if you are vitamin D-deficient to begin with. In the UK, guidelines for bone health by the Science Advisory Council on Nutrition and other organisations such as the National Osteoporosis Society, indicate vitamin D supplementation for individuals with serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels below 25 nmol/L.
“In the study to be published in Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology very few of the subjects assessed in this meta-analysis would be considered vitamin D-deficient according to UK guidelines, only 4 of the 81 studies assessed (6%) had mean baseline 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels less than 25 nmol/L. As such the benefits of vitamin D supplementation are difficult to determine from the current study even though it involves a large number of individuals.
“Much of the data in the meta-analysis reflect subjects who already had adequate levels of vitamin D. Many individual vitamin D supplementation trials do not screen for baseline vitamin D deficiency and this may account for disappointing results. Where stratification has been used to identify baseline vitamin D-deficiency (<25 nmol/L 25-hydroxyvitamin D), results are often stronger, notably the work by Adrian Martineau and colleagues on acute respiratory infection (BMJ 2017;356:i6583).
“What the current study in Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology illustrates is that more studies are required that target vitamin D supplementation where it is needed – in people with vitamin D-deficiency – repeated expansive meta-analyses will not achieve this.”
‘Effects of vitamin D supplementation on musculoskeletal health: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and trial sequential analysis’ by Mark J Bolland et al. was published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology at 23:30 UK time on Thursday 4 October 2018.
Declared interests
Prof Robert Clarke: “I have worked on vitamin D for several years but I have no conflicts of interest about this meta-analysis.”
Prof Adrian Martineau: “I am in receipt of funding from the UK Medical Research Council and the US National Institutes of Health to support on-going clinical trials of vitamin D supplementation to improve bone mineral density and prevent fractures in children. I have conducted meta-analyses of individual participant data from clinical trials showing benefits of vitamin D supplementation for respiratory health outcomes that are strongest in, or restricted to, people with low baseline levels of vitamin D.”
Prof Martin Hewison: “No conflicts.”
Agreed-the study is stupid and useless. Vitamin D without Calcium, K2 and the other necessary elements of nutrition is not going to do anything-beneficial or otherwise-someone just wanted money for a yet another “study” to show that what was good lst year is bad now-look at the way everything from vitamins to beef, coffee, wine, butter, etc, etc has seemingly changed good/bad for health over recent years...
I was raised in a health freak family on a ranch-like all the rest, I’ve been living drug-free from childhood-and there was no processed food on the table-I still live that way-drug free and high protein organic diet. I take 3000-4000 D3 daily along with my other vitamins/supplements daily-I manage my own body and health-I live in that body and know it best.
I work out with weights and resistance 3X per week, so I take an L-Arginine and Citrulline supplement to max my muscle tone and mass. My job requires physical work-mostly outdoors. I weigh the same as I did at 17, but I’m more muscular than I was then-I’m also over 65-I’ll stay with the natural, rural life-it has worked well for me. I do like occasional tobacco and wine-maybe I can apply for a grant, do a study on natural living using computer calculations instead of a group of real humans-I can certainly use the extra money...
Sure help with happy dreams though.
I once heard someone say that you should take Vitamin D supplements if you live in a Northern Climate, or someplace that does not get a lot of sun, or have fair skin. I hit all three of those, so I started taking Vitamin D.
” a meta study which can be performed on any toilet with a laptop in hand”
May I borrow that, please? I want to text it to a healthy but easily impressed friend who believes every “study” some doc tells her about-as he hands her a scrip for yet another drug that has her sick with side effects in a week or less...
Bookmark!
Bingo - vitamin D and it’s relationship to bone health and density is part of a complex system requiring not only calcium, but also magnesium and adequate fat because vitamin D is an oil-based vitamin. And even that is a simplified explanation.
And, this was tested, documented and published in medical studies from the 30’s and 40’s. It’s not news. But if one’s cultural and scientific memory is only a few years, that would explain the idiocy.
I mean, come on, they didn’t have iphones or twitter, what could they possibly have known back then?
Thanks!
For purposes of Vitamin D, 10 minutes of sunshine is plenty. Roll up your sleeves and go for a walk.
That is what I do. Have not tested bone density. Will be 62 next month. Had heart bypass surgery 12-27-18. Started back on machines and dumbbells within doctor tolerance two months after surgery. Did not touch a barbell for 6 months. Last week I benched 245 and I feel great. I plan to take it up some more if my joints keep feeling good. After taking it to my upper limit (being careful to warm up well), I drop down in increments of 20 lbs and do as many reps as I can until I get to 145. Leg press 200 for 50 reps. Other free weights and machines mixed in to give good overall tone.
Also do 30 crunches for my core. Leg and core conditioning, I believe, were one of the keys to my relatively quick recovery from surgery. Bones and joints feel good. I increase weights slowly and make sure I am solid on a weight level before I go up. I do take a low dose of D3 gelcap because I am an office dweller and do not get much sun.
I read in a couple of places that sunshine/vitamin D is the only effective remedy for depression, I have watched that play out multiple times now.Walk in the sunshine everyday in the summer and take D3 through the winter. D is also the premier prophylactic for respiratory and maybe other viruses.
Yep—lots of stuff associated with more northern, sun-deprived climates that seem to be limited by sufficient vitamin D.
Daughter dispensed with the Xanax she had been taking for years three weeks after she started with the D3. The Xanax didn’t fix anything. It blanketed her emotions so she really didn’t ever feel sad or happy either. The D actually fixed things.
Last winter I thought my autoimmune disorder was out of remission. My doctor tested for that and my Vit D levels. I felt awful-could hardly lift my arms over my head. The prescription megadoses of Vit D (50,000 mg/week) resolved everything.
Vitamin D is crucial to our well being and pretty hard to get here in the cold north.
Thankfully, my autoimmune disorder remains in remission.
50K mg???
Is that in shot form?
Great news that your disorder is in remission.
When was the bypass? Good for you on lifting weights.
I really need to do something more for upper body strength.
“However, taking too much vitamin D can be harmful. Children age 9 years and older, adults, and pregnant and breast-feeding women who take more than 4,000 IU a day of vitamin D might experience:”
Nausea - Nope, not since the last time I went drinking with Kavanaugh.
Vomiting - Ditto.
Poor appetite - that has NEVER happened to me.
Constipation - coffee fixes that, but it usually isn’t an issue.
Weakness - nah, I benched 200 pounds just before hitting 57 earlier this year, and had only been working out for a few weeks.
Weight loss - Oh, HELL no - see “Poor appetite.”
Confusion - About what? Where? When? I’m writing to President Reagan about this!
Disorientation - only when drinking with Kavanaugh.
Heart rhythm problems - keeps ticking, no problems.
Kidney damage - nope, keep peeing just fine, no issues.
Oh, yeah, and I take between 5,000 and 10,000 IU per day.
In all seriousness, I’d love to know who sponsored this meta-study - some drug company that makes a calcium-enhancing drug?
BTW, I take Vitamin D primarily for the impact on my immune system - and it has been damned effective, I’ve barely been sick for years, despite my kids coming home after exposure to every bug in the world at school.
“Lose your ducktor’s address and phone number, and get healthy!”
His response floored me: “Stay away from doctors, and stay away from hospitals.”
He later explained it (I wasn’t going to let him get away with just walking away from that) in some detail. But, in the final analysis, his advice was:
“Get decent nutrition in balanced meals.
Get enough sleep.
Get a reasonable amount of moderate exercise.
Look both ways when crossing the street.
If you do that, you should live to be about 85.”
I said that sounded like something out of the Farmer’s Almanac. He said, “Yeah, that’s about right...but don’t tell the A.M.A., they won’t like it very much.”
He did mention that there is a place for hospitals - he recommended visiting one if you had your bone sticking out of your leg. :>)
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