Sunshine, Vitamin D, and Death by Scientific Consensus

Pajamas Media ^ | Jan 7, 2009 | Patrick Cox

[rscully]

Thanks for posting this. A few months ago my internist asked me to test for Vit D deficiency - turns out I was horribly deficient! Kind of explained why my hair was falling out. I also learned that the deficiency is a leading cause of rickets. Ever since I started taking it, my hair and nails have been regrowing like crazy, and I feel better, too. Very timely post.

[wastedyears]

That was my old endocrinologist’s “fix” for primary hyperparathyroid disease. 50,000mg caplets of vitamin D, when if he had tested for that long before that, I would’ve had it fixed long ago.

[wastedyears]

Your clients? What do you do?

[redgolum]

We did too. Makes you want to start working.

[Pharmboy]

Good question...animals make D and plants make D...although they are slightly different. The animal pathway D is D3, while the plant pathway produces ergocalciferol which is D2; they are BOTH considered vitamin D. D3 is the natural stuff for animals, including you and me. Here's the human metabolic scheme (vitamin D is not really a vitamin at all; it is a pro-hormone like vitamin A). It starts as cholesterol in the skin, changed by the sun, then changed by the liver, and made into the final, active hormone called calcitriol, or 1,25 dihydroxycholecaciferol:

[decimon]

They get plenty of sun and plenty of Vitamin D

Average life expectancy: 45

With their dark skin it takes 10 or 15 times as long an exposure to sunlight as a light skinned person to make the same amount of vitamin D.

Tropical climes often have rainy seasons that block UVB for months at a time.

The children may revel in the midday sun but the adults would likely try to avoid it.

[csmusaret]

Good for sugar too...

http://www.swansonvitamins.com/health-library/articles/blood-sugar-support/vitamin-d-supplements-have-anti-diabetes-potential.html?SourceCode=INTHIR352

[metmom]

The stuff I bought that was just labeled as D has the same ingredient as the D3, so labeling on the bottles apparently doesn’t mean much. You have to read the backs.

[Calm_Cool_and_Elected]

Thanks for the reminder. I have an auto-immune disease that affects my skin and I cannot tolerate very much sun exposure. It causes my disease to flare. I see my Dr. next week and will ask her to add the Vit D to my bloodwork and also ask her how much Vit D I should take daily.

[cyborg]

Some of my coworkers think I’m crazy for wanting routine vitamin D levels on all nursing home residents. They don’t get any sun, no fresh air,etc.

[Domestic Church]

We all take 5000 ius daily here.

[Domestic Church]

We all take 5000 ius daily here.

[neverdem]

Some of my coworkers think I’m crazy for wanting routine vitamin D levels on all nursing home residents. They don’t get any sun, no fresh air,etc.

Excellent. When they checked my mother, she was deficient also.

[Varda]

I take what the natural health community recommends with an enormous grain of salt. A relative was following advice from a natural magazine and I’m pretty sure it killed her. It turns out she was taking massive doses of vitamin A. It was not good with the heart condition she had.

There is a growing body of actual research finding strong correlations between low Vit D and health issues such as the one posted above which says “Colorectal cancer mortality was inversely related to serum 25(OH)D level, with levels 80 nmol/L or higher associated with a 72% risk reduction”. I think most doctors are just becoming aware that this research exists.

[metmom]

I check out the natural health community carefully, too. Some of the things they say make no sense and don’t seem well founded, but they are right about a lot.

OTOH, the medical community and pharm industry have had their share of disasters with drugs and medicines.

I’ve heard of the connection between various cancers and Vitamin D as well. IIRC, it was the correlation between breast cancer rates and amount of sunshine that got people noticing the link.

[1010RD]

I thought Arthur Robinson’s experiments disproved Pauling’s vitamin C hypothesis. Isn’t that why they had a falling out?

Also, I’d heard that experimenters with DDT used to call it vitamin DDT because of the positive effects it had on the health of rats.

[LadyDoc]

I wouldn’t go overboard.

There is a statistical correlation but not a cause and effect correlation.
They might find that when you are sick, your vitamin D level goes down because you are sick, not that Vitamin D prevents the disease.

If there were, all those tanned ladies in Southern California would live to be 90...

[Cincinna]

Ask your doctor to include a Vitamin D blood level in your blood work up.

If your levels are minimal or close to optimal, start with 2,000 per day. Them get tested again, and work from there.

Take capsules only, from the best most reliable supplier.There is a difference. No filler, no additive products in pure gelatin capsules are best. Tablets often do not dissolve and just pass through the system.

[Pining_4_TX]

However, taking very large doses of vitamin C also increase the risk of cataracts. Nothing is without risk, no matter how good it seems.