Posted on 03/07/2010 11:08:49 AM PST by decimon
Skin cancer is a real problem, especially if you are fair skinned and blue-eyed. My brother died of it, and the rest of my family has had lots of surgeries to remove cancerous growths.
However, vitamin D deficiency is a real concern for my daughter because she can’t get out in the sun, and she takes anti-seizure medication which strips vitamin D out of your system.
I’m also low on vitamin D. Since last April, I’ve had a hip injury, and I have not been outside as much.
It’s much easier to supplement with vitamin D than it is to prevent getting sunburned.
I like the idea of shade structures. It gives the people a chance to get out of the sun if they need to.
They put Vitamin D in milk because the pasteurization process destroys the naturally occurring vitamin D in the food.
Since most dairy farmers I know drink their own milk raw, not to mention all the outdoor activity they get year round, I’d day that their vitamin D levels are just fine.
“...is food-additive Vit D as effective as skin-produced Vit D?”
Most D fortified food uses D2, not as effective or safe as D3. D3 results in the same effect in the body as that from sun exposure.
Note that ‘flu season’ is generally a winter months disease, when we have less vitamin D if we don’t supplement because of none from the sun. D3 supplementation of 10,000 iu is enough to provide a significant boost to the immune system (1,000 iu = 25 micrograms).
Some, including one MD I know, take as much as 50,000 units of D3 a day. At this level avoid all supplemental calcium - calcium could begin to concentrate in soft tissue (things like kidney stones, mitrovalve prolapse, etc). Magnesium supplementation is important, but no calcium. Osteoporosis is a magnesium deficiency.
Folks on the farm obviously spend time outside.
Bump
That's 1000 - 2000 International Units of vitamin D3.
This is one reason that I'm wary of press releases besides no byline. They tend to be written by folks with little scientific education which can cause confusion, especially with abbreviations.
The abbreviation for milligram is mg. The abbreviation for microgram is mcg. Sometimes you'll find microgram written as µg. One thousand micrograms equals one milligram. One thousand milligrams equals one gram. The abbreviation for micro is called mu, and it looks like a funny looking u as above. Here's a link to the Greek alphabet.
Here's the abstract which uses the Greek letter pronounced "gamma," subtyped '1,' for a type of Phospholipase C isozyme, i.e. one of a number of different enzymes that catalyze the same biochemical reaction:
Vitamin D controls T cell antigen receptor signaling and activation of human T cells
Phospholipase C (PLC) isozymes are key signaling proteins downstream of many extracellular stimuli. Here we show that naive human T cells had very low expression of PLC-γ1 and that this correlated with low T cell antigen receptor (TCR) responsiveness in naive T cells. However, TCR triggering led to an upregulation of ~75-fold in PLC-γ1 expression, which correlated with greater TCR responsiveness. Induction of PLC-γ1 was dependent on vitamin D and expression of the vitamin D receptor (VDR). Naive T cells did not express VDR, but VDR expression was induced by TCR signaling via the alternative mitogen-activated protein kinase p38 pathway. Thus, initial TCR signaling via p38 leads to successive induction of VDR and PLC-γ1, which are required for subsequent classical TCR signaling and T cell activation.
I thought in people with healthy kidneys that it would make no difference if they took either vitamin D2 or vitamin D3. This paper says otherwise.
I missed that. It should be 25-50mcg (micrograms), right?
That's correct as far as abbreviation goes. The doses are now in question. I just came across a new article that raises questions about vitamin D supplementation. I'll post it shortly. I'm reading it a second time.
I like that in a physician.
bump to find your new post.
I take a multivitamin with D every day, and have for about the last 20 years.
I do wonder, though, just how much is utilized in the body and how much just gets peed and pooped away.
My family's been taking from 1000 IU (kids) to 5,000 IU (me) daily since last summer and each of us has been sick several times this winter.
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