How do you get your levels checked in the UK if you have private insurance?
The Big Vitamin D Mistake
121–130 of 459 posts
Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake
#122This article recommends around 100 nmol/L. Most people are between 20-30, because they don't get enough Sun and do not take supplements. It gets really really bad when the number gets below 10 and it takes months to recover. Another Vitamin whose deficiency cause irreversible damage is B12. Folks, get both of these checked.
I happen to have a gene mutation that makes methylation of B12 inefficient. I never did well in chemistry or biology for that matter, but my limited understanding is that methylation is necessary for it to be useful. It turns out that you can buy methylated B12 called methylcobalamin. The more common form is cyanocobalamin, and is not very useful for people like myself. That is my understanding, if anyone here knows…
Typically it is further up the methylation pathway. You might need methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MTHR, brand names Metafolin and Deplin) supplementation combined with methyl-B12.
Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
I thought the injection was typically hydroxocobalamin. Has this changed?
Yep, they are and also the best form. Extremely unstable in capsules and oral supplements though. Methylcobalamin isn't very effective orally. However someone with a gene mutation doesn't have any choices.
It actually is quite effective, much like cyanocobalamin. (The usual form in supplements.) Needs just slightly higher dosage than hydroxocobalamin.
Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake
#124Anecdotally, I had this discussion with a cardiovascular interventionist specialist about seven or eight years ago when I was managing a team of cardio theatre orderlies in a private hospital. He made the comment, "mark my words, in about five to ten years time there will be a major scare about needing to absorb more vitamin D". His opinion was that the increase in sunscreen usage and the push to avoid skin cancer by…
Henry Osiecki in his book The Nutrient Bible, I own the 9th edition published in March 2010, recommends 2000-8000IU for three weeks to reestablish sufficient levels, and a supplementary rage of 400-3000IU a day for maintenance.
I obtained this book while studying clinical nutrition in Australia in 2005.
Clinical nutrition as taught by at least a handful of teaching practitioners in Australia that I'm aware of has been using mega-dose therapy to re-establish nutritional deficiencies since at least before I became aware of it twelve years ago.
Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've read varying reports of how much sun you need to generate a day's supply of vitamin D, but rarely do they mention how much skin needs to be exposed. Face only? Face and arms? Entire upper body? Entire body? Is there some online resource for this with time of year and latitude corrections? I imagine there's quite a difference between vitamin D production in noon sun in Fairbanks Alaska versus Miami Florida.
I did some searching... "John Jacob Cannell, MD, executive director of The Vitamin D Council, notes that the skin makes 10,000 IU of vitamin D after 30 minutes of full-body sun exposure. He suggests that 10,000 IU of vitamin D is not toxic." https://www.webmd.com/osteoporosis/features/the-truth-about-...
Except that 10000 IU is mostly localized in skin and released a bit slower.
Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder if glass windows would block out the benefits?
Anecdotally, a lot of window products have built in films, coatings, or dopants that reduce UV exposure and possibly other portions of the spectrum. I would /guess/ that pure (greenhouse?) glass, maybe not even visibly transparent, would be effective. Both could be worth studying if someone hasn't already.
Glass itself blocks a lot of UV. Even not doped.
There exist optically transparent plastics that do not.
Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake
#127This article seems to be a low quality review of other research with a clickbatey title (full text here: https://www.jpmph.org/journal/view.php?doi=10.3961/jpmph.16.... ). Pubmed is sort of like arxiv.org and the fact this has an nih.gov base url should not be taken as an endorsement of it by the NIH. That said I do actually believe that more then the recommended amount of vitamin D can be beneficial and the recommen…
Just to back this up: the journal it's published in has a very very low impact factor of 0.235 (i.e. it publishes 4x more papers that it gets citations, probably most of it's papers are never cited by anyone) [1]. If this paper was considered a big a deal by the wider research community you would expect it to be published in a high profile journal. [1]: https://journal.komci.org/ViewJournalInfo.php?JID=109#Impact...
Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake
#128I have been taking 5000IU Vitamin D for the past 7 years, with a little more over the winter months. It's stupidly cheap, I get 360 5000IU capsules for $13, so it has cost me less than $100 over that period. Anecdotally, it was a game changer for me personally. I got less sick during the winter, and my overall wellbeing improved greatly. A word of advice, increase Vitamin K intake aswell. Vitamin D helps calcium abso…
Word of advice: don't take vitamins ADEK without advice from a physician for extended periods or in high doses. These are fat soluble so you can have too much of them.
This should be reiterated: Please consult a professional before drastically altering the chemical composition of your ephemeral body.
I know it sounds downright crazy, but it's possible that someone who's studied medicine and practiced it for years, actually knows better than random anonymous forum users.
Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake
#129Throwing in my two cents. I used to suffer from seasonal mood swings, since taking a daily multivitamin this has been the best winter of my life.
I've been tracking my depression for a few years now, and I'm amazed at the number of things that can trigger a depressive episode. I used to think I had a disease called depression, but it now appears that I had arrived at a collection of various life circumstances that made experiencing depression on any given day more likely for me. Some of the main triggers have been: - Attempting to proceed without a plan - Push…
> Bad sleep (I now use the calculator at sleepyti.me and have had great results)
Interesting site, didn't knew about it!
I've checked it out, and as I wake everyday at 7am, it suggests me four different hours: 10pm, 11:30pm, 1am and 2:30am. What I find interesting is that none of it matches exactly the 8h average sleep value. As you say that you have had great results, could you comment a little bit on that?
Thanks!
Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
or better, just spend more time outside.
That drastically increases your odds of skin cancer. If you want to reduce your risk of dying overall, stay covered up and take supplements.
Melanoma correlation with sun exposure is tricky; regular (non burning) exposure tends to correlate with lower risk (eg in outdoor workers). Non-melanoma skin cancers are usually curable. It's plausible to argue the benefits of regular non burning sun exposure overweight the risks.