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The Big Vitamin D Mistake

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221–230 of 459 posts

Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake

#221
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

an hour of sunshine a day?

Except during the summer months, the skin makes little if any vitamin D from the sun at latitudes above 37 degrees north (in the United States, the shaded region in the map) or below 37 degrees south of the equator. People who live in these areas are at relatively greater risk for vitamin D deficiency. Check out the map: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/time-for-more...

That's me. Any idea how well supplements are absorbed? Which are better or worse?

Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake

#222
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What dose is recommended for adults and what is the best way to get it into your system?

an hour of sunshine a day?

That's easier said than done for some. A couple of years ago we had an exceptionally bleak November here, with one city for example having only 12 minutes of sunshine in the whole month of November. (I'm not talking about places within the Arctic Circle, although relatively speaking they could almost seem that way for some, of course.)

The average where I live for Nov is about an hour of sunlight per day, but to catch that you'd have to spend all the light hours of day outside (and for sure, November sunshine isn't quite the same as summer sunshine).

Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake

#223
This makes it sound impossible for some people to get enough vitamin D from sun and food without supplements. If you're fair skinned and living in northern climates, you'll be deficient even with a healthy diet given that you can't be out in the sun that long without burning. Is the human body that defective?

Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake

#224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who work outside don’t get skin cancer. People who cook themselves for fun do. If they did, we would know, because workers compensation would be paying for it.

> People who work outside don’t get skin cancer. Yes, they do. > If they did, we would know, because workers compensation would be paying for it. While state workers comp laws vary in ways which make this different from state to state, workers comp is paying for it for some subset of people who work outside. http://blogs.findlaw.com/injured/2015/06/can-i-get-workers-c...

Many of them (like my uncle a few years ago) don’t last very long, so it isn’t workers comp that you should just look at. It is definitely something that happens.

Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair skin is a lot better than skin cancer!

People who work outside don’t get skin cancer. People who cook themselves for fun do. If they did, we would know, because workers compensation would be paying for it.

My electrician father who spent several years working on rooftops in Houston and developed skin cancer on his hand at 51 would beg to differ.

Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake

#226
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

an hour of sunshine a day?

Except during the summer months, the skin makes little if any vitamin D from the sun at latitudes above 37 degrees north (in the United States, the shaded region in the map) or below 37 degrees south of the equator. People who live in these areas are at relatively greater risk for vitamin D deficiency. Check out the map: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/time-for-more...

Supposedly this is why Northern Europeans evolved lactose tolerance. Asians got the D they needed from the sun and leafy veggies.

Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake

#227
post #128
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"The best way to get vitamins is to eat better." -Every physician ever.

Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake

#228
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

an hour of sunshine a day?

Except during the summer months, the skin makes little if any vitamin D from the sun at latitudes above 37 degrees north (in the United States, the shaded region in the map) or below 37 degrees south of the equator. People who live in these areas are at relatively greater risk for vitamin D deficiency. Check out the map: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/time-for-more...

That line was a lot lower than I imagined! Surprised that Denver is “too far north”.

Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake

#229

Anecdotally, 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…

What dose is recommended for adults and what is the best way to get it into your system?

you could also investigate in vitamin D lamps (Sperti, for example), they are not cheap though

Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except during the summer months, the skin makes little if any vitamin D from the sun at latitudes above 37 degrees north (in the United States, the shaded region in the map) or below 37 degrees south of the equator. People who live in these areas are at relatively greater risk for vitamin D deficiency. Check out the map: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/time-for-more...

That's me. Any idea how well supplements are absorbed? Which are better or worse?

Get a blood test first so you know your Vitamin D level (they're cheap: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15869485), maybe you already get enough from your diet.

If you do need supplementation, then Vitamin D3 (specifically Cholecalciferol) is vastly better absorbed than Vitamin D2. If you want a specific recommendation, buy this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07234TTCC and take it twice per week (Sunday & Thursday for example), that'll average to about 1400 IU per day.

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