Live data from Hacker News

The Big Vitamin D Mistake

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

341–350 of 459 posts

Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake

#341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is per day? I have been deficient for a few years now and I take ~6000 IU per day, but it doesnt seem to make a big difference in my blood tests. I already thought 6K was a lot...

My doc prescribed me 25,000 IU once a week for 8 weeks then 10,000 IU daily thereafter. The kicks of 25k were what made the diff for me. YMMV

holy smokes, thats a ton. Are there any effects of too much?

Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake

#342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotal: I have Chrohns and take 2000 UI Vitamin D everyday. I've been prescribed the lowest dosage anti-inflammatory (Mesalamine) for years and rarely had a flare up. My Vitamin D blood tests always come back in the normal level.

Another anecdote... I also take mesalamine (as Delzicol in my case), and take 3000 IU of Vitamin D (along with supplements of calcium, B-complex, and some others). I almost never have flares. However, I can't get a good colonoscopy - my GI doc says the prep is always bad, even if I extend it for an additional day. He attributes that to a chronic simmering inflammatory state preventing things from cleaning out well. T…

Have you tried going to a different doctor?

Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake

#343
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

an hour of sunshine a day?

You would need 1) the sun to actually be shining, 2) no cloud cover and 3) probably be naked. Most of us won't get enough vitamin D from being outside for an hour.

1. The key UV for vitamin D production by our skin are UVB rays, optimal between 10am and 2pm, except in the winter at 40+ latitude when the rays travel longer through the atmosphere due to the low solar angle. For instance in Washington state your skin cannot produce vitamin D from November to February.

2. UVB do pass through clouds. (But not through glass windows.)

3. Arms and face exposure are sufficient if you spend 10, 20, or 30 minutes a day depending on UV index of the day (the higher the UV index the less time you need to trigger vitamin D production) and on your skin color. There is some kind of "reservoir" effect that limits production of vitamin D to a maximum, so sun exposure time beyond the above does not have any benefit in terms of vitamin D production.

Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake

#344
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 catc…

UVB rays do pass through clouds.

Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake

#345
About once every 6 months I remember to start taking my vit D supplements again. I've always taken more than the recommended dose because vitamin D is not extremely bioavailable in pill-form, and I notice amazing improvements in mood, mostly. Usually I am sad in the mornings. I have a cup of coffee, browse around on HN, and then convince myself to do work, and the sadness goes away with the distraction, and by the evening I feel pretty good for "doing so much work". When I take vitamin D, after about a week I begin to wake up and set to work immediately, leaving time in the evening for fucking around. I really should do that now, before finals.

Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake

#346
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've tried DirectLabs, WalkInLabs, and Life Extension, and have been happy with them all. All of those companies are basically just "doctor ordering resellers" for the two big test labs (LabCorp and Quest), so you generally don't have to worry about the quality of the testing. I specifically use Life Extension for vitamin D because they're the cheapest one I'm aware of.

Can you tell me which one of those uses Quest? I used Life Extension as well for vitamin D but had to go pretty far to get to a LabCorp facility. I've got a Quest facility a few minutes away I'd rather go to.

Sure, here's the ones I know of:

Quest-only: DirectLabs, Personalabs

Choice of Quest or DirectLabs: Walk-in Lab (switch the radio button to Quest on the category pages, and make sure a "QD" icon shows up next to it in your cart), TrueHealthLabs (make sure the tests you look at say Quest is an option), HealthTestsDirect (make sure the test list page is toggled to Quest at the top)

DirectLabs and Walk-in are generally cheaper than the others I mentioned.

Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake

#347

If you intend to take vitamin d I read in various places you should also take magnesium and probably vitamin k as well. And less calcium. Everything is interconnected. https://www.precisionnutrition.com/stop-vitamin-d

Everything is very interconnected. The underdose and overdose numbers are determined in isolation, just as any good scientific experiment should.

Casual observation reveals that vitamin D overdose results in hypercalcemia, a condition treatable by vitamin K. Vitamin E overdose results in hemmorrhaging, a condition treatable by vitamin K. There are no known symptoms of vitamin K overdose. Vitamin A overdose (from retinol) can be treated by vitamin E and vitamin K.

Magnesium is balanced with calcium. Sodium is balanced with potassium.

So naturally, I wonder what happens when you supply vitamin K in excess, then determine the overdose amounts for the other fat-soluble vitamins. Once that number is found, reduce the K by steps and repeat, until you have the recommended minimum ratio of K to the other vitamin.

Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake

#348
post #345

About once every 6 months I remember to start taking my vit D supplements again. I've always taken more than the recommended dose because vitamin D is not extremely bioavailable in pill-form, and I notice amazing improvements in mood, mostly. Usually I am sad in the mornings. I have a cup of coffee, browse around on HN, and then convince myself to do work, and the sadness goes away with the distraction, and by the ev…

Same experience for me. The University of Washington headache clinic recommended Vitamin D and Magnesium supplements and it made a marked difference in my mood. Turns out having constant mild headaches is pretty depressing.

Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake

#349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Seems odd, considering cow milk contains virtually no vitamin D. It is often enriched with vitamin D, but that practice likely does not predate the evolution of lactose tolerance.

I know the subthread went in another direction, but: vitamin D increases the absorption of calcium. With minimal vitamin D synthesis from sun exposure in northern Europe, it makes sense that extra dietary calcium would be an evolutionary advantage. Hence, lactose tolerance. So OP's comment made sense even while confusing vitamin d and calcium.

Re: The Big Vitamin D Mistake

#350
post #292
post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't those links about "people with naturally darker skin"? I'm not sure how cultural changes can affect that. Rich people may eat caviar, but eating caviar won't make you rich...

That's what the above poster already said. > people who were previously were at lower risk of cancer due to their skin pigmentation/higher melanin

Unless the above poster means “due to their [acquired] skin pigmentation” I don’t see how the comment can make any sense. Why would their rates of skin cancer be higher now?
Post reply on HN