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Vitamin D supplementation and incident dementia

alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

131–137 of 137 posts

Re: Vitamin D supplementation and incident dementia

#131
Broke my ribs here due to dangerously low Vitamin D. Was already on Vit D supplements. Later learnt about the entire stack of

Vitamin D + Magnesium + Vitamin K2

Vit D 60k IU once a week, Magnesium Glycinate 350mg every night, Vitamin K2 100mcg per day

The enzyme that converts Vit D into its active form, that enzyme requires Mg for its activation. I was previously taking Vit D for 1 year with almost 0 movement in my blood levels. Magnesium changed that.

I had healthy blood levels of Calcium. Yet my ribs cracked. The problem was lack of K2. But I eat enough meat mainly chicken, then why? Turns out chicken need to be fed grass (contains Vitamin K1) which their bodies convert to K2, so if I eat grass-fed chicken my body would get K2. Chicken are mass produced and fed some grain whatever is probably the cheapest food required to make them grow. No K1 for Chicken. No K2 for me. Welp.

Started taking the combination above. Went from Vit D level of 20ng/ml to 135 ng/ml in a matter of 3 months. Have dialed down the supplements in order to stabilize at a healthy level (aiming for 70-80ng/ml).

Re: Vitamin D supplementation and incident dementia

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wind and ocean currents make Western europe way warmer than Canada for a given latitude. Ottawa is only about 45 degrees north, same as Paris. Most of England is further North than that.

Not just England, try Scotland and some of its Islands. Not much chance of Vit D from sunlight for almost half the year. Penzance 50.1 N London 51.5 N Berwick 55.8 N Edinburgh 56.0 N Aberdeen 57.1 N Thurso 58.6 N Kirkwall 59.0 N Lerwick 60.1 N Haroldswick 60.8 N

Cries in Nordic

I take 30 minutes longer lunch breaks in winter the days the sun is out, just to be able to get outside.

It's more or less impossible to get natural Vitamin D otherwise -- any spare time will be during the dark hours.

Re: Vitamin D supplementation and incident dementia

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Vitamin D naturally occurs when people go outside and get exposed to the sun, ... Not sure where you are living? If I go outside in winter (+2 months around) I need gloves, cap, scarf. Literally only a little portion of my face gets some sunlight until 5pm. Then it is dark! I live in Germany! So, this isn't an argument for a lot of people in cold countries or dark countries. Mostly both.. Exposing to the sun is ver…

That is kind of beside the point. You would have to prove that people in cold countries never get any vitamin D from the sunlight throughout the entire year to eliminate it as a factor. You would also have to be able to prove that people people with vitamin D Rich diets are identical to those without them. Without a randomized controlled trial of vitamin D intervention, there is no way to say for sure that people wit…

Of course it is possible to give a randomized portion of subjects additional vitamin D and the rest a placebo and see if one portion is less likely to develop a disease than the other.

Re: Vitamin D supplementation and incident dementia

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I make melanin in my melanocytes.

> I make melanin in my melanocytes. It's a finite rate, which means there's a useful limit of production.

I don't think the ones in my meninges are making it for my skin.

Re: Vitamin D supplementation and incident dementia

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is kind of beside the point. You would have to prove that people in cold countries never get any vitamin D from the sunlight throughout the entire year to eliminate it as a factor. You would also have to be able to prove that people people with vitamin D Rich diets are identical to those without them. Without a randomized controlled trial of vitamin D intervention, there is no way to say for sure that people wit…

Of course it is possible to give a randomized portion of subjects additional vitamin D and the rest a placebo and see if one portion is less likely to develop a disease than the other.

Of course, which is the point that I am making as well as the grandparent post.

Studies which have not done this should be taken with a grain of salt.

Re: Vitamin D supplementation and incident dementia

#136
post #3

Hey people who follow the science: As an “indoor human”, how much should I be taking? (TIA!)

I would advise taking a K2 MK7 supplement with D3, or get a supplement that contains both. Personally, I take one capsule a day that contains both 3000IU of D3 and 100μg of K2 MK7. D3 by itself can cause high calcium levels, to the point of toxicity in very high doses. The K2 moves the calcium from the blood to bones.

>D3 by itself can cause high calcium levels

I developed a calcification in my arm due to this. My wrist was in pain and I couldn't bend it. Got an x-ray, and boom: what looked like a little ball of bone had appeared.

Stopped taking D3 immediately and my body reabsorbed it, never had it again.

Funny enough, it happened when I was visiting Paris. Got to use Google Translate to explore the French medical system. Fantastic service, people aren't joking! :)

Re: Vitamin D supplementation and incident dementia

#137

I dove deep into Vitamin D supplementation research during Covid. The tl;dr as I understand it - and bear in mind I'm a layperson in this - is that while Vitamin D deficiency correlates to many bad things, taking Vitamin D doesn't help . It does raise your level as it shows up in blood tests, but the bad things still happen. Except for some very specific issues. I have a mild deficiency and used to take Vitamin D. I…

>while Vitamin D deficiency correlates to many bad things, taking Vitamin D doesn't help. Your links state the exact opposite and it's important to get wording right here. If you have a tested vitamin D deficiency (and it's not "mild", as Deva Boone highlights), there are CLEAR benefits to supplementing. It's only in healthy individuals where the benefits are tiny (like the cancer testing 0.9% v 1.2%) or non-existent…

I should have been clearer.

The way I understand it, for healthy people, a low Vitamin D result on a blood test doesn't merit supplementation.

For various specific illnesses, diagnosed separately, addressing Vitamin D deficiency through supplementation could help.

(Not a doctor, don't take medical advice from HN comments)

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