I have a better idea. Go outside. I have a garden. I have a deck. I have two kids who I take to the pool regularly. I have a lawn that needs maintenance. I like to go outside. Another thing. I work during the day. Problem solved.
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Programmers Must Take Vitamin D
41–50 of 120 posts
Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D
#42I supplement with 5000iu per day, and check my blood levels regularly. Even with supplementation far exceeding governmental recommendations, My blood levels have never exceeded 70 ng/mL, which is well within the health range of 30 - 100 ng/mL. My advice is to get yourself tested, supplement, and continue testing. http://wellnessfx.com is a great service for minimum effort monitoring. Alternatively you can use cash-ba…
WellnessFx is a very neat idea. I wish they would allow you to get your own blood work and type in the results yourself and only charge for the analysis. Personalized medical advice would not be possible for plans like this - can't really trust the data, but at least you get some automated advice from the system, and your market could be the entire world not just three states.
Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D
#43There are many different types of vitamin D synthesized in our bodies which require sunlight to form. The many varieties of D are used in an enormous amount of different chemical processes in our bodies- many of which are quite complex and not fully understood. Vitamin D supplements consist of (mostly) one type of Vitamin D. People are typically deficient in that specific type so mild supplementation is a reasonable…
Could you provide some references? I'm really interested to learn more EDIT: I'm looking for backup to the claim that sunlight provides something that you don't get in a vitamin D3 supplement. It seems reasonable but has a big impact on the solution.
[5] forms (vitamers) of vitamin D exist (see table). The two major forms are vitamin D2 or ergocalciferol, and vitamin D3 or cholecalciferol, vitamin D without a subscript refers to either D2 or D3 or both. These are known collectively as calciferol....Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) is produced by ultraviolet irradiation (UV) of its precursor 7-dehydrocholesterol. This molecule occurs naturally in the skin of animals and in milk. Vitamin D3 can be made by exposure of the skin to UV, or by exposing milk directly to UV (one commercial method).
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Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) is produced industrially by exposing 7-dehydrocholesterol to UVB light, followed by purification.[143] The 7-dehydrocholesterol is a natural substance in wool grease (lanolin) from sheep or other woolly animals. Vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) is produced in a similar way using ergosterol from yeast or mushrooms as a starting material.[143]
Tl;dr of 5 types & only D2 and D3 are commercial avail
--Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D
Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D
#44Got me worried for a sec, but I eat a lot of tuna/sardine sandwiches and salads :)
Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D
#45I supplement with 5000iu per day, and check my blood levels regularly. Even with supplementation far exceeding governmental recommendations, My blood levels have never exceeded 70 ng/mL, which is well within the health range of 30 - 100 ng/mL. My advice is to get yourself tested, supplement, and continue testing. http://wellnessfx.com is a great service for minimum effort monitoring. Alternatively you can use cash-ba…
I cannot wait for Wellness FX to come to Canada. Here doctors look at you funny if you want to track biomarkers. "You're young, problems don't occur until you get old". As if they've never heard of prevention.
You can't blame them, that's in general a healthier attitude than obsessing over chemistry and stuffing yourself with pills. Same as full-body CT scans.
Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D
#46I thought the evidence for the benefits of taking vitamin tablets (for anyone not deficient) was non-existent.
I'm also under the belief that diet modification works much better than vitamin tablets For deficiencies.
Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
I cannot wait for Wellness FX to come to Canada. Here doctors look at you funny if you want to track biomarkers. "You're young, problems don't occur until you get old". As if they've never heard of prevention.
You can't blame them, that's in general a healthier attitude than obsessing over chemistry and stuffing yourself with pills. Same as full-body CT scans.
You do realize that our body keeps going via chemical processes? Genetics can cause insufficient absorption of certain nutrients, and given the long term consequences of chronic deficiencies, testing may not be such a bad idea after all. Also, knowing your blood work means that you won't be stuffing yourself with pills you don't need.
Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D
#48That is doctoring on the symptom, not the cause. Go outside. You do not only need Vitamin D, you also need fresh air, green and exercise. You can not get this with pills. In the long run you save time, because of longer life (and hacking) and reduced illness (better hacking).
I thought it was funny that this blog post didn't mention getting outside as a potential solution. That said, it's not like it's a dichotomy: I take a daily vitamin D supplement, try to eat as much catfish and salmon as I can, and try to get out in the sun as much as possible.
That said, getting out in the sun is a fairly nuanced debate. Most dermatologists will tell you not to, because of the risk of skin cancer, and because of the lack of peer-reviewed research showing that the benefits of skin-based vitamin D production outweigh the potential for skin cancer:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/science/sunscreens-and-vit...
Wearing sunscreen will inhibit vitamin D production, so getting some sun while wearing high-SPF sunscreen is not going to help you as much as unprotected exposure (per the dermatologist in the aforementioned article)
So the question becomes: do you believe the "vitamin D hypothesis" that vitamin D deficiency was the driving force behind the evolution of human skin color? The hypothesis is that northern Europeans evolved lower melanin levels in their skin through a combination of high latitudes and a diet deficient in natural sources of vitamin D:
http://anthrogenetics.wordpress.com/2011/06/29/a-support-for...
So the question of whether you should go out in the sun (unprotected) in order to generate vitamin D becomes a question of whether you are more worried about the potential health complications of vitamin D deficiency or skin cancer.
Choose wisely!
Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
But for the love of $DEITY, please wear adequate sun protection. At the very least that means a hat and sunscreen, but you probably want to be using long sleeved clothing and sunglasses if you're outside for an extended period of time. Vitamin D deficiency is bad, but skin cancer is worse.
"If you're fair skinned, experts say going outside for 10 minutes in the midday sun—in shorts and a tank top with no sunscreen—will give you enough radiation to produce about 10,000 international units of the vitamin." You don't need a lot of sun exposure to get your body to produce enough vitamin D.
As a person of Scottish descent I joke that I can get a sun burn by holding a picture of the Sun near my skin :-)
Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Could you provide some references? I'm really interested to learn more EDIT: I'm looking for backup to the claim that sunlight provides something that you don't get in a vitamin D3 supplement. It seems reasonable but has a big impact on the solution.
[5] forms (vitamers) of vitamin D exist (see table). The two major forms are vitamin D2 or ergocalciferol, and vitamin D3 or cholecalciferol, vitamin D without a subscript refers to either D2 or D3 or both. These are known collectively as calciferol....Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) is produced by ultraviolet irradiation (UV) of its precursor 7-dehydrocholesterol. This molecule occurs naturally in the skin of animals a…
It looks to me like the supplement is D3 and the one you get from UV exposure is D3, so no, spending time outdoors doesn't give you any better Vitamin D than the supplement. Of course, exercise has other benefits.