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Programmers Must Take Vitamin D

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101–110 of 120 posts

Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D

#102

I 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.

Multivitamins != vitamin D.

Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D

#103

Well, that's a pretty content-free article. And there are lots of posts here, with anecdotes and opinions... but nobody is talking about hard data, science, and (most importantly) clinical trials. Is that because it hasn't been proven through a real clinical trial that "programmers must take Vitamin D"?

It is pretty content-free, although I found interesting the claim that caffeine interferes with vitamin D uptake. I'll have to look into that (though the article included no references... ಠ_ಠ).

Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D

#104
post #25

I actually have to avoid Vitamin D. I have a disorder (Hypercalcaemia) that causes me to build up calcium in my blood. Vitamin D can rapidly improve the body's ability to absorb calcium (hence Vitamin D enriched milk). Too much calcium in your blood can lead to various physical nervous disorders (I get facial ticks in the muscles around my eyes) but can also result in various psychologically similar problems like dep…

How did you find out you have this? I've persistently had quite a few of the symptoms but nothing comes up on tests. In experimenting, I gave up all dairy which has helped a lot so I've simply been assuming I'm lactose intolerant..

Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D

#105

Every day at about lunch time I go lie on the roof in the sun for 10 minutes - doctor's orders. I also take D supplements but that alone was not enough to get my levels back to the normal range so I have to get some actual sun as often as I can too. It's a bit of a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' situation here in Australia: Approximately two in three Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer before the…

How much supplements do you take? RDAs are in the range of 400-1000 IU, but apparently everyone I know who was actually tested and found deficient was asked to do 100mg/kg of body weight (meaning 7000-9000 IU), so it seems the RDA is off by an order of magnitude - perhaps established for a baseline of people who live in a sunny place and hang out a lot.

Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course there is a line to be drawn, but I think that dietary supplements certainly should be tested in clinical trials. Otherwise, there is no way to know if they work or not. This is typically how drugs/supplements are evaluated.

Sure, but clinically testing a supplement to see if it works is not the same thing as doing a clinical test to conclude that taking a "working" vitamin D supplement is good for you if you have vitamin D defficiency.

Those would be different stages of clinical trials.

Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D

#107
post #32

I 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…

Anyone know of a wellnessfx-like service that is available in nyc?

Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D

#108

This is missing something, but I can't put my finger on it. Oh yeah: citations.

This is another anecdote point: my mom is a nutritional biochemist who has done research on vitamins for much of her life. She always tells me to take Vitamin D and that nearly everyone is deficient because we don't go outside enough (and live in high latitudes). Not science, but the author is on to something, I think. If you doubt it, get your blood tested and see what your doctor says. If you don't want to get test…

Does she have any take on B3 (niacin / niacinamide) you can share?

My own collection of anecdotes and understanding is that a nontrivial part of the western population is B3 deficient as well - not to the levels that cause pellagra to appear, but nevertheless way below optimal levels.

Also, from my collection of anecdotes and some reading, the most popular form of B3 sold these days (inositol hexanicotinate) is useless (0% bioavailability), which kind makes reporting and statistics unreliable, because it is actually confused with the available forms (which have different properties between them)

Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D

#109
post #25

I actually have to avoid Vitamin D. I have a disorder (Hypercalcaemia) that causes me to build up calcium in my blood. Vitamin D can rapidly improve the body's ability to absorb calcium (hence Vitamin D enriched milk). Too much calcium in your blood can lead to various physical nervous disorders (I get facial ticks in the muscles around my eyes) but can also result in various psychologically similar problems like dep…

How did you find out you have this? I've persistently had quite a few of the symptoms but nothing comes up on tests. In experimenting, I gave up all dairy which has helped a lot so I've simply been assuming I'm lactose intolerant..

Milk has a lot of other things which may trigger your allergies other than lactose. You might be lactose tolerant, but milk intolerant in general.

Furthermore, "Milk", quite surprisingly, is not well defined either. I've switched to RonnyBrook recently (NY local, organic, grass fed, and I get it within two days of leaving the cow), and it's a world of difference: The taste, my body's reaction (My lungs and sinuses would often respond to milk by clogging and excreting stuff, they don't anymore).

I haven't been able to find high quality sources (peer reviewed, etc) but I've read claims that the nutrient and vitamin profile of milk from grass fed vs. corn fed cows is completely different - which I don't really doubt - although I'm waiting for some high quality analysis for the exact difference.

Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D

#110

Every day at about lunch time I go lie on the roof in the sun for 10 minutes - doctor's orders. I also take D supplements but that alone was not enough to get my levels back to the normal range so I have to get some actual sun as often as I can too. It's a bit of a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' situation here in Australia: Approximately two in three Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer before the…

How much supplements do you take? RDAs are in the range of 400-1000 IU, but apparently everyone I know who was actually tested and found deficient was asked to do 100mg/kg of body weight (meaning 7000-9000 IU), so it seems the RDA is off by an order of magnitude - perhaps established for a baseline of people who live in a sunny place and hang out a lot.

If you have dark skin you need more vitamin D, if you're obese you need more, if you're elderly you need more and if you are covered up in the sun you need more vitamin D.

7000 to 9000 IU sounds high but 1000 IU sounds way too low.

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