Got me worried for a sec, but I eat a lot of tuna/sardine sandwiches and salads :)
Get checked anyway. I eat sushi quite frequently, and prefer fish over other meats; and I was still very, very low, somewhere around 12.
Programmers Must Take Vitamin D
61–70 of 120 posts
Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D
#62Earlier 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.
Apparently they cost $199, and are only available in a few states right now. Not all of the USA. With all health care free of charge in Canada, I think it will be a while yet before they cross the border unfortunately. I have been for many physicals but have never had my blood checked for levels of anything really.
I think it's incorrect to use free health care as a "competitor" for this product. Here in Belgium (with free and awesome healthcare) people still pay for organic food, supplements, gym memberships and many other things to stay healthy.
So I would assume there would be a market for this too. I am speaking anecdotally though, like you.
Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D
#63Earlier 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.
So dont go out at noon, but sunscreen turns out to be a bad strategy. Some (most) may be more carcinogenic than the sun they block.
Citation please.
Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D
#64That 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, an…
I think most of us work at least partly during the day, and if you're at home. Sit near a window, works like sunscreen to keep keep your skin safe but still allows UV light below 350 nanometers which is all that's needed to produce vitamin D.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D#Production_in_the_ski...
Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D
#65This problem actually happened to me. A few years ago I started feeling incredibly lethargic. I would wake up with no energy. It was like sleep had done nothing for me. I didn't know what was wrong, but I felt horrible. After around two weeks I went to the doctor. A blood test was done and it showed I had low vitamin D (26 ng/mL). After about a week of supplementation I felt normal again. It's easy to forget to go ou…
Personally I was so low down in D I also had neuropathic symptoms -- like your hand or parts of face falling asleep, light-headedness and muscle twitches and tremors. That all went even after some D vitamin injections.
Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D
#66There 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…
from personal experience, my computing sessions with reduced to no sunlight sessions for days in my room led to vitamin deficit, i did learn a lot of things though, but the results of the deficit are still apparent to me.
Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, I wouldn't say it's really hard to OD if one is not paying attention, although it's probably a very uncommon occurrence compared to deficiency rates. I have seen products with 50k IU available OTC and on the web, intended to be taken weekly. One could see a scenario where this ends up getting consumed daily by mistake, and nutritionists would consider 50 000IU way to much in this case. (unless you have a specif…
Try to find cases in the literature; you'll find cases of people taking orders of magnitude more than that for a month. But nothing serious from anyone taking 50k IUs/day, let alone per week.
I get your point that the studies are limited at such high doses, but Mayo clinic and various others disagree that it's non-toxic.
"Taking 50,000 international units (IU) a day of vitamin D for several months has been shown to cause toxicity" [1]
Regardless of that though, I agree that the UL is really difficult to quantify. Furthermore I'm not sure anyone could cite any article that shows a significant health benefit to supplementing above 10k vs below, hence, the rational choice would be to try stay below that.
However all of this talk about IU intake is secondary to the blood serum level. For the moment, that is the gold standard measure, until something something better comes along
[1] https://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vitamin-d-toxicity/AN02008
Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Try to find cases in the literature; you'll find cases of people taking orders of magnitude more than that for a month. But nothing serious from anyone taking 50k IUs/day, let alone per week.
I get your point that the studies are limited at such high doses, but Mayo clinic and various others disagree that it's non-toxic. "Taking 50,000 international units (IU) a day of vitamin D for several months has been shown to cause toxicity" [1] Regardless of that though, I agree that the UL is really difficult to quantify. Furthermore I'm not sure anyone could cite any article that shows a significant health benefi…
Definitely agree with blood serum levels. In fact, I should get that done soon! :)
As far as really difficult, in Canada, ingesting enough pills to get to 50,000 IUs per day would be a chore. IIRC the last I checked the biggest OTC doses were 1,000 IUs. This might be different where you are.
Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
That's what I'm talking about :) 99% of people will go on to live just fine without knowing their precise blood levels. "Preventive medicine" is not considered to be advantageous, usually the anxiety and stress outweights any benefits unless you end up being the 0.1% and finding a serious condition that didn't raise any alarms in your body.
Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D
#70This problem actually happened to me. A few years ago I started feeling incredibly lethargic. I would wake up with no energy. It was like sleep had done nothing for me. I didn't know what was wrong, but I felt horrible. After around two weeks I went to the doctor. A blood test was done and it showed I had low vitamin D (26 ng/mL). After about a week of supplementation I felt normal again. It's easy to forget to go ou…
26 ng/mL is not that bad actually... I once was tested at 12 ng/mL, and that was only after I asked for it when I fractured my left wrist for the second time in one year.