DR. Mercola's recommendation on Vitamin D

[Guest guest]

Vitamin D3 is supremely important for our

bodies. Many diseases could be prevented or reversed with D3 alone!!!

Check out this info.

Jan

 

 

 

http://www.mercola.com/nutritionplan/beginner_supplements.htm

 

 

DR. Mercola’s recommendation on

Vitamin D

Lesson 1: Make sure you get enough

vitamin D. (Vitamin D3 read below)

Vitamin D

is not “just a vitamin” that’s necessary for strong bones.

Rather, vitamin D is the only known substrate for a potent, pleiotropic

(meaning it produces multiple effects), repair and maintenance seco-steroid

hormone that serves multiple gene-regulatory functions in your body.

Each cell

in your body has its own DNA library that contains information needed to deal

with virtually every kind of stimulus it may encounter, and the master key to

enter this library is activated vitamin D.

 

This is why vitamin D functions in so many different tissues, and

affects such a large number of different diseases and health conditions. So

far, scientists have found about 3,000 genes that are upregulated by vitamin D.

Receptors

that respond to the vitamin have been found in almost every type of human cell,

from your brain to your bones. And researchers keep finding health benefits

from vitamin D in virtually every area they look.

Optimizing

your vitamin D levels can help you to prevent as many as 16 different types of

cancer as well as reduce your risk of numerous illnesses including:

 

 

Heart disease

Diabetes

Rheumatoid arthritis

Obesity

Cold & flu

High blood pressure

 

 

It's

found in food like milk, eggs, fish and fortified orange juice, but you only

get an average of 250 to 300 international units (IU) of vitamin D per day from

dietary factors alone, which is rarely enough to maintain optimal levels.

Based on

the most recent research, the current recommendation for healthy vitamin D

levels is 35 IU’s of vitamin D per pound of body weight.

So for a

child weighing 40 pounds, the recommended average dose would be 1,400

IU’s daily, and for a 170-pound adult, the dose would be nearly 6,000

IU’s.

 

 

 

 

Vitamin

D Dose Recommendations

 

 

 

 

 

Age

 

 

Dosage

 

 

 

 

Below 5

 

 

35 units per pound per day

 

 

 

 

Age 5 - 10

 

 

2500 units

 

 

 

 

Age 18 - 30

 

 

5000 units

 

 

 

 

Pregnant Women

 

 

5000 units

 

 

 

 

WARNING:

There is no way to know if the above recommendations are correct. The ONLY way

to know is to test your blood. You might need 4-5 times the amount

recommended above. Ideally your blood level of 25 OH D should be 60ng/ml.

 

 

 

However,

it’s important to realize that vitamin D requirements are highly

individual, as your vitamin D status is dependent on numerous factors, such as

the color of your skin, your location, and how much sunshine you’re

exposed to on a regular basis.

So,

although these recommendations may put you closer to the ballpark of what most people

likely need, it is simply impossible to make a blanket recommendation that will

cover everyone’s needs.

Fortunately,

vitamin D is also made in your body after exposure to ultraviolet rays from the

sun, and this is the ideal way to get vitamin D.

During

the summer months, you can get enough vitamin D from just spending some time

outside every day. Your body can produce about 20,000 IU of vitamin D per day

with full body exposure, about 5,000 IU with 50 percent of your body exposed,

and as much as 1,000 IU with just 10 percent of your body exposed.

In the

winter months, though, and even during the summer months if you don’t

spend much time outside (or use sunscreen, which blocks the production of

vitamin D), you will most likely not get enough vitamin D, especially if you

live in a place that has low or infrequent amounts of sunshine (such as the

Midwest U.S.). In that case, I strongly recommend a healthy tanning bed like

the Sun Splash.

You can

also supplement with vitamin D, but be sure to choose the right form of vitamin

D supplement. The one you want is the natural vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol),

which is the same vitamin D your body makes when exposed to sunshine.

I

strongly recommend you monitor your blood vitamin D levels regularly when

taking oral vitamin D supplements to make sure you’re staying within the

optimal range.

This is

best done by a nutritionally oriented physician. It is very important that they

order the correct test as there are two that closely resemble each other:

1,25(OH)D and 25(OH)D.

25(OH)D,

also called 25-hydroxyvitamin D, is the better marker of overall D status. It

is this marker that is most strongly associated with overall health.

However,

please realize that the “normal” 25-hydroxyvitamin D lab range is

between 20-56 ng/ml. As you can see in the chart below, this conventional range

is really a sign of deficiency, and is too broad to be ideal.

In fact,

your vitamin D level should never be below 32 ng/ml, and any levels below 20

ng/ml are considered serious deficiency states, increasing your risk of as many

as 16 different cancers and autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and

rheumatoid arthritis, just to name a few.

 

The

OPTIMAL value that you’re looking for is 50-65 ng/ml.

This

range applies for everyone; children, adolescents, adults and seniors, and are

based on healthy people in tropical or subtropical parts of the world, where

they are receiving healthy sun exposures. It seems more than reasonable to

assume that these values are in fact reflective of an optimal human

requirement.

For more

information about vitamin D, please listen to my one-hour lecture on this

important topic.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/12/16/my-one-hour-

vitamin-d-lecture-to-clear-up-all-your-confusion-on-this-vital-nutrient.aspx