Supplementation: Sunshine vs. Vitamin D supplementation (WAS: Large dose vegan Vit D2? Calcium?)

January 28, 2010

Hi Janice, Melissa, and everyone,

May I suggest that you take a step back and give yourself an opportunity to form a new perspective here?

Far and away, you are your own best source of vitamin D. Since you (presumably) live in the San Francisco bay area, I'm guessing that you can easily get enough sunshine to trigger adequate D3 (cholecalciferol) production in your own skin.

D2 (ergocalciferol) is manufactured by plants. You may wish to know that D2 has a rather short shelf-life and is not well metabolized in any primate species, including humans. That is, the serum level doesn't change much in response to D2 supplementation. In other words, it may not serve as an effective supplement.

D3 supplements have a longer shelf-life and are indeed better metabolized. But synthetic D3 functions in the human body as a steroid, and taking D3 supplements, particularly for an extended period of time, would be akin to taking prednisone.

So save your money and save yourself ... go outside and play today!

Make sense?Elchanan

vegan4animalsSent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 8:08 PMJanice RothsteinCc: SFBAVeg Subject: Re: Large dose vegan Vit D2? Calcium?

VegLife makes a 2000iu Vegan D2. Here's a link from Vegan Essentials:

http://www.veganessentials.com/catalog/veglife-supreme-vegan-vitamin-d2-capsules.htm

I special ordered it from Whole Foods.

When I looked into it last year, the 50,000iu at Kaiser had gelatin in it. So, I had it made in a liquid at a compunding pharmacy. Here's a link to compounding pharmacies in California.

http://www.findings.net/sucompoundingCA.html

But when I took that high dose for 16 weeks, it barely raised my Vitamin D level...

Melissa

On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 4:58 PM, Janice Rothstein <bikegata wrote:

Hi all,Can anyone recommend very high dose vegan Vit. D, which I guess would be the D2?My dr at Kaiser claims my dexa bone scan results put me in the "oseopenia" dangerrange, and the blood draw result for Vit D was incredibly low. She's recommending50,000units/week of Vit. D. Rainbow is out of their only vegan Vit. D, and it's only 400IU'sanyway, so I'd have to take a mountain of them. She's waiting for someone at the pharmacyto return from vacation to ask whether Kaiser's own Vit. D,which she's willing to prescribe forme, is animal based or not.She's also recommending 1500mb Calcium/day, either by supplements or diet. Any ideas?Thanks in advance,Janice