Your doctor may prescribe vitamin D 1.25 mg soft gels for you if you have trouble absorbing calcium normally. This may occur because of medical conditions such as osteoporosis or advanced age, among others. This type of vitamin D, known also as ergocalciferol" or vitamin D2, delivered in this high does generally would be taken only once per week. It equals approximately 50,000 IU. The normal daily dose for adults, the Linus Pauling Institute states, is 600 IU. Therefore, do not take this supplement without consulting your doctor first.This happens in soft tissues such as your heart and lungs; the soft tissue gradually becomes hardened, which makes the organs affected work less efficiently. Your doctor should keep track of your use of this supplement and watch for signs of calcification. If you begin to experience difficulty breathing or your heartbeat seems labored, contact your physician immediately.The supplement may, for example, prevent your kidneys from functioning properly. This can occur in very serious ways, such as major renal failure that can be fatal.
Your doctor should monitor your kidneys closely when you take this prescription-strength supplement. You may develop hypertension, or high blood pressure, if you use a vitamin D supplement. This may happen if the supplement affects your heart and blood vessels, causing them to constrict. While many medicines exist to help treat hypertension, it is considered a serious medical condition. High blood pressure forces your heart to work harder; the additional strain can cause heart attacks. The disease called osteoporosis decreases the density and, therefore, the strength of your bones. Women in particular who have past through menopause already are susceptible to developing this disease. Vitamin D supplements in high doses such as 1.25 mg also may cause gastrointestinal problems. The supplement also may make you feel nauseous and unable to eat normal amounts of food. Tell your physician if you experience any of these side effects while taking the vitamin D supplement. Foods to Eat to Increase Red Blood Cells
How to Test to See If You're Anemic The Best Exercises for Fat Loss Signs of Anemia in an Infant Vitamin D 50,000 Units Side Effects Most Recommended Food for Anemic Children Foods With High Vitamin D What Is the Difference Between Vitamin D2 and D3? A List of Foods That You Can Eat with Gastritis How to Burn Visceral Fat What Is the Nutritional Significance of Low MCH and Low MCHC? The Calories in One Bottle of Wine What Are the Causes of a Sensitive & Painful Scalp? How Long Does It Take to Feel the Effects of Vitamin D Supplements?There is an old Italian saying “Where the sun does not go the doctor does.” For about the last 25 years, doctors (dermatologists in particular) have demonized sun exposure and repeatedly told us it is bad for you and causes cancer. But is that true? In the last few years, numerous studies have shown that modest exposure to sunlight may actually be good for you, helping the body produce the vitamin D it needs to keep bones healthy and protect against cancer, including skin cancer.
Though repeated sunburns–in children and very fair-skinned people–have been linked to melanoma, there is no credible scientific evidence that moderate sun exposure causes it. Since it’s almost impossible to get adequate amounts of vitamin D from food alone (including fortified milk and fatty wild fish), sun is your best source. I’m not suggesting you go bake in the sun with your suntan oil or go to tanning salons. But getting some sun without getting sunburned makes healthy sense. We evolved in the sun; we were made to get some sun, not to live our lives indoors and slather on sunscreen every time we go outside. If the sun is shining where you are today, get out and enjoy it, talk about a free natural treatment! All you need is a little common sense when heading outdoors, do it gradually and always avoid sunburn. Special Note: Remember to take antioxidants when you sit in the sun, as these can help prevent skin cells from sun damage. Although it’s called a vitamin, vitamin D is really a hormone and not actually a vitamin.
Vitamins cannot be produced by your body, we get them from dietary sources, whereas vitamin D is made in your body. It’s your body’s only source of calcitrol (activated vitamin D), the most potent steroid hormone in the body. Like all steroid hormones, vitamin D is involved in making hundreds of enzymes and proteins, which are crucial for preserving health and preventing disease. It has the ability to interact and affect more than 2,000 genes in the body. It enhances muscle strength and builds bone. It has anti-inflammatory effects and bolsters the immune system. It helps the action of insulin and has anti-cancer activity. This is why vitamin D deficiency has been linked with so many of the diseases of modern society. Because of its vast array of benefits, maintaining optimal levels of D is essential for your health Only about 10% of your vitamin D comes from diet, so it is nearly impossible to get adequate amounts of vitamin D from your diet. The only 2 reliable sources of vitamin D are the sun and supplements.
Sunlight exposure is the only reliable way to generate vitamin D in your own body. Vitamin D is produced by your skin in response to exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun. In fact, this is such an efficient system that most of us make 20,000 units of vitamin D after only 20 minutes of summer sun without suntan lotion. That’s 100 times more than the government recommends per day! There must be a good reason why we make so much in so little time. But these rays cannot penetrate glass to generate vitamin D in your skin, so you don’t generate vitamin D when sitting behind a glass window, whether in your car or at home. Also sunscreens, even weak ones, almost completely block your body’s ability to generate vitamin D. The other reliable source is supplements. Most important is that you take vitamin D3, (cholecalciferol) the active form of vitamin D. Do not take vitamin D2 as it is not as biologically active nor as effective, and nor as safe as vitamin D3. And taking the right amount is crucial, most doctors tend to under dose.
The current recommendations from the Food and Nutrition Board of the U.S. Institute of Medicine: from 200 to 600 IU/day depending on one’s age, are way too low. These values were originally chosen because they were found to prevent osteomalacia (bone softening) and rickets All living things need sun, the key is balance. Too much sun exposure can cause melanoma and skin aging, while too little creates an inadequate production of vitamin D. The amount needed depends on the season, time of day, where you live, skin pigmentation and other factors. As a general rule, if you are not vitamin D deficient, about 20 minutes a day in the spring, summer and fall on your face and arms or legs without sunscreen is adequate. It doesn’t matter which part of the body you expose to the sun. Many people want to protect their face, so just don’t put sunscreen on the other exposed parts for those 20 minutes. If you live north of 37 degrees latitude (approximately a line drawn horizontally connecting Norfolk, Virginia to San Francisco, California) sunlight is not sufficient to create Vitamin D in your skin in the winter months, even if you are sitting in the sun in a bathing suit on a warm January day!
The further you live from the equator, the longer exposure you need to the sun in order to generate vitamin D Although Cod liver oil contains a fair amount of vitamin D, it also contains high amounts of vitamin A. Vitamin A antagonizes the action of vitamin D and can be toxic at high levels. To get adequate amounts of vitamin D from food, you would have to eat at least 5 servings of salmon a day or drink 20 cups of fortified milk. Drisdol is a prescription of 50,000 IU tablets of vitamin D2 or ergocalciferol. Ergocalciferol is not vitamin D but it is similar. D2 is not normally found in humans and most studies show it does not raise 25(OH)D levels as well as (cholecalciferol or vit D3) does. If you are vitamin D deficient, the best thing to do, is to take vitamin D3 I tend not to recommend them because we don’t really know if they are safe. Because the light sources vary with different tanning beds, it makes them unpredictable and possibly unsafe. In addition, most commercial tanning beds emit an unknown amount of EMF and because one is so close to the actual bed, it may be an unnecessary high dose.
Theoretically both these problems could be overcome, but in reality they usually are not. It is estimated that anywhere from 30 to 100% of Americans, depending upon their age and community living environments, are deficient in Vitamin D. More than half of all American children are vitamin deficient. Supposedly almost 3/4s of pregnant women are vitamin D deficient, predisposing their unborn children to all sorts of problems. Worldwide, it is estimated that the epidemic of vitamin D deficiency affects one billion people. In my practice over 80% of patients whose vitamin D levels I check are deficient. No one is exactly sure why this is happening apart from the fact that we spend too much time indoors and when we go out into the sun, we lather sunscreen on ourselves. I think it must be more than that. But whatever the reason, the reality is we have a major epidemic on our hands. How much vitamin D you need varies with age, body weight, percent of body fat, latitude, skin coloration, season of the year, use of sun block, individual variation in sun exposure, and – probably – how ill you are.
As a general rule, old people need more than young people, big people need more that little people, fat people need more than skinny people, northern people need more than southern people, dark-skinned people need more than fair skinned people, winter people need more than summer people, sun block lovers need more than sun block haters, sun-phobes need more than sun worshipers, and ill people may need more than well people. What I and many of my colleagues around the country are finding is that even people spending what we thought was adequate amount of time in the sun, are still showing up with low blood vitamin D levels. I am not sure why at this stage but there is an easy and cheap solution…vitamin D supplementation. There is no clear pattern of symptoms. In fact many people remain asymptomatic despite low levels. But here are the more common symptoms Vitamin D deficiency has been shown to play a role in almost every major disease. It is impossible to generate too much vitamin D in your body from sunlight exposure: your body will self-regulate and only generate what it needs.
Although very rare, it is possible to overdose and become toxic with supplementation as vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin and therefore stored in the body for longer periods of time. Therefore if you are taking 5,000 IU or more daily, you should have your blood levels monitored approximately every 3 months. The only blood test that can diagnose vitamin D deficiency is a 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (25 OH vitamin D). Unfortunately, some doctors are still ordering the wrong test, 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D. In fact a common cause of high 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D is a low 25(OH)D or vitamin D deficiency. So when doctors see the 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D is normal or high and tell their patients that they are OK, they are often vitamin D deficient. Your doctor should do this test for you. Unfortunately even some of the labs, in particular Qwest, have had problems with correct results, usually giving erroneously high results. If you don’t want to go through your doctor, the ZRT lab does a blood spot test that you can order without going through a doctor.