Get In 2 Vitamin D

With the difficulty that most of us face seeing a doctor (much less the cost), the obvious question emerges - what if you just take 800 IU a day of vitamin D? Heck, it's a decent dose, right? Controversy about daily dosing rages between national organizations. Some organizations stick to very OLD recommendations (based purely on rickets-avoidance, from the last century) and other organizations are stamping around, demanding newer numbers based on tons of research. None of it is individualized, and the daily minimum dose amounts range from 400 IU to 1,000 IU a day, with some groups changing recommendations based on age, and some not (although NO ONE gives a different dose for pregnant/nursing women). The best thing to do is get your blood checked, and take the dose you need to have a "normal" blood level (warning: what is a "normal" blood level is another area of controversy, but 60 nmol/L is considered the minimum of "normal"). But blood tests are painful, difficult and no one's eager to pay for it (which boggles the mind - another controversy...). So why NOT just take 800 IU? Here's where it gets interesting. A group of researchers did just that. In other words, they checked blood levels, but ignored the results and everyone took 800 IU a day - with researchers then waiting, re-checking blood levels, to see what would happen. Keep in mind that these patients all had documented bone-thinning (called osteoporosis) and were started on a standard dose of vitamin D as a sort of knee-jerk reaction to that problem. The answer? Um. Not good. "From the database of 1028 patients, 100 had preclinic and follow-up vitamin D levels. They were of average age 61 years (SD 12) with a mean baseline vitamin D of 26 nmol/l. The mean posttreatment level was 58 nmol/l (SD 25). Posttreatment vitamin D levels were < 60 nmol/l in 55%, < 50 nmol/l in 36%, < 40 nmol/l in 24% and < 30 nmol/l in 13% and < 20 nmol/l in 4%. In 41 patients on Calcichew D3 Forte two tablets per day pretreatment vitamin D was 24 nmol/l (SD 16) and posttreatment 62 nmol/l (SD 28). Of this subgroup posttreatment 41% were < 60 nmol/l, 27% < 50 nmol/l, 22% < 40 nmol/l and 10% < 30 nmol/l. Two hundred and ten patients on vitamin D treatment preclinic had a mean vitamin D level of 64 nmol/l (SD 28). One hundred and twenty-four patients already on two tablets of Calcichew D3 Forte per day had a mean of 68 nmol/l (SD 28) of whom 38% were < 60 nmol/l, 24% < 50 nmol/l, 16% < 40 nmol/l, 6% < 30 nmol/l and 3% < 20 nmol/l. Conclusion: Vitamin D therapy with conventional treatment improves serum levels of 25 hydroxy vitamin D but still leaves some patients with significant insufficiency and therefore the same dose of vitamin D is not appropriate for all." [bold added - and the strict truth is that a MAJORITY of patients still had insufficiency on this dose] Bottom Line: Get your blood level checked, even if it's (ouch) a pain. Then make sure your dose is big enough to get you in the right range.

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• Vitamin D: "Normal" isn't normal anymore (survivethejourney.blogspot.com)