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R. S. Refugee
Joined: 29 Sep 2004
Location: Shangra La, ROK
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 Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 10:22 pm Post subject: What are your numbers for Vitamin D3? |
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Hi,
There's been a lot of discussion about the benefits of Vitamin D3 elsewhere -- how it up-regulates about 10% of human genes, and how there is something of an epidemic of Vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency in many parts of the world -- even in sub-tropical climates like Costa Rica and Columbia.
I've had great experiences in going through the winter without a flu shot and without getting any colds, flu, or infections since I started supplementing with it last autumn.
However, as many of you know, there is a debate going on about the right amount for supplements with the WHO and the US CDC recommending fairly small amounts and an increasingly larger group of Vitamin D researchers and other health professionals recommending much higher doses than the official RDA in order to get Vitamin D3 levels into the sufficiency range where it can do a lot of good.
I'm not starting this thread with the idea of debating any of this. I just want to do one thing on this thread and one thing only, please. And that is have people post what their Vitamin D levels are if they've had their blood tested for it.
Please post your numbers over time too, if you've had it tested more than once. OK, two things, I guess rather than one. If you had it tested once and then started supplementing and then had it tested again, it would be interesting to here what doses of Vitamin D3 you were taking in between those tests.
I think this should be very interesting (if indeed there are any people on this list that have been supplementing with Vitamin D3 and testing their levels).
Thanks.
Last edited by R. S. Refugee on Sat Apr 09, 2011 10:36 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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R. S. Refugee
Joined: 29 Sep 2004
Location: Shangra La, ROK
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| Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 10:31 pm Post subject: |
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I'll go first, of course.
I started last fall. My first test had a rather low reading of 11.5 ng/ml (that stands for nanograms per milliliter, I think). That's in what is called the insufficiency range on the lab reports. The deficiency range is 10 ng/ml or lower.
Then I started taking 4,000 units a day for several months and had it tested again in early February. At that time it was 32 ng/ml which is at the low-end of the sufficiency range. Because of some health problems I've had, I'm aiming for a higher level up in a therapeutic range of about 75 ng/ml.
Testing is important when you're doing this because there is a toxicity range for Vitamin D. That's anything over 100 ng/ml and no one wants to go there. |
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RMNC
Joined: 21 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 10:47 pm Post subject: |
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| How in God's name am I supposed to know this? |
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chungbukdo
Joined: 22 Aug 2010
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| Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 1:38 am Post subject: |
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Can we do the Vitamin D test at an English speaking clinic in Seoul and how much would it be? Wonder if the Itaewon one does it...
OP, there is a higher long term incidence of kidney stones above 70ng/dl. Usually I see recommendations of 60ng/dl. |
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Louis VI
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
Location: In my Kingdom
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| Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 1:58 am Post subject: |
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FTLOG just get a tan already!
If you ain't gettin' an hour a day in the sun then your life sucks anyways. Go outside. |
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R. S. Refugee
Joined: 29 Sep 2004
Location: Shangra La, ROK
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| Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 2:56 am Post subject: |
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| chungbukdo wrote: |
Can we do the Vitamin D test at an English speaking clinic in Seoul and how much would it be? Wonder if the Itaewon one does it...
OP, there is a higher long term incidence of kidney stones above 70ng/dl. Usually I see recommendations of 60ng/dl. |
Yes, I have had it done at the Itaewon International Clinic. I've also had it done by my local doc in Goyang, but he did have to check with the lab he uses to find out if they could do it.
I don't remember the cost as I was getting several things done at the same time, but it wasn't much.
This statement you made about kidney stones is interesting and I've never heard or read anything about that before. If you can cite a reference for that, I'd be happy to read it. |
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R. S. Refugee
Joined: 29 Sep 2004
Location: Shangra La, ROK
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| Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 3:02 am Post subject: |
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| Louis VI wrote: |
FTLOG just get a tan already!
If you ain't gettin' an hour a day in the sun then your life sucks anyways. Go outside. |
There's a pretty good body of evidence that concludes that doing so will not provide sufficient levels. Particularly, this far north and particulary in winter. And the darker someone's skin is the more likely it is that they are deficient.
But my whole point about this thread as I stated in the introduction was not to debate and discuss the Vitamin D issue, but simply to find out how many people were deficient, insufficient, or sufficient according to standard Vitamin D testing. That is what I'm curious about.
It has, of course, occurred to me that there may not be a single person who reads this thread who has ever had their Vitamin D tested and who has ever known which of these categories theirs falls into. |
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Louis VI
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
Location: In my Kingdom
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| Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 3:17 am Post subject: |
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| R. S. Refugee wrote: |
| Louis VI wrote: |
FTLOG just get a tan already!
If you ain't gettin' an hour a day in the sun then your life sucks anyways. Go outside. |
There's a pretty good body of evidence that concludes that doing so will not provide sufficient levels. Particularly, this far north and particulary in winter. |
This far north? We are at the same latitude as Southern Spain, Northern Greece and California.
And sunshine insufficient? Twenty minutes is enough to get the recommended daily intake of vitamin D. Add some surely for wintertime and the dark skinned, but isn't that hard to get. Eat lunch outside, at the sun's height, and soak it in.
| Quote: |
Sun exposure
Most people meet at least some of their vitamin D needs through exposure to sunlight [1,2]. Ultraviolet (UV) B radiation with a wavelength of 290�320 nanometers penetrates uncovered skin and converts cutaneous 7-dehydrocholesterol to previtamin D3, which in turn becomes vitamin D3 [1]. Season, time of day, length of day, cloud cover, smog, skin melanin content, and sunscreen are among the factors that affect UV radiation exposure and vitamin D synthesis [1]. Perhaps surprisingly, geographic latitude does not consistently predict average serum 25(OH)D levels in a population. Ample opportunities exist to form vitamin D (and store it in the liver and fat) from exposure to sunlight during the spring, summer, and fall months even in the far north latitudes [1]. |
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind/ |
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R. S. Refugee
Joined: 29 Sep 2004
Location: Shangra La, ROK
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| Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 3:45 am Post subject: |
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| Louis VI wrote: |
| R. S. Refugee wrote: |
| Louis VI wrote: |
FTLOG just get a tan already!
If you ain't gettin' an hour a day in the sun then your life sucks anyways. Go outside. |
There's a pretty good body of evidence that concludes that doing so will not provide sufficient levels. Particularly, this far north and particulary in winter. |
This far north? We are at the same latitude as Southern Spain, Northern Greece and California.
And sunshine insufficient? Twenty minutes is enough to get the recommended daily intake of vitamin D. Add some surely for wintertime and the dark skinned, but isn't that hard to get. Eat lunch outside, at the sun's height, and soak it in.
| Quote: |
Sun exposure
Most people meet at least some of their vitamin D needs through exposure to sunlight [1,2]. Ultraviolet (UV) B radiation with a wavelength of 290�320 nanometers penetrates uncovered skin and converts cutaneous 7-dehydrocholesterol to previtamin D3, which in turn becomes vitamin D3 [1]. Season, time of day, length of day, cloud cover, smog, skin melanin content, and sunscreen are among the factors that affect UV radiation exposure and vitamin D synthesis [1]. Perhaps surprisingly, geographic latitude does not consistently predict average serum 25(OH)D levels in a population. Ample opportunities exist to form vitamin D (and store it in the liver and fat) from exposure to sunlight during the spring, summer, and fall months even in the far north latitudes [1]. |
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind/ |
When I said, "this far north" I was thinking of the temperate zone contrasted to the sub-tropical and tropical zones.
Your citation's very interesting. I guess the proof that you are able to get into the sufficiency range from your commendable efforts to get it from sunshine would be if you had it tested and found out what your Vitamin D level is. Just as you might think you do everything necessary to have excellent blood pressure, but if you weren't willing to let a doctor take your blood pressure to confirm that, you wouldn't actually be certain, would you? |
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Harpeau
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Location: Coquitlam, BC
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| Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 5:02 am Post subject: |
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| I take 20,000 to 30,000 units per day. |
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R. S. Refugee
Joined: 29 Sep 2004
Location: Shangra La, ROK
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| Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 5:16 am Post subject: |
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| Harpeau wrote: |
| I take 20,000 to 30,000 units per day. |
What made you decide on 20 to 30 thou dosage per day and how long have you been taking that dosage?
The next question, of course, is what is the Vitamin D3 result of a blood level test? I'm sure you know that testing is called for to be sure of avoiding toxicity when using high dosages like that. |
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cdninkorea
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 7:15 pm Post subject: |
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| I've been meaning to get my vitamin D levels tested for some time now. Sometime in the near future I'm going to do it, along with my fasted insulin, blood glucose, and other tests too. I'll post the results here. |
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chungbukdo
Joined: 22 Aug 2010
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| Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 8:40 pm Post subject: |
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| R. S. Refugee wrote: |
| chungbukdo wrote: |
Can we do the Vitamin D test at an English speaking clinic in Seoul and how much would it be? Wonder if the Itaewon one does it...
OP, there is a higher long term incidence of kidney stones above 70ng/dl. Usually I see recommendations of 60ng/dl. |
Yes, I have had it done at the Itaewon International Clinic. I've also had it done by my local doc in Goyang, but he did have to check with the lab he uses to find out if they could do it.
I don't remember the cost as I was getting several things done at the same time, but it wasn't much.
This statement you made about kidney stones is interesting and I've never heard or read anything about that before. If you can cite a reference for that, I'd be happy to read it. |
Read some of Chris Masterjohn's stuff on ratios between vitamin D, A, and K2. |
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chungbukdo
Joined: 22 Aug 2010
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| Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 8:49 pm Post subject: |
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| Louis VI wrote: |
| This far north? We are at the same latitude as Southern Spain, Northern Greece and California. |
You're still not going to produce any during the winter, because of the angle of the sun's radiation.
| Quote: |
| And sunshine insufficient? Twenty minutes is enough to get the recommended daily intake of vitamin D. Add some surely for wintertime and the dark skinned, but isn't that hard to get. Eat lunch outside, at the sun's height, and soak it in. |
1. The RDA is too low. I don't want to simply prevent rickets, I want to be optimally healthy. The RDA has been adjusted slightly in the last year or so. So is the RDA automatically right or does it depend on scientific data?
I can be outside shirtless all day today and produce zero vitamin D. The reason is because right now there is yellow dust which blocks UVB. In the summer, I can head outside after the cloud and rain stop from the afternoon showers and expose myself all I want--and still produce no vitamin D. The angle of the sun at 6pm would not provide sufficient UVB to produce optimal amounts of D.
Do you eat lunch shirtless? Because you will be chronically deficient eating your lunch outside in a shirt with exposure on your hands and face. And that would help validate why most of the population is deficient here.
| Quote: |
Sun exposure
Most people meet at least some of their vitamin D needs through exposure to sunlight [1,2]. Ultraviolet (UV) B radiation with a wavelength of 290�320 nanometers penetrates uncovered skin and converts cutaneous 7-dehydrocholesterol to previtamin D3, which in turn becomes vitamin D3 [1]. Season, time of day, length of day, cloud cover, smog, skin melanin content, and sunscreen are among the factors that affect UV radiation exposure and vitamin D synthesis [1]. Perhaps surprisingly, geographic latitude does not consistently predict average serum 25(OH)D levels in a population. Ample opportunities exist to form vitamin D (and store it in the liver and fat) from exposure to sunlight during the spring, summer, and fall months even in the far north latitudes [1]. |
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind/[/quote]
Actually, geographic latitude does give a decent upward slope if you compare only populations within the US. Members of that country have similar cultural habits with regard to time spent in buildings, sunscreen use, and other things.
They're right that a person on the equator can be deficient though, and often they are. If they are office workers and spend their day inside, and then get out at 6pm, they're not being exposed. Even if they're near a window (because that blocks UVB). If they cover themselves in sunscreen they're also blocking UVB. |
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chungbukdo
Joined: 22 Aug 2010
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| Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 8:58 pm Post subject: |
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| R. S. Refugee wrote: |
When I said, "this far north" I was thinking of the temperate zone contrasted to the sub-tropical and tropical zones.
Your citation's very interesting. I guess the proof that you are able to get into the sufficiency range |
What he cites is based on old outdated recommendation levels. The level we need to prevent rickets is very low.
All of the cultures that survived in the far North supplemented with vitamin D to remain healthy. Look at the intake of cod liver oil from Scotland and upward in traditional diets. And these people lived outside, meaning spending all of their day working outside was not enough.
Now we spend our day inside of buildings and if we do go outside for lunch we're not exactly shirtless. If one spends their time in buildings rather than working outside catching fish or in a rice field, it might be a good idea to get their vitamin D levels tested just to make sure that they are as high as they hope they are. |
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