Vitamin D: Sun vs. Supplements

Scott – Thanks for your comment. While we strongly recommend that most people supplement their diet with Vitamin D3, it's true we have heard of some people overdoing it. I was reading the “Q & A” section of a recent Vitamin D Council Newsletter and one person stated he was taking 60,000 IU per day, and had been for over 3 months. This is obviously too much and dangerously high. I'm curious, what amount of would constitute “excessive” in your opinion?

This past winter was the first that I took Vitamin D, and I never experienced those cold-weather blues. Even though it's now warm out, I am continuing to take Vitamin D because I truly do believe that it helps.

I really like the liquid vitamin D3 from Stop Aging Now.

Since the symptoms of vitamin D deficiency can be broad (fatigue, aches and pains, low immunity, etc.), the only reliable way to know if you are deficient is to get your blood levels checked. Also, some of the more serious health consequences of being vitamin D-deficient don't show up immediately, so it's probably wise to either get your levels checked or take at least a moderate amount of supplemental vitamin D as a precautionary measure.

Vitamin D3 Supplements:

NOW Vitamin D softgels supply this key vitamin in a highly-absorbable liquid softgel form. Vitamin D is normally obtained from the diet or produced by the skin from the ultraviolet energy of the sun. However, it is not abundant in food. As more people avoid sun exposure, Vitamin D supplementation becomes even more necessary to ensure that your body receives an adequate supply. Vitamin D3 Supplements on discount at NutroVita.com.

For more details please visit:
http://www.nutrovita.com/32760/now-foods/vitami…

Hi Patricia,

We're glad you have found our reports helpful.
Vitamin D intake tends to require personal assessment and your physician can run a simple blood test to see where you stand. If you are one of the millions of Americans that is low in circulating vitamin D, your physician will likely give you a prescription for Vitamin D that is 50,000 IU to be taken once a week. And no, thats not a typo. The prescription is for fifty thousand IU for vitamin D. After 8-12 weeks of that dose, she or she will likely recommend reducing your dose back down to 2,000-5,000 IU a day depending on how your body responded to the prescription. This actually happened to me when I tested very low for vitamin D and my physician approved my taking the 5,000 IU a day of Stop Aging Now's D3 instead of the prescription.
The current UL for vitamin D is in fact set at 2,000 IU, however, that is currently under review. There is much anticipation regarding the new vitamin D guidelines since so many Americans are testing to have vitamin D levels that are far below adequate. The new 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans was just released and vitamin D intake was at the forefront. Only about 17% of woman meet their vitamin D needs which is a scary statistic when you consider its influence on bone and breast health.
The American Journal for Clinical Nutrition released an urgent call to review the current vitamin D standards back in 2007 however given the time frames allotted for recommendation reviews, it has just recently hit the IOM's to-do list. You can read more about the urgency associated with this new review at: http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/85/3/649 and you can read about the steps being taken at the IOM at: http://iom.edu/Activities/Nutrition/DRIVitDCalc…

Regarding the bottle you received, you are welcome to contact out customer service and request a new bottle of vitamin D of a different strength. Or you can take it to your physician and speak with him about your current vitamin D status and evaluate whether or not it would be a good option for you.

Vitamin D3 Supplement:

NOW Vitamin D softgels supply this key vitamin in a highly-absorbable liquid softgel form. Vitamin D is normally obtained from the diet or produced by the skin from the ultraviolet energy of the sun. However, it is not abundant in food. As more people avoid sun exposure, Vitamin D supplementation becomes even more necessary to ensure that your body receives an adequate supply. Vitamin D3 Supplement on discount at NutroVita.com.

For more details please visit:
http://www.nutrovita.com/32760/now-foods/vitami…

My mother, a nurse practitioner and one of the pioneers that was way ahead of the curve on vitamin d3, has long been a strong proponent of cholecalciferol (sun-based vitamin d), which for a long time was difficult to find in supplement form as most contained ergocalciferol. Granted that has all changed in recent years, and now there are a number of high quality cholecalciferol supplements on the market.

She advises that sun is the best option when available, but that high-quality cholecalciferol supplements should be used when sunbathing is not an option.

One of her most thorough articles on sun-based vitamin d (d3) can be found here: http://www.pamelaegan.com/articles/vitamin-d3-sunlight.htm