Trying to Increase Vitamin D Levels in Colder Climates

Comment

Comment by Don Bennett on August 12, 2011 at 5:40am

You may want to try D3 drops to see if they are better tolerated than what you were taking.

If your GP is testing B12 with a B12 blood test, the results do not necessarily mean that you are OK. A uMMA test is the gold standard for B12 status. (B12 status is not the same as the level of B12 in your blood; the uMMA test tests for something that will be high only if B12 status is low).

The sublingual, methyl form B12 I use and recommend is here.

The D tablets I use and recommend are here.

I don't sell them, I merely give you the links to the company that makes them and a supplement discounter where you can get them at a discount. I'm not in the business of making money from selling supplements. They can both be purchased from the same company that sells the D3 drops, above.

GOAL: D: 70 ng/ml

GOAL: uMMA: under 3.00 µmol/mmol Cr

 

I'm trying to finish up my prep for the Woodstock Fruit Festival, so I'll be offline for a while.

Comment by VeganVital on August 12, 2011 at 4:50am

Thanks, Don - I must admit I was a little unconvinced because I've been told before not to rely on mushrooms. I was tested as 12 ng/mL in 2008 and took a vegan supplement but it gave me bad side effects because of Vitamin D's half-life - even though I was only taking 2,000 IU a day.  I got out in the sun more (not easy in the UK!) and dropped my dose to 1,000 which took my test up to 32 ng/mL a few months later (and I was told that was fine!, lol).  I now try and get 15 minutes front/15 minutes back in as few clothes as possible between May to October and supplement on low doses through the winter.  I spent a fortnight in strong sunshine last June and will be in Australia for a month over winter.  Will be having my D and B12 tested again soon - my B12 has never been low according to my GP but then his idea of OK is not necessarily mine.   What are the ingredients of the B12 and Vit D that you sell?

Comment by Don Bennett on August 12, 2011 at 4:31am

While that article below does say some 100% correct things about D, it does contain some inaccuracies.

Studies are often loaded. Why might the one mentioned below be flawed in its results? Market forces. I've seen it many times over the last 30 years. There is a very growing awareness of D deficiency, and there is a large vegan population that will not take D3, so there is a demand for vegan D products. But this doesn't change the fact that the current vegan D product, D2, doesn't raise 25(OH)D levels... you'd have to take tons of it to do so, and this is not healthy. But D2 is what's made from the mushrooms. In my own clinical experience, D2 doesn't correct D insufficiency/deficiency. And the piece below states "Sufficiency 30-100 ng/mL" and this is now known to be incorrect. 50 is the low end of the sufficiency range. And what is the distinction between desirable and optimal? To me, desirable and optimal are the same thing! I've never seen the range broken down like that... it is ridiculous. Your level should be no lower than 50, and optimally around 70 ng/ml.

Some physicians are giving calcitriol or its analogs for simple vitamin D deficiency. This is overkill and not good for the system. If your doctor insists on using calcitriol, ergocalciferol (vitamin D2, an unnatural form of vitamin D made by irradiating a fungus with ultraviolet light), or any other expensive analogue of vitamin D other than vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol), you may want to find another doctor who is more educated in vitamin D supplementation. Please note that there are medical conditions where administering calcitriol is necessary, but simple vitamin D deficiency is not one of them.

Also, "At very low levels, in the clinic we inject 100,000 IU of vitamin D3 weekly until levels reach sufficiency..." this has been shown to be irresponsible with what's know about D supplementation today. Even 50,000 weekly is not prudent dosing. Yes, D levels are slow to change because D is a fat soluble substance, but even so, it's better to do daily dosing of a smaller amount.

Bottom line: Get a set of four test kits (which gets you a discount) and test every 1.5 months when trying to raise your D level to see if it's working or not. Do not depend on articles such as the one below for your D supplementation protocol.

And, mushrooms by themselves won't raise your 25(OH)D levels.

Comment by VeganVital on August 11, 2011 at 8:07pm

Just came across this which is interesting as for the last few weeks I've been eating lots of mushrooms!

Resident Medical Authority: J. E. Williams, OMD, FAAIM

EDIBLE MUSHROOMS AND VITAMIN D

There is an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency in the northern hemisphere. We find it in American, Canada, and Europe. There are few studies from equatorial zones, but evidence suggests that it’s also a concern in the temperate countries of the southern hemisphere. The elderly, those who are in doors most of the time, those who overuse sunscreen, and vegans are at most risk for vitamin D deficiency. However, even among the healthy general population, vitamin D levels are low.

25-hydroxyvitamin D status is the laboratory good standard for testing levels, but since serum levels don’t show quick results, it’s not easy to get vitamin D levels up and evaluate status in the short run, even with supplementation. At very low levels, in the clinic we inject 100,000 IU of vitamin D3 weekly until levels reach sufficiency, and then prescribe oral supplementation to maintain adequate levels. Since Vitamins A and D are center stage nutrients for immunity, it make good sense to make sure your levels are strong.

Most Vitamin D3 supplements are derived from sheep’s wool lanolin, which theoretically is not harmful to the animal, but may still be objectionable to vegans. A recent paper in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that button mushrooms grown under ultraviolet light produce abundant levels of ergosterol, which can be converted in the body to vitamin D. Ergosterol is a sterol and biological precursor or provitamin to vitamin D2. It is turned into viosterol by ultraviolet light, and is then converted into ergocalciferol, which is a form of vitamin D. Mushrooms contain almost no vitamin D2 but are abundant in ergosterol, which can be converted into vitamin D2 by ultraviolet (UV) irradiation.

In a 5-week, single-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, 26 young subjects with serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) less than or equal to 50 nmol/L were randomly assigned into three groups: (a) mushroom, (b) supplement, and (c) placebo. Insufficiency is classified as 25-75 nmol/L (10-30 ng/mL). After 2 weeks, serum 25OHD was significantly higher in the mushroom compared to the placebo group. The serum 25OHD concentrations in the mushroom and supplement groups rose significantly and similarly over the study.

There have been very few studies on Vitamin D bioavailability from food sources. Previous studies on wild mushrooms showed modest improvement in vitamin D status, but have not been confirmed by other researchers or from clinical data. This new study lends credibility to the belief that mushrooms are not only good for health, but can be a source of vitamin D. However, there is no specific date on how much one needs to ingest, daily or weekly, to produce optimal levels. To be certain that mushrooms work for you, I recommend getting your Vitamin D3, 25-hydroxy tested before and then six months later.

INTERPREATION OF TEST RESULTS FOR VITAMIN D3, 25 HYDROXY STATUS

Deficiency	< 10 ng/mL
Insufficiency	10-30 ng/mL
Sufficiency	30-100 ng/mL
Desirable	39-100 ng/mL
Optimal	70-100 ng/mL
Toxicity	>100 ng/mL

_________________________________________
P Urbain, et al. Bioavailability of vitamin D2 from UV-B-irradiated button mushrooms in healthy adults deficient in serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D: a randomized controlled trial. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2011) 65, 965–971; doi:10.1038/ejcn.2011.53; published online 4 May 2011.

Comment by Eliot W. Collins on August 10, 2011 at 12:32am

Don Bennett - Do you know the details about how Vitamin D3 supplements are produced? How about B-12 supplements? What is the commercial process for producing these supplements?

Comment by Don Bennett on August 9, 2011 at 11:45pm

.
As someone who's been researching D for years, I'll throw in a few comments.

1. When posting blood test results, it's a good idea to always include either ng/ml or nmol/l beacuse there are people on 30BAD who will have results using both of these. And 70 ng/ml is a great reading but 70 nmol/l is not. I noticed someone said they were at 37 so they were normal. This is considered normal by most lab standards, but it isn't normal if you were spending all your time outdoors, in the tropics. 50-80 ng/ml (125-200 nmol/l) is the normal range according to vitamin D researchers. So I wouldn't call it "normal" or even "low normal"... technically it's "insufficient". Sure, 37 ng/ml assures you won't get rickets, but is it enough to adequately deal with all the other degenerative diseases that depend on sufficient D. Research says 'no'.

If you're using a lamp, get tested after using it for 1.5 months, because many of them do not produce D in your skin.

D is a fat soluble "vitamin" (it's not really a vitamin) and as such, it can take a month or more for levels to be affected when you start supplementing. It's not like B12 where you can feel immediate improvement when you start supplementing if you were deficient.

It may be helpful to read my article on D here.
.

Comment by VeganVital on August 9, 2011 at 8:34pm

Whoops - www.fresh-network.com

 

Comment by VeganVital on August 9, 2011 at 7:52pm

If link doesn't work, go to www.fresh-network.co.uk and go into their blog section and search vitamin D.

Comment by VeganVital on August 9, 2011 at 7:51pm

I have been battling with this for a while.  Still get out in the sun in a bikini for 15mins front/back between 11am-3pm as often as I can (sometimes involves goose bumps).  Seems to work well.  Also try to holiday somewhere with lots of sunshine every Spring!  You might find this of interest:

http://fresh-network.typepad.com/fresh_network_blog/2010/07/vitamin-d-supplementation-a-readers-experience.html

 

Comment by Eliot W. Collins on July 23, 2011 at 3:15am

Jesus Freak - A  Vitamin D 25-OH test score of 37 ng/mL is low normal.

My target is 50 - 80 ng/mL, and I am taking a daily dose of 4950 I.U. - D3 Cholecalciferol to accomplish this. My most recent score was 29 ng/mL. I am outside every day, year round, and all that "soaking up the sun" got me was numerous skin lesions. I must visit the dermatologist regularly.

Did you know that D3 Cholecalciferol is produced commercially by extracting 7-dehydrocholesterol from wool fat, followed by UVB irradiation and purification? 

 

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