VITAMIN D3

Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) acts as both a fat soluble vitamin and a hormone, so vitamin D3 regulates important body functions such as your body’s absorption of calcium, important to bone health. Vitamin D3 also supports your body’s immune system and maintenance of healthy muscle function and nerve communication. There are many benefits from taking vitamin D 3 supplements which stimulates interferon type one, protecting against bacteria and viruses. It is therefore useful in the outpatient treatment of bacterial and viral conditions, including Covid. Vitamin D3 supplementation was one of the eight components of our outpatient Covid protocol in 2021. That protocol worked very well and kept over 95 percent of my COVID patients at home, out of the hospital and alive. Higher vitamin D3 levels are associated with lower levels of coronary artery calcification. Vitamin D3 is used to treat rickets, low parathyroid levels, and low phosphate levels. It was regionally described in 1936 and is on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medications. It is the 60th most commonly prescribed medication.

Vitamin D3 is made in the skin of the face, arms and legs in response to the ultraviolet rays in sunlight. You should get 5 to 30 minutes of sunlight twice a week. Foods that contain Vitamin D3 include beef liver, egg yolks, yogurt, milk, and cheese.

If you are going to take a Vitamin D3 supplement, between 800 to 2,000 IU (international units) per day is considered the usual and therapeutic supplement dose. It is a fat soluble vitamin, meaning Vitamin D3 requires fat to be utilized by your body. Omega-3 fatty acids are often recommended to be paired with Vitamin D3 and if Vitamin D3 is taken with a meal containing omega fatty acids, its absorption is increased by as much as 30 percent. It is safe to take a Vitamin D3 supplement during pregnancy. Ask your doctor for a recommended dose during pregnancy.

Low vitamin D 3 levels are associated with low testosterone in males and an increased risk of cancers including colon cancer, multiple sclerosis, tuberculosis, coronary artery disease, and diabetes.

Excess Vitamin D3 is stored in your fat tissues and liver and is not excreted in urine. So it is possible to take too much Vitamin D3. Normal blood levels of Vitamin D3 can range between 20 to 50 ng/mL (nanograms per milliliter). A toxic blood level is considered to be more than 100 ng/mL. If you are taking Vitamin D3 supplements, greater than 40,000 IU is considered a toxic dose.

Much debate has centered around the role of sunscreen and vitamin D manufacture in the skin. Researchers set out to answer that question in a recent study, published in the British journal of dermatology and found that you can get protective benefits of sunscreen without compromising vitamin D levels. In the study, researchers, measured vitamin D levels of people before and after spending a week in cloudless weather on the beach in Spain. Two types of SPF-15 sunscreen where are used. One with a low UVA protection factor (PF), and one with the high UVA-PF. The high UVA-PF blocks more UVA rays than the lower one.

The important message from this study is that doses for adequate vitamin D3 production are much lower than for sunburn. That means you can still get enough sun to trigger vitamin D production in your skin even when you put on enough sunscreen to guard against burns.