Vitamin D

Doc, what is your view on taking Vitamin D supplement?
If you suggest taking it, what is your recommended dose, frequency, things to look for in a good VitD supplement?

I recommend taking it if you’re low on vitamin D and depending how low one is will determine the dose and the type of Vitamin D I would recommend.

It’s a lab test , 25 (OH) D, that needs to be performed. <30ng/mL is considered low by most and that’s the cutoff I use as well.

Anything wrong with just popping a couple thousand IU per day to be sure? The stuff is cheap as chips.

Potentially overdosing, though this is rare. Alternatively, without monitoring you could be under treating low vitamin D levels, which is common. It’s about 50 bucks, which is about a few months worth of a good vitamin D supplement.

Sunshine is free!

But not enough to take someone from hypovitaminosis to normal levels, usually- though there is some nuance there, e.g. are vitamin D levels a surrogate marker for inflammatory processes and thus, fixing the low vitamin D level doesn’t really fix the problem?

So in short, it would be safe to say that if you are feeling well, eating well, training hard and don’t see any signs of being unhealthy, then you probably arent low in Vitamin D and taking a supplement or getting tested to see if you’re low in vitamin D is likely unnecessary.

Which brings me to my next question, is there a certain blood panel that kind of covers all of the markers for good health? Which type of blood work should I get other than the standard fasted lipid panel or Comprehensive Metabolic Panel.

No, I wouldn’t agree with the first sentence and I think it’s reasonable to send a lab test on most patients.

And no, there is no preset panel of labs that covers everything. The appropriate labs depend entirely on your demographic and medical history.

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Jordan and whomever;

Here is my experience if it helps anyone.
I have to supplement vitamin D because otherwise, even in summer, my levels are in the teens. This is a problem I have had for at least 15 years.
I test it every 4 months or so.

Initially to get it from crappy to the 30’s I had to take 25,000iu a day for about 90 days. (Taking 5,000iu a day for about a year literally did nothing.)

Then I took 10,000iu a day for about 180 days which brought it to around 50. Continuing at 10,000 past that pint out me in the 80’s.

My endocrinologist said “although even 100 is fine I would like to see you stay between 60 and 70.” Ibd8nt know why he says this but okay: So I take 7,000iu daily which keeps it around 65.

My wife takes 5000iu a day and hers is usually around 45-50.

SO…IF you actually NEED to supplement, and you live in the northern hemisphere, it would seem based on my experience your level would generally mirror the dose, but only after you did the initial mega dose to get it up to normal.