Vitamin D, the wonder vitamin?

Vitamin D is hitting the news just about every day of late.

Sure it's the 'it' vitamin right now, which automatically makes me suspicious, but the evidence is piling up that we may be causing ourselves immense harm by avoiding the sun.

Here is a sampling of just a few articles citing recent studies on vitamin D.

1. Higher blood levels of vitamin D associated with improved mobility for seniors. 
2. Taking vitamin D supplements during pregnancy is not only safe for mother and baby, but also can prevent preterm labor/births and infections.
3. Vitamin D deficiency leads to sharply increased risk of breast cancer spread. 
4. Low vitamin D may raise heart disease risk.
5. Low vitamin D is associated with increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes, high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome. 
6. Lower vitamin D levels are associated with greater risk for upper respiratory infection (colds/flus.) This association is stronger in those with existing respiratory diseases such as asthma or COPD.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

In response to the latest news, some doctors are just putting all of their patients on 'higher' doses of vitamin D, 1000iu, 2000iu, but I don't think that's good enough. What I've found in my practice is that each person needs a different load of vitamin D to reach an ideal level (I shoot for 60-90 as a rule) and then a different amount to keep them at that level once they get there. Therefore, I recommend that everyone have a vitamin D test. Once we have results, I decide how much to supplement and we run follow up labs in 6 weeks to see if an ideal level has been reached. If all is well I keep the patient on approximately 1500-2000iu daily and then test again in another 3 months to make sure the patient is stable.

Note, please that as an ND I always supplement with vitamin D3, not prescription vitamin D2. Here is a study comparing D2 to D3.

Next post will be FAQ about vitamin D.
Check back.

In Health,
Dr Samantha