My Vitamin D Experiments

Well actually I never tested  for vitamin D when I was young.  But recently on 11/05/2012 when I was 36 as you can see I had very low level of vitamin D.

It is arguable what is the normal or optimal level of vitamin d.  The sheet from (direct labs, the company I ordered the test from) as you can see says the normal range is 30 to 100.  Some sites that 80 and above may be toxic.  Others say over 100 is bad and 150+ is toxic.  I even found a few sites saying 20 to 36 is best and over pr under could cause heart attacks.

But high level of vitamin D is good for everything from mood to even some surprising things like asthma.  Some studies have been done saying that high vitamin D reduces IL-17A in patients which can trigger ashtma.  And one guy said his asthma disappeared after his vitamin D reached 80.  So good news if it works.  Read mote about the IL-17A here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2327241/Vitamin-D-helps-beat-symptoms-asthma-Supplements-soon-used-treatment-alongside-drugs.html

Vitamin D even helps cuts abdominal and visceral belly fat.  Or how ever you spell that.  Here is some proof.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22170363

and


http://www.health.com/health/article/0,,20568100,00.html

and

http://www.cncahealth.com/blog/24782/Calcium-Vitamin-D-May-Help-Dieters-Lose-Body-Fat#.UbA1sJU1A0o

So as you can see vitamin D is great for many reasons.  Just be careful not to over do it and have a doctor check your levels.  Too much vitamin D can cause Hypercalcemia.

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/about-vitamin-d/am-i-getting-too-much-vitamin-d/

And so the experiment began.

I obviously did not want to over do it on vitamin D.  The normal or upper limit is still questionable.  And as new research is being done everyday we now know more about our bodies than we did since the day I was born.

But even though it is still hard to tell if the test is correct or I should be believing everyone on the internet.  I did not want 600 D floating around in my body or some really high level.  So hence the tests.  Might be a little expensive if you don't have insurance.  But for  peace of mind it is totally worth it.

Anyhow regardless of limit I was obviously low.  23.2 is way too low.  That is definitely (D)eficient.  So I started taking vitamin D supplements.  This is the one I used.

http://www.costco.com/Nature's-Bounty®-Vitamin-D3-5000-IU%2c-300-Softgels.product.100001681.html

I do a lot of shopping at costco.  So I just decided to get it from there while I was shopping one day.  18 dollars is not bad for 300 soft gels.  There are 365 days in a year.  So that is only 65 days missing.  And 2 months is usually very sunny no matter where you live out of the year.  So you might not even need a pill in the sunny months.

Too much sun can lead to skin cancer and other bad things.  But all you need is 15 minutes of sun a day if you are pale.  And 1 hour if you are black or dark skin.  That is good enough for 10,000 units of vitamin D.  At least that is what I saw on DR OZ when he was on good morning america.  And then after the hour put on sunscreen.  Here is the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRPzfaI-n5E

But for me I tested in november after the summer.  And I'm From Illinois.  So no florida or cali sun for me in the winter.   So it it surprising I was low.  You would think that after the summer and all the sun I'd be in good shape.  Especially since I hardly ever use sunscreen.  I only used it once or twice.  And novemebr is only 2 months post summer when the sun starts disappearing and the cold starts coming in.

So I decided to take the 5,000 every day regardless of the sun just to see what would happen.  I was scared 5000 would be too much.  So I never opened the bottle.  I did lots of google and internet research and came up with mixed reviews.  So around the beginning of april or late march 2013 I finally said the hell with it and opened the bottle.  I took 5000 a day untill may 28th 2013 when I retested.  I might of forgotten once or twice to take it but I went through about 60 pills as of the 28th.  But scared the summer sunn with 5,000 might be overkill I decided to retest before the summer to see if in fact it was even helping at all or not.  To my surprise only 2 months helped a lot.  Still a little deficient but as you can see it went up 13.7 points from 23.2 to 36.9.  So it was helping obviously.

But not sure if I should continue or not.  No research online is saying if it will deplete or not if I have too much D in my body.  Most sites just say stop taking the supplements.  But it still doesn't say if it will deplete on its own or not.  Some sites say after 50 it builds up and starts storing.  And at that point it is hard to get rid of.  And some are not sure.  BUt everyone is different.  One guy on another website (I forget which one) said he lived in sunny florida and was still (D)eficient.  Hard to believe a man in florida where it never snows doesn't get enough sun.  Or it it not absorbing for that matter.


 So I decided 5,000 is not too much and to go for it.  And some sites even did studies that said the RDA (recommend daily allowance) was 4,000 UI but 5,000 UI was tested and did no harm to those tested.  But after 5,000 get tested to make sure.

Not sure which way to go but since I'm monitoring it 6 months shouldn't be too bad.  Just stay in side  a lot or use heavy sun block to avoid overdosing on top of the 5,000 UI a day.  So the next test will be in December or January.  We will see then what happens.

In the mean time got to keep taking the vitamin D.  I just hope 5,000 a day is not over kill.  But it should be good.  As for now even thought its not very high it should be helping some.  I forgot to mention I also have asthma since about 6 years old when my mom first noticed the coughing and tightness in the chest.  But I will not notice any difference until I go above 80.  Well maybe not 80, but at least right now I don't see any difference.  I mean advair helps and xopenex generic for attacks.  But I don't feel like the D is donig any good.  At least not yet.

But some surprising side affects of the D is it is slowly cutting my appetite.  Not surprising however is is others have noticed the same thing.  I can't find the link.  But I juts found some interesting news.

http://humanbodyengineer.wordpress.com/2012/05/12/vitamin-d-keeps-you-alive-longer-if-you-have-heart-trouble-another-reason-to-get-out-in-the-sun/

Also vitamin D is good for sleep I forgot to mention.  Although I have not noticed any difference.

http://www.bulletproofexec.com/bulletproof-your-sleep-with-vitamin-d/

And there is also this.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1351422/Five-volunteers-Vitamin-D-levels-tested-results-shocking-Theyre--Generation-D.html

and

http://www.drbriffa.com/2012/03/21/if-your-vitamin-d-levels-are-low-whats-a-useful-starting-dose/

Anyway as the experiment continues today (7/7/20130) I just found this. 

http://www.menshealth.com/weight-loss/burn-fat-fast

Even further Proof that vitamin D is a miracle.

"You'll burn more fat—especially belly fat.
Vitamin D can help you lose lard all over, but it's particularly helpful for the pounds above your belt. Studies at the University of Minnesota and Laval University found that D triggers weight loss primarily in the belly. One explanation: The nutrient may work with calcium to reduce production of cortisol, a stress hormone that causes you to store belly fat, says Zemel."


and

"You'll store less fat.
When you have enough D in your bloodstream, fat cells slow their efforts to make and store fat, says Dr. Holick. But when your D is low, levels of parathyroid hormone (PTH) and a second hormone, calcitrol, rise, and that's bad: High levels of these hormones turn your body into a fat miser, encouraging it to hoard fat instead of burning it, says Michael B. Zemel, Ph.D., director of the nutrition institute at the University of Tennessee. In fact, a Norwegian study found that elevated PTH levels increased a man's risk of becoming overweight by 40 percent."
And I am living proof also.  I have notice the affect of the second paragraph very nicely.  I have not tested for PTH.  But I have lost 7 or 8 pounds as of this morning.  This morning I weighted 152.8 and 4 months ago I weighed 160 or 62 or 3.  It always fluctuates.  But I definitely weight less.  And the tummy is much smaller.  Not as big as before.  No more looking bloated all the time.  And to prove it we had a party on the 5th of july and everyone notices I looked slimmer.
So it  looks like its working.  At least I'm happy.  For now.  We'll just keep an eye and see how it goes.

Anyhow the supplements are working for me.  But summer is coming up and that means more sun.  And more sun = more vitamin D.  Or so I thought.  According to this.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/08/21/vitamin-d-on-weight-management.aspx

"The caveat here is that not all sun exposure will allow for vitamin D production. The key point to understand is that sunlight is composed of about 1500 wavelengths, but the only wavelength that makes your body produce vitamin D are UVB-rays, when they hit exposed skin. The UVB-rays from the sun must pass through the atmosphere and reach where you are on the earth in order for this to take place. This obviously does not occur in the winter for most of us, but the sun's rays are also impeded during a fair amount of the year for people living in temperate climates.

 So how do you know if you have entered into the summer season and into the time of year, for your location, where enough UVB is actually able to penetrate the atmosphere to allow for vitamin D production in your skin?

Due to the physics and wavelength of UVB rays, they will only penetrate the atmosphere when the sun is above an angle of about 50° from the horizon. When the sun is lower than 50°, the ozone layer reflects the UVB-rays but let through the longer UVA-rays."So that explains why even in the summer i get very little vitamin D.  It is very hot in the summer here.  But only at certain times of the day the rays are above the 50 degree angle and therefore beneficial.  Life was crap before the internet.  

Now thanks to the internet however we can know when this will happen.  The link above says calculate coordinates but there is no need.  The second link they mention says it all.

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/AltAz.php

Just select the day and month.  And then your state and city.  That's it and then click calculate.  It will tell you when the suns rays are above 50 degrees.  Just go outside during those times with no sunscreen for 15 or 20 minutes.  And 45 to 1 hour if your are dark skin or african american.  Then apply sunscreen after that to keep from getting sun burn.  And always check your level of 25d hydroxy with a doctor just to make sure anyway.  You don't want to go over 100.  Too much of anything is not good and too much vitamin D is also dangerous.

Anyhow to continue the story I just got tested on the 26th of June 2014.  I called a few days later and found out my level was 20.5.  That is way too low.  But not a waste.  You see vitamin D is fat soluable so you don't  excrete the excess amount.  It stays in your body.  So this is good news.  Overdosing is no good.  But since it went down it means all you have to do is stop taking it and it goes back to normal.  Or it becomes less if you are too high.  The reason I stopped is because I didn't want to overdo it.  So I stopped for the winter and spring.  But since its low I must re start again.  I will post again when I get the next test.  So long for now.