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Question
How bad is a Vit D level of 18, and what kind of supplementation is needed to correct it?
Holy cow...it came up during a routine blood screen at my OBs 5 months ago....he didn't seem that concerned, just told me to take 2000 iu of D3 daily and that was it. I didn't think about it until recently. Really my only symptom is fatigue and while I'm healthy I dont "feel healthy". I'm nursing a baby now too so I really want to make sure we're both getting the nutrients that we need. Thanks for the info, I will do some more research and talk to my doc!
Btw, the 30 000 to 40 000 IU per week dosing after retesting I recommended as a 'maintenance dose' of sorts.
There's lack of understanding how much is actually needed for maintenance, but if you don't go out in the sun a lot, then I would imagine this would be enough since the levels would be high enough.
Alternatively, the best source of Vit D is the Sun.
Spending about 15 mins in the sun per day (in between 10am and 3pm) during the summer would be enough to generate 10 000 IU... while roughly double that (25 to 30 mins) is needed for 20 000 IU.
In days before/after the summer, you'd probably have to spend more time in the sun... roughly 20 mins to generate 10 000 IU and 40 to 45 mins for 20 000 IU daily.
Also, you can't use UV sun blockers on the skin... you need to do it bare and expose majority of your skin (such as your back) for adequate Vit D generation.
When supplementing with Vit D, its also prudent to keep in mind that Vitamin D3 is the best possible form to supplement with and not Vitamin D2 (because this one is a synthetic version which is less potent and far less useful in the body - plus, very high doses of D2 were associated with problems, while extremely high doses of D3 didn't - you can't really overdose on D3 to be honest - unless you were taking 1 million IU daily for over a month - in which case it could produce discomfort/problems - so the body has a knack for storing/using D3 in very high concentrations).
Hope this was helpful.
P.S. Once you raise your levels to sufficiently high amounts, I recommend to supplement only on days when you don't get enough sun - for pure extrapolation purposes, this is why I recommended 30 000 - 40 000 IU weekly as a maintenance.
There's lack of understanding how much is actually needed for maintenance, but if you don't go out in the sun a lot, then I would imagine this would be enough since the levels would be high enough.
Alternatively, the best source of Vit D is the Sun.
Spending about 15 mins in the sun per day (in between 10am and 3pm) during the summer would be enough to generate 10 000 IU... while roughly double that (25 to 30 mins) is needed for 20 000 IU.
In days before/after the summer, you'd probably have to spend more time in the sun... roughly 20 mins to generate 10 000 IU and 40 to 45 mins for 20 000 IU daily.
Also, you can't use UV sun blockers on the skin... you need to do it bare and expose majority of your skin (such as your back) for adequate Vit D generation.
When supplementing with Vit D, its also prudent to keep in mind that Vitamin D3 is the best possible form to supplement with and not Vitamin D2 (because this one is a synthetic version which is less potent and far less useful in the body - plus, very high doses of D2 were associated with problems, while extremely high doses of D3 didn't - you can't really overdose on D3 to be honest - unless you were taking 1 million IU daily for over a month - in which case it could produce discomfort/problems - so the body has a knack for storing/using D3 in very high concentrations).
Hope this was helpful.
P.S. Once you raise your levels to sufficiently high amounts, I recommend to supplement only on days when you don't get enough sun - for pure extrapolation purposes, this is why I recommended 30 000 - 40 000 IU weekly as a maintenance.
The official recommended level of Vit D would be about 32 ng/mL (although, honestly, even Vitamin D council doesn't really agree that this is too good - they actually recommend higher levels that are between 70 - 100 ng/mL for excellent health
In regards to which supplementation is needed to correct it...
Vitamin D3 - 10 000 IU daily for about 3 to 4 months, followed by a retest and about 30 000 to 40 000 IU per week.
Alternatively, people can also take Vitamin D3 as a 'loading dose' which also works fine.
In this instance, 70 000 IU once per week.
However, higher IU's CAN be done safely.
People have supplemented with well above 50 000 IU daily with no problem.
Heck, I recall taking 150 000 IU (once per day) 3 days in a row, followed by 100 000 IU (once per day) another 3 days in a row and again 50 000 IU (once per day) for another 3 days in a row, until lowering the dose back to 10 000 IU daily.
If you want to speed up the process, then I think you can easily take 20 000 IU daily, or 140 000 IU once per week (for about 3 months).
However, keep in mind that Vitamin D3 absorption and usage in the body also depends on several other co-factors.
The primary co-factor here is Vitamin K2 (MK-7) - you'd need about 100 - 200mcg daily on those Vitamin D3 doses.
Best dietary source of this would be:
Natto, Hard cheese, Soft cheese, Egg yolk, Butter, Chicken liver, Salami, Chicken breast, Ground beef.
Aside from that, Magnesium is quite important, as are Zinc and Boron.
Magnesium and Boron can be easily obtained in your diet.
Specifically if you focus on almonds, pumpkin seeds and yogurts (nuts in general).
Oysters are an excellent dietary source of Zinc (over 70mg per 100g of oysters).
However, since oysters aren't exactly cheapest to obtain, the only viable form of Zinc supplementation is Zinc Picolinate (50mg per capsule).
Keep in mind that supplementing with Zinc can lower your copper levels over sufficiently long periods of time... so its recommended to supplement with Copper (Sebacate) - 3mg to compensate for that (the body needs roughly 2mg of Copper for every 15 mg of Zinc - so 6 mg of Copper would suffice for 50mg of Zinc - take Copper separately from Zinc (have at least 2 hours between taking each supplement).
Both Zinc Picolinate and Copper Sebacate are very cheap, as is Vitamin D3 - 10 000 IU.
The more expensive supplementation would be K2 (as MK-7), but for the period of time you'd be supplementing, it would be enough.
Besides, once you get your levels up with supplements (after using them for 3 months), your body will be able to obtain higher levels of all this from food (except perhaps Zinc - depending on the type of food you eat).
In regards to which supplementation is needed to correct it...
Vitamin D3 - 10 000 IU daily for about 3 to 4 months, followed by a retest and about 30 000 to 40 000 IU per week.
Alternatively, people can also take Vitamin D3 as a 'loading dose' which also works fine.
In this instance, 70 000 IU once per week.
However, higher IU's CAN be done safely.
People have supplemented with well above 50 000 IU daily with no problem.
Heck, I recall taking 150 000 IU (once per day) 3 days in a row, followed by 100 000 IU (once per day) another 3 days in a row and again 50 000 IU (once per day) for another 3 days in a row, until lowering the dose back to 10 000 IU daily.
If you want to speed up the process, then I think you can easily take 20 000 IU daily, or 140 000 IU once per week (for about 3 months).
However, keep in mind that Vitamin D3 absorption and usage in the body also depends on several other co-factors.
The primary co-factor here is Vitamin K2 (MK-7) - you'd need about 100 - 200mcg daily on those Vitamin D3 doses.
Best dietary source of this would be:
Natto, Hard cheese, Soft cheese, Egg yolk, Butter, Chicken liver, Salami, Chicken breast, Ground beef.
Aside from that, Magnesium is quite important, as are Zinc and Boron.
Magnesium and Boron can be easily obtained in your diet.
Specifically if you focus on almonds, pumpkin seeds and yogurts (nuts in general).
Oysters are an excellent dietary source of Zinc (over 70mg per 100g of oysters).
However, since oysters aren't exactly cheapest to obtain, the only viable form of Zinc supplementation is Zinc Picolinate (50mg per capsule).
Keep in mind that supplementing with Zinc can lower your copper levels over sufficiently long periods of time... so its recommended to supplement with Copper (Sebacate) - 3mg to compensate for that (the body needs roughly 2mg of Copper for every 15 mg of Zinc - so 6 mg of Copper would suffice for 50mg of Zinc - take Copper separately from Zinc (have at least 2 hours between taking each supplement).
Both Zinc Picolinate and Copper Sebacate are very cheap, as is Vitamin D3 - 10 000 IU.
The more expensive supplementation would be K2 (as MK-7), but for the period of time you'd be supplementing, it would be enough.
Besides, once you get your levels up with supplements (after using them for 3 months), your body will be able to obtain higher levels of all this from food (except perhaps Zinc - depending on the type of food you eat).
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