I probably talk more about vitamin D than any other vitamin. But the way I see it, there are four important reasons to make it a top priority in your health care regimen…
- Vitamin D deficiency is a massive, worldwide epidemic
The first reason I write so regularly about vitamin D is that the country, and most of the world, is facing an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency.
This epidemic stems from a misguided fear of sun exposure, use of toxic sunscreens, and paltry dosing recommendations that ignore the critical role vitamin D serves in protecting you against almost every chronic disease on the planet.
Of course, mainstream experts still worry about taking “too much” vitamin D. But as I explained recently, very, very few people ever reach “toxic” blood levels. And even fewer experience side effects from too much D.
- Confusion about the right form of vitamin D
While more and more people are beginning to understand the importance of year-round vitamin D supplementation, many people are unaware of the best form to take.
You should take this vitamin in the form of D3. Your body absorbs much more of this form of the nutrient than it does of the other common form, D2. This means that more of the vitamin will make into your bloodstream to be utilized effectively by your body.
Plus, recent findings show that vitamin D3 immediately goes to work inside your GI tract — or microbiome — where billions of healthy bacteria thrive. And as I’ve reported many times before, the healthier your gut bacteria, the better your overall health.
Also, since vitamin D is fat-soluble, your diet must contain some healthy fats — like organic butter, eggs, nuts, grass-fed meats, and wild-caught fish — in order to be absorbed properly.
- Confusion about how much to take
Most doctors still don’t have a clue about how much supplementation it really takes to achieve optimal vitamin D blood levels. And supplementing with just 1,000 to 2,000 IU of vitamin D3 per day won’t help most people get there.
Of course, vitamin D is measured in international units (IU), which makes the doses of vitamin D appear to be very high, when they’re really not at all. In fact, to put that amount into perspective, consider this…
Thousands of IUs translate to only hundreds of micrograms. And it takes 1,000 of those micrograms to make just one milligram (and of course, milligrams are often taken by the hundreds).
Here’s how my recommended dose breaks down at-a-glance:
- 1 International Unit = .025 micrograms
- 1 milligram = 1,000 micrograms
So, in total:
- 10,000 IU = 250 micrograms
- 250 micrograms = 0.25 milligrams
As you can see, by comparison, even 10,000 IU of vitamin D is not at all a large dose. It’s actually pretty minuscule!
- “Fake news” about vitamin D
Nearly every day, new evidence about the many impressive health benefits of vitamin D appears in reputable, peer-reviewed scientific journals. In fact, just when you might think you know all about it, another study comes out with a new, important finding.
So, perhaps as a backlash against all the new science on vitamin D, there seems to be a campaign to discredit the vitamin among mainstream media outlets.
In fact, as I reported in September, The New York Times recently ran a fake news hit job against vitamin D. Except, since they couldn’t attack the actual science, the reporter personally attacked esteemed vitamin D expert Dr. Michael Holick, M.D. of Boston University.
And The New York Times isn’t the only mainstream outlet to yammer on about the supposed dangers of getting too much D…
So, before I go, here are three simple reminders to make sure you’re getting enough of this very beneficial vitamin:
- Ask your doctor to check your vitamin D levels twice a year — once toward the end of winter, and again toward the end of summer. Just ask for a simple blood test called the 25-hydroxyvitamin D, or 25(OH)D test. (Optimal blood levels range between 50 and 75 nanomoles/Liter.)
- Supplement daily year-round with 10,000 IU of vitamin D3. You can now find it in liquid form together with the potent marine carotenoid astaxanthin. (Simply use the top right search bar on my website, www.Drmicozzi.com, to learn more about these two powerful compounds.)
- Spend 15 minutes a day out in the sun, without sunscreen. Even though at this time of year, in most parts of the U.S., the sun isn’t high enough to trigger vitamin D production in your skin — you will still reap many other benefits from this daily sun exposure in Nature.