Vitamin D3- Shine on me!

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I’ve got a supplement for you today that works and that most people are deficient in.

And it is

Vitamin D!

You have probably heard about Vitamin D at some point.

Check out my Improvement Warrior Podcast Episode where I talk about how Vitamin D is made and some other amazing facts about Vitamin D here. 

It falls in line with the fat soluble vitamins. The others are A, E, and K. You can’t absorb fat soluble vitamins without fat. So if you are eating a low fat diet, please stop, you are doing your health and body a disservice.

 

Vitamin D deficiency is running rampant and that is one of the reasons it is on my top 3 supplements.

A lack of it can cause the softening of bones, known as osteomalacia in adults and rickets in children. It can cause bending of the spine, bowing of the legs, muscle weakness, and increased risk of fractures.

Vitamin D deficiency is also very common in people who have osteoporosis.

It is said that if you live above an imaginary line in the U.S drawn from San Francisco to Virginia Beach and you live above that line you will not get enough sunlight during the colder months. A supplement is therefore needed.

Some more facts on D:

•     It really isn’t a ‘Vitamin’. It is a steroidal hormone that influences almost 3000 genes in your body. It helps to turn ‘on’ or ‘off’ or prevent many diseases.

•     Helps with the absorption of calcium and phosphate.

•     D2 and D3 are the important ones for us human beings.

•     Your body can synthesis it with a good amount of sun exposure.

•     If you have darker skin it is harder for you to synthesis it from the sun.

•     Our skin supplies about 90% of our vitamin D.

•     Sunscreen with a SPF of 8 can block Vitamin D by up to 95%, 15 SPF or more up to 98%. Never Wear Sunscreen Blog Post

•     The recommended daily allowance (RDA) is not sufficient if sunlight exposure is limited.

    Recommendations for United States are:

•     Under 1 year- 400 IU a day

•     1-70 Years- 600 IU/day

•     71 and up- 800 UL per day

•     Estimated that 85% of Americans are deficient

    Food sources of Vitamin D:

•     Mushrooms

•     Fish Liver Oils

•     Fatty Fish, like catfish, salmon, mackerel, sardines, tuna (notice all of those are excellent sources of Omega-3 Fatty Acids)

•     Whole Eggs

•     Beef Liver

 

Now Vitamin D has another friend with it, that I need to tell you about now.

It’s

vitamin K!

They say nearly everyone is deficient with this Vitamin.

What does it do in conjunction with Vitamin D?

It has been proven in recent years that K helps to ‘direct’ the calcium to the right places in your skeleton, and not where it shouldn’t go— i.e blood, organs, arteries, etc….

K has a hormone it produces that helps to bind the calcium into the matrix of the bone.

So if you get D without K, it’s working against you because all that calcium is going into your arteries instead of bones.

Calcification of your arteries is not a good thing. Vitamin K, along with magnesium, saturated fat and some other players helps to actually prevent that from happening.

 

Vitamin K sources:

• Dark Leafy Green Veggies- Kale is #1, followed by Spinach

• Fermented foods

• Raw milk cheeses

• blueberries

• sage

• oregano

• avocado

• lot more……..

 

 

And what about calcium?

Bone health and calcium is just one piece of the puzzle. Vitamin D, K, magnesium are the other big players.

So if you are just taking a calcium supplement, you might be doing more harm then good. Also the form of calcium is very important as well– but that’s another blog post 🙂

What to do?

I personally take a liquid Vitamin D3 and K2 supplement. The one I personally use is from Throne. I take about 6 drops a day and so does my wife. When I feel any type of bad stuff coming on (sore throat, cold, runny nose) I take about 50-100 drops!

You can check it out here.

Update: As of early 2019 I have completely stopped Vitamin D supplementation. I get all my vitamin D from the sun. This may or may not be something you want to do. Each person needs to have their own personal context.

The best place to get vitamin D is always from the sun.  Everybody needs to download the app D Minder— It tells you when Vitamin D (UVB) Will be out. It also tells you when UV shows up. It is more important to build up a solar callus by being out when UV is zero- sunrise and sunset so that when UVB does show up you do not burn and you are able to absorb more of the UV light and vitamin D.

I advise all my clients and health consults if they are going to supplement with Vitamin D then you need to know what your current level is. The level needs to be an UNSUPPLEMENTED level. So if you are supplementing now, you need to stop for at least 3 months before testing. You can get tested from your doctor or through a home test here.

Here are a couple blog posts from Dr. Jack Kruse that caused me to stop using the supplement: Vitamin D: The Sunshine of Your LIfe | Quantum Biology 7: Vitamin D

End Update

I’ve looked in places like Vitamin Shoppe for a combo liquid but they didn’t have it.

And when I say ‘recommend’, I mean for everybody and for overall health. Fat loss, weight loss, muscle gain, etc…. doesn’t matter and WILL NOT happen if your body is not healthy and if you are deficient in Vitamin D.

But D3 and K2 are the only ‘individual’ vitamins or minerals that I take. I don’t worry about too much else, because I eat a diet rich in vegetables and fruits, and quality meats.

Yes, you can get plenty of calcium from just vegetables. You don’t need dairy. As a matter of fact I don’t even recommend dairy if it is highly pasteurized and/or reduced fat.

 

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