Vitamin D testing and supplementation

My personal vitamin D story

A few years ago I personally suffered from severe vitamin D deficiency, manifesting as depression, low-grade but widespread muscular pain, cardiovascular abnormalities, and high blood pressure, despite a generally healthy lifestyle. The official position of not just doctors but also nutritionists up until a couple of years ago (2006) was that 400IU of vitamin D was enough for normal body function. However, when after changing every possible aspect of my diet and lifestyle without my symptoms improving at all, I decided to further investigate the possibility that vitamin D deficiency may be at the root of my problems.

In the midst of my health crisis I happened to stumble upon a website (www.vitamindcouncil.org) written by a pioneer of vitamin D research, Dr John Cannell. After reading about all the "hidden" scientific evidence about vitamin D's benefits I started taking 1,000IU of vitamin D3 (AKA cholecalciferol) a day, risking a "toxic" effect, according to the wisdom of the day, which of course never materialised. After a few weeks of intake I performed a vitamin D blood test (also known as 25-hydroxyvitamin D test or 25-(OH)vitamin D test) which showed that I was still pretty deficient at 20ng/ml of Vitamin D in my blood. So I decided to up my dose to something more significant: 5,000IU per day. Again, nothing toxic happened to my body, in contrast every aspect of my health started improving significantly: mood, muscular pain, blood pressure and alopecia universalis (an auto-immune condition I managed to developed due to stress and vitamin D deficiency), literally everything! Summer was also approaching so I took advantage of the (rare for the UK) good weather and sunbathed without sunscreen for a 1-2 hours a day, whenever I could find time. My progress may have been slow, but it was still a steady progress that no medicine and supplement was able to offer me before.

After researching Vitamin D for several months, I decided to up my dose to about 10,000IU of vitamin D3 per day for several weeks, and this is when I saw real improvement: most of my symptoms disappeared completely. This coincided with my blood vitamin D levels eventually peaking at 60ng/ml, the upper healthy range of vitamin D levels in the blood that is now widely accepted by mainstream medicine. At that point I reduced my intake to 5,000IU every day or every other day, except from the days that I sunbathed in the summer, when my body would naturally produce 10,000IU, even 20,000IU of vitamin D. Today, four years later, I still follow this regime, regularly taking D3 supplements when I don't sunbathe or when I don't have a sunbed (AKA solarium.

It took me about 18 months to get rid of my symptoms, partially because healing cannot occur overnight, and partially because I lost valuable time believing the hype about toxicity of vitamin D. Vitamin D toxicity does exist but at extremely high dosages and/or after ingesting those high dosages for a prolonged period of time. If your body hasn't been exposed to the sun without sun block or if you didn't have a sunbed session for a few years, chances are that you are vitamin D deficient and you should urgently arrange a vitamin D test with your doctor, nutritionist or other suitably qualified health practitioner to assess your vitamin D levels. I do not condone taking high amounts of this vitamin without first having a test, but my personal and professional experience showed me that most people are deficient, with typical levels as low as 15~20ng/ml. Anything below 30ng/ml in my opinion is dangerously low, with optimal levels now accepted by mainstream medicine to be 45~60ng/ml.

Practical recommendations

Generally speaking, taking 1,000~2,000IU per day for long periods of time is pretty safe for almost everyone, whilst intake above that would require a vitamin D test to be performed first. If your levels are extremely low, as described above, discuss with your doctor / health practitioner the possibility of taking higher amounts of vitamin D3 for a few weeks or months, and then, after re-testing, reduce or maintain intake accordingly. By the way, never take ergocalciferol, AKA vitamin D2, as it is not as healthy and/or effective as vitamin D3 or cholecalciferol, i.e. proper vitamin D3. It is also a good idea to always take a good vitamin K2 supplement when you take vitamin D3. Vitamin K2 helps optimise calcium utilisation in the body, prevent artery calcification and benefit the circulatory system in general - just make sure you don't suffer from a blood coagulation condition. For dosage and further information please ask your qualified health practitioner / doctor. Please note that vitamin K1 does not have the protective properties of vitamin K2 mentioned here.

Alternatively, if you live in a sunny country (unlike us all here in the UK) why not regularly sunbathe in the sun for anything from 30 minutes up to two hours a day? Your body will produce exactly as much vitamin D it needs, naturally and healthily - just make sure you don't burn! Remember, it's not about quantity, it's about quality - after your body produces 10,000~20,000IU it stops the production of vitamin D, so staying in the sun all day, and getting sunburned in the process, will not help you and may actually increase the risk of skin cancer, which normally is not an issue with short sun exposures. Of course, if you are very fair-skinned you need to stay less in the sun to get your daily vitamin D quota (and avoid sunburn), whilst if you have naturally dark skin you must stay more in the sun to produce the same amount of vitamin D - and you don't risk getting sunburned as much. Skin colour is also the reason why black people who live in northern climates (for example, New York, London etc.) have a higher risk of getting heart disease, auto-immune diseases or cancer: they need much more sun exposure than white people to get their daily vitamin D supply.

To make sure that you stay wrinkle-free you must apply a high SPF sun-protective cream on your face - don't worry, the rest of the body will produce all the vitamin D you need! It is also a good idea to use a quality, natural moisturising cream on your body, before, during and after sun exposure, to avoid dehydration and skin damage. I make a high quality one for myself, with loads of anti-oxidants, shea butter, jojoba, vitamins and hyaluronic acid, and it allows me to sunbathe for a few hours without ever getting dehydrated or sunburned. Unfortunately we will only be ready to manufacture it for the general public and sell from this website in time for next summer (2009).

After vitamin D helped me recover from my health condition ("cluster of many different symptoms" is a better description, a "vitamin D deficiency syndrome" maybe?) I started campaigning for the wider acceptance of vitamin D. I regularly used vitamin D tests in my nutritional therapy practice, especially for patients suffering from auto-immune conditions, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and depression. I do not imply here that vitamin D is a cure all for those conditions but research has shown that it plays an important role in improving those conditions - quite often in conjunction with other therapeutic modalities or nutrients. The good news is that vitamin D has been front page news several times last year (2007-2008), which means that hopefully the message will soon spread to every single person on this planet, ending the sun phobia and vitamin D phobia and saving thousands of lives from premature death and debilitating health conditions, not just osteoporosis.

This is my personal story provided here for educational / informational purposes only, please do not misunderstand this article and take is as medical advice - always consult with your doctor/nutritionist first. Luckily vitamin D is becoming mainstream nowadays, despite the fact that it cannot offer huge profits to drug manufacturers, being dirt cheap to produce and not patentable...

Vitamin D testing: costs and procedure

Please note that vitamin D testing in this country is not cheap (labs typiclaly charge £100 compared to €20 in Greece, for example) and an extra fee of ~£20 should be allowed for blood drawing by a nurse. By law, lab results have to be returned to your nutritonist/doctor/other health consultant who will also charge you a consultation fee. For a good nutritionist this is typically ~£85 for central London and varies throughout the country. Thankfully, quality suppelements are cheap, around £20 for several months' supply. So in total you should expect to pay ~£220 before you start taking suppelements, if you want to know what you're doing - which is essential if you want to supplement with high doses of vitamin D.

Alternatively, you may ask your GP to do the test on the NHS for free, but given the sorry financial state of the NHS not many GPs will accept to do the test unless you are osteoporotic or suffer from a severe disease. On the other hand I understand that doign the test privately is very expensive, like any other test or medical procedure in the UK.

If I haven't yet put you off with all the comments about cost and you are willing to do the test I wll be happy to help you. For a nutritional consultation, including vitamin D testing and vitamin D3, vitamin K2 and other supplementation, you may contact us by clicking the links. Please note that I only get paid for the consultation (£88) - you pay the lab, the nurse and the supplement company directly. Of course I can arrange everything for you, and I do not get paid for that!