Protect yourself from Vitamin D deficiency this Winter!

One of the most common vitamin deficiencies is Vitamin D deficiency. A large portion of the patients I test for vitamin D are deficient. This only gets worse during the winter months when sun exposure drops and hence the production of vitamin D declines dramatically. 

Why is it important to get enough Vitamin D?

Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with a variety of illnesses including including heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, asthma, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, and depression. 

Vitamin D deficiency is really easy to treat. At my clinic I have Vitamin D supplements available for those that have low Vitamin D. Most over the counter supplements only provide up to 1000 - 2000 IU of Vitamin D. For those that are deficient it can take quite a while to raise the Vitamin D level. At my practice (available to patients and non-patients) I have a 50,000 IU supplement that is taken once per week and can restore Vitamin D levels in 4-5 months. It only takes around 15 pills.  

There is some controversy about what the minimal adequate levels of Vitamin D are. Conventional wisdom is that a minimum of 20 ng/ml is adequate. However, recently, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report that raising your serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) to 40ng/ml can slash your risk of all invasive cancers by 67 percent.

According to the study co-author Cedric Garland, Dr.P.H.: 

"We have quantitated the ability of adequate amounts of vitamin D to prevent all types of invasive cancer combined, which had been terra incognita until publication of this paper...
These findings support an inverse association between 25(OH)D and risk of cancer, and highlight the importance for cancer prevention of achieving a vitamin D blood serum concentration above 20 ng/ml, the concentration recommended by the IOM for bone health."

Therefore, it may be the case that optimal levels of Vitamin D are in the range of 40-50 ng/ml. 

Prior to taking Vitamin D I recommend measuring your level. If you don't get a lot of sun exposure on a daily basis then you are likely deficient. 

Visit Murdock Health or call to see what Vitamin D supplement is appropriate for you. I have both 5000 IU and 50,000 IU supplements which are pictured below.