My One Hour FREE Vitamin D Lecture to Clear Up All Your Confusion on this Vital Nutrient

re: My One Hour FREE Vitamin D Lecture to Clear Up All Your Confusion on this Vital Nutrient

joseesus — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:20:54 GMT

Dr. Mercola, in your one hour video about Vitamin D, please clarify the information you give about the sun and the shadow it creates relative to a person's heighth and how we are to use that ratio to determine if we are receiving the kind of sunlight that has UVB (Vit D3 producing) rays. Both text and your words give information that is irreconcilable. Thanks much. (josanon@comcast.net)

re: My One Hour FREE Vitamin D Lecture to Clear Up All Your Confusion on this Vital Nutrient

karrieann — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:31:52 GMT

i am confused about this statement:

If you are shorter than your shadow then your skin can make vitamin D.

If your shadow is longer than you, then you are not making Vitamin D.

These both are talking about me being shorter than my shadow....

nevermind. i see this has been asked a number of times in the comments section and not answered.

re: My One Hour FREE Vitamin D Lecture to Clear Up All Your Confusion on this Vital Nutrient

ourrune — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:56:21 GMT

i have genital herpes and im 6 months pregnant i have 400 units of vitamin d3 in my prenatal and when i read on here about vitamin d i started taking a whole food supplement vit d3 at 1200 iu then i had a cold and then outbreak and thought nothing about the vit d being involved. i started tkaing my valtrex and got rid of the cold and the outbreak and then my husband i have been with for 5 years who that we know of didnt have herpes i started him on 2,000 iu of vit d3 a day and i started 2,400 iu of vit d3 a day he had a small outbreak for the first time ever and then i ended up with it on my mouth which i didnt have and i got another cold and the dr gave me valtrex which always get rids of outbreaks but the outbreak would not stop getting worse untill i thought of the vit d3 and stopped taking it. then it finally got better. now i dont know whether i should supplment vit d3 at 5000 iu or not at all because of my herpes? since im pregnant there isnt much else i can take to try to help my immune system besides eating healthy which hasnt really been working and i have to fly down to fl soon i am terrified of catching the flu.

re: My One Hour FREE Vitamin D Lecture to Clear Up All Your Confusion on this Vital Nutrient

im.justagirl — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:24:18 GMT

Dr. Mercola,

Thank you for this informative lecture. I have Crohn's disease and have been in a flare state for 3 years now and tried all sorts of holistic and traditional treatments. I am hoping that intake of Vitamin D could help my situation. I have an acquaintance who started taking it as a precaution for the swine flu and it ended up having a tremendous effect on his ulcerative colitis! Here are a few questions for you:

For the winter, it seems I will have to go the oral supplementation route. I am leaning towards the Vitamin D home test kit offered by the Vitamin D Council to monitor my levels.

www.vitamindcouncil.org/.../am-i-vitamin-d-deficient.shtm

1) While I read that the Vitamin D Council says that one can start supplementing 5000 IU/day for three months before getting a blood test, it is my understanding that you recommend 4-6 weeks for this initial test. Do you consider this this safer than waiting three months?

2) Most importantly, I was unable to find any information on HOW OFTEN a Vitamin D test should be taken to continue to monitor levels for maintenance??? Every 3 months? 6 months?

2) Also, you mentioned getting serum calcium levels tested to make sure Vitamin D levels are not toxic over time. WHEN should this be done and HOW OFTEN???

Thank you so much for your time. I would greatly appreciate your reply!

re: My One Hour FREE Vitamin D Lecture to Clear Up All Your Confusion on this Vital Nutrient

takemehomagin — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:29:18 GMT

Dr. Mercola,

There is an error in your Vit D lecture - When you talk about the length of your shadow, BOTH of your choices are actually the same choice. When you are shorter than your shadow = when your shadow is longer than you.

I inferred from OTHER things you said, that if your shadow is short, you will produce Vit D.... is this correct?

Thanx!, Dave C.

re: My One Hour FREE Vitamin D Lecture to Clear Up All Your Confusion on this Vital Nutrient

starbygirl — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 04:57:39 GMT

I have a question. I apologize if this is a dumb question, but in the article, Dr. Mercola says that we can get our Vitamin D levels checked at Lab Corp. Well, how do I go about doing this? Do I need to go through a doctor or something?

re: My One Hour FREE Vitamin D Lecture to Clear Up All Your Confusion on this Vital Nutrient

alangray5665 — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:00:59 GMT

Check this article linked below. Very interesting information on current research, or lack there of, on Vitamin D.

bacteriality.com/.../iom

re: My One Hour FREE Vitamin D Lecture to Clear Up All Your Confusion on this Vital Nutrient

Alice_M — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:22:06 GMT

Regarding vitamin D3, my brother-in-law was diagnosed with prostate cancer several years ago. While waiting for his surgery date to arrive he started eating soy nuts and drinking green tea and taking oral vitamin D3. By the time his surgery date arrived they checked first for the prostate cancer and it had disappeared. I hope this info is helpful. Thank you for letting me share. Alice Alspektor

re: My One Hour FREE Vitamin D Lecture to Clear Up All Your Confusion on this Vital Nutrient

kelsey2591 — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:28:38 GMT

where can i get my vitamin d tested? do they do it at all hospitals? can i buy a test kit at the local pharmacy section of a store? if so, which brand should i buy? if i have to go somewhere to get it done, what are some recommened places in the chicago land area (suburb algonquin)

also, how long does it take to increase my levels and how long do they stay that way? meaning if i was at 40 and wanted to get to 70 how long would that take and how would i get there (how much sunlight a day, how much vitamin d foods, etc.)

thanks you sooooo much, i have a suspicious lump and i got a sonogram, they said it may be a nodule but want to do a biopsy to make sure, i heard biopsies are bad but i thought if i had like 70 level of vitamin d or higher, it would be ok?

-kelsey

re: My One Hour FREE Vitamin D Lecture to Clear Up All Your Confusion on this Vital Nutrient

busymominme — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:06:35 GMT

Dr. Mercoloa,

You say, if you are shorter than your shadow, then your skin can make Vit D.

But then you say, if your shadow is longer than you, than (sic) you aren't making Vit D.

Um... if you are shorter than your shadow, wouldn't that mean your shadow is longer than you?

If I am somehow confusing this, would you please explain?

Thanks!

re: My One Hour FREE Vitamin D Lecture to Clear Up All Your Confusion on this Vital Nutrient

edannenfels — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:56:26 GMT

QUESTION FOR DR. MERCOLA....or anybody willing to chime in! :-)

I'm a 32 year old male who has been active my whole life. I've been involved in athletics my whole life and I've been able to maintain a healthy lifestyle throughout. I'm currently working with a personal trainer to get me to that "next level" and were having a general conversation about my health. For some background, in spite of my overall healthy lifestyle I've had some misfortunes over the last few years... I had a heart attack two months after I turned 30 and I've also experienced 3 tendon ruptures. My trainer happened to bring up the subject about Vitamin D and it's importance. He feels that perhaps a Vitamin D deficiency could be the culprit of many of my past health issues. I fit the profile

-Hispanic (Darker Skinned)

-Live in Minnesota (Lack of Sunlight)

This makes so much sense that I have to look into this. I started supplementing about 2 weeks ago but after reading your info I understand that I should probably get tested in order to determine proper dosage amounts. My question is since I've already started taking it, should I stop taking it and get tested therefore I can determine what my natural levels are? How long do I have to be off supplementation before I get tested in order to get an accurate reading?

Thanks ahead to everyone!

re: My One Hour FREE Vitamin D Lecture to Clear Up All Your Confusion on this Vital Nutrient

rajsanand — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 07:01:23 GMT

I want to know how much vitamin D will I need, I would rather go through the "sun exposure" route. I am from India and there is plenty of sun, but the rains are going to set in soon and there will be no sun for many months. Before that I would like to get my Dvitamin levels up.

The largest vitamin D dose I can get in my city is 200IU and all the supplements have calcium added(around 150mg-500mg). So I am not sure if that would be a good idea to use.

I want to know exactly how much do I have to bask in the sun. I am pretty fair but tend to get dark if I roam in the sun too much.

Can I bask in the beach for 1 hour a week and get my required vitamin D.

Do I have to bask in everyday.

You are an expert so please do a research as to how much should be the minimum time a person should bask every day and for how long continuously.

Since "sun bathing" is safe. Maybe we could arrive at such a figure(to give you a better idea of what I am asking) 1 hour a day for 1 month would get rid of any deficiency. Then after that maybe a weekly sun bathe could do the trick to maintain the levels.

Or maybe after a test if we have 15-18 ng/ml you could recomend a daily sun exposure plan, so lets say if we do a 3 month daily 1 hour basking it should get our levels up.

Please give some more advice on this.

Thank you

re: My One Hour FREE Vitamin D Lecture to Clear Up All Your Confusion on this Vital Nutrient

GrandmaRia — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:23:16 GMT

Hi , I have heard a rumor, and I don't know where I heard it, but I am reacting in fear, so I thought I should see if Dr. Mercola could please address it. Here's the deal, since I live in N WI, I think I should take at lease the 5000 IUs of Vit D without batting an eyelash, BUT I ran across something that claimed that you MUST take all kinds of calcium with your Vit D or something bad will happen( I do not remember what even) . Now this seems really sily, but it is affecting what I do. If it isn't true, then I need to cease to fear it becasue it should be better for me with no sunshine during the winter to take more D than I am taking because someone scared me into thinking I'm wrong to take what is probably enough D. So...Help!?

Thanks!

re: My One Hour FREE Vitamin D Lecture to Clear Up All Your Confusion on this Vital Nutrient

learningmore — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:38:19 GMT

Dr. Mercola, Would you please tell me what the optimal range of Vitamin D3 is for children? I know you have reported in your Test Values for Vitamin D article that optimal is between 50 and 65, but I can't assume that is true for children as well. Thank you.

re: My One Hour FREE Vitamin D Lecture to Clear Up All Your Confusion on this Vital Nutrient

Chila — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:26:00 GMT

I was diagnosed a few months ago with low vitamin D levels, and asked to take 2000 IU / day. I tried, but found myself unable to think clearly, presumably from a sensitivity to the D. I tried 400 IU, same thing. So my doctor referred me to an endocrinologist (the only one in Cedar Rapids), and I saw him yesterday. He recorded all the facts, called me vitamin D deficient (level at 20), and prescribed a once a week dose of 50,000 IU in capsule form. After I got home, I asked myself, "if I can't take 2000 IU and I can't take even 400 IU, why in the world would he prescribe 50,000 IU?" Well, while there, I asked him about Vitamin D lamps and he said he had no knowledge of them. I asked him to research it for me and he said he would. I'm considering sending him this article. And...this morning I just ordered the Sunsplash tanning system. I will use this and return to him better informed, and hopefully able to give him something to use in his practice. I'll let you know how things progress.