I. Introduction to Vitamin D
II. Vitamin D: the panacea?
III. Vitamin D: athletic performance and levels
IV. Vitamin D and post workout?
V. Conclusions
VI. Recommended product
Introduction to Vitamin D / To the top
Vitamin D is a hormone (secosteroid) because its structure is derived from the steroid precursor cholesterol like many of the other steroid hormones such as testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, etc.
85-90% of people are deficient to severely deficient in Vitamin D. This is because we get very little from our diets except for fish and in fortified dairy now. This is exacerbated by having jobs that are indoor. When we do go outside we use sunscreen which blocks UVB radiation that allows Vitamin D production to occur in our skin.
Other countries such as Russia take measures to obtain proper levels of Vitamin D. Unfortunately, this is an uphill battle in countries like the U.S. and Britain. (edit 2/2/10 — Finally getting some recognition.
This is particularly alarming because of the health benefits of Vitamin D on our bodies. Those with darker skin are often more deficient than others because it takes more sunlight to produce the same amount of Vitamin D as other ethnicities.
I would encourage everyone to start supplementing Vitamin D if they do not work an outdoor job, eat fish everyday, or drink at least a half gallon of milk a day or other dairy. There is 100 IU per cup at 16 cups in a gallon is 1600 IU total. Current government recommendation is 400 IU per day for adults and less for kids. This is too little to reach sufficient levels, especially for those allergic to dairy.
The benefits are too great to ignore.
Note: For those wondering, I did put a link to the one I buy in the conclusion. It’s the cheapest, high potency one I’ve found with good reviews.
Vitamin D: the panacea? / To the top
I hate to be one to claim that there is any “panacea” for modern societies ills, but Vitamin D deficiency sure fits a lot of the symptoms of many of the ills of our society (besides such things as processed food and overeating). Let’s examine what Vitamin D deficiency is implicated in.
1. Bone health
Of course, there is the obvious relation of Vitamin D and bone health and prevention of rickets (softening of the bones). Most compentent doctors will tell you to supplement with Vitamin D because it increases the rate of osteoblast activity leading to faster healing from bone breaks. In addition, like the study above indicates there is evidence in post-menopausal women (because lack of estrogen is correlated with osteoporosis) that it decreases the risk of fractures as well.
Vitamin D supplementation may also help prevent chronic degeneration such as in osteoarthritis as well as rheumatoid arthritis.
A bit more on fractures anecdotally from an MD plus some additional commentary on blood levels that may or may not be optimal in the comments.
2. Immunomodulation
Vitamin D is also implicated in many upper respiratory tract infections. For example, Vitamin D deficiency is implicated with Influenza (1) (2) and tuberculosis and other viral respiratory tract infections. Also, the recent swine influenza epidemic can also be countered with supplementation of Vitamin D. The largest study on Vitamin D to date showed that Vitamin D deficiency is related to an increased amount of the common cold and other upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs and RTIs).
In addition, asthma especially childhood asthma is related to Vitamin D deficiency as is cystic fibrosis, obstructive lung disease, and pneumonia (2) (3) (4) (5).
The modulation of the immune system by Vitamin D produces anti-microbial peptides such as cathelicidin and defensins. Cathelicidin and other AMPs strongly protect against bacterial, viral, and fungal infections (1, 2, 3, 4). Vitamin D also increases and stimulates activity in monocytes, neutrophils, natural kill cells and other T lymphocytes. This helps fight off infections. This one article explains it a bit more in depth if you are interested.
Finally, a wiki has been produced on Vitamin D and influenza. It goes into a bit more depth than this article, so feel free to browse it if you want more proof.
My own experience with Vitamin D and influenza was that my fever was obliterated in one day, and I returned to full health within 3 days. Normally, going through a full course of the flu takes at least 5-7 days to heal from.
3. Cancer
Vitamin D is also associated with decreased risk of at least 15 different types of cancers such as colorectal, breast, ovarian, pancreatic, etc. (1), (2), (3). The significant part of this is that supplemention or sun exposure for as little as 1,000-2,000 IU decreased risks of having a lot of the above cancers by as much as 40-77% or more.
The above immunomodulation contributes to this decreased cancer risk. Natural killer cells, for example, help prevent and destroy cancer cells.
We are told to avoid sunlight because of the damage to our skin and potential for developing skin cancer. This is partially true. There is an increase in two skin cancers from sunlight: basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). However, risk of melanoma decreases with increased exposure to sunlight. The key point here is that BCC and SCC are “benign” cancers in that they rarely metastasize. Melanoma easily metastasizes (aka becomes malignant and spreads) and subsequently makes up approximately 90-95% of all skin cancer deaths. Melanoma risk is increased substantially by sunburns, especially in younger populations.
Thus, it is important to increase sun exposure without sunscreen if at all possible while avoiding sunburns, or to supplement with Vitamin D or obtain the necessary amounts in your diet.
4. Cardiovascular disease
Vitamin D is found to decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease. For instance, another study indicates that there is an increased risk of hypertension, increased VLDL triglycerides, impaired insulin metabolism, and lipoprotein lipase activity with Vitamin D deficiency. Indeed, Vitamin D deficiency is associated with atherosclerosis (accumulating plagues), coronary artery disease, high cholesterol levels, and increased risk of myocardial infarction (heart attack) during the winter.
The theory on Vitamin D deficiency and increased risk of cardiovascular disease is because of cholesterol. Remember in the beginning when we examined that Vitamin D is produced through reactions involving cholesterol? Well, if you are Vitamin D deficient, your body is going to try to up your levels of cholesterol to try to synthesize more Vitamin D from the little amount of time we spend in the sun as modern humans.
Thus, cholesterol increases, LDL and vLDLs (bad lipoproteins) increase to carry the cholesterol to where it needs to go. HDLs decrease as cholesterol does not need to be removed from the skin and other tissues as the body needs it there to synthesize Vitamin D at an sun exposure. Inflammation abounds and leads to atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, and other cardiovascular maladies.
Cholesterol reduction during summer months.
It’s really quite an interesting chain of events, but extremely good that decreasing risk is so easy. However, extremely sad that most doctors and people are unaware.
5. Inflammation
Vitamin D is linked with inhibiting proinflammatory cytokines and preventing low extracellular calcium levels which modulate endothelial inflammation. As you may well know, our diets in the modern age are pro-inflammatory because of the large amount of carbohydrates we eat. We also get very little omega 3s with disproportional increases in omega 6s (omega 3s are anti-inflammatory, omega 6 are pro-inflammatory). For example, meat and chicken such as grass fed vs. grain fed show improved omega 3 vs. omega 6 ratios for the former rather than the latter. A pro-inflammatory diet is associated with poor healing, and a lot of the illnesses above.
6. Intestinal / gut health
Likewise, with the point above about inflammation which is a major player in any of the inflammatory bowel diseases such as Celiac’s, irritable bowel syndrome, etc. (2) Part of the problem is that the inflammation in the gut prevents proper absorption of nutrients, one of which is Vitamin D. If Vitamin D levels are low as we already noted it cannot help much with down regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Thus, malabsorption of Vitamin D and the ensuing increased inflammation leads to a progressively worse condition.
Note 1: Both inflammation and instestional gut health are actually sub-sets of immunomodulation (as is cardiovascular health and cancer risk to some extent). All of these are interconnected.
7. Autism?
One meta-study review indicates that Vitamin D deficiency may be indicated in cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, autism, and a host of other illnesses.
There has been some debate about Vitamin D deficiency and autism. There may be a link as low Vitamin D levels in either the mother during pregnancy and/or the child during development. Further studies are obviously required.
The Vitamin D council has put together a nice comprehensive article on the topic. Here is another study and an article in Scientific American about Vitamin D and its potential link to autism.
8. Depression / Seasonal Depression / Schizophrenia
There is some indication that Vitamin D deficiency is also associated with depression and seasonal depression. (1), (2), (3), (4), (5). If you are prone to moody swings especially with the seasons, it may be a good idea to supplement with Vitamin D.
Vitamin D deficiency may also be linked up with schizophrenia (2) (3) because of abnormal brain development. This goes along with depression and autism as both of these are also potential neurological disorders.
9. Other autoimmune and chronic conditions
Vitamin D deficiency has been implicated in “multiple sclerosis, lupus, and psoriasis, and chronic conditions such as osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, metabolic syndrome, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.“ Additionally, besides the aforementioned fibromyalgia and CFS, there is some indication of improving outcomes of general musculoskeletal pain and myositis (3) (4).
10. Obesity
Of note is this post from Whole Health Source. Great blog, highly recommended.
Vitamin D in particular plays an important role in immune responses (including inflammation), and also appears to influence body fat mass. Vitamin D status is associated with body fat and insulin sensitivity in humans (14, 15, 16). More convincingly, genetic differences in the vitamin D receptor gene are also associated with body fat mass (17, 18), and vitamin D intake predicts future fat gain (19).
11. Improvement of sleep quality
Unfortunately, there is nothing in pubmed at the moment about this that I’ve seen so far, but I feel it must be mentioned. A bunch of people have e-mailed me since the posting of this article and have mentioned that Vitamin D improves sleep quality. I have found this to the case as well. My sleep drastically improved (first time I was able to sleep through the night well in months) after starting to take Vitamin D.
If you sleep is crappy why not try it? Even though it’s just anecdotal evidence so far.
Summary
The reason why Vitamin D results in such a widespread effects in the body are for two reasons.
1. As previously mentioned, Vitamin D is derived from cholesterol and is “hormonal-like” in its effects on the body. Hormones are some of the strongest chemicals in the body and significantly alter cell growth, differentiation, metabolism and immune function.
2. Vitamin D receptors are ubiquitous within the body and appear on almost every type of tissue. This will be discussed later in section 4.
The fact that steroids are illegal regulated drugs within the USA and many other countries should tell you that they have powerful effects on the body. Vitamin D is similar in structure and exhibits similar effects. Thus, deficiency in Vitamin D causes widespread problems in the body.
Vitamin D deficiency is so widespread in the world’s population (especially American) and correlates well with the rapidly declining health of the populations. Though it is clearly not the only reason because of things like processed foods and overconsumption, it is one big reason to look towards this readily available simple and cheap solution to improving health and certain risk factors.
Of course, this does by no way mean that Vitamin D is a panacea that cures all ills. Rather, it should be used as one part of the plan to improve many areas of health simultaneously in accordance with healthy nutrition and exercise.
Note 2: There are many more studies than just the ones I listed here. I just chose a few to get you rolling with Pubmed. If you are interested in any of these topics, then search “vitamin D” with any of the bolded terms above and you will find a lot of studies on those topics.
Note 3: The prevalence of increased risk of cardiovascular disease and other such illnesses among those with darker skin color may by explained by Vitamin D deficiency because they are getting less from the sun than the rest of the fairer skinned ethnicities. Higher blood pressure, higher cholesterol, etc. result.
Note 4: Still skeptical? This great article, this article, and this study discuss the health benefits above. This other take on similar information (with some different references) may interest you.
Vitamin D: athletic performance and levels / To the top
This is what most of us have come to this article for.
There is a large amount of evidence from studies implicating optimal Vitamin D levels and athletic performance. Fortunately, most of these studies which are from the old Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries (who knew something about increasing performance during the ’50s to the ’70s) are compiled into this PDF file.
There has also been some recent lay-person articles on the subject such as this one from T-nation.
Suffice to say according to the research it seems that approximately 50 ng/mL is optimal for athletic performance. Vitamin D does scale somewhat to weight so the heavier you are you may need to take a bit more or less depending.
The performance benefits are increased muscle mass, increased strength and explosiveness, and ability to recover. These results range from very significant to noticable. A lot of it depends on how deficient you were in the first place getting up to 50 ng/mL, and how Vitamin D responds through receptors in your muscles.
Sunlight provision
If you choose not to supplement, you must at least know how much Vitamin D production you are receiving from the sun and from other sources.
The maximum amount of Vitamin D produced from the sun is approximately 10,000 IU per day. This study also shows that it can be achieved by full body exposure for 20 minutes of UVB radiation (no sunscreen) in fair skinned individuals. If exposure is less than full body, it may take longer to achieve maximum levels. Similarly, another study indicates that darker skinned individuals may require 3-6x more time in the sunlight to achieve the same amount of Vitamin D production as fair skinned individuals.
Prolonged exposure to sunlight does not cause Vitamin D toxicity. Maximum production levels are approximately 10,000 IU per day because the precusors to Vitamin D3 reach an equilibrium. Further production is degraded within the skin. This correlates well with the proposed higher safety limit discussed in toxicity concerns.
Supplementation
If you are severely deficient from never going out in the sun and never drinking or eating dairy, it seems that supplementing 10,000 IU for about 4-5 weeks will bring up levels to around 50 ng/mL.
From there, maintenance of Vitamin D levels are about 100 IU for every 1 ng/mL. Thus, to maintain these levels, approximate supplementation of 5,000 IU/day is necessary.
I was severely deficient (rarely go outside, no dairy, rare fish) so I am doing the 10,000 IU/day for 4-8 weeks transitioning into 5,000 IU/day. I am currently starting week 5 at 10,000 IU/day at the time of the publishing of this article. I have had no ill effects so far.
Supplementation of Vitamin D should occur with magnesium and calcium as well as they work synergistically in the body. As long as you are eating a health amount of fruits, vegetables, and meat you should be fine; however, if you are worried you should take a calcium and magnesium supplement as well.
You want to be taking at least 100% of daily value of calcium and magnesium along with your vitamin D. This would be approximately 1000mg of calcium and 400mg of magnesium.
If you have not clicked on any of the articles before, please read this one on why 10,000 IU is recommending to bring up levels in healthy adults. This will also be further discussed in the next section.
Toxicity concerns
Toxicity concerns have been raised with such high supplementation given the federal government’s current recommendation 400 IU for adults and less for children. Although there is talk about changing the proposed upper limit to 10,000 IU in healthy adults in a study that is supposed to be released in the spring. Another risk assessment confirms the 10,000 IU upper level safe limit in healthy adults.
If you are still worried, a safe bet with the above recommendations is 5,000 IU and close watch for toxicity symptoms. If your levels get too high, you may get feelings of intense thirst, having to urinate frequently, weakness, nervousness, potentially nausea and vomiting. If you encounter any of these symptoms you should back off supplementation as well as calcium rich foods.
There is a small percentage of people that are sensitive to doses so they may have to supplement with much lower amounts than the amount recommend above.
Knowing your levels
The only way to know your true levels are through blood tests. If you have biannual or annual visits to the doctor for blood work then you can request a 25-hydroxy Vitamin D test. The link above contains some guidelines to follow if you are to request one.
This article discusses the accuracy of some lab tests as well as other toxicity concerns of megadosing. It’s worth a read.
Alternatively, there are self tests you can use although I cannot vouch for the accuracy or veracity of such tests.
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health/deficiency/am-i-vitamin-d-deficient.shtml
http://www.grassrootshealth.net/d-action
http://www.lef.org/Vitamins-Supplements/ItemLC081950/Vitamin-D-25-Hydroxy-Blood-Test.html
The scale for Vitamin D deficiency fairly variable, but later research suggests:
- 0-14.9 ng/mL = Severely deficient
- 15.0-31.9 ng/mL = Mildly deficient
- 32.0-100.0 ng/mL = Optimal
- >100.0 ng/mL = Toxicity possible
As stated, optimal levels for athletic performance should be at approximately 50 ng/mL. However, for normal health people who do not exercise it is generally best to aim for the 50-80 ng/mL range.
Vitamin D and post workout / To the top
As most of us know, post workout it is almost unanimous that you are supposed to take in only carbohydrates and protein to maximize protein synthesis.
However, there is this one study that always bothered me.
Milk ingestion stimulates net muscle protein synthesis following resistance exercise.
PURPOSE: Previous studies have examined the response of muscle protein to resistance exercise and nutrient ingestion. Net muscle protein synthesis results from the combination of resistance exercise and amino acid intake. No study has examined the response of muscle protein to ingestion of protein in the context of a food. This study was designed to determine the response of net muscle protein balance following resistance exercise to ingestion of nutrients as components of milk. METHOD: Three groups of volunteers ingested one of three milk drinks each: 237 g of fat-free milk (FM), 237 g of whole milk (WM), and 393 g of fat-free milk isocaloric with the WM (IM). Milk was ingested 1 h following a leg resistance exercise routine. Net muscle protein balance was determined by measuring amino acid balance across the leg. RESULTS: Arterial concentrations of representative amino acids increased in response to milk ingestion. Threonine balance and phenylalanine balance were both > 0 following milk ingestion. Net amino acid uptake for threonine was 2.8-fold greater (P < 0.05) for WM than for FM. Mean uptake of phenylalanine was 80 and 85% greater for WM and IM, respectively, than for FM, but not statistically different. Threonine uptake relative to ingested was significantly (P < 0.05) higher for WM (21 +/- 6%) than FM (11 +/- 5%), but not IM (12 +/- 3%). Mean phenylalanine uptake/ingested also was greatest for WM, but not significantly. CONCLUSIONS: Ingestion of milk following resistance exercise results in phenylalanine and threonine uptake, representative of net muscle protein synthesis. These results suggest that whole milk may have increased utilization of available amino acids for protein synthesis.
Why exactly is whole milk superior increasing amino acid uptake and rates of protein synthesis in this study even in isocaloric milk (significant in 1 category, more in 2, and slightly below in 1) plus totally dominating the FM?
This question bugged me for a while because the “butter fat” in milk doesn’t have any special qualities on its own. It sat at the back of my mind recently until I started researching more on Vitamin D.
As it turns out, Vitamin D is a fat soluble hormone that is best absorbed in the intestines with other fat. Fat is absorbed as micelles in the intestines to the lymphatic ducts. From there it is transported up the thoracic duct into the left subclavian vein.
Could it be that Vitamin D was acting on muscles post workout to boost protein synthesis OVER that of post workout carbohydrate and protein alone?
It turns out that muscles, along with most other tissues in the body have vitamin D receptors (VDRs). Most of which are located on the nuclear envelope and will modulate transcription of DNA.
It has been shown that VDR binding activates tyrosine kinase cascades in muscle cells. For you lay-people the activation of tyrosine kinase cascades are usually seen in cell growth and differentiation. Similarly, other studies (2), (3), (4), (5) have confirmed this finding and also shown involvement of VDR activity with calcium modulation and MAPK cascades in muscles (which are also responsible for cellular growth and differentiation). Ca2+ modulation by genomic and non-genomic mechanisms may account for potential increases in strength as Ca2+ binding is part of the process of myosin head binding to actin myofibrils before contraction.
In addition, research also demonstrates that Vitamin D regulation in involved with increasing the amount of insulin-like growth factor binding proteins (receptors) while IGF-1 can also elevate Vitamin D3 levels. Follow up studies (1) (2) have confirmed this and narrowed down the association of VDRs to the regions with IGF binding proteins 1, 3 and 5.
These processes and their anabolic effects on muscles are thoroughly discussed in Vitamin D, Volume 1 by Feldman, Glorieux, and Pike from pages 885-898 (google preview does not allow all the pages to be seen).
Again, for the lay-person you should know about growth hormone and its anabolic effects on the body, correct? The production of the IGF family (peptide hormones) is stimulated by growth hormone. They are responsible themselves for most of growth hormone’s anabolic effects on the body.
Increases in IGF binding proteins is similar in nature to insulin sensitivity. We often talk about insulin sensitivity and how insulin resistance causes type II diabetes. For example, increases in insulin sensitivity occur through exercise and regulation of carbohydrate intake. This means the amount of receptors are increasing, which means the body needs less insulin to deal with blood sugar levels. The opposite occurs in insulin resistance – receptors are down regulated and your tissues have less and less receptors until you get diabetes because your pancreas cannot produce anymore insulin.
In this case, increased amounts of IGF receptors leads to more sensitivity to IGF’s effects on the body. Thus, you will have more potent anabolic growth per amount of hormones produced in your body. We can all see why this may be potentially big for muscle gains. It is like taking steroids without taking steroids. In addition, there is the tyrosine kinase and MAPK cascades promoting muscular growth.
Unfortunately, there has been no studies done specifically on Vitamin D supplementation with and contrasted against carbohydrates and protein post workout. Although the whole milk vs. isocaloric skim milk does show indirectly that there is some benefit of probably Vitamin D absorption acting on increasing protein synthesis and growth within the muscle cells.
So what does this mean?
Honestly, I do not know what it means until there is an official study on it.
The milk in the study was only 237g which is approximately 1 cup. This is 25% of the recommended daily dose based on government nutrition standards. The current nutritional standard is 400 IU per day for 100%. Thus, the study participants were getting 100 IU. If they were deficient or severely deficient this may have made a big impact on their protein synthesis rates.
Now, compare this to supplementation with potentially 5,000 IU of Vitamin D post workout with carbohydrates, protein, and fat. There may be a HUGE effect on muscle protein synthesis.
My personal story: I started supplementing with Vitamin D at 10,000 IU for about a month. It just so happens that I usually workout then eat my dinner and take my supplements along with dinner. In this month I have been eating a bit less, but yet I have gained approximately 3-4 lbs of lean body mass and dropped a bit of fat. Now, the muscle gain could have occurred just from increased performance with my workouts, but I am almost positive that some of it has to do with increased protein synthesis post workout from the Vitamin D supplementation. Thus, I am continuing on with 10,000 IU post workout transitioning into 5,000 for maintenance.
If you are interested in maximizing your muscle gains, it may be a good idea to see if this can potentially work for you just like BCAAs/leucine have shown to have potent anabolic effects.
If you do try this, feel free to comment (1) whether it works or not. Also, post (2) whether you were deficient before or not, (3) when you started taking it PWO, (4) how many days/weeks it has been, and (5) your results compared to your normal PWO. I’d love to know if this works for you and get some data.
Note 5: This may also explain the “steroid-like” effects of the recommended gallon of milk a day (GOMAD) associated with such programs as Starting Strength and powerlifting. Vitamin D deficiency being corrected besides the calories and potential bovine growth hormones (although most of the peptide hormones should be hydrolyzed by enzymes in the stomach/intestines which is why I don’t think bovine GH plays a big role).
Conclusion / To the top
Most people are deficient or severely deficient of Vitamin D. If you are not working an outdoor job with significant sun or taking in significant amounts of dairy you SHOULD supplement. Those with darker skin are more at risk for Vitamin D deficiency.
1. There are significant health benefits to supplementing Vitamin D on borderline “panacea” levels if you are deficient which 85-90% of people are.
2. Getting a Vitamin D level of 50 ng/mL can increase your athletic performance.
3. Supplementing Vitamin D with fat post workout coupled with carbohydrates and protein may lead to increased muscle gains over just post workout carbohydrates and protein.
Vitamin D is fat soluble. Fat soluble hormones when taken “regularly” average out over 3-4 weeks. So if you wish to have say 5,000 IU/day and you only have 10,000 IU pills then one every other day is fine. Similarly, you could take 35,000 IU once every week. I have currently been taking 10,000 IU per day since this article was published until now (Oct 11 2009 – Oct 15th 2010) and feel great.
At 5,000 IU a day, Vitamin D supplementation is little more than $1 a month. And for the benefits above there is probably nothing that will benefit you more per cost ratio.
Recommended product / To the top
Vitamin D cost is fairly cheap. 360 pills at 10,000 IU for ~$24 is what I’ve bought and recommend. (“LOW052″ coupon at checkout will get you $5 off plus save me some money on my purchases). With the discount it comes out to 1895 IU/cent.
If those are out of stock, you can go with 360 pills @ 5k IU or 120 pills @ 10k IU as they represent the other best bang for buck with the $5 off LOW052 coupon code.
Alternatively, someone notified me about this Vitamin D supplement. It’s a liquid if you don’t like soft gels albeit a bit more expensive than the above (1800 IU/cent)
Also, like I said earlier Vitamin D works synergistically with calcium and magnesium in the body. To get the full effect you need to have adequate amounts of each. If you’re eating adequate amounts of natural foods like fruits, vegetables, meats, etc. you should be fine and don’t need to supplement calcium or magnesium. Otherwise, supplement them. This cal-mag-zinc is the one I am using (MUCH cheaper than ZMA too). The alternative is to purchase them separately or go the ZMA route + Calcium on the side. Go whatever route you want.
Really interesting stuff, Steven. Thanks a lot for writing it and providing the coupon code. I ordered the bottle you mentioned to help me get through the upcoming long, cold, dark winter in Chicago.
Great article! Do you mind if I reference parts of it on Fit4YouNutrition.com?
Sure. A link back would be good.
Steve, you don’t consume dairy? I would be extremely interested in your dietary consumption. Do you have a link to your FitDay (or equivalent)? I am also Chris Salvato’s photographer/friend.
Dairy products give my GI tract fits. I pretty much only eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, meat, fish (albeit rarely). I do eat rice though as well since I tolerate it well as an Asian.
Interesting piece. Have you tested your own Vitamin D levels?
I have not nor do I intend to. Based on at least the anecdotal evidence from what I’m seeing with most people, I’m going to drop down to 5,000 IU sometime in the next week or two (around 5-6 weeks of 10,000 IU). That’s probably around optimal from what I’ve read/seen to get my levels back up to 50 ng/mL.
Steve,
Going to order some of those Healthy Origins, thats a wicked deal. In the meantime I tried to find a 5,000IU cap here in Canada, but no luck. 1,000IU pills was all I could find, looked everywhere. Question is: On rest days do you just take you Vit D with any given meal? Or is their benefit to say morning or night? Great Article!
I would either take it with fat (such as nuts, olive oil, etc) or just take it like you regularly would with your meal.
I don’t think there’s any difference to when you take it since the post-workout period is already over, and there won’t be one that day.
Thanks Steven! Looking forward to some more articles soon.
I’ve been doing 10k IU of Vitamin D for a couple of weeks now and while I haven’t had an official test, but my strength and sense of well being is through the roof. I am also sleeping much better. I work night shift and get barely any sunlight.
I have been taking it with my first meal of the day which is actually about 2 hours or more after I work out. I have a protein shake immediately afterwards. However, I am going to try the full 10,000IU immediately post-workout with a protein shake and a trio bar (nuts and seeds bar similar to a Lara bar.)
Awesome dude.
Quick question on the 10k period — is there any acclimatization that needs to happen? I’ve been having (mild) abdominal cramps on 10k, which some other sites suggest is a bad sign. No nausea and certainly no vomiting, and I’m not experiencing any of the other potential toxicity sypmptoms mentioned here. I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced this and moved past it as your body gets used to the extra D, or if I should just cut back to 5k now.
There is definitely no acclimization period.
I would definitely cut the D intake and see if it improves. If that makes you feel better then add it back in slowly (one every couple days), or if you are still concerned talk to your doctor and/or get a vitamin D3 test.
Thanks — looks like I just wasn’t eating enough last week — back up to 6k w/no issue.
A mate recommended me to look at this site, nice post, interesting read… keep up the cool work!
Great article Steve – i shall be experimenting with a 10,000 IU dose.
For those in the UK that works out at 20 UG…..
OK, so after reading this I gather that I should take 10k units of D a day for a few months then drop to 5k a day? And preferably take it post workout, but with some fat to help it digest? How much fat is needed to go with it to help it digest?
I saw some vitamin D pills with olive oil in them already…think its enough? They are here: http://www.nowfoods.com/Products/ProductsbyCategory/Category/M103118.htm?cat=Vitamins
Also, since fat goes against the grain as far as post workout nutrition goes, any thoughts on doing protien/carb right after you workout and then a vitamin-D/BCAA/L-glutamine/creatine/fat(and perhaps vitamin A) mix 30 minutes after the initial carb protein shake?
As far as PWO goes, choco milk or whole milk is a great alterative and usually superior to almost every other mix of stuff out there including most plain protein and carb mixes (even as noted in the above study). I usually take it with that.
The other alternataive that you listed may work for you as well if you want to try that too. Play around with it some.
If you want to be a bit more conservative (and you’re out in the sun more) then start with 5k IU and then drop down if you need to. Keep in mind the symptoms of overdose and how your body reacts to it.
And that other one is fine. The ones in oil based pills are better than the hard pills.
Thanks, Steven. I was looking around at the different forms that these pills come in, it seams every mineral or vitamin has different forms. For example, Calcium Carbonate vs. Calcium Citrate. They do similar things in the body right? But the issue lies in the bio-availability, any thoughts on this?
And I was really hoping to make some superior PWO shake with pure unflavored whey isolate and pure dextrose, then with that base add some of the things above; L-glutamine, BCAA, Creatine, V-D, Calcium, Magnesium mix.
I have tried GOMAD before and I got good gains, but I was drinking the stuff around the clock and I gained some chub with it. Can a glass of milk really be superior to a carefully engineered PWO shake?
And what are you thoughts on vitamin A? Would it be important to add and A supplement just as its important to have a D supplement?
For bioavailability the minerals bonded to amino acids are superior than any of the carbonates (CO3-), citrates, oxides (O), etc. However, they are also more expensive.
A carefully engineered shake to your specific genetics is going to be superior to milk. Milk (whole or choco whole) will be much cheaper and you are likely to get about 85-95% of the results for your engineered shake once you figure out how to optimize it.
The chub is likely taking too many calories overall, or water retention which does occur in some people from the milk.
As for vitamin A as long as you’re eating a lot of real food you’re fine with it. Same with D — if you’re getting out in the sun a lot you probably don’t need to supplement. But if you’re not getting out in the sun or eating massive quantities of fish or milk then yeah you’re probably going to have to supplement. If you’re worried then feel free to take some carefully within limits.
Hmmm, not sure how I am going to find what is best for me genetically. Bleh.
OK, so I think everyone would agree that raw milk would be better than past. & hom. milk. Any thoughts on human breast milk? I know there are always women selling it. Or is cows milk better for humans than human milk?
You experiment.. just like you find out a good diet for yourself whether it’s Paleo or whatever else.
As for raw milk, it’s superior to any of the pasteurized or homogenized milk (1) if you can get it AND (2) if it’s not extremely expensive.
As for human breast milk I’m sure it’s some good stuff as it’s for humans specifically. If you feel up to trying it out then go for it. I assume it’s pretty expensive though, and you may get crazy looks from everyone.
Cost, unfortunately, is a prohibitive factor for a lot of things. If I could get grass fed meat all the time I would… but supplementing fish oil is cheaper than that for where I am. Same with milk.
I wouldn’t go searching for breast milk. You have no idea what sort of woman you are buying it from. If she does a load of drugs you are going to be setting yourself up for a bad situation, for example.
Finding the ideal diet isn’t hard. First, cut out any processed foods – anything that is processed at all. Then, slowly reintroduce other elements (milk, gluten, etc.) and see how your body responds. Give at least 3 weeks for each addition to your diet. This is the most effective way to really dial everything in.
Very interesting article. I was just wondering, because I have seen mixed signals everywhere I look. If you have an illness such as bronchitis, would a supplementation higher than 10,000IU be recommended? I have seen articles saying 150,000 should be taken everyday for the time you are ill. I was very skeptical of this.
If you cannot give an answer to the question above due to liability etc, would you only suggest only a max 10,000IU supplementation a day due to potential toxicity?
wow i never heard that human milk ever being sold..can it be consume by non-babies?
Matthew,
The “medical” dosage I looked at for some of the studies recommends
Bodyweight (in lbs) * 1000 dispensed over 3 days.
So that equates to (for a 150 lbs male) 150 * 1,000 IU = 150,000 IU over 3 days. So 50,000 IU each day over 3 days then evaluate from there.
Obviously, people are not under the supervision of a heatlh professional when doing this so it’s not really advisable.
I know poliquin recommends huge doses of D once a week in the 70,000 IU range. And there have been studies done of single doses of 300,000 IU with no toxicity.
Obviously, I would not recommend going insane with dosing, but I feel that 10,000-20,000 IU when sick is on the lower end of the spectrum if you want to be safer. I have dosed myself 25-30,000 IU per day when sick and been fine (and obviously I recovered MUCH quicker).
In conclusion, the numbers you have heard are not out of the ordinary.
Thanks!
I have been taking 10,000 IU for two days so far and I’m already feeling a bit better.
I might bump up to 35k daily watching for symptoms of overdose obviously. My current weight is 180, but I’m going to try a lower dosage for now. 105,000 IU seems good for three days. If I don’t feel any better for a while I will up it to 180,000 IU.
Thanks again for the response.
This is a great article…I literally just started with this today. But I plan on starting off high in the 5-10,000 IU range, I am African American, stay in the house alot and but I do eat a decent amount of fish. I am also supplement with calcium, should I hold back on that while taking vitamin D?
I am also playing with the idea of taking it pre and post wod.
I am 5′4 roughly 145-148 and I don’t think I like being heavier so I will monitor this closely.
No, by all means keep taking your calcium.
You don’t necessarily have to start off in the high range. If you have 10,000 IU pills you can take 1 every 4 days, and it is equivalent to 2,500 IU per day. I take 10,000 IU per day, and it works for me though so if you find that 10k works then great.
Pre/post workout if you wanted to gain muscle mass. If you don’t then feel free to take it any other time with a fat source in your diet.
I have generally not felt well for about ten years. I live near the 45th parallel (Wisconsin.) Especially the last several years, I have not been outside very much at all. I was having increasing pain all over–arms, legs, ribs, hips, ankles, elbows, basically most of my joints, bones and muscles, as well as extreme fatigue, waking up in the morning exhausted, taking several naps a day, and weakness: having to be helped to stand, to rise from a crouching position, to get out of a car, and having trouble climbing stairs. I hadn’t gone to a doctor but was on the verge since the pain was getting so much worse with every day. I happened upon the recent article on Vitamin D in the New York Times and suddenly thought this could be it. I sat in the sun that day for quite a while, and I did feel better! I have continued the sun exposure the last 4 days and I am improving. In fact, the first day I sat out, my husband came home and immediately said “You feel better, don’t you.” I hadn’t told him about my discovery or what I had been trying as treatment. I said you probably noticed I have a little color, and he said, “No, I can tell how you are carrying yourself that you feel better.” That is my story and I hope it has a happy ending with no permanent ill effects from years of ultraviolet deprivation egged on by the SPF freaks.
Steven, I was wondering if you could look over this product. What are your thoughts? Thanks!
http://www.speciesnutrition.com/storemenu/mineralyze.html
Looks like an expensive multivitamin.
Peresonally, if you’re eating real foods most of the time you probably don’t need a multi. Likewise, if you’re out in the sun a lot you probably don’t need vitamin D.
It’ll vary on your weight/activity level/etc, but the ’shovel principle’ (Bill Starr coined the term and it was reiterated by Rippetoe), within reason, is a pretty effective & safe approach.
More or less, get the cheapest multi you can and take extra.
It’s harder to be deficient with that appraoch and anything extra will get removed anyway
Is there a difference in the tablet vs. the gelcap form of consumption?
I haven’t seen any studies on it, but my educated guess would be yes.
Consider that most gel caps come with a certain amount of oil (hopefully good oil such as olive oil) which will help absorption in the intestines through chylomicrons.
The tablets will have to be digested, and then there’s no fat with it to make sure it gets absorbed well though you can eat some fat with it to help absorption (same with the above as well too).
The one I recommend above is from olive oil, and I and others can vouch it works. If you want to buy tablets to try then go for it… but I can’t vouch for how well they would work.
Hey Steven! Something to think about:
“Report: A bit more vitamin D is good, not too much”
http://www.komonews.com/news/health/111021479.html
The study is here:
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=13050
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Season fluctuations in vitamin D levels all over the world range from pg82 35 nmol/L to 93 nmol/L which is around 14 ng/mL to 35 ng/mL.
Not sure if they took into account sunscreen and staying indoors more because they don’t say. I would consider that this may be a problem.
They are saying that 100-150 nmol/L show ill health effects.
This translates to (divide by 2.6) to get 38 ng/mL to 57 ng/mL.
I have a hard time believing this because the russian studies show that optimal athletic performance occurs at approximately 50 ng/mL and a general good range to be in for maximal beneficial side effects is 50-80 ng/mL.
Much of the beneficial calcium side effects come around ~80 nmol/mL which is well within their recommended range, but they didn’t really delve into any of the other potential health benefits from vitamin D supplementation.
pg 360-361 on toxicity levels confirms what my article does. Doses at and below 10K IU are not toxic, but doses above 50k IU are. Otherwise, not much research on tolerable upper limit.
Non-hypercalcemic up to 20k IU.
Their conclusion on pg 412-414 show that they are setting “sufficiency” level are lower around the 12.5-25 ng/mL range which obviously since a lot of the current population falls into this range it would make most non-vitamin D deficient.
They also say that more studies need to be done, and regarding the tolerable upper limit there may or may not be beneficial side effects but they can only speculate at this point.
My conclusion is that I’m not particularly buying what their saying because their conclusion is only maintaining the current status quo. They didn’t really go into ANY analysis on other potential health benefits from the other studies (especially from the a lot I referenced in the article). Almost all analysis was ONLY on vitamin D and calcium levels.
I know of too many people including myself who have been on vitamin D (especially not being outside in the sun a lot) who have reported a lot more beneficial side effects from supplementation that we would probably normally get from the sun.
The thing I’m most concered about is that in almost every vitamin D analysis they are assuming that caution should be provided BECAUSE the studies on vitamin C and E resulting in pretty much no additional benefits. So they either want to hesitate putting in funding to the research on other vitamins or be cautious. Even in their analysis they said up to 10k IU per day supplementation showed no toxic effects, but they’re not analyzing the potential benefits of such a heightened state of vitamin D in the body…. which is particularly confusing to me.
Feel free to come to your own conclusions though.
Hi Steve,
I had my blood checked last month and came with a 29.9 Vitamin D level. My doc recommended supplementation. I was hesitant, but after reading your article, I will try some and see what happens.
Is that in ng/mL? nmol/L?
If so, yeah, getting it to at least 50 ng/mL would probably be good.
I think nmol/L is 2.5x less than ng/mL so you’d want to aim for 125 nmol/L. But I don’t remember if that’s correct or not, so do the calculations for that before you supplement that much.