Updated: Is monthly administration of 50,000iu Ergocalciferol (Vitamin D) safe and effective?

I am starting to see an interesting trend in people seeking my assistance:  Diffuse muscle and joint pain and excessive fatigue that appears to be connected with pharmaceutical doses of vitamin D, exclusively delivered in the form of Ergocalciferol.   So, what's going on here?

First, a little background:
About 70% of fair skinned people and 90% of dark skinned people in the Developed World are vitamin D deficient.  This is the consequence of entire populations being terrorised of the sun which is our main source of this essential nutrient.  The backup used to be via our diets but this vitamin  is barely present any more - remove the natural fats (and replace them with processed ones) and with these healthy fats goes the fat soluble vitamins (A,D,E & K).

Low vitamin D is a leading factor in winter flu and infections, depression, fatigue, obesity, heart disease, several neurological diseases, autoimmune diseases, osteoporosis and hormonal imbalances. Vitamin D may prevent anywhere from 50% to nearly 80% of all cancers - at least 30 different kinds of cancer to date and the list is growing.


Natural vitamin D is dirt cheap and can not be patented.  It costs about $14 per month to supply an adult with a healthy intake of natural vitamin D.  It works out to be even cheaper for children.

Until very recently, there has been no interest at all by medical practitioners and drugs companies in encouraging vitamin D deficient people to prevent or remedy this deficiency.  Why? 

 Because there is no money at all to be made via encouraging sunbathing, or taking a cheap-as vitamin D supplement.

However: things are quickly changing.  The prescription-only vitamin D medications are now coming onto the market.  Doctors are now prescribing massive doses of vitamin D left, right and center. In New Zealand, it is Ergocalciferol. So, what's brought this about?

Medicine is Big Business

Money:
There's a lot of money to be made from now on by prescribing pharmaceutical doses of vitamin D by way of tablets or injection.  These are at doses that are so high no other health professional would ever be able to get away with.

Capturing the market by prescribing at potencies no other health professional can get away with

Normal doses of vitamin D are from 1-4,000 iu per day.  What doctors are taking upon themselves to prescribe ranges from 50,000 to 3000,000 iu, either monthly or once or twice a year.  These are truly astonishing doses of a single vitamin.  One group of Australian researchers have even experimented with giving elderly women 500,000 iu in a single dose!  Astonishing! (Incidentally, these unfortunate women ended up suffering 27% more fractures - not less).  I wonder how many died, btw.  Here is the link to a helpful website which includes information about the timing of administration and dosages: http://www.vitamindwiki.com/Take+vitamin+D3+daily+or+weekly.  Note the importance of nutritional co-factors when giving vitamin D.

Would you ever consider taking your entire month's worth of vitamin C in a single dose, let alone a year's worth?

Think about it for a moment:  Isn't there a kind of madness about giving a person a tsunami's worth of a single nutrient?  Is this healthy?  I think not.  But things are going to get a lot, lot worse.

The Gold Rush is on within the pharmaceutical industries to develop patented analogues of natural vitamin D.

Patented Vitamin D - The next Great Pharmaceutical Gold Rush

As the patented drugs industry versions of vitamin D come rolling off the production lines, over the few years, we will see the marketing machines winding up big time, similar to what we see for seasonal flu vaccines and cholesterol medicines.  Patented vitamin D is about to become a huge gold mine for drugs companies and doctors - After all, what other drug is there that 70-90% of the population desperately need?

So long as we are kept in the dark and the vitamin is kept out of our food

As an aside: If vitamin D is so critical for health (Of that I am in agreement), then why does it appear that it is only adults who are getting the prescribing attentions of doctors?  Is it because a patented form of vitamin D suitable for children has yet to be developed?

Human Nutrition:
The human body likes a steady dribble of ALL nutrients, in natural balance and from a wide variety of natural sources.  Vitamin D is no exception and needs many co-factors such as protein, cholesterol and magnesium to be properly absorbed and put to good use. The healthiest way to supply any nutrient is with small doses, often and with plenty of everything else.  This gives each cell the ability to pick and choose the nutrients it needs, at that moment, as they circulate.

Healthy Nutrition:  Small Amounts - Often!

Cellular nutrient needs change constantly from one moment to the next.  If a megadose of a nutrient, such as 50,000iu or more of vitamin D is forced into the circulation this will cause massive nutrient imbalances and enormous stress on the body's physiology as it struggles to deal with this unwanted influx.

What we are describing is getting  very close to over dosage of vitamin D.  Here is an official description of what too much vitamin D can do....

Over dosage

http://www.drugs.com/pro/vitamin-d-ergocalciferol.html

The effects of administered vitamin D can persist for two or more months after cessation of treatment.

Hypervitaminosis D is characterized by:

1. Hypercalcemia with anorexia, nausea, weakness, weight loss, vague aches and stiffness, constipation, mental retardation, anemia, and mild acidosis.
2. Impairment of kidney function with polyuria, nocturia, polydipsia, hypercalciuria, reversible azotemia, hypertension, nephrocalcinosis, generalized vascular calcification, or irreversible renal insufficiency which may result in death.
3. Widespread calcification of the soft tissues, including the heart, blood vessels, renal tubules, and lungs. Bone demineralization (osteoporosis) in adults occurs concomitantly.
4. Decline in the average rate of linear growth and increased mineralization of bones in infants and children (dwarfism).

This is not good, if you ask me, especially when over 80% of the people I do a Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis on already have evidence of excessive circulating calcium.  Repeated, huge doses of vitamin D risks pushing these people who are already in a rather fragile state over the brink and into poor health.

These horrific ailments, including death, that are associated with excessive vitamin D, are at the end of a long continuum from being healthy to being dead.  What we have, long before being dead, is heightened fatigue, aches and pains - excess calcium depositing in the soft tissues, including the arteries, kidneys, muscles and joints.  This seems very much like the complaints that people are coming in to see me following their visit to the doctor and the subsequent mega-shots of vitamin D.

My Advice:

• If your doctor advises you to take supplementary vitamin D, insist on a prescription of natural vitamin D that has you ingesting 2-4,000 iu per day during winter and no more than 2,000 iu per day during summer - and none on the days that get sun on your bare body.  
• Do not take mega doses of any nutrient, including vitamin D, unless there is a strong case with urgency and this is monitored by regular testing.
• If your doctor is unable to give you a suitable prescription of low dose natural vitamin D, then get some natural vitamin D from me - its cheap and there's even some that is suitable for infants!

I have written many articles about vitamin D.  Please follow the labels below this article.  Enjoy the reading and please pass this article onto your friends and loved ones - thanks.

_______________________________________

About this website

The advice in these articles is given freely without promise or obligation.  Its all about giving you and your family the tools and information to take control of your health and fitness.  Please give me your support by subscribing to my free email updates. Please shop at my Online Store. Please encourage your family and friends to do the same. While we may not always be able to compete with the big operators on price, we aim to more than compensate through personal service!


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Do you have a question?  Email Gary: gary@myotec.co.nz. Include any relevant background information to your question.  Please be patient and be aware that I may not be able to answer every inquiry in detail, depending on workloads (My paying clients take precedence!). I will either reply by email or, most likely, by way of an article (Personal identifying details will be removed before publication).

My doctor has prescribed 50,000 of ergocalciferol and I do not want to take it

Our Pacific children  seriously compromising their
health by sticking to misguided sun-
avoidance policies.

"My vitamin d level is 10.1 I am currently taking 2000 IU per day. I never go out in the sun. I am thinking about going out after 5 pm with my arms and face exposed to the sun for 10 mins. daily. What are your feelings on improving my count. My doctor has prescribed 50,000 of ergocalciferol and I do not want to take it. Kind regards", "D" 

_____________________________

Gary:

"D"

I do not recommend the mega-dosing with synthetic vitamin D.  I consider it unsafe and I have seen cases where it has caused harm.  You would never feed your tomato plants with water or fertiliser this way.  You would kill is.  So why would you do it to yourself or anybody else for that matter?

Refer here:

http://blog.garymoller.com/2011/06/is-monthly-administration-of-50000iu.html 

There is no scientific evidence that I know of anywhere that shows that exposing only the arms and face to sun has any measurable effect on vitamin D levels, especially late or early in the day.  This sort of has no scientific basis.  In my opinion, this advice only serves to perpetuate the current epidemic of vitamin D deficiency and the long list of associated diseases, including cancer.  Avoiding sun exposure may reduce the incidence of only skin cancer (the emphasis being on "may") while causing an increase in at least 30 others, including ovarian, breast prostate and bowel cancer.  Its medical madness!

Healthy sun exposure advice has
to be based on skin type - not what
suits the majority while
compromising the health
of the minority

Another mistake with advising people to get sun exposure when the sun is low is the beneficial UVB is refracted out more than the cancer-causing UVA, meaning a person who sunbathes at times other than around midday gets proportionately more cancer-causing UVA.  So, the better advice to get a light tan from full body exposure at midday, rather than trying to do the same by having to spend much longer out in the sun when it is lower on the horizon.  I hope that makes sense.

Another mistake with this misguided sun-avoidance advice is it is racially biased, in favour of white people and terribly to the detriment of all dark-skinned people, including our Polynesian populations (These include my four children and the Samoan half of my family).  Skin cancers from sun exposure are next to non-existent in Polynesians: at least 1/50th that of the general population.  In fact, there appear to be no records for skin cancer rates among Pacific Peoples.  Dark-skinned people are adapted for long periods of exposure to scorching sun, without which their health is seriously compromised.  Killer internal cancers, depression, diabetes, osteoporosis, heart failure, dementia and diabetes are all driven by lack if sunlight on the bare skin and these diseases are decimating our Pacific People.

I have fair skin so I must take great care when out in the sun.  In contrast my partner, Alofa, and our four half-caste children, can spend just about all day frolicking in the sun - Much to my envy!

2,000iu per day of natural vitamin D is safe and will do the job.  Even if levels are very low, such as they are in your case, there is no need to panic.  Think of yourself as a wilted tomato plant that is need of some tender, loving care.  Just a little bit daily is the way to nurture yourself back to vigorous health, rather than going for a succession of big hits every week or so.

Nurture your body - Don't napalm it!

About this website 

The advice in these articles is given freely without promise or obligation. Its all about giving you and your family the tools and information to take control of your health and fitness.

Widespread over-dosing patients with Vitamin D

"Hi Gary

My doctor prescribed 50,000 ui(?) of vitamin D daily for a week then once a month - for a deficiency that showed in the blood test.  I think that’s why I was given it.  I have chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia and she said it would help.

The dose made me sick and within 3 days of taking the pills I stopped because a rash broke out on my entire neck and the sides of my face.  It was unbelievably itchy and painful."

_________________________________________

Gary:
It appears there was a General Practitioner's CME (Continuing Medical Education Conference) early this year, during which the issue of vitamin D was discussed.

If you have been following medical politics, you will be aware that doctors will not prescribe a natural substance that is not owned manufactured by Big Pharma and not on the Pharmac Prescribers' List.  This includes natural vitamin D.

However, there is now a solution: Synthetic Vitamin D such as Ergocalciferol which doctors are now prescribing indiscriminately with no regard for the potentially dangerous side effects.  Incidentally, Ergo means "same as".  Vitamin D is otherwise known as "cholecalciferol".  Note the connection?

Normal therapeutic doses of natural vitamin D are at about 2,000iu per day and no more.  This poor woman was prescribed 50,000iu per day which is about 350,000iu for the week!  She would have been lucky to live through this without more serious side effects.

Her skin condition may be the result of massive mobilisation of calcium from the bones into the blood stream, causing a severe skin dermatitis.  This may be diagnosed as Lupus Erythmatosus or Rosacea and normally treated with powerful steroids.  This is how one drug leads to another and another and another.  Next thing you know, the poor patient is on half a dozen drugs and the original reason for prescribing the first drug has long been forgotten!  Overwhelmed by dangerous side effects!  This is the dangerous Cascade Effect of drugs prescribing.

Please read the article here which describes the dangerous side effects of over-dosing with vitamin D and also why you don't prescribe large doses for conditions like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue or heart problems.
http://blog.garymoller.com/2011/06/is-monthly-administration-of-50000iu.html

You might think this unusual but it is not.  I have had several similar cases come to my attention this year but this is the worst case of ever-prescribing yet.  I hear of these cases because the person is being hurt and is desperate for relief and they may come to me as a last-ditch grasp for relief.  Often there is no immediate connection between their distress and their "vitamin medication".

It really does beg the question: 

• Do these people really know what they are doing to their patients?
• Do they have the best interests of their patients in mind, or have they been totally captured by the huge medical-pharmaceutical money-making machine?
• Do they even care?

The people most being prescribed these horrible synthetics in such massive doses are the elderly.  Please keep a close watch on what is being given to your Gran.  If the drug does not make her noticeably healthier, then she might be better without!

_______________________________________

About this website

The advice in these articles is given freely without promise or obligation.  Its all about giving you and your family the tools and information to take control of your health and fitness.

Infographic about vitamin D benefits and dosages

Here's an informative guide from http://www.naturalnews.com/ about the benefits of vitamin D and how much to take daily.  I recommend a more conservative dose of 1,000iu of natural vitamin D daily.  Please avoid the megadoses of synthetic vitamin D (Ergocalciferol)  that your doctor is currently dispensing with gay abandon.  Read here for more about the dangers of megadosing with Ergocalciferol

_______________________________________

About this website

The advice in these articles is given freely without promise or obligation.  Its all about giving you and your family the tools and information to take control of your health and fitness.

VITAMIN D'S CO-FACTORS

Vitamin D has co-factors that the body needs in order to utilize vitamin D properly. They are:

• magnesium 
• zinc 
• vitamin K2 
• boron 
• a tiny amount of vitamin A 

Magnesium is the most important of these co-factors. In fact, it is common for rising vitamin D levels to exacerbate an underlying magnesium deficiency. If one is having problems supplementing with vitamin D, a magnesium deficiency could be the reason why.

For more about vitamin D's cofactors, please go here.

Gary:

I would add fat and protein to this list of nutrients. These may not have been included because these are presumably assumed to be present; but this is often not the case, given the heavy emphasis on high carbohydrate, low fat diets for health (Yeah - right!).

_______________________________________

About this website

The advice in these articles is given freely without promise or obligation.  Its all about giving you and your family the tools and information to take control of your health and fitness.  Please give me your support by subscribing to my free email updates. Please shop at my Online Store. Please encourage your family and friends to do the same. While we may not always be able to compete with the big operators on price, we aim to more than compensate through personal service!



Your email address:

Powered by FeedBlitz

Do you have a question?  Email Gary: gary@myotec.co.nz. Include any relevant background information to your question.  Please be patient and be aware that I may not be able to answer every inquiry in detail, depending on workloads (My paying clients take precedence!). I will either reply by email or, most likely, by way of an article (Personal identifying details will be removed before publication).

My view on vitamin D supplementation in babies

Living Life and loving the sun
Jasmine and Alama Moller:  Each dressed for the beach
suited to their respective skin types.

"Gary, I wondered if you had a view on vitamin D supplementation in babies. I noticed US and UK recommendations have been updated so that vit D should be given in supplemental form to babies (along with iron, tho generally thru iron enhanced rice cereal). Australia doesn't appear to have any checks for this level in babies but I wouldn't be surprised if there was a lack given their focus on sunblock and hats.

It is mentioned in a number of articles that vitamin d is present in breastmilk but not in high enough quantities. I take a vit d supplement and XXX is still Breastfeeding."

"P"
______________________________________
Gary:
It is now over five years that I have been reviewing blood tests for vitamin D and so far not one single person has presented with optimum results (120-160nm/l).  Most actual results are from 30-80nm/l which is a shocking indictment on the success of the Cancer Society's ill conceived Sun Smart programme which reaps millions of dollars in revenue for them at great cost to the health of the general populace.  The lowest was 9nm/l.  My small sample of pregnant and nursing women a vitamin D of about 30-50nm/l is pretty typical.

Anything less than 50nm/l is clinically vitamin D deficient 

and requires urgent attention.

A mother, foetus and nursing baby will benefit substantially and in many ways from mother sunbathing 5-

At last - Some sensible advice about sunscreen use, sun exposure and vitamin D!

"The negative publicity over excessive sun exposure over the past few years has resulted in such an efficient block out of the sun that we now have a vitamin D deficiency pandemic.

Worldwide, it is estimated to be around 50 per cent of the population.

Vitamin D: If "all" persons tested are way below the optmum level how the heck was that level established?

"Season's greetings Gary

Although I'm a 'believer' in vitamin D I do have a question:If "all" persons tested are way below the optmum level how the heck was that level established?Regards."

Peter

_______________________

Gary responds:

Peter, I think it is timely that I do a recap:

All persons I have had tested are/were below "Optimum" and over half clinically deficient. I am convinced that this is the result of sun avoidance policies that have no basis in science.

How are "optimum" and "deficiency" levels established and why are these important?

I am referring to the Vitamin D Council's guidelines and advice. about what is optimum and deficiency levels. Basically, anayses are constantly being made of research into population illness and mortality rates. What is found is that various diseases are more prevalent as vitamin D levels decrease. Cut-off levels can be established, based on these population studies, for levels at which there is little extra benefit for increasing vitamin D. Levels can therefore be set for deficiency and for optimum for individuals.

Of course, these levels are not arbitrary; they are constantly being reviewed. The trend has been consistently upwards. Official guidelines have not kept up and have, instead, fallen further and further out of line with the main body of authoritative research. I can only assume that this huge discrepancy is due, in part, to the multi-million dollar health industry that has built up around keeping us out of the sun while treating the consequent ailments with patented drugs.

having optimum levels of vitamin D year round over one's lifetime is most important if a person has, say a family history of depression, osteoporosis, breast cancer or bowel disease, to name just a few diseases that have a strong association with vitamin D deficiency. If there are risk factors such as a genetic predisposition to a disease, then it is most important for that person to have optimum levels of vitamin D. To not do so is palying Russian Roulette with one's health.

Why are levels of vitamin D so low nowadays?

The answers to this question are quite straight forward: We get much less sun nowadays and our foods are depleted of vitamin D.

• Fifty years ago, most New Zealanders worked in rural environs, getting seasonal sun exposure.
• Most schools during the 1940-50's were designed as "sunshine schools". You can see these all around New Zealand, sporting large bay windows and sunny courtyards that face North. This sort of sunny designed would be out of the question nowadays.
• Traditional foods vary in vitamin D in accordance with sun exposure: Equatorial diets tended to be low in fatty foods that are high in vitamin D. The higher or lower the latitude, the higher the consumption of fatty foods and organ meat - The traditional Eskimo diet for example. Industrialisation and globalisation of food production has stripped diets, including ours, of vitamin D and many other protective nutrients.
• Single issue dermatology experts, the cancer and the sunscreen industries have captured us with their slick (slop and slap) marketing campaigns to have all of us, regardless of skin type to avoid the Demon Sun.
• There is no money in vitamin D. There are no patents. It is dirt cheap to produce. The only way a pharmaceutical company can make money out of vitamin D is to combine it with a patented drug, like Fosamax to form Fosamax-Plus and then charge even more exorbitantly. Incidentally, there are now over 900 law suits pending in the USA against Fosamax for alleged harm caused to users. Drs in New Zealand are still dishing this stuff out like lollies. Read more about this horrible drug here.

Leading us into Darkness

Agencies like the Cancer Society are supposed to be our impartial advocates on how to avoid cancer. However; they have no credibility on this issue because of their substantial financial interests in commercial products designed to protect us from sunlight, principally sunscreens. Vitamin D prevents cancers and helps prevent its spread in those with cancer.

If we were to optimise population vitamin D levels, we could reduce all cancers, including mortality rates by as much as 60%. We would see similar reductions in diseases like osteoporosis and depression. Vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy is also a factor in autism which now affects as many as 1/10 children in some countries.

Modern Medicine is BIG Business

Sadly, vitamin D from sunlight is free. As I said earlier in this article: Vitamin D supplements are not patented and they are really cheap. There is no money to be made from vitamin D. There are billions of dollars to made, on the other hand, by commercial health interests from the raft of diseases associated with vitamin D deficiency.

The advice currently given to us by the Cancer Society and others, including Sun Smart, is confusing to say the least, misleading at the worst. Please have a view of the TV3 item by clicking on the image above left. At last, a NZ Dr who is more or less on the right track; but even she ends up confusing us with her advice about UVB, UVA and cancer. But good on her for making a go of it!

The Vitamin D Council - your best source of advice

The best source of advice about vitamin D is the Vitamin D Council. This is a non-profit organisation made up of leading scientists and doctors that has been working for years behind the scenes to counter the commercially driven push to demonise the sun. It is interesting that the Founder is Dr John Cannell who was a leading medical campaigner against tobacco and smoking during the 1970's and 80's. His stance was not popular with many of his medical colleagues at the time. Doctors and scientists were actively recruited by the tobacco companies during the 1950's to endorse and encourage smoking, while lobbying as expert witnesses against attempts to introduce legislative restrictions. This support of smoking, including deliberate confusing of the science, continued right through to about 1990. It is no surprise that one of the leading campaigners against tobacco is now head of the Vitamin D Council.

What is the difference between UVa and UVb?

UVA is the higher energy UV light that causes most burning and therefore skin cancer. UVB is not as harsh and is principal in the conversion of cholesterol under the skin into cholecalciferol (vitamin D)

What time of day is safest to sunbathe?

The Medical experts who advise getting UVb before 11am or after 3pm are showing a gross ignorance of basic physics: UV rays are at the blue end of the spectrum - the other end to red. If you sunbathe at either end of the day, then most of the UV light is filtered out by refraction (This is why the you get red sunsets and blue midday sky). UVb is filtered out more than the burning UVa when the sun is low and you want proportionately more UVb relative to UVa. The more UVb you can get relative to UVa, the greater the production of vitamin D with the least risk of skin damage. If you sunbathe at the ends of the day, you get virtually no beneficial UVb while still exposing your body to harmful UVa. The best trade off is to get a short and sharp dose of UVa and UVb midday and then cover up.

So, the best time to sunbathe is between the hours of 11am and 3pm. Expose large areas to the sun while protecting any areas like the back of the neck which have had too much sun in the past. Depending on skin type, 5-10 minutes of midday sun is plenty. Protect the skin for about three days and then repeat. There is no need to tan - a light tan is all you need.

If you go dark quickly like my Samoan relatives do, then you may only need to take care not to burn during the first few days and then not worry at all. Skin cancer among Pacific Islanders is as good as nil, although the health authorities will not tell you this (They can't be seen to be issuing race-based policy guidelines).

Should I take a vitamin D supplement?

If you are a redhead it would be better to supply your vitamin D needs with a quality vitamin D supplement. If taking a vitamin D supplement year round it is advisable that you have your levels tested about every six months to ensure you are getting the right amounts.

If you are getting sun on your body at least weekly, then there is probably no need to supplement. You can get a blood test to confirm this. Once winter comes round for those living in colder climes, then a vitamin D supplement is advised. Most of us can take 2-4,000iu of natural vitamin D daily during winter. I can supply you with vitamin D drops which are suitable for infants and small children, by the way. Please refer to the Vitamin D Council's website for in depth advice about dosages, cancer and related issues.

Here is an informative video that explains about vitamin D

Please bear in mind that Dr Lipski is using measures that differ to those used in New Zealand. To convert her recommended vitamin D levels to those measures used in New Zealand, go here.

For my earlier articles (over 50 of them) about vitamin D and health please go here.

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Vitamin D deficiency is most probably the leading cause of Autism

That evidence is:
1) autism is more common in cloudy and rainy areas;
2) dark-skinned immigrants have much higher rates of autism;
3) there are more cases in the northern US than in the South, and
4) autism is more common in urban than rural areas, just like rickets.

John Cannell, MD
Vitamin D Council
____________________________
Gary comments:

Dr Cannell also noted that the NIH found widespread bony abnormalities in autistic kids, abnormalities that look like the effects of chronic low-grade rickets. It is interesting to note that rickets has been reported affecting immigrant children in South Wellington. Rickets is a disease of vitamin D deficiency.

Also, Dr Cannell predicts that vitamin D will be found to have a treatment effect in autism, as Vitamin D acts quickly to prevent further oxidative brain damage and increases brain glutathione, which promptly dispatches the usual suspects in the causation of autism (mercury and other environmental toxins).

_____________________________________________

How Much Vitamin D?
The following guidelines are reproduced from the Vitamin D Council. Please go here for a wealth of information about vitamin D and Health.

"If you refuse to see a physician, or can't find a knowledgeable one, purchase the 1000 IU/day vitamin D3 cholecalciferol pills that are available over-the-counter in North America or a 5,000 IU capsule. Take an average of 5,000 IU a day, year-round, if you have some sun exposure. If you have little, or no, sun exposure you will need to take at least 5,000 IU per day. How much more depends on your latitude of residence, skin pigmentation, and body weight. Generally speaking, the further you live away from the equator, the darker your skin, and/or the more you weigh, the more you will have to take to maintain healthy blood levels.

For example, Dr. Cannell lives at latitude 32 degrees, weighs 220 pounds, and has fair skin. In the late fall and winter he takes 5,000 IU per day. In the early fall and spring he takes 2,000 IU per day. In the summer he regularly sunbathes for a few minutes most days and thus takes no vitamin D on those days in the summer. The only way you can know how much you vitamin D you need to take is by repeatedly getting your blood tested—known as a 25(OH)D test—and seeing what you need to do to keep your level around 50 ng/mL.

Infants and Children

Infants and children under the age of one, should obtain a total of 1,000 IU (25 mcg) per day from their formula, sun exposure, or supplements. As most breast milk contains little or no vitamin D, breast-fed babies should take 1,000 IU per day as a supplement unless they are exposed to sunlight. The only exception to this are lactating mothers who either get enough sun exposure or take enough vitamin D (usually 4,000–6,000 IU per day) to produce breast milk that is rich in vitamin D. Formula fed babies should take an extra 600 IU per day until they are weaned and then take 1,000 IU a day, as advised below.

Children over the age of 1 year, and less than 4 years of age, should take 2,000 IU vitamin D per day, depending on body weight, latitude or residence, skin pigmentation, and sun exposure.

Children over the age of 4, and less than 10 years of age, should take 3,000 IU per day, unless they get significant sun exposure. On the days they are outside in the sun, they do not need to take any; in the winter they will need to take 3,000 IU every day.

Children over the age of 10 years old should follow instructions for adults detailed above."

Source: Vitamin D Council

Which vitamin D do I recommend?
I recommend Thompson's Vitamin D in Omega 3 oil. This is a pure natural vitamin D that does not have additives like selenium. It is surprisingly cheap. When taking 5,000iu per day - or less if for children - it may be easy to over-supply the other ingredients that are based around totally outdated official dosages for vitamin D. So, please take the pure natural vitamin D, if taking more than 1-2,000iu per day of vitamin D.

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All things Vitamin D newsletter is now out

In this latest Vitamin D Council newsletter, Dr John Cannell answers questions:

"...about oil versus water-soluble Vitamin D, depression, mental clarity, malignant melanoma, Crohn's disease, an imagist poet, multiple sclerosis, sun-exposure, high-intensity red light and collagen repair in the skin, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, influenza, the 1918 influenza pandemic, statins, the new Food and Nutrition Board, thyroid disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, athletes, the upcoming 14th Vitamin D Workshop, prostate cancer, the wrong blood test, pregnancy, autism, Alzheimer's disease, soap and sebum, asthma, sleep, the co-factors vitamin D needs to work (all contained in spinach), and—my favorite—UVC light and Vitamin D."
(Dr Cannell)
Here is the link
___________________________
Gary Moller comments:
Vitamin D is critical for health; yet many doctors refuse to even carry out a simple blood test to find out an ill patient's levels - even when requested by the patient.

How wrong the Cancer Society and other "health" agencies are to scare us from allowing even one photon of sunlight to strike our skin!

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Email Gary: gary at myotec.co.nz (Replace the "at" with @ and remove spaces). Please include any relevant background information to your question.

Will turmeric help warm cold hands and feet?

I have for years had poor circulation in my hands and feet, and get purple fingernails and cold hands on cold days. A friend has suggested Turmeric tablets; her husband has apparently taken them with good results. Your views?

"G"

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Gary comments:
As background, "G" has a lanky frame.  He is in his 50's.  He is sedentary, lightly muscled and is not known to frequent sunseeker clubs.  He has recently suffered a bad arm fracture and has previously consulted me about knee and muscle pain.

Chronic deficiency in the fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K) may be key factors in cases of joint and muscle pain, fragile bones and depressed metabolism as indicated by the poor circulation and cold limbs.  This is a growing health issue nowadays as the harm from the low-fat health messages are wreaked upon the well intentioned.  There is a good case for a course of several months of boosting these levels with some modest supplementation.

Minerals should be replenished as well.  Protein should be dribbled into the body daily by incuding a little in each meal rather than during one meal alone.  Minerals and proteins give strtength and structure to the body, including the bones.  Along with the Fat soluble vitamins they help stoke and sustain the metabolic fires.

It would help to get back to as natural a diet as possible with as much variety as one can get in home cooking - all kinds of meats, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, whole mik, cheeses and fruit.  If it is sold in plastic, if it has any kind of additive, hydrogenated fats etc, then get rid of it!  Eat what Granny used to call "food".

Exercise daily - Brisk walking and lifting modest weights above the head about 20 times from ground level will do the job.

Turmeric?

Turmeric is a favourite of ours when cooking.  Any of the the brightly coloured spices are great for you.  These have many health benefits.  Turmeric may boost metabolism and it may have anti-cancer properties.  What could be better than turmeric as a food spice, taken in conjunction with the fat soluble vitamins?  I do not think you need to take it as pills.  Cook with it.

Vitamin K

One or more generous servings per day of dark greens - brocolli, spinach, silverbeet or taro leaves.  Cook in NZ butter or cocnut oil.  The fat is essential to dissolve the fat soluble vitamin K and to transport it into the blood and to the cells.

Do you have a question?
Email Gary: gary at myotec.co.nz (Replace the "at" with @ and remove spaces). Please include any relevant background information to your question.

Supplemental Vitamin D and Calcium reduces all cancers risk by 60%

"The study looked at almost 1,200 women, aged 55 and older, over the course of four years. Those in a group that was given supplemental calcium and vitamin D had a 60 percent lower risk for all cancers than those who received a placebo."
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 85(6):1586-91 June 2007
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Gary Moller comments:
I have been running a campaign some years now extolling the benefits of sunshine which provides 90% of our vitamin D (Go here to read my other articles). This has not been popular with the many Cancer and Health experts who have unwisely backed themselves into a very dark corner by linking melanoma and other cancer hysteria with sunlight exposure (A mostly incorrect association).

The Cancer Society has impossibly compromised itself by its huge commercial interests in sunscreens as a revenue earner. How can this "advocacy" organisation give us the kind of impartial advice on this matter that we so desperately need when it makes so much money out of keeping people out of the sun and the hysteria that goes with it? The same can be said of the Health Sponsorship Council which, together with the Cancer Society, has led the cavalry charge to save us from the demon sun.

Think about this: The sun that sustains life on this precious planet and which has been worshiped since the beginnings of humanity, is vilified nowadays by health authorites! How perverse is that?
If you want to prevent melanoma, then here is what you can do:

• Expose your full body to the sun for several minutes at midday (Rules: No tanning and no sunburn). If you are very fair, then reduce exposure appropriately; if dark skinned then increase exposure.
• Eat lots of vegetables and one cup of dark berries per day (Dark berries also reduce sunburn damage).
• Get plenty of omega 3 oil such as fish and cod liver oil daily and reduce intake of hydrogenated oils and preserved meats.On the days you do not get out in the sun, take 1-2,000iu of vitamin D daily.
• Calcium as per the study above? I am no longer in favour of calcium supplements. It is better to take a tissue salts formulation that is tailored to your special needs and which contains the exact kinds of calcium that are found inside your cells - nothing else. You can determine your needs with a free Active Elements Assessment.

So, why does this kind of research evidence of the amazing benefits of sunlight and vitamin D get so little media coverage? You tell me! The situation is both frustrating and appalling because thousands are dying needlessly. Is it because sunlight is free and vitamin D is a dirt cheap non-prescription nutrition supplement? There's no money in these while there are millions and millions of dollars to be made out of selling sunscreen and treating the resultant cancers with incredibly expensive drugs and machines? Do you have an explanation?




Do you have a question?
Email Gary: gary at myotec.co.nz (Replace the "at" with @ and remove spaces). Please include any relevant background information to your question.

Want to prevent most cancers? - go out and sunbathe!

I have been going on about this for years: The hysteria about sunlight is causing more health problems than it will ever prevent. And my position is overwhelmingly supported by burgeoning research evidence. That agencies like the Cancer Society continue to dish only lip service to the overwhelming evidence that their anti-sun policies are causing more ill health than will ever be prevented beggars belief!

Human beings are creatures of the the light - not of the dark. We are adapted to dwell above ground. We are not worms. Sunlight does not cause cancer - sunburn does. Sunlight is healthy.

Please ask your doctor to test your vitamin D levels. If he/she refuses, then contact me and I will try to help. I can also help you with interpreting the blood test results which are often incorrectly interpreted by the doctor or practice nurse.

Vitamin D deficiency is rampant in New Zealand. The health of our children is being affected terribly. Watch this video and forward to your friends and family. On the days that the body (Not just the arms, face and legs) are not exposed to sunlight, especially during winter, it is advisable to take a vitamin D supplement. Vitamin D supplements are cheap.


Talk to Gary Moller:

New study finds most people are vitamin D deficient

Auckland University researchers are calling for compulsory addition of vitamin D to the food supply, following a new study showing large daily doses of supplements would be needed to overcome New Zealanders' chronic deficiency of the vital nutrient.
Fortification of margarine, fats and dairy foods with vitamin D is already permitted in New Zealand, but Australia has gone further and made its addition to margarine compulsory.
Vitamin D is needed for the body to absorb calcium. A deficiency can cause bone weakness, including the disease rickets. Having the optimum level of vitamin D is associated with a reduced risk of a range of conditions, including bowel cancer, high blood pressure and infectious diseases.
The Health Ministry's 2003 Food and Nutrition Guidelines say most adults, except those living in institutions, can get enough vitamin D from 15 to 30 minutes' exposure to the sun each day, but skin cancer groups warn against unprotected sun exposure.
The new study, published online in today's New Zealand Medical Journal, found that even if people significantly increased their sun exposure, their bodies would still not be producing enough vitamin D.
In summer, 88 per cent of the 201 healthy adults in the study had insufficient vitamin D in their blood, while in winter all of them had too little.
"Most Christchurch people are vitamin D deficient most of the time," the study concludes, "and a daily supplement of 2600 IU [international units] ... would correct this."
This dose is larger than that recommended on pharmacy-sold bottles and for the doctor-only prescription version, but the study says no adverse effects have been found at the much higher dosage of 10,000 IU a day.
In an editorial in the journal, Auckland University epidemiologist Associate Professor Robert Scragg and Auckland City Hospital specialist Dr Jim Bartley say mandatory fortification of foods such as margarine and milk should be considered.
"Ideally we should implement that," Professor Scragg told the Herald. "It's definitely a public health strategy we should be looking at."
International research evidence was mounting in favour of recommending supplements, particularly in winter, in the elderly and people at risk of low vitamin D, such as Maori, Pacific Islanders and south Asians.
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Gary Moller comments:
This is hardly new news: really it is more of the same. If you do a search of this site with the term "vitamin D" or "sunlight" you will see that I have been running a campaign for several years about this health issue which is at odds with hysterical sun-avoidance policies like the Sun Smart one. These silly policies may be causing more ill health than they prevent and certainly more cancer. That's for sure.

This new study also exposes the lie that incidental exposure to the sun is enough. I have rubbished this official claim in the past.

You will note that a person can safely supplement with up to 10,000iu's per day of vitamin D. About 2-3,000 per day is just right, it would appear.

Quality Vitamin D supplements are cheap and they can be pruchased online from http://www.myotec.co.nz/

When running, what should I be doing to protect my skin from sunburn?

Gary
Re Vitamin D
Sun exposure is one of the major recommendations - fine. However I usually have a good covering of "30" sunscreen on all my exposed parts - I burn relatively easily.Does this sunscreen affect the generation of the desired vitamin D? I gather UVB is the radiation required to generate vit D but I suspect it is also screened significantly by the sunscreen.
So for a typical 2-3 hour run what should I be doing?
Regards
Peter

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Gary advises:

Sunscreen negates the health benefits of the sun with regards to vitamin D production. However; during a long run it is essential that you take steps to prevent sun burn which is what causes skin cancer.

I recommend that you cover up wearing a hat and a loose long sleeve shirt, or a T-shirt and then lathering sunscreen on the exposed areas. While there is debate about the toxic effects of sunscreen lotions, I remain in favour of judicious use in the meantime.

If you are fair-skinned, then your exposure of skin should only be for as long as is necessary to cause a slight pinkness by end of day. Nothing more is necessary for vitamin D production. Expose as much of your body as possible for no longer than about 10 minutes of midday sun - longer if you have dark skin. So, if you are running, whip the shirt off for about 10 minutes and then put it back on and complete the run.

Eating a handful or two of dark berries per day can give your skin some additional resistance to sunburn. Vitamin C and MSM reduce the damaging effects of sunburn. Take about 2,000 mg of vitamin C per day and up to 6,000 mg of MSM per day and see what happens. Incidentally, MSM will increase endurance and reduce muscle and joint pain. Both are available from my store http://www.myotec.co.nz/

For more information about this important topic, do a search of my website using key words like "sunlight" or vitamin D"

Sheltered lifestyle could be causing childhood rickets

More pregnant women may be Vitamin D deficient than previously thought, putting their unborn child at risk of rickets.

A study of 90 pregnant women who attend Newtown Medical Health Services in Wellington has found 87 per cent vitamin D deficient, with 61 per cent severely deficient in the vitamin.
The study, which appears in this week's New Zealand Medical Journal, highlights the magnitude of vitamin D deficiency among pregnant women.

The study, authored by Wellington Hospital endocrinologist Dr Carl Eagleton and Newtown Medical Health Services GP Dr Annie Judkins, was prompted by anecdotal reports of an increase in childhood rickets in southeast Wellington. Newtown, a small primary healthcare organisation, has had 10 cases of childhood rickets over the past three years.
The PHO, which caters to a diverse population, found vitamin D deficiency to be prevalent across almost all ethnic groups, regardless of whether subjects wore veils, or were dark-skinned - two risk factors.

Even among pregnant women of European descent, vitamin D deficiency was found in 67 per cent of those studied.

Only 22 per cent of subjects wore veils, while just over a third of the subjects lived in apartments, limiting any links to sunlight exposure and their ability to sit outside for periods of time.

All the vitamin D-deficient women studied received supplementation in the form of a vitamin D2 tablet.

Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/print.cfm?c_id=314&objectid=10400452
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Gary Moller comments
I live next to Newtown and go past the local school most days. Dr Judkins was a medical student at the time she went to the Commonwealth Games with my sister Lorraine. Ann was a walker. It has always amused me that the mostly non-European Newtown children are not allowed outside without wearing floppy hats. For them, the odds of developing skin cancer from sunlight are as good as nil!

So far, not a single person I have had tested, including me, has come anywhere near having optimum vitamin D levels. Such has been the success of the Sun Smart campaign. Avoiding the sun and the wholesale use of sunscreens is condemning the entire population to lives dogged by ill health.

While the focus of medical attention seems frustratingly fixated on rickets, this disease is the least of the horrific diseases associated with vitamin D deficiency - most cancers for example. Why, oh why, do they keep going on about rickets!!!

If you want to live a life full of beans and disease resistant then get regular exposure of your body to sunlight. During winter and the days that you get no sunlight, take a vitamin D supplement. These supplements are cheap and freely available which might be why you hear so little from medical and pharmaceutical quarters about this extremely important nutrient. This should be supproted by a diet that is generous in fats and oils which the supply the fat soluble vitamins (A, E, D & K). Ooops - like sunlight, these foods are forbidden!

This health message is as important for children as it is for adults.

Vitamin D - What are Optimal (healthy) Levels?

Whenever you are addressing a health issue: "Normal" is not necessarily "Healthy". Always find out what is "Optimal" and go for that and settle for nothing less

When interpreting Lab test results for Vitamin D:
Optimal 25-hydroxy vitamin D values are:

• 45-50 ng/ml or 115-128 nmol/l

Normal 25-hydroxy vitamin D lab values are:

• 20-56 ng/ml 50-140 nmol/l

Your vitamin D levels should NEVER be below 32 ng/ml, or the equivalent in nmol/l. Any levels below 20 ng/ml are considered serious defiency states and will increase your risk of breast and prostate cancer, osteoporosis and autoimmune diseases like MS and rheumatoid arthritis - to name a few.
(Reference: Holick MF. Calcium and Vitamin D. Diagnostics and Therapeutics. Clin Lab Med. 2000 Sep;20(3):569-90)

Stroke study misses the point

Stroke rates have been falling over the past 20 years, but findings from an extensive study have
found that Maori and Pacifi c populations in Auckland are not benefi ting from this drop. Research carried out by HRC Pacific Health PhD scholar Kristie Carter, shows that stroke rates for Pacific people have increased since 1981 to almost double that of New Zealand Europeans.

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in New Zealand and a major cause of disability. This number is predicted to double by 2020.

The study has drawn similar conclusions to related research in the United States and the United Kingdom, which showed disparities between African-Americans and Caucasians.
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Gary Moller Comments:
With the other half of my family being Polynesian, I feel I have a reasonably good insight into the healthcare practices of Polynesians, including the standard of health services provided. The standard of health care; especially following an episode of ill health could be much, much better and much more can be done to improve risk factors, principally diet, which trends away from healthy traditional foods to most unhealthy Western junk food.

However; an equally important factor and probably the most important reason why Maori, Pacific Islanders and Africans suffer substantial declines in health status across the board, when moving from their natural homelands to higher latitudes and large cities, is Vitamin D deficiency. While I need just 5 minutes of sunlight a day to keep healthy, my darker skinned relatives require from 10-50 times as much sunlight, depending on their complexion.

In some populations as many as 90% of urbanised dark skinned people are Vitamin D deficient and this greatly increases their susceptibility to all kinds of serious health problems including heart attack, heart failure, diabetes, stroke, internal cancers, depression and osteoporosis.

While studies, like the one referred to here are useful, I remain frustrated that the obvious and extemely well documented role of Vitamin D (Obtained mainly via sunlight) continues to be ignored by health experts who should know much better. Vitamin D levels are seldom, if ever measured, in cases of ill health, including stroke.

If any of your family or friends suffers a bad turn of health, including stroke, insist that his or her doctor orders a test of Vitamin D levels in their blood.

To be exact; what you are asking to be measured is their "25(OH) vitamin D". If those levels are found to be below 40 ng/ml, you must get those levels boosted immediately and the best way to do that is to recommend an extended holiday in a place like tropical Rarotongo or Samoa.

Shocking Vitamin D deficiency statistics

• 32% of doctors and med school students are vitamin D deficient. 40% of the U.S. population is vitamin D deficient.
• 42% of African American women of childbearing age are deficient in vitamin D.
• 48% of young girls (9-11 years old) are vitamin D deficient.
• Up to 60% of all hospital patients are vitamin D deficient.
• 76% of pregnant mothers are severely vitamin D deficient, causing widespread vitamin D deficiencies in their unborn children, which predisposes them to type 1 diabetes, arthritis, multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia later in life. 81% of the children born to these mothers were deficient.
• Up to 80% of nursing home patients are vitamin D deficient.

(Source: http://www.newstarget.com/003069.html)
I have been going on about this business for years and it is pleasing to see that others are catching on - at last!

So, what does this mean?
Well, when you get your own vitamin D results back from a blood test, the odds are that the Dr interpreting them will be unaware of its significance for your health. So, next time you go to the Dr ask for a blood test for your Vitamin D levels [25 OH(D) levels]. If the results are less than 50, you have some work to do because 120+ is optimum and so far nobody I have had do the test has come anywhere near that! I am very happy to help you with interpreting your vitamin D results and with helping you devise a plan to safely boost those levels if needed.

Vitamin D May Cut Breast Cancer Risk by up to 50%!!!

Vitamin D May Cut Breast Cancer Risk by up to 50%!!!
April 5, 2006
WASHINGTON (AP)

Women who get lots of vitamin D are less likely to develop breast cancer, suggests a pair of studies that add to the already strong evidence that the "sunshine vitamin" helps prevent many types of cancer.
High levels of vitamin D translated to a 50 percent lower risk of breast cancer, one study found. Even modestly higher levels resulted in 10 percent less risk, which would translate to 20,000 fewer cases a year if it were true of all American women. A second study, by Canadian researchers, found that women who spent time outdoors or got a lot of vitamin D from their diets or supplements -- especially as teens -- were 25 percent to 45 percent less likely to develop breast cancer than women with less of the nutrient.

"Exposure to vitamin D at the time breasts are developing, particularly around adolescence, might be important," said lead researcher Julia Knight of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto city
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Gary Moller comments:
Why, oh why is it that research like this gets hardly any publicity, to the point of being ignored? Get this right: Here is the way we can REDUCE THE RISK OF BREAST CANCER BY HALF! Furthermore, it’s FREE!

If this was a pharmaceutical drug development, the publicity would be front page headlines, demand would be sensational and each dose would be worth a thousand dollars.

By keeping our girls out of the sun, we are increasing their breast cancer risk later in life by as much as 50%! Surely this is a scandal?

For the last few years, I have been presenting the arguments why we should be encouraging our children to be outdoors doing healthy activity, including getting exposure to Vitamin D producing sunlight. The evidence grows by the day that sunlight is essential for human health. Depression, osteoporosis, cancer, heart failure, multiple sclerosis and more and more and more are associated with Vitamin D deficiency. To understand why influenza and other viruses run rampant during winter and not summer, we need look no further than the Vitamin D connection.

Perhaps the following are reasons why this powerful and free natural therapy is being mostly ignored:

• There’s no money in it for big business: Vitamin D is free via sunlight and in dietary form (e.g. cod liver oil) it is cheap and readily available.
• Health experts and administrators have overdone the hysteria and the consequent rules about skin cancer risk. It is going to take a big effort and the need to swallow much pride to backtrack and accept that people, especially children, need daily sunshine.
• A further issue is the bureaucratic need for “one-size-fits-all rules and the need not to be seen to be discriminating by race. So, because I am fair skinned, I need just 10 minutes sunlight per day; whereas my dark-skinned partner, Alofa, needs about 30 minutes per day to get her Vitamin D.

The photo above, of my son, Alama, and his cousin, Jasmine, demonstrate two very different skin types. They are dressed appropriately for the conditions.

Problem: how do you set non-racist rules in places like childcare centres and schools? Personally, I see no problem at all – just do it!

In the meantime; what do you do?

• Get out in the sunlight for several minutes per day, depending on your skin type and expose at least 1/3 of the body.
• On days you do not get sunlight, such as during winter months, eat eggs and oily fish regularly and consider a few capsules of cod liver oil and natural vitamin D. You can get fresh high quality cod liver oil and a natural vitamin D supplement from my Store www.myotec.co.nz
• If you have children that go to school or are in day care, why not raise this sunlight and health issue at the next suitable meeting with a view to ensuring that the rules and practices are sensible and healthy?