Vitamin "D"eficiency

Supplementation Considerations

The most important way to get vitamin D is from the sun. This is your body’s natural vitamin D production pathway, and is something we are only beginning to understand. If you are low, see if your doctor will give you a prescription to Cancun! If that proves impossible, taking an oral supplement is necessary. Your body can only store vitamin D for about 6 weeks, so from mid-Fall to late-Spring supplementation is mandatory for most people. Aging skin only produces 25% of the D, so supplementation by seniors is critical. The research about vitamin D’s importance, and the technology to produce the supplement had only been around since about 2000, so if your doctor went to school over a decade ago they probably don’t know much about it.

Supplement Types

There are two types of vitamin D - D2 and D3. Usually a supplement will specify if it is D3, which is the best form to take. There is a bit of controversy surrounding whether D2, and I’m inclined to believe that D2 is ok, but D3 should be preferenced if possible. Vitamin D comes in two forms, pill and liquid. Both forms are adequate because vitamin D is easily absorbed either way. The type you take is your choice. Many children, seniors, and pill-phobic people prefer the liquid vitamin D3 spray. The pleasant tasting mist gets into the blood stream using capillaries under the tongue. .

Food Sources

Vitamin D is relatively rare in the diet, and when it is present the amount is not enough to support your health. Cod liver oil is the only natural food source with vitamin D present. If you are over 40 you probably remember your mom giving you a tablespoon of the fishy oil as a kid. Some milks and cereals are fortified with the synthetic form. Fortification typically follows RDA guidelines, which have been proven to be woefully inadequate. As discussed previously, vitamin D is in short supply in the northern latitudes. Eskimo communities used to pass cod livers around the dinner table as a special treat. I think I’ll stick with raspberries and vitamin D supplements for dessert and skip the raw fish liver!

Tanning Beds

The skin needs UVB sunlight to make vitamin D, but commercial tanning beds only contain 2-6% UVB rays, not nearly enough to produce a significant amount of the vitamin. There are safe tanning beds that include higher amounts of UVB rays and produce vitamin D, but they are rare.

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