The sunshine vitamin D3 (VD3) is critical for our health. Most Americans and another billion people in the world are deficient in VD3. That deficiency can bring on many health issues such as osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, cancer, and more.
People choose to not get out in the sun, not eat foods naturally containing vitamin D, and not supplementing. Additionally, doctors do not include VD3 levels as part of an annual physical.
Years ago, I started requesting VD3 levels at my annual physical. I was taking 1,000 IUs of VD3 and my blood VD3 levels were lower than the bottom of the healthy range. I increased to 4000 IUs daily and VD3 levels in my blood were almost at the lower edge of normal.
I increased my daily amounts and kept monitoring my blood levels of vitamin D3. I know what works for me. I want my personal VD3 blood levels to be hovering around 80 ng/ml. I generally run within a couple of points above or below 80ng/ml every year.
Can you get too much VD3? I asked myself that question years ago when I was studying multiple sclerosis (MS). There was a lot of testimonial data supporting 50K IUs of VD3 daily to make a difference in MS symptoms.
Was 50K IUs of VD3 too much for someone without MS? I do not know. I decided to incrementally increase my own VD3 levels and monitor them until I knew what worked for me. My maximum daily intake is 20K IUs of VD3.
I was asked by a friend about too much VD3 and decided to write about it today. One study I looked at had 20,000 people tested and found two people with over 150 ng/ml and both had been taking exorbitant amounts of VD3 supplements. Thirty-seven other people had VD3 levels over 100 ng/ml.
What are the health risks associated with too much VD3? The two subjects mentioned in the above paragraph had VD3 levels of 364 ng/ml and 476 ng/ml. Symptoms included fatigue, forgetfulness, nausea, vomiting, slurred speech, and more.
High blood levels can lead to health issues. It is extremely rare to attain levels over 100 ng/ml without supplementation. Excessive exposure to sunlight, eating fatty fish, eggs, and other high-VD3 foods will generally exceed high blood VD3 levels.
Excessively high VD3 levels can create elevated blood calcium levels. Symptoms associated with this condition are digestive distress, vomiting, nausea, stomach pain, fatigue, dizziness, confusion, excessive thirst, and frequent urination.
The normal range for blood calcium is 8.5 to 10.2 mg/dl. Calcium gets into the bloodstream in a specific manner. You need to eat the right foods containing calcium. Calcium carbonates in pill form is not a good option unless you want your calcium to end up in the toilet.
Magnesium assists the absorption of calcium in the stomach. When calcium leaves the stomach, it is absorbed into the bloodstream if you have enough VD3. If not, then the calcium ends up in the toilet.
Once calcium is in your bloodstream, it will go to the heart valves and arteries or to your bones depending on the vitamin K2 levels in your body. Low levels of vitamin K2 forces the calcium into the heart. Higher levels of K2 direct the calcium to your bones. Since 1995, Japan has been using vitamin K2 as a normal treatment for osteoporosis.
Bone loss is the most common health problem associated with VD3 deficiency. However, too much VD3 can affect vitamin K2 levels and create a similar effect. Excessive VD3 impacts the K2 activity and hence the loss of calcium from your bones.
A serious health risk that can happen from excessive VD3 is kidney failure. This occurs mainly from VD3 injections rather than from supplementation. The VD3 injections affected calcium levels and resulted in moderate to severe kidney disease in a study of 62 people. It did not matter if the patient had kidney disease before the injections or not.
Talk to your doctor if you are not having your VD3 levels measured. My doctor tells me that my insurance may not pay for it. I do not care. I want to monitor those things that are important to my health.
That is why I also ask for a c-reactive protein test (measures inflammation in the body) and a homocysteine test (heart health). I have never had to pay for these tests, but I would if I had to.
Do not increase your daily dosage of VD3 without consulting your physician, especially if you are on prescription medicines. The VD3 tests are relatively cheap and can be done in a local testing laboratory without your doctor’s involvement.
Some tests require your doctor’s knowledge and consent and other tests do not. Shop around to find the most economical lab if you want to monitor your own VD3 levels. Again, I strongly recommend talking to your physician before venturing down the path of self-testing.
Live Long & Enjoy Life! – Red O’Laughlin – RedOLaughlin.com
I have also started taking vitamin D supplements from TAl’s great healthy life. Thankyou for sharing information.
link:https://greathealthylife.com/
Vitamin D is really necessary for your Health and taking it’s supplements is also really important. Thanks for sharing