1) Use the app DMinder to monitor your sun exposure and check vit D is available naturally - generally the sun is too low in winter in the northern hemisphere to generate any D, so you have to supplement or go to Hawaii for winter… 😎
2) Have blood tests done to measure your D levels until they stabilise - probably needs 3-5 tests a year - especially if you need to supplement in winter which most will need. Get your blood to 60-100 iU range and keep it there.
3) Don’t use sunscreen - it blocks the D. Just stay out in the sun for 20 minutes- that’s all you need unless you have very dark skin. Your body can’t absorb more even if you stay out for hours..
4) Don’t shower with soap / lotion after sun. It stops the D from being absorbed through the skin. Just shower with no soap until the next morning.
Hi Wayne, It is extremely challenging to understand all that is and is not going through the minds of the majority of doctors regarding vitamin D, and nutrition in general. They have a very difficult job, with an inhuman number of things to remember and somehow use in the best possible ways for every individual health concern. They have enormous responsibilities but are often highly constrained in what they can do, by insurance, administration rules (in hospitals), official guidelines and by a general sense of what is normal for other doctors to do in similar circumstances.
Yet, doctors are the ones everyone needs to trust and rely upon regarding health decisions, including nutrition, as well as regarding treatment. Their work, their own health and the health of all their patients would be immensely better if everyone had enough 25-hydroxyvitamin D.
Your initial 18 ng/mL is typical for people who do not supplement vitamin D3 properly. See the Quraishi et al. 2014 graph at the start of: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/00-evi/ . The pile of dots at the lower left is my attempt at depicting the distribution of 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels of most people, at if they haven't had any significant UV-B skin exposure recently (or if they have, but have brown or black skin), when they don't take any vitamin D3 supplements. There's very little in food or multivitamins and UV-B increases the risk of skin cancer, so so proper supplements are the only proper approach. (Skin cancer kills a lot of people here in Australia, it is not taken seriously enough in many other countries.)
The graph shows much elevated risks of post-operative infection (the test subjects were all morbidly obese, but that probably does not raise the concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D their immune system needs) according to pre-operative 25-hydroxyvitamin D. All the levels above about 2.5% indicate that the immune system's performance is degraded, by 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels being below about 50 ng/mL
Your 40 ng/mL is a big improvement. 105 ng/mL is not a concern, but is probably more than is needed for immune system function, unless (and this is very common) you suffer from one or more inflammatory auto-immune conditions. Then, this may be a significant benefit, if done according to the Coimbra protocol (see also the McCullough and Batcheller protocols) cited and discussed at: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/06-adv/ Pete Batcheller is a retired US Navy fighter pilot and Commander. His Coimbra-like protocol has helped thousands of people with cluster headache and migraine: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/ and https://vitamindwiki.com/Cluster+headaches+substantially+reduced+by+10,000+IU+of+Vitamin+D+in+80+percent+of+people . Dr McCullough takes about 50,000 IU vitamin D3 a day to suppress his psoriasis. These high intakes require some monitoring of calcium and parathyroid hormone, limited or no calcium supplementation, and a variety of other measures to guard against disturbances of calcium-phosphate-bone metabolism - see the Coimbra and Amon articles cited at: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/06-adv/#01-higher .
.
I am a 1955 model, 70 kg 154 lb (let's just ignore the 72 kg my scales insist on - I have been staying up late and not exercising enough, writing about vitamin D) and I take 0.125 mg 50,000 IU vitamin D3 a week (7,143 IU/day) plus 200 IU from a multivitamin. I am sure my 25-hydroxyvitamin D level is above 50 and I guess that it is most likely below 100 ng/mL and unlikely to be anywhere near 150 ng/mL. That's good enough for me - I have not bothered to get it tested. This is me as an electronic technician mentioning my own approach, not pretending to give medical advice or suggesting that you should rely on anything I write. Please read the research articles and draw your own conclusions - or rely on the conclusions of suitably qualified people who have also read the research my web pages cite.
We've known about the association between vitamin D deficiency and poor Covid outcomes for more than two years now. It absolutely boggles my mind that "public health authorities" the world over haven't been shouting it from the rooftops. The excuse I hear from the doubters is, "Well, than means the public health people most think it won't work." So what? Even if it doesn't work, what's the harm in recommending it? There's basically no risk and potentially a great deal of benefit if all adults supplemented with a few thousand IU per day, and the cost is literally pennies.
FWIW, my wife and I take 5000 IU per day, except when we know we're getting good sun exposure with the sun no lower than 45 degrees above the horizon (which is isn't very difficult when we're in Florida).
I’ve been taking vitamins (D) and other supplements and so far I haven’t got sick,tested or 💉 I need to add that for years my vitamin D was between 21/23. Thanks 👍
There is very little vitamin D3 in food or multivitamins. It can be made in the skin by UV-B light, but this is only naturally available, far from the equator, in the middle of cloudless summer days. UV-B always damages DNA and raises the risk of skin cancer. Also, it does not produce much vitamin D for those who have brown or black skin.
Without proper supplementation or recent extensive UV-B white skin exposure, most people have only 5 to 25 ng/mL 25(OH)D.
Most doctors follow totally inadequate recommendations based on the Institute of Medicine 2011 report, which ignored the immune system, had a 25(OH)D target of only 20 ng/mL and falsely stated that 0.015 mg vitamin D3 a day (600) IU would enable 97.5% of "adults" to attain this level. In fact, this leads to average levels around 20 ng/mL, which is only 40% of what people need.
The only proper way to calculate how much vitamin D3 to take per day (or in larger quantities every week or so, averaging to the best daily intake) is as a ratio of bodyweight, with higher ratios for those suffering from obesity. Please see this recommendation by Professor of Medicine Sunil Wimalawansa and the research articles on which it is based:
For an average weight adult (70 kg 154 lb) the best intake quantities are 0.125 to 0.175 milligram a day (5000 to 7000 IU/day). "5000 IU" sounds like a lot, but it is a gram every 22 years, and pharma grade vitamin D3 costs about USD$2.50 a gram ex-factory.
This takes about 3 months to raise circulating 25(OH)D, due to the need for hydroxylation in the liver. This will strengthen innate and adaptive immune responses to bacterial, viral and fungal pathogens while greatly reducing the risk of self-destructive, wildly dysregulated, hyper-inflammatory responses such as those which drive sepsis, severe COVID-19, Kawasaki disease and MIS-C.
Chauss et al. 2021 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-021-01080-3 who show how TH1 regulatory lymphocytes from the lungs of hospitalised COVID-19 patients remain stuck in their pro-inflammatory startup program, never responding to their circumstances by switching to the anti-inflammatory shutdown program, primarily or solely due to these cells not having enough 25-hydroxyvitamin D to run their intracrine (AKA, not quite accurately autocrine) internal signaling system. For a summary of this dense article: https://aminotheory.com/cv19/icu/#2021-Chauss
For the great majority of people who do not supplement vitamin D3 properly, or have not done so for the few months it takes to raise their circulating 25(OH)D levels above 50 ng/mL 125 nmol/L, by far the most important early or late treatment is to boost their levels over this as soon as possible. For 70 kg bodyweight people, this is best done by a single oral dose of 1 milligram of calcifediol, which _is_ 25-hydroxyvitamin D. This goes straight into solution and raises the level over 50 ng/mL in about 4 hours. See: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/00-evi/#castillo for how 0.532 mg calcifediol was the primary cause for ICU admissions dropping from 50% to 2% and deaths from 8% to zero. 60 small 0.01 mg calcifediol tablets are non-prescription, for USD$20: https://dvelopimmunity.com/products/vitamin-d and https://nutritionmatters.substack.com/p/calcifediol-to-boost-25-hydroxyvitamin . This too is a recommendation from Prof. Wimalawansa - and both these recommendations have bean adopted by the FLCCC.
The second best approach, if calcifediol is not immediately available, is a single large (bolus) dose of vitamin D3 calcifediol. For 70 kg BW, 10 milligrams 400,000 IU is sufficient. This takes, very approximately, 4 days to raise the 25-hydroxyvitamin D level above 50 ng/mL, because it needs to be hydroxylated in the liver.
I support what you wrote, but am providing important details about target 25(OH)D levels, the quantities of vitamin D3 to take to attain this after several months, and the totally different approach which is needed for 4 hour repletion of 25(OH)D in clinical emergencies such as sepsis, COVID-19 etc.
Regarding higher vitamin D3 intakes to suppress auto-immune diseases such as MS, psoraisis, rheumatoid arthritis, cluster headache and migraine, please see the Coimbra, McCullough and Batcheller protocols cited at: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/06-adv/ .
Vitamin D Is Still The Best Candidate For A COVID-19 "Magic Bullet"
Amen. Shout it from the rooftops!
1) Use the app DMinder to monitor your sun exposure and check vit D is available naturally - generally the sun is too low in winter in the northern hemisphere to generate any D, so you have to supplement or go to Hawaii for winter… 😎
2) Have blood tests done to measure your D levels until they stabilise - probably needs 3-5 tests a year - especially if you need to supplement in winter which most will need. Get your blood to 60-100 iU range and keep it there.
3) Don’t use sunscreen - it blocks the D. Just stay out in the sun for 20 minutes- that’s all you need unless you have very dark skin. Your body can’t absorb more even if you stay out for hours..
4) Don’t shower with soap / lotion after sun. It stops the D from being absorbed through the skin. Just shower with no soap until the next morning.
Hi Wayne, It is extremely challenging to understand all that is and is not going through the minds of the majority of doctors regarding vitamin D, and nutrition in general. They have a very difficult job, with an inhuman number of things to remember and somehow use in the best possible ways for every individual health concern. They have enormous responsibilities but are often highly constrained in what they can do, by insurance, administration rules (in hospitals), official guidelines and by a general sense of what is normal for other doctors to do in similar circumstances.
Yet, doctors are the ones everyone needs to trust and rely upon regarding health decisions, including nutrition, as well as regarding treatment. Their work, their own health and the health of all their patients would be immensely better if everyone had enough 25-hydroxyvitamin D.
Your initial 18 ng/mL is typical for people who do not supplement vitamin D3 properly. See the Quraishi et al. 2014 graph at the start of: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/00-evi/ . The pile of dots at the lower left is my attempt at depicting the distribution of 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels of most people, at if they haven't had any significant UV-B skin exposure recently (or if they have, but have brown or black skin), when they don't take any vitamin D3 supplements. There's very little in food or multivitamins and UV-B increases the risk of skin cancer, so so proper supplements are the only proper approach. (Skin cancer kills a lot of people here in Australia, it is not taken seriously enough in many other countries.)
The graph shows much elevated risks of post-operative infection (the test subjects were all morbidly obese, but that probably does not raise the concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D their immune system needs) according to pre-operative 25-hydroxyvitamin D. All the levels above about 2.5% indicate that the immune system's performance is degraded, by 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels being below about 50 ng/mL
Your 40 ng/mL is a big improvement. 105 ng/mL is not a concern, but is probably more than is needed for immune system function, unless (and this is very common) you suffer from one or more inflammatory auto-immune conditions. Then, this may be a significant benefit, if done according to the Coimbra protocol (see also the McCullough and Batcheller protocols) cited and discussed at: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/06-adv/ Pete Batcheller is a retired US Navy fighter pilot and Commander. His Coimbra-like protocol has helped thousands of people with cluster headache and migraine: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/ and https://vitamindwiki.com/Cluster+headaches+substantially+reduced+by+10,000+IU+of+Vitamin+D+in+80+percent+of+people . Dr McCullough takes about 50,000 IU vitamin D3 a day to suppress his psoriasis. These high intakes require some monitoring of calcium and parathyroid hormone, limited or no calcium supplementation, and a variety of other measures to guard against disturbances of calcium-phosphate-bone metabolism - see the Coimbra and Amon articles cited at: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/06-adv/#01-higher .
.
I am a 1955 model, 70 kg 154 lb (let's just ignore the 72 kg my scales insist on - I have been staying up late and not exercising enough, writing about vitamin D) and I take 0.125 mg 50,000 IU vitamin D3 a week (7,143 IU/day) plus 200 IU from a multivitamin. I am sure my 25-hydroxyvitamin D level is above 50 and I guess that it is most likely below 100 ng/mL and unlikely to be anywhere near 150 ng/mL. That's good enough for me - I have not bothered to get it tested. This is me as an electronic technician mentioning my own approach, not pretending to give medical advice or suggesting that you should rely on anything I write. Please read the research articles and draw your own conclusions - or rely on the conclusions of suitably qualified people who have also read the research my web pages cite.
We've known about the association between vitamin D deficiency and poor Covid outcomes for more than two years now. It absolutely boggles my mind that "public health authorities" the world over haven't been shouting it from the rooftops. The excuse I hear from the doubters is, "Well, than means the public health people most think it won't work." So what? Even if it doesn't work, what's the harm in recommending it? There's basically no risk and potentially a great deal of benefit if all adults supplemented with a few thousand IU per day, and the cost is literally pennies.
FWIW, my wife and I take 5000 IU per day, except when we know we're getting good sun exposure with the sun no lower than 45 degrees above the horizon (which is isn't very difficult when we're in Florida).
I want to tweet this brilliant post. What is your account ?
I’ve been taking vitamins (D) and other supplements and so far I haven’t got sick,tested or 💉 I need to add that for years my vitamin D was between 21/23. Thanks 👍
There is very little vitamin D3 in food or multivitamins. It can be made in the skin by UV-B light, but this is only naturally available, far from the equator, in the middle of cloudless summer days. UV-B always damages DNA and raises the risk of skin cancer. Also, it does not produce much vitamin D for those who have brown or black skin.
The best approach is for everyone to supplement sufficient vitamin D3 to raise their circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels at least to 50 ng/mL 125 nmol/L, which is what the immune system needs to function properly: Quraishi et al. 2014 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamasurgery/fullarticle/1782085 https://vitamindstopscovid.info/00-evi/#00-quraishi .
Without proper supplementation or recent extensive UV-B white skin exposure, most people have only 5 to 25 ng/mL 25(OH)D.
Most doctors follow totally inadequate recommendations based on the Institute of Medicine 2011 report, which ignored the immune system, had a 25(OH)D target of only 20 ng/mL and falsely stated that 0.015 mg vitamin D3 a day (600) IU would enable 97.5% of "adults" to attain this level. In fact, this leads to average levels around 20 ng/mL, which is only 40% of what people need.
The only proper way to calculate how much vitamin D3 to take per day (or in larger quantities every week or so, averaging to the best daily intake) is as a ratio of bodyweight, with higher ratios for those suffering from obesity. Please see this recommendation by Professor of Medicine Sunil Wimalawansa and the research articles on which it is based:
https://vitamindstopscovid.info/00-evi/#06-ratios
For an average weight adult (70 kg 154 lb) the best intake quantities are 0.125 to 0.175 milligram a day (5000 to 7000 IU/day). "5000 IU" sounds like a lot, but it is a gram every 22 years, and pharma grade vitamin D3 costs about USD$2.50 a gram ex-factory.
This takes about 3 months to raise circulating 25(OH)D, due to the need for hydroxylation in the liver. This will strengthen innate and adaptive immune responses to bacterial, viral and fungal pathogens while greatly reducing the risk of self-destructive, wildly dysregulated, hyper-inflammatory responses such as those which drive sepsis, severe COVID-19, Kawasaki disease and MIS-C.
Chauss et al. 2021 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-021-01080-3 who show how TH1 regulatory lymphocytes from the lungs of hospitalised COVID-19 patients remain stuck in their pro-inflammatory startup program, never responding to their circumstances by switching to the anti-inflammatory shutdown program, primarily or solely due to these cells not having enough 25-hydroxyvitamin D to run their intracrine (AKA, not quite accurately autocrine) internal signaling system. For a summary of this dense article: https://aminotheory.com/cv19/icu/#2021-Chauss
For the great majority of people who do not supplement vitamin D3 properly, or have not done so for the few months it takes to raise their circulating 25(OH)D levels above 50 ng/mL 125 nmol/L, by far the most important early or late treatment is to boost their levels over this as soon as possible. For 70 kg bodyweight people, this is best done by a single oral dose of 1 milligram of calcifediol, which _is_ 25-hydroxyvitamin D. This goes straight into solution and raises the level over 50 ng/mL in about 4 hours. See: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/00-evi/#castillo for how 0.532 mg calcifediol was the primary cause for ICU admissions dropping from 50% to 2% and deaths from 8% to zero. 60 small 0.01 mg calcifediol tablets are non-prescription, for USD$20: https://dvelopimmunity.com/products/vitamin-d and https://nutritionmatters.substack.com/p/calcifediol-to-boost-25-hydroxyvitamin . This too is a recommendation from Prof. Wimalawansa - and both these recommendations have bean adopted by the FLCCC.
The second best approach, if calcifediol is not immediately available, is a single large (bolus) dose of vitamin D3 calcifediol. For 70 kg BW, 10 milligrams 400,000 IU is sufficient. This takes, very approximately, 4 days to raise the 25-hydroxyvitamin D level above 50 ng/mL, because it needs to be hydroxylated in the liver.
I support what you wrote, but am providing important details about target 25(OH)D levels, the quantities of vitamin D3 to take to attain this after several months, and the totally different approach which is needed for 4 hour repletion of 25(OH)D in clinical emergencies such as sepsis, COVID-19 etc.
Regarding higher vitamin D3 intakes to suppress auto-immune diseases such as MS, psoraisis, rheumatoid arthritis, cluster headache and migraine, please see the Coimbra, McCullough and Batcheller protocols cited at: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/06-adv/ .