What is the deal with Vitamin D?

[Bronan the Barbarian]

Am I crazy for not supplementing, or are the vitamin D zealots crazy for doing so?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Do you not take any vitamins? If you do, there should be some D in them. If not, might as well start. Cheap insurance.

[jerji]

Barbarians are not at risk of deficiency since they get vitamin D from the liver of smitten foes.

[Bronan the Barbarian]

I take a cheap multi and drink a good amount of milk. But lately I've bumped into people online talking about the benefits of megadosing vitamin D, vitamin D sprays, etc. Not people with a financial stake, just posters on forums talking about how much better they feel, etc.

I also take creatine and fish oil everyday. I consider eating anything that isn't actual food to be a pain in the ass, but I do it because it's cheap insurance, to borrow your words. To your knowledge, is there any value in adding shit-ton of vitamin D to this list?

[Mark E. Hurling]

Or seals, don't forget the seals.

[Mark Rippetoe]

To your knowledge, is there any value in adding shit-ton of vitamin D to this list?

No, but I may be uninformed. Let's ask.

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

an article on Vit D from a guy who trains, is generally really smart (I think bio and now in premed) who has SS and PP as recommended reading.

http://www.eatmoveimprove.com/2009/1...-at-vitamin-d/

[nisora33]

At the moment, there's a great deal of interest in Vitamin D, and there's a growing body of research on its known and potential benefits. Some of these links will take you to research that, at this stage, should be taken with a large grain of salt. Everything from its effects on insulin sensitivity and fat loss to bone density and increased testosterone levels in men are being looked at. Here are some links, knock yourself out:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21154195
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19655244
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20498201
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/vitamin-d-000340.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18269634
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21154195
http://www.scribd.com/doc/37119595/D...ul-weight-loss
http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/7/1/28

On a related note: after a routine physical, some blood work showed that my Vitamin D levels were at the lower end of the reference range. This was about a month after I had experienced a sudden break in my foot while walking down some stairs outside my house, and a few months after I'd started having intermittent pain in the same part of that foot. These two events taken together were enough to compel me to start supplementing Vitamin D. Clinically, up to 50,000 I.U. weekly has been found to be safe. For the average person, that'd be going a bit overboard. For those who are deficient, 3,000-5,000 I.U. a day is the common recommendation. It's cheap and safe to take, so it won't hurt (and could help) to supplement with it.

-S.

[Wayne Riddle]

Taking around 2,000 should have no ill effects for the average adult. Depending on where you live you might want to up that. In Maine during the winter I'll take up to 10,000 IU's range and my blood work as come back with vitamin D in the "normal" range.

[tfarny]

It's a big part of the whole Paleo thing. I've been taking 5,000 iu daily for about a year. It's hard to pin my amazing health improvements during that year on just Vit D (I made a ton of health changes simultaneously) but this is the first year of my life without a cavity or a common cold. Your naked skin can produce about 10,000 IU per sunny day, so that seems like a safe and reasonable upper limit to supplement - you don't get very much exposure unless you work naked outside in a sunny place every day.