Preventing Colds and Flu through Vitamin D Supplementation

 

Optimal Vitamin D levels produce many benefits throughout the body including the prevention and treatment of many disorder ranging from Osteoporosis to improved heart health with reduction in heart attack risk to prevention of many different types of cancer.

During the winter in particular – high levels of Vitamin D are highly protective against illness including the flu.  However, you must get your blood levels high enough.  The tricky part is that the dose any individual needs to take to achieve ideal Vitamin D levels varies considerably from 600iu – 10,000iu per day!  Therefore you should test your Vitamin D levels overtime to determine your ideal daily dose!

The ideal way to get optimal levels of Vitamin D is to let your body create it through Safe Sun Exposure (see previous blog on this subject here:  http://workoutanytime.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-facts-on-safe-sun-exposure-and.html  However this is easier said than done – particularly in winter.   In addition, too much sun is clearly a strong risk factor for skin cancer!      Enter Vitamin D supplementation.

The form of Vitamin D to take is Vitamin D-3 not the Vitamin D-2 form and all experts agree on this!     However when it comes to dosage things get much trickier.  It is possible – although extremely rare - to overdose on Vitamin D supplements.   Vitamin D Toxicity only occurs when consuming huge daily doses for long periods of time.

This is why simple blood testing is recommended which can easily be done through a physician, but it is also legal to order your own Vitamin D test without a prescription.   The test you want is called a 25(OH)D blood test and is offered by all major labs.  

You can order an at home test on Amazon.   The at-home tests use a simple finger prick – then you put a drop of blood on the enclosed paper and send back in to the labs.    You can also order your own blood test online and go to a lab to have blood drawn.   For more information on ordering Vitamin D blood tests go here:  https://www.questhealth.com/product/vitamin-d-test-17306M.html?srsltid=AfmBOopoSvpTj2glbo_MYXo2vMk0ILV-RjTUOw2uH46fGEZwES7eE5h4 or here:  https://www.ondemand.labcorp.com/lab-tests/vitamin-d-test?srsltid=AfmBOoqubz4totHYuOrN-_q1q-axjiF_41RAdHCy_HfYlXHzrqoWWcEx

Ideal versus Acceptable Blood Levels of Vitamin D

There is a big difference between what is considered “acceptable” or okay and ideal blood levels.   Here are the classifications of different blood levels of Vitamin D. according to the Vitamin D Council:

0 – 30 ng/mL is very low and considered a deficiency

30 – 39 ng/mL is better but still insufficient for optimal health and disease prevention.

40 – 100 ng/mL is optimal

Above 150 ng/mL is toxic!

The key is to test and if low take a supplement then retest 2 – 3 months after regular vitamin d use because each person is different in how much supplementation they need based on many factors including sun exposure and skin type.     The RDA for Vitamin D for infants is 400IU/10mcg.    For Children 1 – 13 and adults through age 70 the RDA is 600iu’s and for those over 70 the RDA is 800iu.

Unfortunately, these recommended dosages are way too low for many people who require much higher dosages to get into the optimal range.  This is the reason testing is really worthwhile – so you can optimize your Vitamin D dosage based on your genetics.   In many cases people need 4,000iu – 10,000iu or more per day for at least a month to get where they need to be for optimal health!   For dosing guidelines based on your blood levels check here:   https://www.grassrootshealth.net/blog/finding-right-dose-vitamin-d/

Preventing Vitamin D Toxicity through the Co-Administration of Vitamin K-2

As stated above Vitamin D toxicity is very rare, and there is also a key co-factor that can decrease the chance of any toxicity when taking Vitamin D.   This co-factor is Vitamin K-2 (not to be confused with Vitamin K-1 found in many plants).    In an ideal world, you can get all the Vitamin K-1 you need from eating plenty of green, leafy vegetables, and your body can turn it into K-2.   Unfortunately, this conversion is lacking in many people.

More importantly K-2 is can be taken with Vitamin D.    K-2 is best taken as a supplement in the MK7 version which has been heavily researched and shown to improve bone health and prevent arterial calcification which can potentially occur with too much Vitamin D.    For a more complete understanding behind how K-2 works with Vitamin D and why it is a great idea to take the MK-7 vorm of K-2 with Vitamin D check out this article :   https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2024/03/05/vitamins-d3-and-k2-coronary-artery-disease.aspx

Taking 100 – 200 mcg per day of Vitamin K-2 will help optimize the effects of Vitamin D and minimize risks associated with Vitamin D Supplementation.   There are combined Vitamin D and K2 Supplements such as Now Mega D-3 and MK-7 which contains 5,000iu’s of Vitamin D and 180mcg of MK-7 form of K2.