As you know, I’m from New Zealand. I always say that and people say, “Why do you keep saying that for all the time?” Well, why not? Now, let’s talk about vitamin D. this is an important topic. I can remember as a student a long time ago now, I don’t know what, 30 something years ago, we were told that vitamin D was toxic. It was bad for the body and you shouldn’t exceed certain amounts and you’re going to get liver toxicity and things like this. Now, doctors are recommending 110, 120 nanograms per milliliter, which is quite a high dose because they’re seeing, starting to see a link and studies are validating this. Vitamin D actually is a hormone. It acts like a hormone in the body. It activates over 2000 of our genes, which is about what, 7% or something of our gene pool.
So if you’re living in a country without sufficient sunlight, it’s not really good because what happens is the ultraviolet and B spectrum converts. You’ve got some cholesterol there under your skin for example. You will have an epithelial, sort of like a cholesterol level here in your skin, which gets converted quite actively to vitamin D. And then the D gets converted to D3 which you really need, the cells need to access, especially to work on genes, you’ve got to have it in the D3 form. And that occurs in the kidneys and in the liver.
So if you’re like me and you eat lots of oily fish, I love eating mackerel and I like eating salmon and I eat all kinds of herring and fish like that, and I spend a lot of time in the sun. I’m pretty brown, I’ve been painting. So I spent a lot of time outside in the garden, in the sun. Now I don’t supplement D, but my levels, I just had a blood test back only a few weeks ago. 88, which is pretty darn good for someone who doesn’t supplement with vitamin D. I’d say the sun exposure and the diet rich in oily fish make a difference. Now, I’m not even supplementing omega 3 or fish oils because I’ve really stepped up my intake of oily fish. Not for everybody, okay. You might not like fish, but vitamin D is proving to be such an incredibly important vitamin for many different reasons, but particularly for our immune system. Research has also shown that it helps to seal the leaky gut. Now, first thing you want to do when you’re watching this video, is write down appointment to get vitamin D level tested.
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Make sure you get vitamin D3 tested or cholecalciferol, so D3, and you need to get a blood test done to find out what your levels are and then dose accordingly. Now, vitamin D capsules can come in 500 or 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000, so what do you take? Well, I recommend on average between three to 5,000 units per day and stick on that. Particularly winter time, especially if you’re having insomnia and depression and mood disorders and things like that. Stay on a higher level, get it tested after 12 weeks to see where it’s at. But also, try and increase your intake of fish if you can, or oily fish or fatty fish, maybe even an omega 3, an omega 3 with some vitamin D added.
Vitamin D supplements are best taken with a fatty meal, so with a bit of butter or a bit of oil or some type of fat because that will aid and improve the digestion. You’ll find that when you regularly take D, you’ll improve, especially if your levels are low. I cannot tell you how many patients I’ve tested over the years that came back with almost no vitamin D or so negligible it can be barely seen. One patient in the UK had a level that was hardly detectable. What really impressed me with this patient is when we got her levels up to around 70, is all her anxiety disappeared.
She had a massive anxiety disorder, which completely disappeared when the D came up. So this woman didn’t need to go on medications. She needed a vitamin D test. But like many GPs, her GP, her medical doctor, didn’t ever test the vitamin D until we asked for the test, and even the doctor was shocked to see how low. Sometimes it just takes a bit of a prod or a poke by someone like me to a medical doctor, to get them to understand that all patients need to get vitamin D tested, especially the ones who live the furthest from the equator.
Now, interesting observation, multiple sclerosis and conditions, various other types of autoimmune nervous system conditions seem to be much more prevalent in the areas furthest away from the equator. Scotland and the South Island of New Zealand have got the world’s highest rates of MS, multiple sclerosis. Also, they’re very low down and high up on the globe, so they’re not quite getting the sunlight. Every single MS patient I’ve ever seen had rock bottom levels of vitamin D, and I’ve seen a few of them. So make sure you get it tested and the lower you are the higher you can supplement, but just be careful.
You don’t need to take 10,000 per day. 5,000 per day is awfully fine if you take just the one capsule with a meal, and then as I said, in 12 weeks retest. Make sure that you keep testing, and if you’re not really getting the level up without dosage, takes some enzymes, digestive enzymes to help you. Also chew food properly, a bit of fatty food, and swallow capsule with that and you’ll get a better absorption. Give it all a crack. See what happens.