Recommendations for Vitamin D3?

[staceyshoe]

I want to start taking vitamin D3. Are some brands better than others? How do I know I'm getting a quality supplement? (Feel free to SPAM me!)

[Llyra]

Wondering about this too...

[kjbrown92]

I use Vital Nutrients because they don't have a lot of weird ingredients in their supplements. For my kids, I use Carlson drops (it's Vitamin D3 suspended in coconut oil). I just put their drops in grape juice in the morning. If someone is sick, they get extra.

[SandyMom]

We use Dr. Mercola's Vitamin D Spray and we love it. No pills to swallow, measured doses, tastes great, no sugar, starch, corn, wheat, soy, gluten, eggs, salt, or dairy.

[Violet2]

I looked it up for you on Consumer Labs.com (great resource for supplements).

The following brands were third party tested. The pills contain what they say they contain and pass purity standards.

GNC brand D3
Lifetime Liquid D3
Nature's Bounty
Pure Encapsulations
Sundown Naturals D
Vitamin World D3

I would buy a liquid over a pill; the liquid is better absorbed.

Other brands may be just fine, they just weren't tested by CL. My brand hasn't been tested. I'm not too worried about it.

When you get into mixed supplements with more than just D in them, there are some brands that did not pass CL's testing protocols. Just FYI.

HTH
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[FrannieP]

Originally Posted by SandyMom

We use Dr. Mercola's Vitamin D Spray and we love it. No pills to swallow, measured doses, tastes great, no sugar, starch, corn, wheat, soy, gluten, eggs, salt, or dairy.

This is what we use also. Very good stuff imo.
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[sbgrace]

We've used pure encapsulations and something we get at our doctor's office. I like forms that come in 5,000 IU for hubby and I (1000 IU for kids) and in my son's case are allergen free.

I corrected a deficiency very quickly with a powder form of D3 (I went from 20ish to 78 in less than two months). I don't think the brand or even form matters much with D3 assuming you're buying from a reputable company and it's D3. But people typically need 1000 IU per 25 pounds to maintain their vitamin D levels and much more to increase a deficiency. So I think it's important to find a form that comes in 5,000 IU for adults. You don't want to be swallowing 20 400 IU pills a day.

[kjbrown92]

Originally Posted by SandyMom

We use Dr. Mercola's Vitamin D Spray and we love it. No pills to swallow, measured doses, tastes great, no sugar, starch, corn, wheat, soy, gluten, eggs, salt, or dairy.

Can you tell me what else is in it besides Vitamin D? I couldn't find anything on the website about what's in it, only what's not in it, and that doesn't help me.

[SandyMom]

Originally Posted by kjbrown92

Can you tell me what else is in it besides Vitamin D? I couldn't find anything on the website about what's in it, only what's not in it, and that doesn't help me.

Click on the picture of the Vitamin D spray at the very bottom of page and it will show you a close-up of the label and all ingredients.

[iamme]

Originally Posted by kjbrown92

I use Vital Nutrients because they don't have a lot of weird ingredients in their supplements. For my kids, I use Carlson drops (it's Vitamin D3 suspended in coconut oil). I just put their drops in grape juice in the morning. If someone is sick, they get extra.

I just got the Carlson drops, and the dropper part was detached from the lid. The HFS was less than helpful since I didn't have my receipt, so I called the contact number on the bottle and they are were very nice, offering to send me a new bottle. Woo-hoo!

Originally Posted by sbgrace

We've used pure encapsulations and something we get at our doctor's office. I like forms that come in 5,000 IU for hubby and I (1000 IU for kids) and in my son's case are allergen free.

I corrected a deficiency very quickly with a powder form of D3 (I went from 20ish to 78 in less than two months). I don't think the brand or even form matters much with D3 assuming you're buying from a reputable company and it's D3. But people typically need 1000 IU per 25 pounds to maintain their vitamin D levels and much more to increase a deficiency. So I think it's important to find a form that comes in 5,000 IU for adults. You don't want to be swallowing 20 400 IU pills a day.

This is basically what my new chiro told me, except he prefers either liquid or sublingual for better absorption. I am currently taking 10,000 IUs to battle being sick and around sick dc.

Thanks for sharing this info-I found it very helpful! So glad to hear you are better,too!

[mbravebird]

Originally Posted by sbgrace

I corrected a deficiency very quickly with a powder form of D3 (I went from 20ish to 78 in less than two months). I don't think the brand or even form matters much with D3 assuming you're buying from a reputable company and it's D3. But people typically need 1000 IU per 25 pounds to maintain their vitamin D levels and much more to increase a deficiency. So I think it's important to find a form that comes in 5,000 IU for adults. You don't want to be swallowing 20 400 IU pills a day.

sbgrace, what differences did you see in yourself when going from 20ish to 78? Just curious.

[sbgrace]

Originally Posted by mbravebird

sbgrace, what differences did you see in yourself when going from 20ish to 78? Just curious.

I was also correcting a coq10 deficiency in that time range so I can't directly attribute all of it to vitamin D. I know a good portion of this was directly attributable to the D as I didn't start coq10 for about a month into my high dose D. The biggest thing was an increase in energy. I felt like I could function finally. Before that I felt like I had flu level of exhaustion all the time. But I had significant bone and muscle pain that completely went away (my low 20's number was actually after 4 to 5 months of supplementing at 5,000 IU per day most days so I likely started extremely low). The muscle pain was also caused by the coq10 but I'm certain the bone pain and a portion of the muscle pain was D related. I feel like it helped me cognitively as well (I certainly had cognitive fog and memory issues) but it's hard to say what part of that was the coq10 and what part was D--it was longer to fix. I think my immune system is much healthier. I've not caught a cold or flu all winter. I've not had asthma (mine was adult onset) since I corrected my level either but how much is the D effect on asthma and how much is because mine was viral triggered and I've not had a virus I don't know.

I'm babbling. But definitely it was affecting my health.

[mbravebird]

Originally Posted by sbgrace

I was also correcting a coq10 deficiency in that time range so I can't directly attribute all of it to vitamin D. I know a good portion of this was directly attributable to the D as I didn't start coq10 for about a month into my high dose D. The biggest thing was an increase in energy. I felt like I could function finally. Before that I felt like I had flu level of exhaustion all the time. But I had significant bone and muscle pain that completely went away (my low 20's number was actually after 4 to 5 months of supplementing at 5,000 IU per day most days so I likely started extremely low). The muscle pain was also caused by the coq10 but I'm certain the bone pain and a portion of the muscle pain was D related. I feel like it helped me cognitively as well (I certainly had cognitive fog and memory issues) but it's hard to say what part of that was the coq10 and what part was D--it was longer to fix. I think my immune system is much healthier. I've not caught a cold or flu all winter. I've not had asthma (mine was adult onset) since I corrected my level either but how much is the D effect on asthma and how much is because mine was viral triggered and I've not had a virus I don't know.

I'm babbling. But definitely it was affecting my health.

Thank you! So interesting. I'm interested to see what could happen now that I've started supping higher amounts (I was just taking FCLO before, and tested in the 30's). Thanks!! Glad you're feeling better!!

[balancedmama]

Wow, it is good to hear that someone had noticeable changes after supplementing for D. I'm hoping I have the same, I tested at 17.

The supplement my HCP just sent me is RX vitamins Liqui-D3. It's suspended in olive oil.

[tinuviel_k]

I too noticed BIG changes after getting my vitamin D levels up to normal. By biggest change was my immune system.

Before I started taking vitamin D I was getting a cold virus twice a month from October-April. I would get a cold every othe rmonth in the spring/summer, too. And about 5 days into the cold I would usually develop a full-body case of horrible, itchy hives. They would last a week or ten days. I first got those after Thanksgiving, so I basically spent December through April with hives. It was terrible.

My daughter was in preschool, I parent helped there once a week, and everyone attributed it to the germies floating around. I knew that couldn't be it, though. Just because you are in a preschool setting doesn't mean you should be getting two colds a month!

I finally got in to see a new doctor, and he immediately put me on an elimination diet to see if we could rule out the hives. No luck. We checked my vitamin De levels and they were about 20. Really low! So I started supplementing under his direction at about 4000 IU. It wasn't enough at my next blood draw (level of 25) so I upped my dosage to 8000. That did the trick!
Now I take 6000 a day to maintain.

The winter after I started supplementing and got my levels up I got two colds. The year before (same preschool, same age group) I'd have two a month. My hive reaction trickled down only two days instead f ten.

This winter (2 years later) I've only gotten sick once! Both my husband and daughter have been ill two or three times, but I just don't seem to catch it. and no hives at all, thank goodness.

I need to start getting vitamin D into my six year old daughter, but I've been reluctant because blood draws are very traumatizing for her. I've hesitated to give her high doses because I don't want to over do it. However, when I talked to my doctor, he said I could safely give her 2000 IU a day at this point.