Is Vitamin D a scam?

[CrunchyChristianMama]

I just read this article and thought I would get some other opinions from you moms as well.

http://blog.grasslandbeef.com/the-vi...rce=newsletter

Vitamin D hype has everyone swallowing the "sunshine vitamin" like Oprah swallows fat loss scams. Scared of cancer? Eat vitamin D. Can't get into your skinny jeans? Eat vitamin D. Got diabetes? Eat vitamin D. Tired of your wife yelling at you for watching too much Celebrity Apprentice? Eat vitamin D.

Nobody is immune from "D" hype. Famed nutrition gurus from around the world have been pushing vitamin D on the masses. Thankfully, I'm not a nutrition guy. The thought of spreading wishy-washy advice with a cute trendy smile makes me nauseous. I enjoy solitude, research and more solitude. So much that I don't even carry my cell phone, just a bad attitude. And that's why I'm a chemist, because I enjoy sleuthing for real answers behind the hype, especially when it comes to "pills."

[onetrumpeter]

Read that this morning, too! Ugh. It's SO hard to know what to do! My vit D was low - 31, so I've been doing 2000 units/day of D3. But now I read this. My chiro has said a couple times something about how the trend is always changing - right now it's Vit. D, adrenals, it used to be ____? (can't recall, lol) He's not great at making a point but I did agree w/ the general idea that the health trends are just that - trends. I guess I'll just keep enjoying the sunshine I can (Mercola just sent an article about sunscreen - more to research lol!) and trust God to take care of me! He did give us quite an amazing sun, and bodies thrive in our environment, but oh so much gets in the way... sorry for rambling - need to go to bed!

[Chakra]

I don't think it is. My son has liver disease and he has problems with malabsorption and one thing he can't absorb well is vit d.

His doctors are CRAZY abouy keeping his D with in normal ranges. I have seen kids with his disease who don't have any D and they have horrible rickets and bone loss and bones that easily brake and don't heal. But it can usually be reversed in these kids with vit. D

So I don't think so...

[JessicaS]

It is likely overhyped but we do NEED vitamin d and it is highly likely most of us are deficient. How long have humans really been spending the majority of their time inside? Most of my family were all farmers, they would have been outside.

So yes and no IMO

[Peacemamalove]

^ I agree with abimommy !

[SuburbanHippie]

I agree with abimommy. I think Vit D is hyped up right now because almost everyone is deficient thanks to the skin cancer/sun scare.

The last time I had my level checked it was 65 ng/ml. This was after I had been supplementing 10,000 IUs for 7 months (while nursing a toddler). I know I was deficient before that even without a test. I was sick all the time. I rarely get sick anymore. In fact, I just got over my first illness that I've had since I started supplementing.

There are always going to be naysayers when it comes to taking supplements, practicing homeopathy, etc. If it doesn't come straight out of the FDA's mouth, then it's not the "norm" and mainstream people just can't live outside of the norm. It's their loss.

[Marnica]

Originally Posted by SuburbanHippie

I agree with abimommy. I think Vit D is hyped up right now because almost everyone is deficient thanks to the skin cancer/sun scare.

The last time I had my level checked it was 65 ng/ml. This was after I had been supplementing 10,000 IUs for 7 months (while nursing a toddler). I know I was deficient before that even without a test. I was sick all the time. I rarely get sick anymore. In fact, I just got over my first illness that I've had since I started supplementing.

There are always going to be naysayers when it comes to taking supplements, practicing homeopathy, etc. If it doesn't come straight out of the FDA's mouth, then it's not the "norm" and mainstream people just can't live outside of the norm. It's their loss.

[tireesix]

Mine was 27 last time I got checked, I have had a course of Vit D injections, don't know what it is now.

They kept saying my low vitamin D was the reason I was in so much pain with my Fibro, they keep forgeting though that when I developed Fibro, I had normal vit D levels and I have only become low in the past 5 years.

I reckon its over hyped.

[tinuviel_k]

I don't think it is a scam, but perhaps it is hyped up at the moment.

All I know is that after 10 years of living in a region with very low sunlight (northern and quite rainy) I had very low vitamin D levels. I also started getting sick more times each year after five years, ending up with me getting sick 1-2X a month in the fall/winter/spring, and got horrible itchy week-long cases of hives with each cold (after 10 years of living in this area). When my doctor checked my D levels and had me start supplementing with D3 drops, my colds went away within a few months, and within six months I stopped getting hives when I did have a cold. My doctor hypothesised that my D deficient immune system was going hayware and attacking my own body, thus the hives in reaction to the cold virus.
I now get a cold maybe 2-3 times a year instead of 10+ times a year. I changed nothing except for the vitamin D.

It has crossed my mind that taking oral vitamin D isn't ideal, and I have worried about the long-term effects of it. However, I don't see much of a chose in a case like mine. For 7-8 months out of the year it is hard to impossible to get enough sun for D production, and for a good deal of our sun season we have total cloud cover anyway. The only real option I have would be to get a tanning bed and calibrate it with UVB bulbs (conventional tanning beds use UVA, and for D production you need B). But this comes with its own set of risks and is really expensive, so I don't know what the good solution is.

[cheryllynn]

I do not think it's a scam at all. I do think that people's vit D levels have dropped because of being scared out of the sun and using sun screen.

I would recommend being tested so that you know where you are with blood levels, then supplement with D3 or make sure you get 20 - 30 minutes of sun exposure on arms and legs every day.

The more I read on D3, the more I am impressed with its importance.

My blood test results showed low calcium even though taking double RDA. Once my Vit D results started climbing, then my calcium was also increasing.

Saying vit D cures everything from A - Z may be hyped, but that does not decrease the importance of this vitamin in our health.

[Sharlla]

i take 5000ius of d3 and have seen a marked improvement on my seasonal depression and energy
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[AllyRae]

I think that popping a vitamin d pill in order to cure all diseases and lose weight is likely not realistic and anyone who says that vitamin d pills can cure almost anything are probably over hyping it. But, I do think there are immense psychological, immune, and physical benefits to sun exposure every day. I have absolutely no belief that being outside every day will cure my bone marrow condition (which is "technically" considered a neoplasm). But I do think that being outside every day in conjunction with regular exercise and a healthy diet do help to keep me healthy enough so that my condition doesn't have a big impact every day. The same combination is essential to my child on the autism spectrum to keep his behaviors regulated and essential to my immune-deficient daughter to keep her healthy. But do I think it's all vitamin D? Nope. It's natural vitamin d combined with a healthy lifestyle in general.

But anyone who thinks they can down a handful of vitamin d pills every day while eating candy bars and potato chips every day and magically cure every disease is probably a bit off track. :

[MyLilPwny]

I read that too last night and I was wondering how could vitamin D be a scam when even the WAPF talks about the importance of this fat-soluble vitamin in every native tradition studied. So I would guess that the author of that article from U.S. Wellness Meats is talking about it being a scam as a "cure-all" for everything, like take this one thing and you'll be cured and you don't need to worry about anything else.

[cheryllynn]

I reread the article and found that he mentions synthetic vitamin D multiple times (D2) but not the supposed natural version D3.

I took 50,000 units D2 for six months and it did nothing to increase my D levels. I switched to D3 and 5,000 units daily and had significant positive improvement.

I would definitely check the vitamin D that is in your supplement and make sure it is D3.

[4evermom]

Originally Posted by cheryllynn

I reread the article and found that he mentions synthetic vitamin D multiple times (D2) but not the supposed natural version D3.

I took 50,000 units D2 for six months and it did nothing to increase my D levels. I switched to D3 and 5,000 units daily and had significant positive improvement.

I would definitely check the vitamin D that is in your supplement and make sure it is D3.

Yeah, he talks about natural vitamin D from cod liver oil being good but not synthetic vitamin D. Fish oil is listed as the source for the vitamin D in one of my D3 supplements. Not sure what the fish free ones use...

[janeshep]

Vitamin D is definitely not a scam. It's not overblown that most people are deficient because the government recommendations have never been adequate and with all the sunscreen use. Will it cure and prevent everything? No, but you can't be healthy without levels above 50 ng/ml. And it takes a lot of vitamin D to get there. There's a ton of research on this. It has to be D3. D2 is not safe or effective.

What's really good to know is that vitamin D has been proven to prevent the flu in kids. Vitamin D has been proven, whereas the flu vaccine has not.

Jane

[thefreckledmama]

I don't think so. Here's a great article discussing Vitamin D and sunscreen playing into people being deficient, and why with adequate Vit. D, you don't even need sunscreen.

http://www.foodrenegade.com/should-you-use-sunscreen/

[KatWrangler]

Originally Posted by janeshep

Vitamin D is definitely not a scam. It's not overblown that most people are deficient because the government recommendations have never been adequate and with all the sunscreen use. Will it cure and prevent everything? No, but you can't be healthy without levels above 50 ng/ml. And it takes a lot of vitamin D to get there. There's a ton of research on this. It has to be D3. D2 is not safe or effective.

What's really good to know is that vitamin D has been proven to prevent the flu in kids. Vitamin D has been proven, whereas the flu vaccine has not.

Jane

Agreed. It is definately not a scam.

[Violet2]

That was a pretty bad article from a someone claiming to be a scientist. No bibliography. Very few references, lots of opinion. No matter what you may think about Vitamin D, I would base NOTHING on that article. Find a better source to support your personal position than that piece!

There has been a lot of research into D lately and it is really exciting stuff. I have seen/read lots of double blind placebo controlled studies which are the gold standard of medical science.

Here's an article on some of the more recent D science.

Medscape.com is free to join and you can read a lot of the studies there. Science Daily also has several good D articles.

V

[KatWrangler]

They are also studying the link of low vitamin D levels and respiratory illness.

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/ma...ticlekey=97964

My levels back in December were 16 and in March 22. I tell you, my body just ached. I was exhausted all the time too. Right now I am on 50,000 IU Vitamin D.