April 23, 2024 • 17 mins
Discover the secrets of vitamin D that I, Dr. Enrico Dolcecore, have gleaned from years of medical practice, and understand why this "sunshine vitamin" is a cornerstone to our health. Prepare to be enlightened as we unearth the myriad ways in which vitamin D powers our body, from ensuring robust bone health to fortifying our immune system against a slew of diseases. You'll be taken on a journey through the crucial aspects of vitamin D, illuminated by stories from my personal experiences with patients and backed by emerging research that may very well redefine the approach to wellness and disease prevention.
As your guide, I'll arm you with the knowledge to tackle vitamin D deficiency head-on, exploring the ins and outs of supplementation, and the optimal ways to maintain healthy levels within your bloodstream. We'll break down the ideal dosages for different age groups and the telltale signs that your body is craving more of this vital nutrient. By the end of our discussion, the importance of high-quality supplements and the best practices for their administration will no longer be a mystery, ensuring you're well-equipped to take charge of your health and keep your family's vitamin D levels thriving all year round.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to another podcast of Living a Full Life.
I'm Dr Enrico Dolcecori.
Another week, another podcast.
Thanks for tuning in.
This week we're talking aboutthe specifics of vitamin D.
Why this vitamin, dr Enrico,and not anything else?
Well, it's because I'm Dr D andit's vitamin D is my favorite
vitamin.
No, not that simple.
All vitamins are important, butthe controversy going back and
(00:24):
forth with vitamin D over thelast 40 years has been kind of
comical to watch from thesidelines.
I remember as a young doctor at24 years old, in my practice
telling people you need to takevitamin D.
I started up in Canada, inWestern Canada, where we're
sheltered in six layers ofclothing in the winter inside,
trying to stay warm the sun.
(00:44):
I remember I'd finish work at 6o'clock at night and it would
already be dark.
Layers of clothing in thewinter inside, trying to stay
warm uh, the sun.
I remember you know I'dfinished work at you know, six
o'clock at night.
It'd already be dark.
Uh, go home, it's dark, wake up, it's dark.
So tough to get the naturalsource of vitamin d, which is
the uv change in the skin, inthe melatonin, the melanocytes
in our skin that change andconvert vitamin d, vitamin d2,
vitamin d3 into the pathwaysthat we now know today and how
(01:05):
it works.
So let's talk about vitamin Dand what it really does in the
body.
There's three crucial things itdoes.
It has a major role in thehuman body.
We need it, and then there'scertain sources that we can get
it from.
So we'll cover all three ofthose topics in today's podcast
and we'll make it digestible andeasy for you to absorb.
Wow, that was a bunch of puns.
(01:26):
All in one, that was my best.
Whatever, perfect, all right.
So vitamin D is involved in manydifferent pathways.
The one that the literature hasshown for over 50 years is the
calcium absorption pathway.
We know that we need vitamin Dand magnesium in the bloodstream
in a healthy level to absorbcalcium.
Now how does calcium getabsorbed?
(01:47):
We eat it through our food, wedigest it, we absorb it into the
bloodstream and then it's gotto be transported to the bone.
That's primarily where calciumgoes and, believe it or not, our
heart uses quite a bit ofcalcium, as well as the ion pump
exchange pathway, the energythat it uses in cellular
function.
So calcium plays a big role inthis, but the way it moves is
(02:09):
transported through acombination and a pathway.
With vitamin D, they got to tagteam this like Macho man and
Hulk Hogan, right?
So this is how they got to goin and absorb things into the
bloodstream.
So calcium absorption theliterature has been very sound
on this that we need to makesure that we have adequate
levels of both vitamin D andcalcium to help stimulate these
(02:31):
physiological functions ofcalcium.
That's what we do.
So the next thing, because ofcalcium absorption, I kind of
led to number two.
It's bone health.
So with vitamin D, we get thecalcium to where it needs to go
into our bones, and it helpssustain and maintain good bone
health through our lives.
Vitamin D deficiency early on100 years ago or 200 years ago,
(02:54):
just with the settlers movingacross the ocean and all that
and all those stories that weheard from all the travelers
that came across.
I went brain dead there for asecond.
I can't remember any of them.
What was it?
Jacques Cabot and all thoseguys that came across.
They had conditions likerickets or osteomalacia in
(03:16):
adults, where there was justbone deficiency or calcium
deficiency in the bone whichwould lead to rickets and bow
legs, and so we know this fromthere and we know that vitamin D
and they started bringing fruitback and forth and they
understood that vitamin D orvitamins in the fruits were
important when doing long three,four, five month voyages on
boats.
So that was the whole pointthere.
(03:36):
So bone health we know thatfrom the literature as well.
Now here's where the new coolstuff is all about Immune system
regulation.
We now know that vitamin Dplays a monumental role in the
immune system, helping toregulate both the innate and
adaptive immune responses, bothinnate and adaptive.
So adaptive is when you'retrying to fight something and
your immune system is keeping up, you don't get much symptoms
(03:59):
and you kind of get through it,and then, when it's not adaptive
, you get really sick and youget sinusy.
That's what it helps with inthat whole point.
It has a multi-inflammatoryproperties that play a role in
reducing the risk of evenautoimmune disease and
infections.
So this is where the newliterature is going and it's
very sound so far.
Cell growth and differentiationso it's even important for the
(04:21):
growth of our cells.
Vitamin D plays a huge role inthere.
From the proliferation todifferentiation in various
tissues and organs, all cells inthe body require vitamin D.
It may have implications inprevention of treatment of
certain types of cancer andinfluencing cell cycle control
and apoptosis, programmed celldeath.
So it is intricated in so manydifferent things and you can say
(04:44):
the same argument, say Enrico.
Well, what about vitamin A?
Doesn't vitamin A play a majorrole in our bodies as well?
And absolutely that's true too,but vitamin D plays crucial
roles across so many differentsystems in the body, from the
nervous system to the immunesystem, to bone circulatory.
Heart plays such a huge roleacross so many different things.
That's why it's so important tomake sure we're not deficient
(05:14):
in vitamin D.
A number five is muscle function.
Vitamin D plays so much role inmuscle function and strength,
so adequate levels of vitamin Dmay help reduce the risk of
falls and fractures in olderadults by preserving muscle mass
and function.
This is what happens when youstudy things repetitively and
actually do science.
Science never ends.
There's never a conclusion or afact.
If there ever is, it becomes alaw.
There's only a few laws of theuniverse the law of gravity.
(05:35):
There's no law of vitamin Dbecause there's so many theories
around it.
So science needs to continuegoing and because of the study
of bone health and calcium, wenow know well, holy smokes,
there's a whole different sideof the coin of why vitamin D is
so important in preventing bonebreaks, and it wasn't as simple
as well.
Yeah, if you have strongerbones, they're going to be
harder to break.
(05:56):
That's one role.
The other role is that it keepslean muscle mass strong.
It keeps whatever lean musclemass you have strong, which
maintains balance as we getolder, maintains movement we can
walk up and down the stairs onour own accord these little
things that reduce the risks offalling in itself, yet alone
breaking a bone.
So both muscle and bone isn'tthat cool.
(06:17):
I think that's cool.
Cardiovascular health Someresearch suggests that vitamin D
may have a beneficial effectson cardiovascular health,
including regulation of bloodpressure, reduction of
inflammation and improvement ofendothelial function.
Great, and that's newerresearch 15 years old, I mean,
(06:59):
it's newer by the time researchgets done and we read it from a
clinical perspective.
It's been in there for at least10 years.
It takes 10 years to get to thedoctor's tables.
My wife and I are nerds, so weread all the new stuff.
But new stuff needs to betested before we throw it on a
podcast and tell you, hey, gorun out and get vitamin K and
start drinking it Because, well,we don't know where the
research goes with that, so wedon't say that.
But this is 10, 15 years old.
The cardiovascular health andthe newer stuff is now brain
function and gene expression.
So the brain is mood regulation.
Vitamin D there's evidencesuggesting that vitamin D may
play a role in mood regulationand mental health.
They see this with people thatare vitamin D deficient have an
increased risk of depression andmood disorders.
This could be a co-factor insome of these mood disorders and
(07:23):
depression, where people arejust malnourished, tired,
lethargic, not sleeping well,depressed right, they're already
depressed, then they don'tsleep well even more, then they
get anxious and then they don'tsleep well.
You know, it's just thisnegative feedback loop.
So if we're not eating well,not sleeping well, everything's
going to get depleted.
So it could be a co-factorthat's found across this.
But people with depression andmood disorders have a tendency
(07:47):
to show lower vitamin D as well.
Is vitamin D going to be thecure to mood disorders?
No, we can't link, we can'tmake those types of links,
causation and factors, right, wecan't do that.
But it is shown in literatureto show that mood regulation can
be there as well, and I'venoticed over my 17-year career,
that people that have goodvitamin D levels or the people
(08:08):
that we help get into a normalvitamin D level do better with
their mood.
That's kind of neat.
And lastly, gene expression thisstuff is what I love, but I'll
get carried away and thispodcast will be two hours long.
Gene expression Vitamin D actsas a transcription factor
regulating the expression ofnumerous genes involved in
various psychological processesand physiological processes
(08:31):
throughout the body.
I'm going to just stop there,because that's the new frontier
of the science for vitamin D.
So there you go.
Hope I wowed you a little bitwith those things.
But the role in the body is soimportant.
It's essential for maintaininghealthy bones.
It helps the body absorbcalcium from the diet.
It's important for bone growth,development maintenance
(08:53):
throughout life.
It plays a role in regulatingthe immune system, muscle
function and cell growth.
That's what you need to walkaway with today from this
podcast.
So why do we need it?
Vitamin D deficiency that'swhat we're talking about.
We need it so we're notdeficient.
Vitamin D deficiency can leadto various health problems,
including bone disorders likerickets in children.
Like I told you, insufficientlevels of vitamin D may also
(09:15):
have linked to increased risk ofcertain cancers, autoimmune
diseases, cardiovascular diseaseand mood disorders like
depression.
So that's why we want to bemaintaining it, because it plays
just too many roles across toomany different platforms, and if
these are the conditions thatwe've learned about, imagine how
many more we're going to learnabout.
So here's the most importantthing of the podcast how do you
(09:36):
maintain good vitamin D?
The primary source of vitamin Dnaturally is sunlight.
When the skin is exposed tosunlight, it synthesizes vitamin
D from that photo, from thephotons, to our skin.
The skin, the melanocytes,absorb it and then it
synthesizes that energy intovitamin D.
It's so cool the pathway, howthat happens just innately.
(09:59):
However, factors like where youlive in the world the closer to
the equator you are probably,the more sunlight you're going
to get right, season, time ofday, cloud cover, skin
pigmentation and the use ofsunscreen can even affect your
vitamin D, right?
So it's a double-edged sword.
Well, we need sunlight, but wealso need to wear sunscreen,
because constant sun damage canlead to melanoma and skin cancer
(10:21):
.
So we've got to play a role inthat.
We've got to protect ourselvesfrom the UV the UV that supplies
us with life.
So the goal is 20 minutes ofdirect sun exposure every day,
365 days a year, to your entirebody, not wearing pants and just
taking your shirt off and notin a one-piece swimsuit.
(10:44):
That's not enough.
You got to do more.
And if you expose yourself tomore than 20 minutes of direct
sunlight, especially here inFlorida, you put yourself at
risk of a sunburn, which youdon't want.
See what's going on.
So that is why we need tofortify and supply our nutrition
with vitamin D.
Supply our nutrition withvitamin D.
(11:07):
Apart from sunlight, sources ofvitamin D include fatty fish
like salmon, mackerel, tuna, eggyolks so don't just eat the egg
white.
Fortified foods like dairyproducts too.
They put the vitamin D in there.
And if you listen to our oldpodcast, we don't like fortified
food and processed food becauseit's really not nutritious.
So that's the problem there.
(11:27):
So eating whole foods is thebest way to do it.
So, folks, long story short, youneed to have a vitamin D
supplement.
It's got to be liquid formbecause that's the highest
absorbability, and you got to betaking about 5,000 IUs per day.
There you go.
You had to listen to the wholepodcast to get that last tip.
Saved it for the end.
That's what you got to do.
That's been it and I'm nottooting my own horn here, but
(11:50):
for 17 years I've been sayingthat and I was the first doctor
in my area to tell people totake 5,000 to 10,000 IUs per day
back in 2008.
I remember this.
They're like I'm taking 100.
This was 100, or the 500milligram capsules that they
were taking.
I'm like you need to take 10 ofthose 5,000.
And they're like what are youtalking about?
(12:11):
We showed them on their bloodwork and it was like pulling
teeth to get a primary carephysician to send them for
vitamin D at that time.
Oh, vitamin D.
Now they do it all the time.
So I guess I am tooting my ownhorn, but we were saying that
from that long ago because ofthe research that was there.
It was 10 years old by then In1995, this stuff was coming out.
So by the time I was inpractice in 2007, 2008, 2009, it
(12:34):
was 10 years it was in theliterature and we're at the
front runners.
And ever since then we stay atthe front of literature and
evidence-based science becausethat is what you need to know to
do and that's it.
That's it, folks.
So 5,000 to 10,000 liquid formyou can buy this stuff anywhere.
People still get confused aboutD2, d3.
(12:55):
You can't buy vitamin D2anywhere.
There's no such thing.
It's all vitamin D3.
So whatever vitamin D you buy,it's all vitamin D.
Please do not buy yournutraceuticals online,
especially wholesalers likeamazoncom.
Do not buy it.
You cannot find where thesource is coming from, where the
distributors are coming from.
(13:16):
You may not be getting it, andthere's an uptick in fraudulent
Chinese product here in theUnited States, from electronics
all the way to nutrition andfood.
It's a major problem right now.
They're getting around things.
They're just copying labels,putting them on bottles, making
them look identically the sameas the other companies, and the
(13:38):
company's like listen, we don'tdo that, we don't ship it like
that.
So you don't know what thesource is.
Unfortunately, nothing againstChina, but I mean you.
Just.
There's no way to.
The FDA can't cross referencethis, so we don't know what
we're getting.
Please do not buy online.
If you're going to buy online,find the reputable sources and
you co-manage it with yourdoctor, like.
Usually the doctors have to geta license or have their license
(14:00):
used on something like fullscript or biodesign or some some
type of a platform where adoctor signs off on it and then
you can have a link where you gointo your portal and you can
order anything you want and yourdoctor can see it at any point.
So if you ever have a sideeffect or if you ever feel
something, the doctor would belike, oh you know, why'd you
order all of those you didn'tneed.
(14:21):
You didn't need those.
Those three things Take, stoptaking those or whatever it is.
So that's my best advice.
Or just have somebody help you.
That's the best thing.
But vitamin D is safe.
Go to the shelf.
Go to the store at any of yourWhole Foods or organic stores.
Buy vitamin D.
You're in good shape there.
Stay well, stay healthy, getyour vitamin D Healthy levels,
(14:42):
if you ever get.
Your blood work is 50 to 70.
50 to 70.
The medical range is 30 to 90.
30 to 90.
When you look at that numberthat they give you so 30 is
deficient.
Now, medically, if you come inat 32, they're going to say, nah
, you're okay, but you're not.
You're well under 50.
(15:03):
You're deficient, You'redeficient.
That's the deficiency range.
Under 50 is deficient.
Under 30 is medically deficient.
Your medical doctor sees you at20.
They now have to prescribe you ashot, and I think a shot's
100,000 IUs, boom, and you mighthave to do that shot every week
for a few weeks to get yourlevel up.
This is what they do for B12too.
(15:23):
If you're chronically low B12,they tell you to get a shot,
because a shot goes directlyinto the bloodstream.
So that's what will happenmedically.
Otherwise, if you're under 50,you need to be taking five.
I would up it to 10,000 for awhile until you finish that
first bottle and then get to5,000 after that.
That's my tips.
(15:43):
Those are safe tips that I cansay on a podcast without any
slack here, because it'sperfectly safe for everyone.
Children, you just elevate it upto five years of age.
So at one they can do up to1,000.
At two, they can do up to 2,000IUs.
At three years old, they can doup to 3,000.
That's just a nice littleguidance for them to get them up
to the 5,000 I use per day atfive.
So then, that's why we doliquid.
(16:05):
You just drop five little dropson the tongue.
The whole family can do it.
A bottle lasts us about a month, and they range between 14 and
$24 for vitamin D, dependingwhere the sources come from.
And that's your investment forvitamin D Pretty easy for most
people to do have a great week,stay healthy, take care.
God bless.
Welcome to another podcast of Living a Full Life.
I'm Dr Enrico Dolcecori.
Another week, another podcast.
Thanks for tuning in.
This week we're talking aboutthe specifics of vitamin D.
Why this vitamin, dr Enrico,and not anything else?
Well, it's because I'm Dr D andit's vitamin D is my favorite
vitamin.
No, not that simple.
All vitamins are important, butthe controversy going back and
(00:24):
forth with vitamin D over thelast 40 years has been kind of
comical to watch from thesidelines.
I remember as a young doctor at24 years old, in my practice
telling people you need to takevitamin D.
I started up in Canada, inWestern Canada, where we're
sheltered in six layers ofclothing in the winter inside,
trying to stay warm the sun.
(00:44):
I remember I'd finish work at 6o'clock at night and it would
already be dark.
Layers of clothing in thewinter inside, trying to stay
warm uh, the sun.
I remember you know I'dfinished work at you know, six
o'clock at night.
It'd already be dark.
Uh, go home, it's dark, wake up, it's dark.
So tough to get the naturalsource of vitamin d, which is
the uv change in the skin, inthe melatonin, the melanocytes
in our skin that change andconvert vitamin d, vitamin d2,
vitamin d3 into the pathwaysthat we now know today and how
(01:05):
it works.
So let's talk about vitamin Dand what it really does in the
body.
There's three crucial things itdoes.
It has a major role in thehuman body.
We need it, and then there'scertain sources that we can get
it from.
So we'll cover all three ofthose topics in today's podcast
and we'll make it digestible andeasy for you to absorb.
Wow, that was a bunch of puns.
(01:26):
All in one, that was my best.
Whatever, perfect, all right.
So vitamin D is involved in manydifferent pathways.
The one that the literature hasshown for over 50 years is the
calcium absorption pathway.
We know that we need vitamin Dand magnesium in the bloodstream
in a healthy level to absorbcalcium.
Now how does calcium getabsorbed?
(01:47):
We eat it through our food, wedigest it, we absorb it into the
bloodstream and then it's gotto be transported to the bone.
That's primarily where calciumgoes and, believe it or not, our
heart uses quite a bit ofcalcium, as well as the ion pump
exchange pathway, the energythat it uses in cellular
function.
So calcium plays a big role inthis, but the way it moves is
(02:09):
transported through acombination and a pathway.
With vitamin D, they got to tagteam this like Macho man and
Hulk Hogan, right?
So this is how they got to goin and absorb things into the
bloodstream.
So calcium absorption theliterature has been very sound
on this that we need to makesure that we have adequate
levels of both vitamin D andcalcium to help stimulate these
(02:31):
physiological functions ofcalcium.
That's what we do.
So the next thing, because ofcalcium absorption, I kind of
led to number two.
It's bone health.
So with vitamin D, we get thecalcium to where it needs to go
into our bones, and it helpssustain and maintain good bone
health through our lives.
Vitamin D deficiency early on100 years ago or 200 years ago,
(02:54):
just with the settlers movingacross the ocean and all that
and all those stories that weheard from all the travelers
that came across.
I went brain dead there for asecond.
I can't remember any of them.
What was it?
Jacques Cabot and all thoseguys that came across.
They had conditions likerickets or osteomalacia in
(03:16):
adults, where there was justbone deficiency or calcium
deficiency in the bone whichwould lead to rickets and bow
legs, and so we know this fromthere and we know that vitamin D
and they started bringing fruitback and forth and they
understood that vitamin D orvitamins in the fruits were
important when doing long three,four, five month voyages on
boats.
So that was the whole pointthere.
(03:36):
So bone health we know thatfrom the literature as well.
Now here's where the new coolstuff is all about Immune system
regulation.
We now know that vitamin Dplays a monumental role in the
immune system, helping toregulate both the innate and
adaptive immune responses, bothinnate and adaptive.
So adaptive is when you'retrying to fight something and
your immune system is keeping up, you don't get much symptoms
(03:59):
and you kind of get through it,and then, when it's not adaptive
, you get really sick and youget sinusy.
That's what it helps with inthat whole point.
It has a multi-inflammatoryproperties that play a role in
reducing the risk of evenautoimmune disease and
infections.
So this is where the newliterature is going and it's
very sound so far.
Cell growth and differentiationso it's even important for the
(04:21):
growth of our cells.
Vitamin D plays a huge role inthere.
From the proliferation todifferentiation in various
tissues and organs, all cells inthe body require vitamin D.
It may have implications inprevention of treatment of
certain types of cancer andinfluencing cell cycle control
and apoptosis, programmed celldeath.
So it is intricated in so manydifferent things and you can say
(04:44):
the same argument, say Enrico.
Well, what about vitamin A?
Doesn't vitamin A play a majorrole in our bodies as well?
And absolutely that's true too,but vitamin D plays crucial
roles across so many differentsystems in the body, from the
nervous system to the immunesystem, to bone circulatory.
Heart plays such a huge roleacross so many different things.
That's why it's so important tomake sure we're not deficient
(05:14):
in vitamin D.
A number five is muscle function.
Vitamin D plays so much role inmuscle function and strength,
so adequate levels of vitamin Dmay help reduce the risk of
falls and fractures in olderadults by preserving muscle mass
and function.
This is what happens when youstudy things repetitively and
actually do science.
Science never ends.
There's never a conclusion or afact.
If there ever is, it becomes alaw.
There's only a few laws of theuniverse the law of gravity.
(05:35):
There's no law of vitamin Dbecause there's so many theories
around it.
So science needs to continuegoing and because of the study
of bone health and calcium, wenow know well, holy smokes,
there's a whole different sideof the coin of why vitamin D is
so important in preventing bonebreaks, and it wasn't as simple
as well.
Yeah, if you have strongerbones, they're going to be
harder to break.
(05:56):
That's one role.
The other role is that it keepslean muscle mass strong.
It keeps whatever lean musclemass you have strong, which
maintains balance as we getolder, maintains movement we can
walk up and down the stairs onour own accord these little
things that reduce the risks offalling in itself, yet alone
breaking a bone.
So both muscle and bone isn'tthat cool.
(06:17):
I think that's cool.
Cardiovascular health Someresearch suggests that vitamin D
may have a beneficial effectson cardiovascular health,
including regulation of bloodpressure, reduction of
inflammation and improvement ofendothelial function.
Great, and that's newerresearch 15 years old, I mean,
(06:59):
it's newer by the time researchgets done and we read it from a
clinical perspective.
It's been in there for at least10 years.
It takes 10 years to get to thedoctor's tables.
My wife and I are nerds, so weread all the new stuff.
But new stuff needs to betested before we throw it on a
podcast and tell you, hey, gorun out and get vitamin K and
start drinking it Because, well,we don't know where the
research goes with that, so wedon't say that.
But this is 10, 15 years old.
The cardiovascular health andthe newer stuff is now brain
function and gene expression.
So the brain is mood regulation.
Vitamin D there's evidencesuggesting that vitamin D may
play a role in mood regulationand mental health.
They see this with people thatare vitamin D deficient have an
increased risk of depression andmood disorders.
This could be a co-factor insome of these mood disorders and
(07:23):
depression, where people arejust malnourished, tired,
lethargic, not sleeping well,depressed right, they're already
depressed, then they don'tsleep well even more, then they
get anxious and then they don'tsleep well.
You know, it's just thisnegative feedback loop.
So if we're not eating well,not sleeping well, everything's
going to get depleted.
So it could be a co-factorthat's found across this.
But people with depression andmood disorders have a tendency
(07:47):
to show lower vitamin D as well.
Is vitamin D going to be thecure to mood disorders?
No, we can't link, we can'tmake those types of links,
causation and factors, right, wecan't do that.
But it is shown in literatureto show that mood regulation can
be there as well, and I'venoticed over my 17-year career,
that people that have goodvitamin D levels or the people
(08:08):
that we help get into a normalvitamin D level do better with
their mood.
That's kind of neat.
And lastly, gene expression thisstuff is what I love, but I'll
get carried away and thispodcast will be two hours long.
Gene expression Vitamin D actsas a transcription factor
regulating the expression ofnumerous genes involved in
various psychological processesand physiological processes
(08:31):
throughout the body.
I'm going to just stop there,because that's the new frontier
of the science for vitamin D.
So there you go.
Hope I wowed you a little bitwith those things.
But the role in the body is soimportant.
It's essential for maintaininghealthy bones.
It helps the body absorbcalcium from the diet.
It's important for bone growth,development maintenance
(08:53):
throughout life.
It plays a role in regulatingthe immune system, muscle
function and cell growth.
That's what you need to walkaway with today from this
podcast.
So why do we need it?
Vitamin D deficiency that'swhat we're talking about.
We need it so we're notdeficient.
Vitamin D deficiency can leadto various health problems,
including bone disorders likerickets in children.
Like I told you, insufficientlevels of vitamin D may also
(09:15):
have linked to increased risk ofcertain cancers, autoimmune
diseases, cardiovascular diseaseand mood disorders like
depression.
So that's why we want to bemaintaining it, because it plays
just too many roles across toomany different platforms, and if
these are the conditions thatwe've learned about, imagine how
many more we're going to learnabout.
So here's the most importantthing of the podcast how do you
(09:36):
maintain good vitamin D?
The primary source of vitamin Dnaturally is sunlight.
When the skin is exposed tosunlight, it synthesizes vitamin
D from that photo, from thephotons, to our skin.
The skin, the melanocytes,absorb it and then it
synthesizes that energy intovitamin D.
It's so cool the pathway, howthat happens just innately.
(09:59):
However, factors like where youlive in the world the closer to
the equator you are probably,the more sunlight you're going
to get right, season, time ofday, cloud cover, skin
pigmentation and the use ofsunscreen can even affect your
vitamin D, right?
So it's a double-edged sword.
Well, we need sunlight, but wealso need to wear sunscreen,
because constant sun damage canlead to melanoma and skin cancer
(10:21):
.
So we've got to play a role inthat.
We've got to protect ourselvesfrom the UV the UV that supplies
us with life.
So the goal is 20 minutes ofdirect sun exposure every day,
365 days a year, to your entirebody, not wearing pants and just
taking your shirt off and notin a one-piece swimsuit.
(10:44):
That's not enough.
You got to do more.
And if you expose yourself tomore than 20 minutes of direct
sunlight, especially here inFlorida, you put yourself at
risk of a sunburn, which youdon't want.
See what's going on.
So that is why we need tofortify and supply our nutrition
with vitamin D.
Supply our nutrition withvitamin D.
(11:07):
Apart from sunlight, sources ofvitamin D include fatty fish
like salmon, mackerel, tuna, eggyolks so don't just eat the egg
white.
Fortified foods like dairyproducts too.
They put the vitamin D in there.
And if you listen to our oldpodcast, we don't like fortified
food and processed food becauseit's really not nutritious.
So that's the problem there.
(11:27):
So eating whole foods is thebest way to do it.
So, folks, long story short, youneed to have a vitamin D
supplement.
It's got to be liquid formbecause that's the highest
absorbability, and you got to betaking about 5,000 IUs per day.
There you go.
You had to listen to the wholepodcast to get that last tip.
Saved it for the end.
That's what you got to do.
That's been it and I'm nottooting my own horn here, but
(11:50):
for 17 years I've been sayingthat and I was the first doctor
in my area to tell people totake 5,000 to 10,000 IUs per day
back in 2008.
I remember this.
They're like I'm taking 100.
This was 100, or the 500milligram capsules that they
were taking.
I'm like you need to take 10 ofthose 5,000.
And they're like what are youtalking about?
(12:11):
We showed them on their bloodwork and it was like pulling
teeth to get a primary carephysician to send them for
vitamin D at that time.
Oh, vitamin D.
Now they do it all the time.
So I guess I am tooting my ownhorn, but we were saying that
from that long ago because ofthe research that was there.
It was 10 years old by then In1995, this stuff was coming out.
So by the time I was inpractice in 2007, 2008, 2009, it
(12:34):
was 10 years it was in theliterature and we're at the
front runners.
And ever since then we stay atthe front of literature and
evidence-based science becausethat is what you need to know to
do and that's it.
That's it, folks.
So 5,000 to 10,000 liquid formyou can buy this stuff anywhere.
People still get confused aboutD2, d3.
(12:55):
You can't buy vitamin D2anywhere.
There's no such thing.
It's all vitamin D3.
So whatever vitamin D you buy,it's all vitamin D.
Please do not buy yournutraceuticals online,
especially wholesalers likeamazoncom.
Do not buy it.
You cannot find where thesource is coming from, where the
distributors are coming from.
(13:16):
You may not be getting it, andthere's an uptick in fraudulent
Chinese product here in theUnited States, from electronics
all the way to nutrition andfood.
It's a major problem right now.
They're getting around things.
They're just copying labels,putting them on bottles, making
them look identically the sameas the other companies, and the
(13:38):
company's like listen, we don'tdo that, we don't ship it like
that.
So you don't know what thesource is.
Unfortunately, nothing againstChina, but I mean you.
Just.
There's no way to.
The FDA can't cross referencethis, so we don't know what
we're getting.
Please do not buy online.
If you're going to buy online,find the reputable sources and
you co-manage it with yourdoctor, like.
Usually the doctors have to geta license or have their license
(14:00):
used on something like fullscript or biodesign or some some
type of a platform where adoctor signs off on it and then
you can have a link where you gointo your portal and you can
order anything you want and yourdoctor can see it at any point.
So if you ever have a sideeffect or if you ever feel
something, the doctor would belike, oh you know, why'd you
order all of those you didn'tneed.
(14:21):
You didn't need those.
Those three things Take, stoptaking those or whatever it is.
So that's my best advice.
Or just have somebody help you.
That's the best thing.
But vitamin D is safe.
Go to the shelf.
Go to the store at any of yourWhole Foods or organic stores.
Buy vitamin D.
You're in good shape there.
Stay well, stay healthy, getyour vitamin D Healthy levels,
(14:42):
if you ever get.
Your blood work is 50 to 70.
50 to 70.
The medical range is 30 to 90.
30 to 90.
When you look at that numberthat they give you so 30 is
deficient.
Now, medically, if you come inat 32, they're going to say, nah
, you're okay, but you're not.
You're well under 50.
(15:03):
You're deficient, You'redeficient.
That's the deficiency range.
Under 50 is deficient.
Under 30 is medically deficient.
Your medical doctor sees you at20.
They now have to prescribe you ashot, and I think a shot's
100,000 IUs, boom, and you mighthave to do that shot every week
for a few weeks to get yourlevel up.
This is what they do for B12too.
(15:23):
If you're chronically low B12,they tell you to get a shot,
because a shot goes directlyinto the bloodstream.
So that's what will happenmedically.
Otherwise, if you're under 50,you need to be taking five.
I would up it to 10,000 for awhile until you finish that
first bottle and then get to5,000 after that.
That's my tips.
(15:43):
Those are safe tips that I cansay on a podcast without any
slack here, because it'sperfectly safe for everyone.
Children, you just elevate it upto five years of age.
So at one they can do up to1,000.
At two, they can do up to 2,000IUs.
At three years old, they can doup to 3,000.
That's just a nice littleguidance for them to get them up
to the 5,000 I use per day atfive.
So then, that's why we doliquid.
(16:05):
You just drop five little dropson the tongue.
The whole family can do it.
A bottle lasts us about a month, and they range between 14 and
$24 for vitamin D, dependingwhere the sources come from.
And that's your investment forvitamin D Pretty easy for most
people to do have a great week,stay healthy, take care.
God bless.
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