Too much of a good thing? High doses of v... - Cure Parkinson's
Too much of a good thing? High doses of vitamin D can lead to kidney failure
The headline and the above linked science daily screed is a negligent and alarmist summary of a medical event properly reported here:
cmaj.ca/content/191/14/E390...
The patient had a pre-existing case of gout, indicating pre-existing kidney malfunction, as well as hypertension and polypharmacy: "perindopril 8 mg daily, rosuvastatin 10 mg daily, amlodipine 10 mg daily, indapamide 2.5 mg daily and febuxostat 80 mg daily."
I take a similar dosage of vitamin D and get plenty of sun. My levels are in the right in the middle of the desired range. This patient's levels were crazy high - more than four times higher, and more than double the desired maximum. Low levels of vitamin D have been shown to increase cancer and mortality risk. Too little vitamin D is a health risk and the more common one. The moral of the story is get your vitamin D levels checked whenever you have routine blood work done, and aim to be in the middle of the desired range.
Yes, that was alarmist, and yes you should have your levels checked. OTOH the case for high dose D supplements may not be as clear-cut as many people, including doctors, think. Here's a short 10-minute video that cautions us to question what "everyone knows". youtu.be/7LYsYbgdzvo
Yes she is correct there is no benefit to increasing levels beyond 20 ng/mL, which is 50 nmol per liter on the chart here:
mpkb.org/_detail/home/patho...
The aim of supplementation is to get up to that level.
What is than a good level Vit. D, in the view of functional medicine ?(not school medicine)
And do you take pills or drops
(and adding K2) ?
From my writing at the link:
Vitamins and Minerals for Bone Health and Reduced Risk of Cancer
"The relationship between vitamin D levels and all cause mortality (pdf) was measured by Melamed in a population of 13,000 people over 20 years. He found that lowest mortality occurred over a blood concentration in the range of 30-50 ng/ml (nanograms per milliliter). At lower levels of vitamin D mortality was quite a bit higher. At higher levels of vitamin D mortality also started to rise, but not as steeply. Other studies have found this type of "bathtub" curve as well. So how does that translate into a dosage recommendation? Optimum dosage varies somewhat with the individual, depending on factors such as diet and sun. Here is one take:
'So far as can be judged from numerous studies documenting the magnitude of the effect of sun exposure ... the primitive intake would have been at least 4000 IU/day and probably two to three times that level, with corresponding serum ...D levels ranging from 40 to 80 ng/mL.'
Personally, after taking 5000 IU/day for some time, my blood level measured 32 ng/ml. Based on that reading, my doctor recommended raising it to 7000 IU/day. A rule of thumb is that every additional 1000 IU/day raises the blood level by 10ng/ml."
Hi Park_bear
I have been Vitamin D deficient for years and after taking daily dose of 3000 IU daily with K2 , recently the blood level of Vitamin D reached 235. Do you think this is an optimal level?
Phosphate, PTH and calcium are normal.
There are two different units for measuring vitamin D:
[ nmol/l ] vs [ ng/ml ]. 100 nmol/l = 40 ng/ml .
Here is the curve of hazard ratio versus serum level:
mpkb.org/_detail/home/patho...
Your level seems high but it would take someone more expert than me to properly interpret that in light of your other levels.
Thank you very much for the answer. Quick and clear !
(by the way, a famous Brazilian neurologist, also go for very high doses of Vit. D,
with 3-monthly control. A lot of MS-people helped with that. Some few with Parkinson. Yet a lot of discussion about that (here in Europe)). His name :
Dr. Coimbra.)
My doctor says, it is to dangerous, and it emphasizes to less the pesticides and heavy metals......
Mine is 235 nmol/L. Thanks for the link. I will check it out.
