Everything you need to know about Vitamin D: What it is, why we need it, whether to supplement it, how to dose it, and what your blood levels should be for different health conditions. It’s almost as good as five minutes of sunshine itself 🙂
Take-home points:
- We get most of our Vitamin D from the sun, but egg yolks (pastured), cold water fatty fish and organ meats can also provide some.
- We need Vitamin D to make hormones, neurotransmitters, for immune function, to keep our bones strong and to prevent heart disease.
- Getting your blood Vitamin D level measured a few times a year is always a good idea because you don’t want your vitamin D level to be too low OR too high.
- The target blood range is 35 – 60 ng/mL for most people, 40 – 70 ng/mL for people suffering from an autoimmune condition, and sometimes higher for people with specific genetic polymorphisms.
- About 30 min of sunlight 3x per week (with skin exposed) is enough for most people to achieve adequate levels.
- If you supplement without testing, stay between 2,000 – 5,000 IU per day.
- You can take your full week’s dose of Vitamin D one time per week.
- Vitamin D works best with other fat-soluble vitamins, especially K2 and Vitamin A in its fat-soluble form.
