Cod Liver Oil!

Carlson and Nordic Naturals are readily available at most health food stores healthy grocers. There are also several reputable brands available on-line.

http://www.carlsonlabs.com/product_detail.phtml?prodid=00205

Dr. Mercola also recommends Carlson. There's plenty of information on his website [http://www.mercola.com] regarding Vitamin D.

I get my Vitamin D-3 (as cholecalciferol) from my wholistic MD. Her source is Metabolic Maintenance Products, www.metabolicmaintenance.com

D-3 is natural vitamin D, also called cholecalciferol. Many good vitamin companies have it, usually in soft (bovine) gelatin capsules, from fish oil. There is usually naturally occuring vitamin A along with the D. I know of one company that has no Vitamin A, Jarrow D-3 capsules. Megafood makes D-3 from a lanolin source, in a tablet, which would be suitable for most vegetarians.

D3 is available in a variety of dosages from PURE Encapsulations, Inc. [www.purecaps.com]

The label states, "This encapsulated product contains no hidden coatings, excipients, binders, fillers, shellacs, artificial colors or fragrance. Contains no dairy, wheat, yeast, gluten, corn, sugar, starch, soy, preservatives or hydrogenated oils." Ingredients: vitamin D3, hypo-allergenic plant fiber, vegetable capsule. The label also states, "manufactured and formulated by: pure encapsulations, inc. Sudbury, MA 01776 USA."

I ordered my PURE (brand) Vitamin D3 from a compounding pharmicist in my community. Compounding pharmicists are great resource for top quality supplements.

Hopefully this information is helpful to you. Good luck and God bless.

I thought that D-3 was synthetic, so I have avoided it. Does anyone know if the D-3 in Horizon's (grass-fed) milk is the natural kind? Also, if D-3 is natural, I am confused why it isn't just listed as "vitamin D"?

Solgar has a newer D3 cholecalciferol in a veggie cap, 600 I.U.'s. Be sure & get it in this higher potencies, since their lower potency, 400 I.U.'s is a different form & may be less tolerable for some. Dorothy, MA

I am trying to learn more about Vitamin D, since I am most likely deficient. I rarely see the sun in the winter where we live, I have darker skin, grew up in the tropics, and get really depressed in the winter. I am a vegetarian and wondering how Vitamin D3 is made from Sheep's wool. I read that the lanolin is extracted from the wool, then "chemicals" are used to make it into Vitamin D3. Does anyone know what kind of chemicals are used to do that, and if so, I wonder if there is any residue in the finished supplement that might have some harmful effect on the body?? I would love any information anyone might have already garnered on this subject.

Nature Sunshine has a good quality vitamin D3 in tablet form and reasonably priced. They are a very reputable herb company. They are found at www.naturessunshine.com. Each tablet has 2000 IU.

You may already know that eight out of ten Americans are D deficient, and that a long list of diseases and conditions are prevented or alleviated by sufficient D:
ADD
asthma,
autism
cancer
cystic fibrosis
depression
diabetes
fibromyalgia
flu
heart disease
hypertension
MS
obesity
schizophrenia.
TB

Read the article and citations at the: goodschoolfood.org (click on top article in left margin)

Until now the only way to establish a person’s level of supplementation was an expensive and intimidating test in a lab.

Thank goodness, grassrootshealth.org now offers a $30 finger prick blood test that permits anyone to know their D level without having to go to a medical lab and to watch your blood flowing through clear tubing into a container. You simply answer a brief questionnaire and pay online with credit card or PayPal. On their homepage click on the D-Action "Join Now" button.

When the test arrives in the mail you simply jab your finger (or a baby’s heel) to get a drop of blood and send the blotter paper back to the lab. Parents will really appreciate this nonintrusive method for their babies and children.

Carole Baggerly and her colleagues at GrassrootsHealth.org want to bring the benefits of recent research directly to you and your family. The public health system, the FDA, the CDC, and the AMA committees, stuck in the inertia of large organizations, can’t respond quickly to the emergency of this national D-deficiency epidemic--- but you and I can do something TODAY that will save lives and family budgets.

The optimum blood level:
Research found that people having over 60 ng/ml had the highest protection from cancer. Lifeguards and farmers typically exceed 100 ng/ml.

How to determine recharge supplementation:
Each 150 IU of Vitamin D supplementation will raise the blood level approximately 1 ng/ml. For instance, if your test result is 20 ng/ml, and you want to reach 60 ng/ml, that is 40 x 150 = 6,000 IU.

Use D3, not D2:
The research is mixed, but most studies find that D3 (cholecalciferol) is biologically more active than D2 (Ergosterol). D3 comes in capsules of liquid fish oil or pull-apart gelatin capsules of powdered lanolin—ideal for mixing into food since it has no fishy flavor.

Maintenance Dose:
By testing again in 6 months you find out if you have recharged your system up to the optimum range of 60 - 90 ng/mL, in which case you can drop your daily dosage 20 - 40% to maintain that level.

Converting between measurement systems:
If your test results come back in ng/mL (nanograms per mililiter) and you want to convert it to nmoles/L (nano moles per liter), simply multiply it by 2.5. In reverse, if your test results are reported in nmoles/L, simply divide by 2.5 to convert to ng/mL.

Here are a few more news items that came out since goodschoolfood.org put up the D article.

Dr. Anthony Norman and 17 other University of California scientists recommend 2000 IU (5 times the FDA recommendation).

Dr. Douglass Bibuld of Boston's Mattapan Community Health Center, interviewed on NPR, prescribes up to 7000 IU for some patients who are especially low in D.

Even more recently, vitamin D expert, physician Mayer Eisenstein, M.D., advocates at least 5,000 IU of Vitamin D daily for every adult, and 2,000-3,000 IU daily for children.

Salud,
Lauren
P.S. I have no financial connection to grassrootshealth.org

Hi,

Just a word of warning to those of you considering taking D-3. After being treated for cancer I expected to start feeling much better, which I did until my doctor tested my D-3 (a standard type test) and found it low. She put me of D-3 supplements. Shortly after, I began to feel almost as ill as I did while I had cancer. I have suffered for years from food allergies and MCS so was not truly surprised but very disappointed. I was getting help from NAET treatments but not fast enough, so I went to see a doctor that I had seen in the past who practiced some alternative medicine. He ordered another Vit. D test on me but this one was a different kind. It was a D-Metabolites test. The stantard test only tests D-25. This test checked D-25 and D-1,25. The test indicated that my D-1,25 was too high (inspite of my D-25 showing low in the past, but was now also high from supplementation). The high D-1,25 indicated a TH1 Autoimmune disease. Vit. D is not processed properly in the body and supplementing can make you very ill, just like it did me. If you have any disease caused by inflamation in the body, such as allergies, MCS, Rhumitoid Arthirits, etc., you could possibily have the TH1 Autoimmune problem.

If your doctor has done the standard Vit. D test and it showed you are low, please ask the doc to the test for D-1,25 as well (Quest Diagnostics is the most accurate lab for this. Then ask them to look at the web site www.marshallprotocol.com. There is a place on the site for doctors to read and also they can contact Dr. Marshall who developed the treatment to save his own life. I am starting to see improvements from the treatment. For example, I have not had any of my symptoms from my heart problems for several months now. Have had minor improvements as well. I actually have hopes that this will also do as claimed and cure my food allergies and other problems as well. The NAET treatments were helping, but this is really giving me HOPE!

There is a web site for those who want to learn about the Marshall Protocol called www.curemyth1.org (I think that is right). The www.marshallprotocol.com is for those actually on the treatment. Your doctor can get to the area just for doctors from either site, I believe.

If you really need Vit. D, then it will most likely help you, but if the test your doctor does misleads, then you will most likely get worse while taking the supplement, so if you do take it, be sure to note how you fee before starting it and then how you feel as you go along. If you get worse, please refer your doctor to the web site.

Good luck!
Nell

I bought my first D3 (choleclaciferol) from www.vitacost.com this year. With their own brand NSI, they have very reasonable prices for everything from 1,000 IU to 4,000 IU capsules. This is the first winter we've taken D3 supplemention and so far so good as we've usually got sick by now and that hasnt happened! Very happy with that as we just had the cloudiest month in our states history this month! That is so despressing this time of year. I cant wait for spring!

i get my d3 from biotics research: it's reasonable, lasts a long time and sometimes your doctor or health care professional may have account and you can get an even better rate ( i order it by calling them at 800-524-5183). it is oil emulsified and supposed to be easily absorbed. the drops come in 400 iu/drop or 2,000 iu/drop.

i second the earlier comment re doing some research either from mercola's site (see his vit d update in 12/29/08 newsletter,also notice discussion in the blog attached) or the vitamon d council site.

it's very important to get your vit d blood level checked as doing some additional reading will confirm; you then will get your baseline and have your lab value to help you track and maintain safe levels of vit d (again vit d council and mercola have info re reasonable and reliable testing that can be done via home kits).

also, one person's doage requirement can vary widely from another person;s. and in my opinion, opting for the higher dose is something to also consider; as more info comes out it becomes evident that this is a very important vitamin and difficult for many to get enough via the sun depending on the season and proximity to the equator. see links below:
for a vitamin d test online that is endorsed by the vitamin d council
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health/deficiency/am-i-vitamin-d-deficient.shtml

the link to test is here: www.zrtlab.com/Page.aspx

Good luck!

I use Vitamin Research Products
5,000 IU Vitamin D3 LIQIUD
which is in MCT Oil.

RE SUZANNE MIKULA's comment that she gets really depressed in the winter.

I have seasonal affective disorder but was able to stop the winter blues by using a bright light box. Usually i start it the first of August to prevent any of the depression from starting. The most convenient setup I have found is a product made by Northern Light Technologies called The SADelite. Because it makes use of reflectors to intensify the light from the fluorescent tube it doesn't have to be as big and bulky as the old light boxes. They have other types of light setups also, but this one works well for me.

Good luck.