Vitamin D supplements

[slipper]

Wonder if it is common practise to take Vitamin D, having read that studies have been done on its link with diabetes, but nothing proving it needs to be taken as a supplement, or indeed if the link is just people on a very poor diet anyway.

Curiosity really, do you take extra Vitamin D, or make sure its within your diet, eg eggs, oily fish apparently.

 

[MeanMom]

Hi slipper

The difficulty with Vitamin D is that it only occurs naturally in animal fat which we are all supposed to avoid eating too much of these days. It is added to some (most) vegetable oil based spreads and quite a lot of cereals.

The body is also very clever and can make it from sunlight.

I haven't spotted reports about a link to diabetes - assume you mean type 2? However IMHO because the body doesn't need loads of it anyway,most people would get enough from food and the sun. I have a very low fat diet (from choice as I dont like fatty foods) and I dont take a suppliment. Only if you never go outside and/or eat hardly any fat would you need a supplement (again IMO)🙂

 

[trophywench]

Ah well - a week or so ago, someone on TV said - think it was Dr Sarah on the One Show? - that anyone living north of BIRMINGHAM wouldn't be able to manufacture enough Vit D in the winter.

That shocked me. I always assumed you'd have to be in eg Lerwick before you started to be affected .....

 

[MeanMom]

Ah well - a week or so ago, someone on TV said - think it was Dr Sarah on the One Show? - that anyone living north of BIRMINGHAM wouldn't be able to manufacture enough Vit D in the winter.

That shocked me. I always assumed you'd have to be in eg Lerwick before you started to be affected .....

Sorry TW - I tend to assume everyone is lucky enough to live in the sunshine all the time 'like wot I do'

 

[slipper]

Thanks, but just picked this up following a link to a link etc, how it usually goes when looking for something else.

A couple of quotes:

June 21, 2010 -- Vitamin D deficiency, long suspected to be a risk factor for glucose intolerance, is commonly found in people with poor diabetes control, according to a new study.

http://diabetes.webmd.com/news/20100621/low-vitamin-d-linked-to-poor-diabetes-control

Recent studies of vitamin D suggest that it may play a role in the development of diabetes and its complications. Whether vitamin D supplements should be routinely given to people with diabetes is unclear.

http://www.diabetesmonitor.com/diet-and-lifestyle/supplements/effect-of-vitamin-d-on-diabetes.htm

It would appear though that its not a popular supplement on here, I will carry on with my eggs and leave my hat of in the sun.🙂

 

[MeanMom]

Slipper - I'm sorry I had never heard of the link and in my head still can't see the logic - but I will look at those links and thank you for posting them🙂

I'm not really a fan of supplements in general although my Mum is nagging me to take Calcium because of her problems with Osteoperosis and because I hardly consume any dairy products ( yuk!)

Will study the links, thank you

 

[lucy123]

Hi Slipper

I take 2000 iu of vitamin D a day, but it is very important that you have your vit d levels tested before you take it. I have to take it as my vit d level was in the 20's and should be 100. If you take vit D and you don't need it it does something naughty to your calcium, but I am not sure what. Hope this helps.🙂

 

[HelenM]

Ah well - a week or so ago, someone on TV said - think it was Dr Sarah on the One Show? - that anyone living north of BIRMINGHAM wouldn't be able to manufacture enough Vit D in the winter.

That shocked me. I always assumed you'd have to be in eg Lerwick before you started to be affected

According to some research you have to be a lot further South than Birmingham. One piece of research found that on cloudless days in Boston(US) human skin produced no previtamin D3 from November to February, in Edmonton , this period was longer, from October to March.
Boston is at latitude 42.2 degrees N, Edmonton is at latitude 52 degrees N.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2839537

Bournemouth is at 50?46"N
Birmingham is at 52? 30'N
Even where I live in SW France is at 44.33 N , Rome is at 41N

You do store VIt D, so if you get adequate exposure to the sun in the non winter months then maybe theres enough for the winter but even in Australia they have been finding that some people are deficient (one reason may be the warnings about skin cancer have been too effective)
http://www.blackmores.com.au/learning-centre/article/australias-mind-boggling-vitamin-d-deficiency

And no I don't take vit D, I eat oily fish and eggs. I know my bone density is good and I live where it is quite often sunny.I also wonder if pollution blocked some of the ultraviolet in Boston causing less available Vit D... We have many days here in winter when we have very strong, hot sunlight in spite of being slightly further North than Boston. I might think differently if I was living further North in the UK and/or didn't get outside much.
Bournemouth, well I don't know... I'm always being told by my parents it never rains there (strange the weather often changes when we arrive🙂 )

 

[Copepod]

While you can't "make" vitamin D from sunlight in northern Britain during winter, you can make lots in the summer, and as it's a fat soluble vitamin, you can use these stores through the winter.

While smog blocking sunlight was an issue until 1950s in UK when Clean Air Acts began to tackle air pollution. These days, clouds have the biggest impact on amount of sunlight reaching the ground / uncovered skin.

Personally, I make every attempt to get sunshine exposure through the summer, but not get burned, plus eat lots of oily fish, not least because I reaaly like mackerel & salmon, throughout the year. Plus, we're getting the benefit of PV electricity and solar heated water, due to panels fitted to our roof last year - generating to power computer as I type, at 52.12.xxxoN.

 

[FM001]

if you are eating fish and eggs and happen to take a supplement on top of this can you overdose the body with vitamin d or is it washed out the kidneys?

 

[cherrypie]

Good article on Vitamin D here.
Tells you all the dos and dont's and why it is not advisable to treat yourself if you suspect your levels are below ideal. There are some medications that might interact with supplements too.
http://www.patient.co.uk/health/Vitamin-D-Deficiency.htm

 

[Copepod]

It is possible to overdose by eating too much of any fat soluable vitamin (A, D, E & K) - polar explorers who had to resort to killing and eating their dogs suffered, because they tended to eat the liver as it was the most palatable part.

However, the situation with vitamin D is a little different - as in humans, 90% comes from sunlight, with only 10% from diet, the human body only converts the sunlight it needs. So, as long as you're not eating huge amounts of margarine (which has vitamins added), liver, oily fish and eggs every day, you would find it hard to overdose through diet alone. Once you start adding supplements / tablets etc, you need to be careful.

Wikipedia article on vitamin D is pretty good - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D

 

[slipper]

Hi Slipper

I take 2000 iu of vitamin D a day, but it is very important that you have your vit d levels tested before you take it. I have to take it as my vit d level was in the 20's and should be 100. If you take vit D and you don't need it it does something naughty to your calcium, but I am not sure what. Hope this helps.🙂

Thanks for that lucy, certainly dont want any more nasties🙂

Thats a good link Cherrypie, "More than half the population are deficient"

Thanks for your link Copepod, off to read it now.🙂

 

[Pumper_Sue]

This link came into my mail box this morning hope it's of interest.

http://www.dlife.com/diabetes-news/...m_term=Focused&utm_campaign=dLife-eNewsletter

 

[slipper]

Thats a bit sad Pumper Sue on two counts, the kids are obese, and low Vitamin D, so they have a bad start.