Dr. Mercola backs away from Vitamin D supplementation recommendation

Popular web doc, best-selling author, Chicago osteopath, Joseph Mercola has gathered and shared studies touting the myriad health benefits of Vitamin D for years.

He’s cited studies suggesting that most people, other than those living in sub-tropical climates, are dangerously Vitamin D deficient at least part of the year. That includes 70 percent of Americans, he’s said. And he’s recommended oral supplementation, via a high-quality cod liver oil, for those of us most likely to be Vitamin D deficient.

I was surprised to see him backing away from that recommendation in a recent report on a study about the benefiical effects of Vitamin D supplementation on cases of congestive heart failure.
http://www.mercola.com/2006/apr/25/sunshine_works_for_congestive_heart _failure.htm.

He wrote in his April 25, 2006 newsletter:

“It is important to understand that the ideal and STRONGLY preferred method of increasing your vitamin D level is through appropriate sun exposure. I really do not advise oral supplements, not even cod liver oil now, UNLESS you can you have your blood levels checked regularly.

“It just is too risky. I have seen too many potentially dangerous elevations of vitamin D levels, including my own, from those that are taking oral supplements. Fortunately for myself or our patients, we quickly correct and adjust for the problem. But if you aren’t even testing you could be setting yourself up from potentially serious problems.

“Vitamin D is wonderful but avoid overriding your body’s intuitive wisdom and allow the normal feedback loops to operate and shut down your vitamin D production if you have too much. That just doesn’t happen when you swallow vitamin D, your levels just keep going higher and higher.”

Avoid Vitamin D Poisoning

Poisonously high Vitamin D levels (which ONLY happen from oral supplementation) can cause severe health problems–including depleting calcium from the bones and causing dangerous calcifications elsewhere in the body.

On the other hand, studies that show that Vitamin D is helpful in preventing or reducing 16 kinds of cancers, multiple sclerosis, PMS symptoms in women, lowering inflammation, maintaining bone strength, and provides many, many other desirable health benefits. And that low levels play a role in exacerbating many chronic illnesses.

Unfortunately, most doctors aren’t emphasizing the importance of sunlight and optimal Vitamin D levels. Many doctors do not even know the right test to order to check true levels.

Pharmaceutical company reps aren’t pushing the importance of Vitamin D montoring on doctors because there is no Vitamin D drug that Big Pharma can make big bucks promoting. But it IS important to maintain adequate levels, at least through daily sun exposure–and particularly in winter months and in darker winter climes.

How Much Sunlight Do You Need Daily?

Just what is adequate sun exposure remains a matter of debate. All the authorities agree that you shouldn’t sunburn yourself in an effort to ensure optimal levels of Vitamin D.

Conventionally, researchers have said that as little as 15 minutes daily of sunshine on the hands and face–if you’re light-skinned–may be adequate. Fifteen minutes of full-body exposure to bright, summer sun is probably optimum. (Darker skin, incidentally, requires much more sun exposure than light skin to produce Vitamin D.) But the 15-minute “rule” is disputable.

The amount of UVB radiation reaching the earth in much of the U.S. and Europe–other than at high elevations and in far southern regions–won’t do the trick, Mercola has argued.

In a February 23, 2002 article, Dr. Mercola wrote, “Unfortunately the vast majority of us living in the U.S. just do not have access to the proper amount of sun most of the year. Even if the sun is out there, most of us are working during the week and don’t have time to go out and capture some sunlight on our skins.

“So, that leaves supplementation as the only practical option for most of us.”

And, he wrote, “If your latitude is above 30 degrees north or below 30 degrees south, you will likely benefit from vitamin D supplementation from September to mid April.”

That’s the position he now is backing away from.

Getting Daily Sunshine Maintains Optimal Vitamin
D Levels–Without the Risk of Vitamin D Poisoning

It’s not that we’re suddenly getting enough healthy rays from the sun to render that recommendation null, but that supplementation–even when closely monitored by a highly competent, nutritionally aware medical professional like Dr. Mercola–is very hard to manage, even with regular testing. It’s too easy to slip out of the narrow, optimal range and into the dangerously high range.

Getting your Vitamin D naturally, from sun exposure, is considered safe and necessary. Vitamin D creation from sun exposure is self-regulating–when the Vitamin D levels start to get too high in the body, the same UVB radiation that boosts them, begins to degrade and destroy the excess, thus maintaining optimal levels.

But when you swallow a Vitamin D supplement, you override the body’s natural regulating mechanisms. Excess is stored in fatty tissue and released into the bloodstream over months, keeping levels dangerously high for an extended period. Not something you want to do.

For more on this from Dr. Mercola, see these articles (all written BEFORE his recent “don’t supplement” recommendation:

Valuable Insights Into the Importance of Vitamin D and the Sun

The Secrets of Vitamin D Production

The Secret Benefits of Vitamin D

Test Values and Treatment for Vitamin Deficiency