Taking Vitamin D without Vitamin A question

[Guest guest]

*Just wondering if anyone is familar with this perspective on taking Vitamin

D without Vitamin A; he says taking Beta carotene is OK with vitamin D. *

*This seems contrary to the recent discussions on taking cod liver oil with

vitamin A. *

*This info came from the Vitamin D Newsletter by Cannell MD*

**

*1. How much vitamin D should I take?*

*Answer:*

Before I answer, I have a few questions for you. Where do you live

(latitude)? How much do you weigh? What skin type do you have? How much

do you go into the sun? How much do you get in your diet? How much do you

get in supplements? What is your 25-hydroxy-vitamin D level? During what

season-of-the-year was it obtained?

You see, the answer is different for everyone. The question also assumes we

know the ideal vitamin D blood level. We don't know for sure; around

50ng/ml is the best current guess.

However, an easy answer is: 2,000 units a day. The government says 2,000

units of vitamin D a day is safe for all adults to take without a doctor's

supervision. Life Extension

Foundation<http://www.lef.org/newshop/items/item00251.html>sells an

inexpensive pharmaceutical grade of vitamin D. Two-hundred and

fifty of the 1,000 unit capsules cost about ten bucks. Your local health

food store should also carry 1,000 unit capsules. Just be sure they don't

contain any vitamin A. Beta-carotene is OK but preformed retinols (vitamin

A) interfere with vitamin D's function. I do not advise cod liver oil; if

you just have to take it, don't take more than a teaspoon per day. Get your

omega-3s from molecularly distilled fish body oils (Trader Joe's) or by

eating wild salmon or sardines; get your vitamin D by taking vitamin D or by

going into the sun, or by combining both.

J Nutr. 1999

Dec;129(12):2246-50.<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve & \

db=pubmed & dopt=Abstract & list_uids=10573558 & query_hl=6>

J Bone Miner Res. 2001

Oct;16(10):1899-905.<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve & \

db=pubmed & dopt=Abstract & list_uids=11585356 & query_hl=3>

J Nutr. 2005

Jul;135(7):1647-52.<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve & d\

b=pubmed & dopt=Abstract & list_uids=15987844 & query_hl=3>

Remember Professor Heaney's recent warning: two thousand units a day

will only get about 80% of Americans to a vitamin D level of 35 ng/ml or

higher. The 20% still lower than that are almost all African American or

old or obese. 2,000 units a day will not be enough for some people.

J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2005

Oct;97(1-2):13-9.<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve & db=\

pubmed & dopt=Abstract & list_uids=16026981 & query_hl=17>

For now, if you take more than 2,000 units a day, you should do so either

because you are under the care of a knowledgeable health care practitioner

(good luck finding one), or because you know what you are doing. I

personally take no vitamin D in the late spring, summer, or early fall

because I frequently go into the sun. I take 5,000 units a day in the

winter but I know what my vitamin D level is because I get it checked

several times a year. If I had cancer or heart disease or Alzheimer's

disease or multiple sclerosis or a hundred other common diseases, I

*might*take more than 5,000 units a day but I'd check my calcium and

vitamin D

levels even more often. I'd also follow my doctors advice about standard

medical treatment.

Keep in mind that if you use a sunlamp

<http://www.sperti.com/products.htm>or a tanning parlor once a week

during the winter, you don't have to worry

about blood tests because your body will maintain adequate vitamin D blood

levels. Just don't get burned.

Also, remember to take calcium tablets if you don't get adequate amounts of

calcium in your diet and most people don't. Trader Joe's sells a good

Calcium/Magnesium/Zinc combination product for next to nothing.

[Guest guest]

On 1/2/06, S. Pritchard <vspritchard@...> wrote:

> *Just wondering if anyone is familar with this perspective on taking Vitamin

> D without Vitamin A; he says taking Beta carotene is OK with vitamin D. *

> *This seems contrary to the recent discussions on taking cod liver oil with

> vitamin A. *

> *This info came from the Vitamin D Newsletter by Cannell MD*

Vitamin A and vitamin D are antagonists. The idea that that makes

vitamin A bad because vitamin D is good is twistedly absurd.

In the Nurse's Health Study, which found that in postmenopausal women

not taking HRT vitamin A was associated with hip

fractures/osteoporosis, the vitamin D intake was 552 IU/day in the

highest quintile of vitamin A intake and 168 IU/day in the lowest

quintile of vitamin A intake, compared to Dr. Cannel's suggestion of

2000 IU/day.

Beta-carotene doesn't interfere with D only insofar as it isn't

converted to vitamin A!!!!!!!! The portion of beta-carotene that is

converted to vitamin A absolutely WILL antagonize the vitamin D (and

probably also have some synergistic and additive effects with it,

depending on the tissue).

For what it's worth, high-vitamin CLO has twice the D to A ratio as

does Garden of Life. They don't just have more vitamins, they have

twice the proportion of D to A.

One should probably also attempt to get additional D in the winter

because the D in CLO might not be sufficient to balance the A.

But we have no research telling us so. We have relatively few studies

of people deficient in vitamin D consuming a small fraction of what

Cannel recommends for D.

Chris

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