Quantum
HEALTH
Issue 9 February 2011
flu and other ailments, and our susceptibility may be related to our lower levels of vitamin D.
The most reliable way to check your level is through a blood test for 25-hydroxy-vitamin D3. (Sometimes the test is for the activated form, 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D. However, studies have shown that this form of vitamin D does not show a deficiency until the 25-D level has dropped to seriously low levels, so this is not the standard way to test your vitamin D level.) The level can be indicated two different ways, by nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) or by nanomole per liter (nmol/ L), with the ng/mL method being most common in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Below are the accepted standards by which you can read your blood test result:
• Less than 20 ng/mL: Deficiency (considered a serious risk to health)
• 21-29 ng/mL: Insufficency
• 30-60 ng/mL: Ideal range (note that 30- 100 ng/mL is considered in the desirable range, although standards can vary from doctor to doctor, with some saying that 40 ng/mL is the minimum blood level for good health)
• Over 150 ng/mL: Intoxication (too high a level, which can be toxic)
Raise Your Vitamin D Level If you are in the deficient or insufficient range for vitamin D3 blood levels, your physician may put you on very high doses of vitamin D for a short period of time (for example, 50,000 IUs a week for eight weeks) to get your blood level up. Supplements normally are measured in “IUs,” which stands for “international units.” The recommended dosage for supplementation varies from government recommendations to individual physicians, so there is a lot of confusing information out there. What your particular needs are will depend on many factors, starting with your current blood level of 25-vitamin. However, an average standard is that most people need to be taking at least 1,000 IUs per day.
60 Quantum Health
(For every 100 IU of vitamin D you ingest through a supplement, your blood level of 25-vitamin D increases by 1 nanogram per milliliter.) Increased sun exposure is the ideal way to raise your vitamin D level, but getting enough can be difficult depending on your geographic location, skin colour, and other factors, such as the pollution levels found in urban areas, as ozone pollution is correlated to lower levels of vitamin D. Ideally, we all should be exposing our skin, particularly our arms and legs, to the sun on a regular basis.
To determine how much sun exposure you generally need, follow these simple rules of thumb:
1. Estimate how long it takes in the particular conditions in which you will be sunning yourself for you to get a mild pinkness to your skin.
2. Then, without applying sunscreen, your arms and legs for about 25 percent to 50 percent of that length of time, two or three times per week. (I have calculated that this amount of sun exposure two to three days a week enables the body to make enough vitamin D to stay healthy.)
3. If you are going to remain out of doors after getting this amount of sun exposure, protect your skin by applying a broad- spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of at least 15, and preferably SPF 30.
Many people resist sunning themselves because medicine and the media have drilled it into our heads that sun overexposure can increase our risk of skin cancer, especially melanoma. The key word here is “overexposure.” The culprit for most skin problems, aging effects, and negative health effects of sun exposure is sunburn. The fact is that there is no credible scientific evidence that regular, moderate sun exposure causes melanoma. In fact, most melanomas occur on parts of the body that receive little or no sun exposure, suggesting that genetics plays a much more important role in the development of this
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