The subtitle of “Should the President Declare a National Emergency” was written in October 2007 in Life Extension Foundation magazine (LEF.ORG). The question was stimulated by research on vitamin D3 and its relationship to many deadly diseases. The emergency, as postulated by the editor, was and still remains that almost all Americans are not achieving anywhere near optimal levels of D3 to prevent most diseases. Those diseases include 16 types of cancer (breast, prostate, colon, lung, melanoma and more), cardiovascular disease, depression, dementia, Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis, arthritis, hypertension, stroke, colds, flu, infectious diseases, autism, schizophrenia, chronic pain, MS, gum disease, and obesity. Improved levels of vitamin D3 can significantly decrease the incidence of each.
D3 is called the “sunshine vitamin” as it is formed in your body (and every animal!) by direct sunshine (ultraviolet B) on your skin (or hair/fur for animals). As such, it is NOT a true vitamin, but a pre-hormone. It can be synthesized as a supplement for increasing body levels when sun exposure is limited—as it is by our civilized world. 20-30 minutes of direct mid day sun will produce 10-20,000 IUs in a fair-skinned person wearing a bathing suit. The darker one’s skin (even a sun tan) the longer the time period needed for production. The sun must be high in sky (your shadow must be shorter than your height). If a person lives north of the 40 degree latitude line (approximately from Washington, DC and up) no amount of sun exposure will create D3 from November through March as the sun’s rays must pass through too much atmosphere to allow UVB to stimulate D3 production in skin.
As a chiropractor, patients come to me to resolve and prevent headaches, neck, low back pain and all sorts of musculoskeletal pains. I ask them all if they take vitamin D3 and how much, as it helps reduce pain and inflammation. This is well documented in PUBMED.GOV—sign on there and type in the search bar “vitamin D3 fibromyalgia” or “vitamin D3 pain” or whatever your interest is with D3 as the influence. Hundreds or thousands of references will appear. The shear numbers of the research should inform you that this is an important substance. After all, each one of those studies must be OK’d as promising and safe before funding, and funding for big (lots of patients/controls) and long (3-10 years in some cases) studies is very costly.
Those requirements for studies make research on benefits difficult to achieve. Limitations can be not enough time for D3 to do its good, or not enough people to satisfy the rigors of statistical “proof”. An example is a research abstract in Pubmed from Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA 2017 Mar 28) by Lappe J, et al. It was said in the summary “supplementation with vitamin D3 and calcium compared with placebo did not result in a significantly lower risk of all-type cancer at 4 years.” The actual reduction of cancer risk was 30% and numbers of cancer patients was 19 less in the D3 and calcium group (45 vs 64 cancers in placebo group). That was certainly significant for the 19 women in the D3-calcium group who did NOT get cancer. That is one of the difficult to understand mysteries of statistics— rules that are blindly applied negate common math. Another research faux pas is illustrated in this study: the placebo group had a higher level of D3 than the average American by a significant amount. Baseline study group was 32.8 ng/ml, well above the average 20-25 ng/ml of typical American. The final kicker resulting in the “no significant risk reduction” statement is that a small amount of supplemental D3, 2000 IUs, was the dose. 4,000 -10,000 IUs should have been the dose to raise D3 blood levels to 50-60 ng/ml rather than the good but not great 43.9 ng/ml achieved by the D3 group. In other words, greater separation of the 2 D3 blood levels would have resulted in a higher percentage of risk reduction and therefore “significant reduction of risk”.
Overall, this was a surprising outcome, as the researchers whose names graced the study are well-known D3 scientists. I suspect they were unprepared for the high baseline D3 values of all study participants at the beginning, and maybe realized that 2000 IUs might not be enough dose, BUT, they could not go back and change the dose as all parameters of a study must be passed by a board before the study begins. Thefore, 2,000 IUs was what they were stuck with. Hence, 30% less cancer in the D3-calcium group is deemed insignificant. D3 worked, it is just a fact that the placebo group was already taking their own supplements to achieve that 32.8 ng/ml level!
Here are the sources I visit online to find this kind of real research. If you check them out, you can learn what science demonstrates about D3.
An easy source to search and understand is LEF.ORG, Life Extension Foundation’s website. Just type in “vitamin D” and your disease of interest. I suggest to start with “Should the President Declare a National Emergency” Oct 2007. The editorial outlines the research that states reductions of numerous cancers by 50-60% as well as other diseases. 175 original research references are listed. My own blog drchiptravis.com is easy to use and understand and I reference many sources of D3 effectiveness in disease prevention. This applies to mercola.com as well.
2 sites are devoted to vitamin D: vitamindcouncil.org and grassrootshealth.org. They feature articles of recent vitamin D research, always providing the reference for those who want it firsthand. Again, easy to understand. The official site of the US government’s National Institute of Health is PUBMED.GOV. This site lists thousands of D3 research “abstracts” or summaries. For instance, if you type in “vitamin D3 breast cancer”, at least 1700 references will be listed; prostate cancer, 1303; colon cancer, 964; cardiovascular diseases, 5403.
A wonderful book written by a well known D3 researcher, Dr. John Cannell, “Athlete’s Edge—FASTER, QUICKER, STRONGER WITH VITAMIN D” is aimed at athletic performance. It provides a clear overview of D3 against diseases before explaining why athletes with low D3 levels are not performing near their peak. (320 references to scientific literature) $19.95 at Amazon.
The usual dose suggested by those who study vitamin D3 is 5,000 to 10,000 IUs in order to elevate most persons blood levels to 40-60 ng/ml (100-150 mmol/L is the other range system). Additional magnesium, vitamin K2 and iodine are helpful for greatest effectiveness. 5-10,000 IUs sounds like a lot but it is only 0.1 mg—that is not a misprint, that is how powerful it is.
A final thought: supplementation of 5,000-10,000 IUs of D3 is the quickest, easiest, least expensive way to improve one’s health in multiple ways. I checked Publix for their prices and a bottle of 5,000 IUs D3 costs about 12 cents a pill. And, of course, you can get D3 for free by sunbathing in mid day sun!