Managing your vitamin d levels

Vitamin d is a huge topic for so many people especially now that we are well into dark days with very little sun exposure.

A bit of info about vitamin d.

A few people have been asking about vitamin d recently and we recommend it to nearly all of our clients.

The best source of vitamin is sunlight with food sources giving very little.

Depending on your skin type and who you ask, ideally we would get about 15-30 minutes sunlight exposure every day, longer for some people.

Vitamin d benefits have been associated with:

• Improved brain function (happiness, memory, concentration, etc.)
• Reduced chances of illnesses such as cancers, diabetes, etc.
• Stronger immune system
• Strong bones
• Increased testosterone levels in men

Vitamin d is crucial for your health. Get it from sunlight or take use a vitamin d nutritional support. They are your 2 options really.

When supporting with vitamin d, there are 2 different versions.

Vitamin d2 is derived from plant sources but doesn’t get absorbed as well by the body and is also known as ergocalciferol (check the pack)

Vitamin d3 is derived from animal sources and is absorbed a lot better by the body and is also known as cholecalciferol (check the pack)

Unless you are a strict vegan, your vitamin d support should be vitamin d3.

Vitamin d is taken up best in the body when you take it with fat (it’s a fat soluble vitamin). For this reason take it with your fish oils, with a bit of coconut oil or in a meal that contains fat.

How much should you take?

Research has shown that up to 10,000 IU’s a day is a safe limit- don’t go above this.

Generally, 2,000-6,000 IU’s is the amount that most of the top nutritionist/health experts recommend depending on the amount of exposure that you get to sunlight each day.

It may say UG on your vitamin d instead of IU. 25 ug is equal to 1,000 IU.

For example if you want to take 6,000 IU’s a day that would be the equivalent of 150 UG’s

If you are taking Poliquin vitamin D3 excellence that we promote in our facility, this would be 6 a day (each capsule is 25 ug or 1,000 ui)