Have you ever wondered how to take vitamin D as a supplement?
Or any vitamin for that matter?
Especially if you’re taking what could be described as a ‘mega-dose’.
Recommended allowances of vitamins set by governments can seem like arbitrary guidelines. They are at best a minimum level to consume before disease presents itself. Diseases such as scurvy from lack of vitamin C, and rickets from a lack of vitamin D.
Scaremongering in the media may have put you off supplementing with multi-vitamins with stories of unnecessary expense or even danger of over consumption and hypervitaminosis.
Since vitamins are natural and cannot be patented pharmaceuticals have little interest in them. Without a patent there is less money in vitamins found in food – so why promote ‘food’ as medicine.
Imposing ‘safe’ but upper limits of some vitamins causes confusion.
Why And How To Take Vitamin D
We live in a world of pollutants. Air and water pollution, chemical exposure in the home and work, pesticides on our food and hormones and toxins in meat and animal produce, not to mention electromagnetic exposure from high-tech gadgetry we all carry on our person.
Pollution cannot be avoided in its entirety and vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients are our defense against pollution. It is essential to supply your body a broad and plentiful supply of vitamins, minerals, and anti-oxidants.
With this being said, as we further intensify our farming methods we begin to deplete the very foods we eat of nutrients they would normally supply. A 1990 study showed that 70% of minerals had been depleted from farmland, and this figure will have been further exacerbated in the last 20+ years! Modern living might mean that we need to supplement. Even if we eat what would have been a perfect nutrient-dense diet 100 years ago, the world has changed.
I have been going a little overboard with vitamin D recently. That’s because it is the most under-rated vitamin and its presence may prevent and cure a host of vitamin D deficiency related maladies – a real problem in the western world where we spend much of our time inside or covered up away from the sun.
The latest news reports are illustrating the high level of Vitamin D deficiency in the UK today. We acquire 90% of our Vitamin D from sunshine, yet 77% cent of adults spend most of their day indoors, seldom seeing the sunshine.
Vitamin D is best known for its roles in preventing rickets and maintaining proper levels of calcium in the blood. It is an important factor in the maintenance of good health, that also helps in the development and maintenance of bones and teeth, and the absorption and use of calcium and phosphorus. Studies also suggest that Vitamin D may play a part in slowing the ageing process and the onset of age-related diseases.
If you’re wondering how to take vitamin D then I recommend following the advice of your doctor or the directions on the label.
In order to know exactly how to take vitamin D or indeed whether you need to at all, the only way of knowing is to take get a baseline blood test. You will then know exactly how to to take vitamin D specifically for your situation.
Once you know your blood levels and your GP has prescribed a vitamin D3 supplement, in my experience I the best way to take vitamin D is either with a moderate dose daily or a mega dose a couple of times per week. Your GP will advise you on this.
Whether you get a blood test or not, the vast majority of us living in the UK and similar lattitudes will be vitamin D deficient. Therefore vitamin D3 is an ideal supplement for the months when many of us don’t see the sun on a daily basis and the demand for Vitamin D is highest during the autumn and winter seasons, so be prepared!
Next Steps
I hope you found this interesting and helpful. For more information the following may be if interest:
Does Vitamin D Help You Lose Weight?
How To Lose Weight Without Dieting?
Online Weight Loss Coaching