#1 Vitamin D DANGER You Absolutely Must Know!

Hello Health Champions. Today we're going to  talk about the number one vitamin D danger you  

must know. You can make a very strong case for  vitamin D being the number one deficiency in  

the world and not only that but it's of critical  importance and we're only just learning just how  

important it is in fact some people have said  that it's a biomarker of chronic disease and  

Frailty in other words looking at nothing else  like you only get one thing on the blood work  

and there's a very strong correlation between  your vitamin D status and how well you're doing  

overall so we're going to talk about a number of  critical steps that we all have to have in place  

in order for us to utilize vitamin D properly  and if you want to follow along and get a copy  

of these slides then there's a link down below so  that you can get that now when we're talking about  

What vitamin D does there there is a classic role  and a non-classic role so typically vitamin D is  

primarily associated with calcium phosphorus  and Bone about depositing getting vitamin D  

gets calcium into the bone so it can Harden and  make proper bone and this was found out in 1920  

based on something called rickets if you have a  severe deficiency of vitamin D as you're growing  

up as your bones are growing and lengthening  you can't make hard bone and you get what's  

called osteomalacia Soft bones and they found  out that vitamin D was completely responsible  

for these soft bones and as soon as they provided  some vitamin D they solve the problem of rickets  

but that was only one thing that was the first  thing that found but it's only one thing of  

What vitamin D does so now we have learned more  about its non-classic role and this has to do  

with immune function about activating immune  cells regulating immune cells has to do with  

apoptosis the lifespan and the programmed cell  death of cells vitamin D is critically important  

to regulate inflammation so if vitamin D is low  inflammation goes up it is also involved with  

neurogenesis that means building new brain tissue  making new brain cells new brain connections as  

in repairing brain tissue after concussions maybe  but also in terms of learning new things you have  

to make new connections and vitamin D is critical  for that so here where there's some controversy  

that most of these non-classic roles we have  learned in the last 10 years not all of it but  

the vast majority that we know about vitamin D  we've learned in last 10 years to compare with  

the calcium stuff we found out over a hundred  years ago but some people are kind of stuck in  

this old thinking so when we ask if you're getting  enough vitamin D some people kind of argue that  

yeah you have enough vitamin D to make bone and  that may be true but the question then is do we  

have enough vitamin D for all these other critical  functions but important as this stuff is there's  

way way more so cell proliferation for example the  production and the maturation of cells the cell  

differentiation the ability of a cell to become  a bone cell or a heart cell or a liver cell or  

a brain cell that's all about differentiation and  about Gene stability the stability of your genetic  

makeup of your DNA so when this is working we have  healthy tissue now there's something called cancer  

and cancer is characterized by uncontrolled cell  proliferation it is with poor cell differentiation  

and with genomic instability with those three  things in place as we could have with low vitamin  

D that is called cancer so especially malignant  bad cancer that is uncontrolled is associated  

with low vitamin D another thing that is becoming  rampant is autoimmune disease the most common one  

is for thyroid and we test thyroid antibodies on  all of our blood work and we find it probably in  

20 30% of people there are thyroid antibodies but  not just thyroid there is rheumatoid arthritis  

there is lupus there is ankylosing spondylitis  there is psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis and  

the list goes on and on and on even type one  diabetes is an autoimmune disease that can be  

influenced by vitamin D and then we have all of  the neurodegenerative diseases the breakdown of  

nervous system tissue or insufficiency such as in  Parkinson's or Alzheimer's dementia we also have  

neuro psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia  and depression that are also influenced by  

vitamin D so I think you can begin to see just  how important it is that there's virtually no  

body function where vitamin D is not involved so  to call it important is an enormous understatement  

and just like we said before you could look at  Vitamin D as a single biomarker and get a pretty  

good idea of how healthy this person is and then  a good question is is the vitamin D a cause or  

result of the disease in other words are people  sick because they don't get enough vitamin D or  

is the vitamin D low because they're sick and  can't process it or utilize it properly and the  

answer is definitely both that if you're low in  Vitamin D it can call cause all sorts of problems  

and if you are sick you're not going to process  vitamin D as well so it kind of becomes a vicious  

cycle there so just how big of a problem is this  worldwide well officially you're called deficient  

if you are below 20 nano-grams per deciliter on  a blood test and that's about 42 to 97% of the  

world's population depending on different regions  depending on the country so in some countries  

where they fortify and they supplement the food  more they can be as low as 40 but there's still  

40% of the population in those places that are  less than 20 nano-grams which is disastrously  

low and in some areas especially in the Middle  East you can find as much as 97% of people being  

deficient and then someone said well that can't be  right that many people can't possibly be deficient  

so they tried to kind of change the guidelines a  little bit and they said well you know we found  

that even at 12.5 nano-grams most people still  mineralize bone pretty well but see now they're  

back into that classic role where they're mostly  concerned with whether you can put calcium in the  

bone or not they're not really addressing the  bigger picture either way even 20 nano-grams is  

way way too low and then the next level up they're  not calling you deficient just insufficient and  

that is when you're below 30 nano-grams per  deciliter but like I hinted a lot of these  

numbers are mostly concerned with the classic role  are we able to mineralize Bone so the question  

is what's really optimal if we really want the  full benefit for hundreds and hundreds of these  

critical functions how high do we really need to  be so we're going to talk you through a few steps  

where you can start understanding that a little  bit better so I'm going to tell you a little story  

about the steps necessary for utilizing vitamin D  so classically the idea is that we are out in the  

sun and we get sunlight and as our skin is exposed  to the UV radiation now we make vitamin D in the  

skin and all should be well but most people would  agree today that what we can produce via the skin  

is just not enough today because there's so many  different factors that can interfere and one for  

example is air pollution that because of the  extensive amount of air pollution we're not  

making vitamin D the way we used to another thing  is that if you rent around naked in the sun all  

day long you'd probably be okay but I have noticed  most people tend to wear clothes and they tend to  

spend quite a bit of time indoors and and also  pigmentation the darker your skin the more you  

kind of repel that UV radiation so the darker your  skin the less you can convert and make vitamin D  

latitude if you live really far from or quite far  from the equator you also don't get as much sun  

or not the same intensity of sun uh the intensity  will change with the season and the time of day  

if you're most F out in the sun like toward the  end of the day then the sun isn't strong enough  

to really convert a lot either then as we age the  conversion goes down further and then there's all  

these different conditions like insulin resistance  which 80% of the population has to some degree  

where they eat too many carbohydrates and too much  sugar and the insulin stops working properly it's  

not enough so we have to make more insulin and we  be become insulin resistant that also interferes  

with vitamin D production so for most people  the only realistic alternative is to get vitamin  

D also through diet and or supplementation and  whether we get it through diet or supplementation  

now of course we have to absorb it and in terms of  diet there's very very few dietary sources really  

it's a few animal products the only Rich product  really is is cod liver oil and cod liver pate if  

you eat those on a regular basis and the other  one would be irradiated mushrooms that's a pretty  

strong source so mushrooms that have been exposed  to UV light there's a little bit in various animal  

products and animal fats like butter and cream  and animal fats and eggs but not really enough  

so supplementation is really the only practical  and reasonable way for most people to get their  

vitamin D on a daily basis so now when we eat it  as food or a supplement of course it gets into  

the stomach and we have to break it down and in  order to break it down we need digestive enzymes  

to break down our food and because vitamin D is  a fat soluble vitamin we also need to eat it with  

fat if you eat a very low fat diet and you don't  release enough bile for example you're not going  

to break down and make use of that vitamin D very  well in fact they found that by eating a vitamin D  

supplement with the biggest meal of the day you  could increase absorption by 50% because it's  

absorbed as part of food as part of fat and if you  have a bigger meal then there's going to be more  

digestive enzymes and a more involved absorption  process for that but then the vitamin D has to be  

transported so just because it got in your stomach  and you managed to absorb it and even get it into  

the bloodstream it still doesn't do you any  good and there is something called a vitamin  

D binding protein VDBP for short and if that  protein is is low that means that there's less  

vitamin D activity because virtually no vitamin D  is floating around by itself it's all carried to  

where it needs to go by this VDBP so not only  do you need to have enough vitamin D you also  

need to have enough of this protein and if you  don't for example they have found an increased  

risk of malignant tumors especially as it relates  to breast cancer prostate cancer and colorectal  

cancer and there is a strong association with  these Cancers and a low VDBP and then of course  

if you don't have enough of the protein it's  still going to help to take more vitamin D so  

that you can saturate it better so that there's  more available and in fact I found that in a  

group of people just taking 1,00 international  units per day which still isn't a whole lot they  

reduce the risk of this cancer by 60 to 77% but  the binding protein also isn't enough it can only  

transport it but now we need to get it into  the cell so we have all these different steps  

that build on each other and the next is like  I mentioned to get it into the cell and now we  

have something called a vitamin D receptor so The  Binding protein is going to take this Vitamin D  

from the bloodstream or from the skin and take it  to its Target organ and now we have these little  

receptors on the surface of the cell and only  if those VDR receptors are working can we get  

the vitamin D in and express that biological  function and these vitamin D receptors are  

basically on every cell in the body but they're  more highly expressed where the vitamin D is the  

most important and these would be places like your  kidney cells your immune cells your bone cells but  

also in special places in your nervous system  a lot of different places but among others the  

substantia nigra which is associated with making  dopamine and Parkinson so if you have low vitamin  

D you can't really get the full activity out of  your substantia nigra your dopamine goes down  

and you're at increased risk for Parkinson.  Hypothalamus is an area that regulates your  

hormones and your hunger and your thirst and  temperature and so forth so now when these  

areas don't work now we have neuro-psychiatric  effects like schizophrenia depression we have  

neuro-cognitive like Parkinson's and various  motor disorders and dementia and we even have a  

lot of different endocrine disorders and hormone  imbalances even diabetes has a very strong link  

to vitamin D and they link it specifically to  this vitamin D receptor both type one and type  

two diabetes so when vitamin D is low now there is  less insulin release we produce less so we can't  

manage blood glucose as well but the main thing  of course leading to diabetes to type two is in  

insulin resistance when we have a lot of vitamin  D then insulin resistance goes down when vitamin  

D is low insulin resistance goes up and when our  immune system is down if vitamin D is low immune  

regulation goes down now we have less defenses  against type 1 diabetes which is an autoimmune  

disease and that brings us to co-actors so we can  go through all these different steps we can get  

the vitamin D into the cell but we still can't  necessarily have vitamin D activity at least  

not all of it because most nutrients most enzymes  and co-actors they work together with other things  

and the number one co-actor to help you process  vitamin D is going to be healthy foods rich whole  

healthy foods that are grown the right way and  cooked the right way provide more nutrients more  

co-actors than anything else possibly could if you  eat processed food and a bunch of sugar now you're  

missing a little bit of everything the number  two thing is exercise believe it or not because  

exercise optimizes the function it activates every  cell in your body it allows it to live up to its  

potential if you will now first and third place is  is adequate vitamin D intake so whether you get it  

from the Sun or whether you need to supplement uh  obviously you have to get enough vitamin D one way  

or the other number four is magnesium magnesium  participates in hundreds of different chemical  

reactions and Pathways in the body and it is the  most important co- factor for vitamin D to do its  

thing number five is omega-3 fatty acids the EPA  and the DHA they are also essential for activating  

and transporting vitamin D number six is zinc  if you haven't noticed yet zinc tends to show  

up in all sorts of places number seven is boron  which is another essential mineral and number  

eight is vitamin K2 now some people need to add  that as a supplement some people can manufacture  

it through the gut and we do get some through  food as well a lot of times it is recommended  

that you get your vitamin D3 in combination with  a vitamin K2 I haven't found that to be optimal  

most of the time I find that a lot of people need  to start with vitamin D3 and do that for maybe 3  

to six months and then maybe for some of them to  start adding adding in vitamin K2 but how much  

vitamin D do you need to take we've pretty much  concluded that most people should supplement but  

how much so the basic recommendation is that you  should get at least 600 IU's per day international  

units and if you're over the age of 60 or so you  should get 800 IU's now if you're in a different  

part of the world sometimes they measure this in  micro-grams and then you divide the international  

units by 40 to come up with the micro-grams and  some nutrition labels will have both the standard  

guidelines also say that 2,000 IU's is the max  that you should ever get now here's the problem  

that for a lot of people that is not going to  be enough that 2,000 IU's might be okay for  

some people and it's a lot of genetic factors  it's about sun exposure Etc but 2,000 IU's is  

not going to be enough for most people 5,000 is  going to be okay for a lot of people but we also  

have a lot of people in the clinic taking 5,000  IU's and they're still deficient on their blood  

work even after months of taking that and we test  vitamin D on everyone in the clinic some people  

take 10,000 and it is probably too much for most  people so in the clinic we find that the majority  

of people probably Center in around 5,000 IU's if  they take 10,000 that if they're really deficient  

we probably put them on 10,000 for a month or  two but in the long run 10,000 is going to put  

you over it's going to put you into Vitamin  D toxicity which is also something that you  

really don't want so here's the thing because  there's so many variables so much individual  

variability and so many factors to weigh in you  really don't know unless you measure you got to  

get a blood test and you got to get the level so  next time you do blood work you have to either  

order it or insist that they they put it on there  and once you get your results back from the blood  

levels what are we talking about about what should  a good level be well less than 20 nano-grams is  

like we said it's deficient it is much under it's  in the Red Zone basically and if you're in the US  

typically they're going to measure nano-grams  per deciliter if you're in other parts of the  

world they might measure in nano-moles per liter  and the way to get from one to the other is you  

multiply the nano-grams by 2.5 so I'll give you  both units here then in the orange Zone meaning  

you're insufficient it's still too low but it's  not critical that's 30 nano-grams which would  

be 75 nano-moles now what most people who are  involved with functional medicine with nutrition  

with holistic practices that people that do a lot  of blood work and specialize in that they will set  

the lower limit at 50 nano-grams which would be  125 nano-moles and the upper end of optimal is  

probably around 80 nano-grams or 200 nano-moles so  that's the range that you're looking for optimal  

is between 50 and 80 and the reason that we want  to be in this range and for a lot of people you  

probably want to be toward the higher end of that  is that while some people can probably get by  

with 30 like we just talked about there's so much  individual Variability in terms of absorption in  

terms of binding protein transport and vitamin D  receptor and your availability of co-actors that  

if you have one or more limitations along the way  then you have to compensate by having some more so  

if you are hovering around the upper end you're  probably doing well but we also get people in on  

the blood work and now they're over a hundred and  this is where we want to back off because there  

is such a thing as Vitamin D toxicity it can put  your blood calcium is too high it can cause all  

sorts of problems in your body so you really don't  want to go too high either and that's why it's so  

important to measure this stuff so 100 nano-grams  would be 250 nano-moles and where it really gets  

to be a problem is over 150 nano-grams or 375  nano-moles this is vitamin D toxicity and it's not  

real easy to get there but you want to make sure  you don't get even close you probably have to take  

tens of thousands for quite a long time but like  we said there's also some variability and we've  

had people get to a hundred without taking a whole  lot for some people that could be two three four  

5,000 and other people need to take 10,000 and  they still don't get there so you need to measure  

it and you need to stay and monitor and then stay  in a good range so I hope you see that vitamin D  

is too important to ignore it's too important not  to know where you are it governs so many critical  

functions so you need to measure you need to know  where you are you can't just take 2,000 or 5,000  

and assume and then you supplement based on that  measurement and then you recheck and you Monitor  

and then you rinse and repeat as necessary after  you have in the beginning you probably want to  

check every two to three months until you get a  handle on it and I think you should check blood  

work anytime you try to make changes you should  get blood work every three months once you get  

some results and you learn your Baseline and  you get stable you don't need to take blood  

work nearly as often and the same holds true for  vitamin D but you need to start understanding how  

your body functions if you enjoyed this video  you're going to love that one and if you truly  

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