Vitamin D plays a critical role in the health of your immmune system. With the flu season approaching, I highly recommend that patients have their vitamin D level tested to make certain the value is at least 60. I have been routinely testing my patients vitamin D levels for the past several years. I have only found a few of my patients’ vitamin D level to be within the normal range of (30-100); most are significantly lower than the bottom of the range (less than 30). People who live in sunny parts of the country/world have higher levels of vitamin D since sun exposure builds up our vitamin D levels. It can take at least a few months to build your vitamin D levels once you start supplementing your diet with vitamin D. Common food sources of vitamin D (cod liver oil, cooked salmon, dairy and eggs) are recommended (unless you are allergic to dairy, as many people are). If your vitamin D blood levels are extremely low, you should actually take a vitamin D supplement. Since it takes at least a few months to build up your body’s vitamin D reserves, you should start the testing and supplementation process as soon as possible.
The amount of vitamin D you need depends on your blood levels. Therefore, it’s not a good idea to start taking vitamin D supplements without knowing your baseline blood value. Furthermore, there are numerous formulations on the market, some are high quality and some are not. Some formulations (such as the liquid one made by Douglas Laboratories) are so powerful that they help our patients feel better within minutes to days. For example, I recommended the Douglas Laboratories’ vitamin D to a patient of mine whose blood vitamin D level was extremely low- around 15. At her follow-up visit, she reported feeling better emotionally as soon as she started taking this vitamin D formulation. In fact, she claimed that she would not feel well emotionally if she did not take her vitamin D on any given day.
Once my patients start supplementing with vitamin D, I do a follow-up test after several months to make certain their vitamin D blood levels are increasing. Unfortunately, in some cases, a person’s vitamin D levels do not increase despite the daily supplementation. I believe such patients have digestion and absorption issues. Specifically, either they are not absorbing the vitamin D and/or their liver is not capable of converting the vitamin D obtained from the supplement (i.e. vitamin D3) to the more active form called vitamin D-25, OH. In such cases, improving the health of the patients digestion (including liver function) is of critical importance.
Notice that low levels of vitamin D are associated with numerous illnesses and conditions, including cancer, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases, poor immunity, etc. Therefore, you want to make certain your vitamin D levels are optimal, not only for the prevention of the flu, but also for prevention and treatment of numerous other illnesses. (Note that taking vitamin D is not a treatment for the flu- it is a form of prevention. Once you have caught the flu, it’s probably not going to be of much help to start taking vitamin D since it takes a few months to build your levels.)
Refer to the videos on vitamin D on this website Do a search to find these videos.