Should you supplement with Vitamin D?
For years, I supplemented in the winter with Vitamin D. Even at the height of Covid (when there was limited to no prevailing advice on how to actually stay healthy 🙄), I loaded up myself and my family on Vitamin D. It has an important role in your immune system by boosting the immune cells response to fight infection.
We get Vitamin D naturally when the UVB rays from the sun mix with cholesterol in our skin. The conversion to Vitamin D requires actions from the liver and kidneys too.
FUN FACT, vitamin D is actually NOT a vitamin...it's a hormone. This is because it is created in the body and even when we can take it in from certain foods (egg yolk and fish), it has to be converted to a new form for it to be used in our body. By definition, a Vitamin is something we do not create in our body and thus we need to get it via external sources.
But what if taking synthetic Vitamin (Hormone) D is actually doing more harm than good?....
Above I noted that cholesterol to mix with UV rays in order to create Hormone D. In North America, we have very high rates of cholesterol and yet very low rates of Hormone D. Why is this? One big reason is that Magnesium is also required for this conversion to occur. Magnesium is a mineral that we burn through VERY quickly when we are under stress. Most people tend to be low in Magnesium.
Side Effects of Synthetic Vitamin D
We also have to address the downsides to taking synthetic Vitamin D.
Synthetic Vitamin D depletes your Magnesium stores (see research HERE), which is crucial for the conversion of natural hormone D along with protein synthesis, blood glucose levels, muscle control, nerve function, blood pressure regulation, and more. So basically the more synthetic vitamin D you take, your body has more difficulty making natural hormone D .
Synthetic Vitamin D decreases your potassium levels (see research HERE), which are important for muscle contraction, fluid levels within the cell, and normal blood pressure levels
Synthetic Vitamin D does not allow for retinol absorption in the body, which leads to an increase in oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction (see research HERE)
Synthetic Vitamin D drives more iron to get stuck in your tissues versus circulating it in the blood (where it’s needed, see research HERE).
What About During Winter Months?
Worried because you live in a northern climate? Your fat cells can store Hormone D for months! Stores deplete about 52% over a period of 12 months.
During the months of the year that we have better and longer exposure to sunlight, get out in the sun (morning is better) for 20-30 minutes daily without the use of sunblock or covering your body.
If you would like more information, I highly recommend this video with Morley Robbins and Jim Stephenson Jr. when they were interviewed about this topic on Mitolife Radio.