Vitamin D

[L0rd]

A very small consideration perhaps, but is anyone concerned by the extra ingredients that are often a part of the tablet?

Such as:

Bulking Agent: Maltodextrin, Microcrystalline Cellulose, Tablet Coating (Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose, Glycerin, Natural Source Colour: Titanium Dioxide), Anti-Caking Agents: Silicon Dioxide, Stearic Acid & Magnesium Stearate.

 

[danlock]

I didn't know there were K1 and K2 vitamins. I thought potassium (chemical symbol K) was sometimes called Vitamin K.

Where am I confused here? Thank you!

 

[PHolder]

Vitamin K - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Chemically, the vitamin K family comprises 2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone (3-) derivatives. Vitamin K includes two natural vitamers: vitamin K1 (phylloquinone) and vitamin K2 (menaquinone).[3] Vitamin K2, in turn, consists of a number of related chemical subtypes, with differing lengths of carbon side chains made of isoprenoid groups of atoms. The two most studied ones are menaquinone-4 (MK-4) and menaquinone-7 (MK-7).

 

[HumanCondition]

Found It! It was iherb.com. £8.56 plus shipping.

For Europeans (similar could be found in the US?) I think this Germany made, 5k IU per droplet in coconut oil makes the most sense and by far is the most economical (5+ years of supply on 5k/day, the expiration date will probably come sooner). I prefer tasteless drops (as my mother fed us as kids ) to pills.

Vitamin D3 Laborgeprüfte 5000 IE pro Tropfen hochdosiert Vergleichs-Sieger 2019/2020 - Hoch bioverfügbares Vitamin D flüssig 50ml (1850 Tropfen) - In MCT-Öl aus Kokos: Amazon.de: Drogerie & Körperpflege

Vitamin D3 Laborgeprüfte 5000 IE pro Tropfen hochdosiert Vergleichs-Sieger 2019/2020 - Hoch bioverfügbares Vitamin D flüssig 50ml (1850 Tropfen) - In MCT-Öl aus Kokos bei Amazon.de | Günstiger Preis | Kostenloser Versand ab 29€ für ausgewählte Artikel

www.amazon.de

 

[mwg]

@Steve, do you have a recommendation for a zinc supplement? Are zinc and other minerals similar to magnesium, in that they need to be bound (TRAACS) to be sufficiently absorbed by the human body?

love the new forums

 

[Sukima]

I take 20,000IU a day. But I'm an over achiever I guess. Haven't had any negative side-effects I can think of.

 

[PHolder]

@Sukima it's not a contest and that is too much. At best you're wasting your money, at worst you will eventually have health consequences. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vitamin-d-side-effects

 

[Mervyn Haynes]

I take 20,000IU a day

WHAT. WHY?

 

[Cozmo]

I take 20,000IU a day. But I'm an over achiever I guess. Haven't had any negative side-effects I can think of.

Sweet Jeezus ! Why ?!? Are you in Siberia / Alaska ?

 

[dsmith77]

I'm low vitamin D and living in North Carolina. I take 10,000 IU daily and have been for several years now. I don't know why my body needs so much but my bloodwork is staying at about 70. The normal range for vitamin D is 30 to 90 in my reports. I think my break even point is somewhere between 6,000 and 7,000 IU daily. I have no negative side effects that I know of but plenty of exhaustion if I miss a dose or only take (1) 5,000 IU pill in a day.

 

[dsmith77]

@Steve, do you have a recommendation for a zinc supplement? Are zinc and other minerals similar to magnesium, in that they need to be bound (TRAACS) to be sufficiently absorbed by the human body?

love the new forums

I take Zinc daily. I am not low Zinc but I find other health benefits from taking it. It took a while to get the dosage right. If you experience diarrhea then you've taken too much. I quarter a 25 mg pill and only take a dose three times a week for about 18.75 mg weekly. It's all my body can handle. So, like the Health Sleep Formula, YMMV.

 

[hitbit]

@Steve, do you have a recommendation for a zinc supplement? Are zinc and other minerals similar to magnesium, in that they need to be bound (TRAACS) to be sufficiently absorbed by the human body?

love the new forums

Now Foods sells 30 mg Zn Glycinate soft gels. I take one of these per day with no adverse effects. The source company is TRAACS.

 

[pinter]

I’ve been taking Now Foods 1000IU for a few years now and have recently upped it to 5000iu a few times a week in the winter. I’ve never noticed any adverse effects but remember to always start slow. Too much vitamin D is associated with calcification of the blood (something like that) which leads to clogging of arteries I think. The medical advice is usually get a blood test before taking D. Like I said though I started low and I live in Canada so I am getting about 0iu naturally right now.

I also found Now zinc tablets, 50mg. I take that a few times a week, not every day though. On top of that Omega 3 with high epa/dha every day and a good multivitamin, I use Pure Encapsulations.

personally I think D and omega 3 are essential and I thank @Steve for pointing me in the D direction all those years ago.

 

[Lumbis]

A very small consideration perhaps, but is anyone concerned by the extra ingredients that are often a part of the tablet?

Such as:

Bulking Agent: Maltodextrin, Microcrystalline Cellulose, Tablet Coating (Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose, Glycerin, Natural Source Colour: Titanium Dioxide), Anti-Caking Agents: Silicon Dioxide, Stearic Acid & Magnesium Stearate.

Titanium Dioxide does bad things to rats but the dose looks high and rats are not humans. Still a stupid thing to use since it is only for coloring. Who cares what color the pills are!? I avoid it. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30936694/

 

[alvinl]

If you're interested in a deeper dive into how Vitamin D works in the body and its use in various clinical trials including Covid-19 treatments, watch this YouTube video published by MedCram. MedCram summarizes medical research and lectures into more easily understandable terms.

 

[ipsfr]

Vitamin K2 is pretty interesting, discovered not that long ago (10 or 15 years?) and so it isn't on that many people's radar yet. It does many things, probably much we don't know yet, including helping with skin elasticity, and activating two proteins that are important in dealing with calcium in the body. The effects of this are that bones are in general better built, to use a scientific term, and calcium is moved to where it should be in the bone matrix. Children growing up with good K2 levels tend to have wider faces and larger jaws leading to less problems with cramped teeth. The two proteins it activates are Osteocalcin and Matrix-GLA. Their jobs are to transport calcium into the bone matrix, and to hoover up stray calcium that tends to deposit just anywhere in the body if there's too much in circulation. The combination of these two actions help to properly use calcium that is absorbed from food, the link with Vitamin D being that it causes us to absorb more of the calcium in our diet - and our body may need a little help dealing with this extra calcium.

Reading articles and watching numerous videos on the subject various medics seem to be split on the need to supplement with this. There's little in the food we eat unless we are from the half of Japan that doesn't find the taste of natto unpleasant. However it's possible that the body can convert enough K1 to K2 to handle our needs.

I guess that here we come back to the question of requirements to be properly healthy versus the level to avoid the deficiency disease. But personally, because I take D3, I tend to side with the medics who say that 200 microgrammes of K2 MK7 daily is perfectly safe, and on balance is probably a good idea given the safety profile.

I'm not a medic by the way. My Dad was but where I lived at the time it was and still is ridiculously competitive to get in to medical school. I'm just another person who is interested in the subject and like to know some of the detail.