Solving a Vitamin D Deficiency

[Scott Kustes]

My mom casually mentioned today that my bro-in-law has a vitamin D deficiency. I don't know enough about it other than that the deficiency sounds pretty severe. She said "Normal is like 32 or something whatevers and he is at 7." Obviously that could be completely nonsense but whatever.

So he's on vitamin supplements to try to bring his levels back up. First, what could be causing the deficiency? The guy gets no sunlight at all...doesn't even have a window in his office. Dracula is tan in comparison. Second, what are good whole foods alternatives to what are likely synthetic supplements? I was thinking cod liver oil though I'm not sure if they could afford it if the dosage needs to be extravagant. It's unlikely he'd eat eggs as he has "genetically high cholesterol" and is trapped in that dogma.

I see here (http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp#h2) that salmon and such are also good sources. I doubt he's going to be interested in eating liver. Ok, so does anyone have any other ideas? I'm not sure if he's interested or is content with his supplements, but I'm also thinking the cod liver oil is a good way to accidentally sneak some omega-3s into his diet as well.

[Mike ODonnell]

drag dracula's ass to the beach...or at least outside at lunch.
Ten to fifteen minutes of sun exposure at least two times per week to the face, arms, hands, or back without sunscreen is usually sufficient to provide adequate vitamin D

here's a good page of info for other ideas.
http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp

[Garrett Smith]

More sun. The best for a pale-skinned person is the kind before 10am or after 3pm. See below for more to chew on regarding this...

Green Pasture's "Blue Ice Gold Therapeutics" is a juiced-up CLO, very concentrated and with a touch of X-Factor Butter Oil to enhance the absorption. I have the liquid (cinnamon flavor) and the capsules available at the same prices as through Green Pastures directly, if you are interested.

Personally, the synthetic Ds are junk, IMO.

Okay. Vitamin D precursors are made from cholesterol. Your bro-in-law (BIL) avoids the sun and likely avoids most vitamin D containing foods. His body wants more vitamin D, so, it cranks up the production of cholesterol in the liver so that if/when his skin ever sees sunlight, it can jump on the opportunity to make as much as possible.

So, it is very likely that your BIL getting some CLO and lots more sunlight will fix two problems at once--the vitamin D deficiency AND his high cholesterol!

Links to read more about this, found by Google searching under "Vitamin D statin effect":
Statins and Vitamin D Deficiency (http://www.spacedoc.net/statins_vitaminD.html)
Are statin drugs an expensive version of vitamin D? (http://www.knowledgeofhealth.com/report.asp?story=Are%20statin%20drugs%20an%20expen sive%20version%20of%20vitamin%20D&catagory=Drugs,%20Heart%20Disease,%20Cholesterol)

Scott, I haven't been back to your blog in a while, but if you'd like to refer the woman who was inquiring about medicine to this page to see how physiology is applied by an ND, this might not be a bad reference for her.

[Scott Kustes]

Interesting Dr. G. I'll broach the topic with him somehow (my opinion wasn't asked for) and see what he's receptive to. Thanks for the info MOD and Dr. G.