Originally Posted by
Leisesturm
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. You clearly have more insight into things than the average person, but there is this: Vit. D3 is available from countless over the counter sources in the 5,000IU strength, and even 10,000IU is not hard to find. If commercial retailers large and small are confident enough in the non-lethality of the D3 form being safe enough for general consumption, why are you concerned? It isn't simply because of anonymity why I can generalize, my position is informed by the very wide availability of the product in question. That said, there is a very simple way to know for sure, and it does not involve avoiding fat soluble vitamin supplementation: get periodic blood analysis. Even if you don't have health insurance, and maybe even if you do, since lots of people with insurance still avoid routine health care because they have $5,000 deductibles... every year or two it is worth the $500 to find out what key markers of systemic health are doing. FWIW.
I reference the "fad's" fueled by the medical community that once said that high doses of Vitamin A (also a fat soluble vitamin) and Vitamin E (another fat soluble vitamin) were once in vogue and people came to drugstores and bought it in droves. Years later they started seeing negative effects of longer term hyper-vitamin supplementation.
I'm being cautious because the good Lord gave us one liver and for full disclosure I have to put the brakes on such high doses until I can see that it is safe.
You reference high doses of D being widely available. I am skeptical because vitamins are not under the guidance of the FDA or any other governing body - hence all the bad diet supplements that have had to be taken off the market as well as the aforementioned A and E dosing regimen. Also, vitamins have no one company to be liable so there are no corporate lawyer or actuary warning with strong wording in the package insert.
I have no axe to grind with the Vitamin D community. I know very well people who believe that every headache is a "migraine".
There is some quantitative evidence that vitamin D deficiencies... like any other deficiency... happens over a long length of time... like a decade or more. I am weary of any hyper supplementation that corrects a 10+ year long deficiency with a few month push.
I understand our community's need to 'get back on the bike' after injury.. or 'have to get that ride in before the rain or darkness' --> I just don't think that it is pragmatic to supplement in this rushed fashion. I see people deficient in vitamin B12 that need monthly injections... I see people needing to supplement iron for months or even years to correct their deficiency.
I know of no other vitamin or co-factor that can be corrected so quickly. Since it is fat soluble, I don't want people to supplement without... to your point.... having the insurance to adequately access their kidney or liver clearance. A CBC includes many liver and kidney enzymes. How many people don't consider OTC products or vitamins when telling their doctor what they are taking. Again, human nature.
First do no harm. Since the consequences of low Vitamin D are moderate, what is the rush. I am well versed in clearance of medicines and as important... the mechanism of action of the uptake system. It is much safer (judged by other vitamins and other supplementation programs that have had to be rescinded or revoked) to moderate your supplementation--> that lower levels each day is safer as levels return to normal.
What's the rush? I also have to consider an arthritis medicine or blood modifier that people might be taking to delay the clearance of larger doses of vitamin D. After all... you have to know your audience....
and....
we are....
in the ....
Fifty Plus section.....
I'm using perspective and intuition and theory and first and last.....doing no harm.