Prevent Disease.com - Are Your Vitamin D Test Results Valid? Vitamin D deficiency is rampant not just in the U.S., but worldwide, and research into vitamin D status and its effects on your health has grown tremendously in the past couple of years, showing that previously recommended levels are insufficient to reap any major health benefits. This has led to a surge in vitamin D testing, with labs like Quest doing some 500,000 tests per month!
Unfortunately, recent developments in 2008 have made it clear that there are irregularities in the values obtained from the different testing methods. Although results from any of the three commonly used assays may be analytically accurate, they might not be clinically accurate, which is, ultimately, what matters. First -- Order the Correct Test First of all, it is very important that your physician orders the correct test as there are two vitamin D tests -- 1,25(OH)D, and 25(OH)D. 25(OH)D is the better marker of overall D status. The correct test is 25(OH)D, also called 25-hydroxyvitamin D. 1. The Most Accurate and Reliable Measurement of Your Vitamin D Status. January 30, 2012 The Most Accurate and Reliable Measurement of Your Vitamin D Status Vitamin D is one of the most powerful healing chemicals in your body with the ability to prevent hundreds of diseases.
One of the most important determinants of your vitamin D status is how you supplement and assess your optimum levels. Researchers have unveiled the development of a revolutionary reference methodology that promises to assure more accurate and reliable measurements of vitamin D status. Vitamin D is well known as the "sunshine vitamin" because human skin makes the nutrient upon exposure to sunlight. The body can produce up to 10000 IUs in inly 10 minutes of exposure to sunlight during peak hours. Exposure to sunlight and vitamin D has been shown to effectively deal with toxins including medications.
They noted that the current method for testing vitamin D -- by detecting levels of a vitamin D metabolite called 25(OH)D -- does not always provide accurate or reliable results. D Deficiency. Current Vitamin D Levels Found In Millions of People Are Allowing Chronic Inflammation. February 24, 2012 Current Vitamin D Levels Found In Millions of People Are Allowing Chronic Inflammation Researchers have discovered specific molecular signaling events by which vitamin D prevents inflammation. In their experiments, they showed that low levels of Vitamin D, comparable to levels found in millions of people, failed to inhibit the inflammatory cascade--a series of rapid biochemical events which propagates and matures the inflammatory response. However, levels considered adequate did inhibit inflammatory signaling.
They reported their results in the March 1, 2011, issue of The Journal of Immunology. “This study goes beyond previous associations of vitamin D with various health outcomes. Pale populations have multiplied and have migrated across the earth, many times to geographic regions which are to their disadvantage. Lighter skin color allows deeper penetration by UV-B rays, which decreases the amount of sunlight exposure needed for adequate vitamin D production. Dr. Taking Oral Vitamin D? Avoid Making This Serious Mistake. By Dr. Mercola Did you know there are two types of vitamin D, and they are NOT interchangeable? In fact, taking the wrong one could do you more harm than good...Drisdol is a synthetic form of vitamin D2—made by irradiating fungus and plant matter—and is the form of vitamin D typically prescribed by doctors. This is not the type produced by your body in response to sun or safe tanning bed exposure, which is vitamin D3.
A recent meta-analysis by the Cochrane Databasei looked at mortality rates for people who supplemented their diets with D2 versus those who did so with D3, the form naturally produced by your body, highlighting the significant differences between the two. "You would think a paper that took a look at tens of thousands of subjects and analyzed the efficacy of prescription vitamin D (D2) and over-the-counter vitamin D (D3) would warrant a news story or two. The Difference Between Supplemental Vitamin D2 and D3 What about Dietary Sources? How Much Vitamin D Should You Take? UV Advantage | Dr. Hollick > Home.
Www.uvadvantage.org/portals/0/pdf/NEJournalofMedicine.pdf. Vitamin D (1 of 2) – For the Health of It. Do you realize that over 90% of all diseases could be prevented with four things? These four include exercise, stress management , a healthy diet/nutrition program and sunlight. Vitamin D is produced endogenously when our skin is exposed to ultraviolet rays from sunlight. Vitamin D is a true steroid with first order, mass action kinetics. It’s more than just a “vitamin.” We’re consistently told to stay out of the sun, to wear hats and cover ourselves with sunscreen to prevent skin cancer. Although sunlight is important to vitamin D synthesis, it’s important to limit excessive exposure of your skin to sunlight because UV radiation is a carcinogen when in excess can cause skin cancer and melanoma. According to a study published in the journal , 70% of Caucasian and 97% of African-Americans in the U.S. have insufficient blood levels of vitamin D.
In the journal , scientists have reported that most people need a much higher intake of vitamin D. And force in adolescent girls. . . . Obesity Smog.