A new study just came out showing that 80% of patients hospitalized with "you know what" in Spain were vitamin D deficient. The study’s authors chose to study vitamin D because of the evidence that suggests it plays a role in C0vid-18+1 infection, influenza, and other viruses. Two months ago Dr. Anthony Fauci let it slip that he was taking vitamin D as it supports the immune system. Of course, he made it a point to emphasize that these other immune-boosters people take do nothing.
I don't put a lot of stock in what these so-called experts say. In my personal opinion, they are behind on the science (or are straight up ignoring it) and behind the times because anyone who knows anything about the immune system and how the body works has either been on a vitamin D supplement or is making sure they're getting enough sunshine to compensate for that. Period.
Here's what you need to know about vitamin D supplementation:
Vitamin D is absolutely critical for our health and it is estimated that up to 50% of the population is deficient. There are various forms of vitamin D, but we supplement with D3 because it is the more naturally occurring form of the vitamin and may raise levels more effectively.
D3 comes from sunlight and food. When sunlight hits our skin, it converts a precursor called 7-dehydro-cholesterol to vitamin D3. This D3, with the D3 we get from our food is converted by the liver into 25-hydroxy-vitamin D, which is what is measured on a lab test. Since seafood is the most significant source of D (which is an issue in and of itself given the amount you’d have to eat and the heavy metal toxicity exposure) and sunlight is hard to come by during the winter months, it is very easy to become deficient.
So what about taking large amounts and vitamin K? Should you be drowning yourself in vitamin D and only using a D with K supplement? The answer is "no" and "you don't have to." Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin that when taken in large amounts can cause toxicity. Outside of extreme circumstances, you should not be taking 50,000 IU per day. This is crazy and every time I see a practitioner promoting a protocol with that much vitamin D I have a mini heart attack. Taking 1,000-4,000 IU per day for adults is sufficient for most people. (The RDA for children is 400 IU per day and 2,000 IU is a good standard amount for adults.)
As for vitamin K, the reason people started making D with K supplements is because people were taking unncessarily high doses of vitamin D, and K is known to counteract toxicity. Although vitamin K with D can be beneficial for women in menopause or for people with bone disorders, humans are adapted to get their nutrients from whole foods and outside of select conditions (like heart disease and unique health conditions that affect menopausal women), it is more ideal to supplement with D3 (either emulsified or with MCT oil) and obtain K (in its various forms) from your diet. My ideal way to take vitamin D is with my omega supplement and a green smoothie (as your green veggies are high in vitamin K).
Finally, the fear of taking vitamin D because it is a "hormone," is misleading. It is true that the liver and kidneys convert vitamin D into a hormone that activates the vitamin D receptor (VDR), which regulates the transcription of vitamin D responsive genes. It is not true that this automatically means that taking vitamin D is dangerous or should be avoided. In fact, for many people it is needed and beneficial for a short and/or reasonable period of time. There are many things we use, even in natural medicine, that are considered to be hormones, to act on the processes that manufacture hormones, can affect how our genes express themselves, and how our body physciologically works.
A great example of this is melatonin...which should not be taken for long periods of time or in high amounts but has been shown to be beneficial for covid18+1 and debilitating sleep problems or circadian rhythms that are imbalanced. Wild yam is another great example. Although wild yam does not contain active progesterone, it does contain diosgenin, which is used to make bioidentical hormones and can be used to make steroid hormones like progesterone, estrogen, DHEA, and cortisone in a lab. (It's also great at naturally addressing infertility.)
The botton line is this: Vitamin D can be very beneficial to take and is supported by a vast amount of research and scientific studies. It's best to take with a fat, in small amounts, and where a diet may be deficient in vitamin D or where access to the sun is reduced. It's also not a bad idea to add this to your "outbreak arsenal" as a preventive or if you get hit with something you want to tackle naturally.
I'm using this vitamin D for myself.
This is my formulation of vitamin D for kids that contans 400 IU per drop.
Love, Megan