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Short Summary
Main recommendation: Official vitamin D intake guidance, such as the UK government's 400 units per day, is probably too low, and daily oral vitamin D3 doses of 5,000 to 10,000 units, with some patients receiving 20,000 to 50,000 units, appeared safe in a seven-year hospital-based study. The speaker argues that the study's findings should prompt health authorities to raise recommended amounts and to screen everyone for vitamin D levels. He also states that individual dosing should be set with a doctor, ideally titrated to blood levels.
Key Points
- The speaker cites an estimate that unprotected sun exposure can produce up to 25,000 units of vitamin D per day, far above the 400 units per day UK government recommendation he mentions.
- The study, published in Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, followed daily oral vitamin D3 dosing from 5,000 to 50,000 units in hospitalized psychiatric patients in Dayton and Cincinnati, Ohio.
- Patients were routinely screened for vitamin D from July 2011 to about 2018, and supplements were offered to correct deficiency across about 4,700 admissions, with most agreeing.
- No cases of vitamin D-induced hypercalcemia (high blood calcium) were reported, and blood calcium stayed within the normal range even at high vitamin D levels.
- Blood vitamin D levels took about 12 months to plateau, reaching about 96 nanograms per mL at 10,000 units per day at 12 months, then leveling around 90 to 97 nanograms per mL after four more months, with the currently considered upper limit at 100 nanograms per mL.
- The speaker notes that vitamin D is not patented, so cheaper manufacturing could lower prices as use increases.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions: The speaker does not give a dosing protocol for viewers. He says the amount should be decided with your own doctor and ideally titrated according to blood levels. He reports that he personally takes 8,000 units of vitamin D per day with 200 micrograms of vitamin K2, while stressing he is not giving advice. The study's typical regimen was 5,000 to 10,000 units per day, with 20,000 to 50,000 units per day used for some patients with conditions such as psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis; the speaker notes 10,000 units equals 250 micrograms.
- The study reported a mean vitamin D level of about 118.9 nanograms per mL in patients on supplements (range 74 to 384, with a baseline/starting level around 74.4) versus 27.1 in the non-supplemented comparison group, with mean blood calcium of 9.6 versus 9.5 milligrams per deciliter.
- The study group's parathyroid hormone (released in response to low calcium) was 24.2 in vitamin D3 users versus 30.2 in non-users, which the speaker notes as interesting.
- The speaker reports that the study authors declared no conflicts of interest and received no external funding.
- The speaker's claims about the study's conclusions, the 25,000-unit sun estimate, and the cost of vitamin D are his own interpretation and are not professional medical advice.
Bottom Line
The video argues that current UK vitamin D recommendations are too conservative given this study's reported safety at much higher doses, but individual dosing should be determined with a doctor based on blood tests.
