Sunlight and Vitamin D

Hi all

I have been a bit quiet lately sorry (a hectic few months!)

Last month I celebrated 6 months on the program. Just wanted to share some of my blood results.

23/ 09/11: Vitamin D 76 nmol/L
10/01/12: Vitamin D 179 nmol/L (got doc to check when having unrelated tests done)
30/03/12: Vitamin D 164 nmol/L

So why the drop in the last couple of months? After achieving 179nmol/L with 6000iu of Vitamin D a day (and almost daily sunshine), I thought I would reduce to 4000iu of Vitamin D to try and just maintain.

Not enough! I've gone backwards (despite a pacific island holiday for two weeks in the sunshine in Feb!)

I'll go back to 6000iu I think.

Also, what has surprised me is that everyone seems worried about your calcium levels when on a vegan + seafood diet. Well here are my results:

23/ 09/11: Calcium 2.21 nmol/L
30/03/12: Calcium 2.33 nmol/L

So on a diet with no dairy whatsoever, my calcium has increased over 6 months (I would assume due to Vitamin D and awesome diet).

Will get back to you with cholesterol results when I have them and will post elsewhere.

-Rey

You are spot on with the effect Vitamin D and a good diet has on our calcium levels, as it says in the FAQ's. there is plenty of calcium in this diet!

We should "Aim to keep blood level of vitamin D high, that is between150-225nmol/L (may require up to 10 000IU daily)".

So I think you are right to go back to 6,000IU a day, maybe even increase it to 7,000IU a day, that's what I take and my level stays around 200nmol/L.

Wendy

I vary vit D intake depending on time of year - 5000 iu in the. summer, 10000 iu in the winter

[Karen Law]

My calcium level also rose after adopting the OMS diet, I think high Vit D helps with absorption of calcium, so despite the possible lower levels going in through food, more actually ends up in the body. I used to eat so much cheese that it is hard to believe I actually get more calcium now through diet. Whatever - it's all good!
Karen