Vitamin D levels - the benefits of optimising them

My experience with optimising vitamin D levels

Even though I get a lot of sun, and I use sunbeds, living in the UK I find it very hard to keep vitamin D levels in good range.

Many studies suggest you should aim to keep them in the upper quartile, with a few quality meta analyses in agreement. NB. This is not absolutely accepted by medical establishments, possibly due to their focus on reactive disease treatment as opposed to optimising health and quality of life.

With 6 months of vitamin D supplementation at 10,000 iu, I found I had mild vitamin D poisoning. Whilst I had no side effects, my blood tests revealed they were above range.

5000 iu Vitamin D puts me mid range. So, personally I now supplement an average of 7500 iu QD.

Remember, if you miss a day, it does not hurt to intake vitamin D at double levels or even with once a week bolus dosages to improve your compliance.

Vitamin D levels being in the upper quartile has many benefits, particularly relating to immunity. A private test for Vitamin D can be found for £40, e.g. from Medichecks - I have found the finger prick test to be reliable for vitamin D.

NB. I do not find it reliable for tests such as RBCs (red blood cells) - e.g. I have done a finger prick for RBCs and an in-lab blood draw a few days apart and had totally different results despite having similar hydration levels; I digress.