Holly IN Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 (edited) I have been reading the H1n1 threads. For a long time I have been wanting to see what our Vit D levels are. I suspect they are low in all of us in my family esp. in DH. We will try to get our levels tested at the dr's office soon. However in the meantime I am trying to find the vitamin D drops for $9.99 which I can't find on iherb.com. Somebody said on the H1N1 thread they found one on iherb for $9.99. I can't find this anywhere on that website. I did find one for $9.99 from vitacost.com but it is only 1 fl oz. YIKES!! Can you help me find the best buy on Vit D drops for adults and kids? Also can the kids take adult drops if I just cut the drops down to manageable doses?? Thanks! Holly Edited October 18, 2009 by Holly IN goofed on a website Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2Cs Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 How much outside time do you get? Some people think to get adequate Vit D from sunlight, you need a lot of sun exposure on a mainly nude body, but Harvard researchers are saying that as little as 5 minutes a day with exposed arms and occasionally legs can be enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holly IN Posted October 18, 2009 Author Share Posted October 18, 2009 not much now. We do not put sunscreen on the kids or ourselves either. I heard that for our skin type that we really need to be in the sun with full exposure for at least 1 hour a day everyday. :confused: Holly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacqui in mo Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 I've also read that in the Northern Hemisphere the angle of the sunlight during the winter months makes it almost impossible for our skin to use the sunlight to make vitamin D, mainly October through March. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trixie Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 I found this information the other day: http://blog.nutritiondata.com/ndblog/2009/08/how-much-sunshine-does-it-take-to-make-enough-vitamin-d.html The calculator linked in the site is informative (and kind of fun to play with!). http://nadir.nilu.no/~olaeng/fastrt/VitD-ez_quartMED.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 We will try to get our levels tested at the dr's office soon. However in the meantime I am trying to find the vitamin D drops for $9.99 which I can't find on iherb.com. Somebody said on the H1N1 thread they found one on iherb for $9.99. I can't find this anywhere on that website. I did find one for $9.99 from vitacost.com but it is only 1 fl oz. YIKES!! Someone else posted something from iherb that cost more - I posted the one that was $9.99, but it is from Vitacost. That 1 fl. oz. is 900 doses of 2000 IU - a dose is just one eye-dropper drop. One or two bottles should last your whole family the winter, even if you give high doses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Impish Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 Depends on where you are. I take (or am supposed to take, they were put somewhere 'safe' by Wolf, and now can't be found) regular Vit D pills. 1000 units a pill. My pain specialist had me taking 10 pills a day :001_huh: He's found chronic pain patients have low Vit D levels...be it because we're having chronic pain, or because of where we live...low Vit D can cause bone pain as well, so it may well be a vicious circle. I'm getting myself and my kids checked. Too much Vit D is poisonous, so we're getting checked before starting anything beyond a 'maintenance' dose. Especially with winter upon us. I've wondered if ppl who experience SAD upped their vit D dosages, if it would alleviate some of their symptoms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbgrace Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 (edited) How much outside time do you get? Some people think to get adequate Vit D from sunlight, you need a lot of sun exposure on a mainly nude body, but Harvard researchers are saying that as little as 5 minutes a day with exposed arms and occasionally legs can be enough. I know there is a lot of misinformation out there about vitamin D so it doesn't surprise me that you read that. Still, it's not true and if people believe that stuff they are likely to not realize they may well be low. Most of us are, in fact, low. In this study 51% of high sun exposure people were deficient. The average sun exposure without sunscreen was around 22 hours a week of Hawaiian sun. Still they were deficient. Worse is that the standard for adequate levels in the study were 30...and we know that's not really adequate. Still over 50% of them were below 30. The mean in the study was only 31! We know that people really need to be at 50. When you look at the graphs in the study you see almost none of them were at 50 or above despite above average levels of of sun exposure. http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/con...130&sendit=Get Quote: Conclusions: These data suggest that variable responsiveness to UVB radiation is evident among individuals, causing some to have low vitamin D status despite abundant sun exposure Study hypothesized why so many were low even though they had lots of sun exposure: Possible explanations for this include inadequate cutaneous production of D3, enhanced cutaneous destruction of previtamin D3 or vitamin D3, down-regulation of cutaneous synthesis by sun-induced melanin production, or abnormalities of transport from the skin to the circulation. There is no guarantee of getting all a person needs through sun no matter how much sun they get or where they get it in my opinion. But this is certainly true if a person is talking about arms and legs for 5 or so minutes a day. I just can't fathom why a responsible researcher would make that claim. But I couldn't find the statement let alone study the 5 minutes on arms recommendation was based on to check it out. Still, I'm not surprised you read it and I hope you realize it's likely not true for many of us. Holly, your kids over age one can safely take up to 2000 IU per day of D3. Adults can safely take up to 9000 IU of D3 daily. I'd give 1000 IU per 25 pounds (a good maintenance of level dose for most people) to anyone you think is ok until you can test. If you're pretty sure someone is likely low (say hubby) I'd do a higher dose though stay at or below those upper tolerable intakes of 2000 for kids and 9000 for adults. I did 5000 IU per day myself for two months prior to testing. I was still really low at testing. I upped to 9000 IU per day to correct and then dropped back to 5000 IU. My husband takes 5000 IU per day because we don't know his level. My kids take 2000 IU per day and I know they are at a good level. Edited October 18, 2009 by sbgrace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joannqn Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 The calculator linked in the site is informative (and kind of fun to play with!). http://nadir.nilu.no/~olaeng/fastrt/VitD-ez_quartMED.html Interesting. The calculator said I needed 2 1/2 hours of exposure every other day to maintain adequate levels of vit D. There isn't any way that is happening during the fall, winter, and most of spring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2Cs Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 I found this information the other day: http://blog.nutritiondata.com/ndblog/2009/08/how-much-sunshine-does-it-take-to-make-enough-vitamin-d.html The calculator linked in the site is informative (and kind of fun to play with!). http://nadir.nilu.no/~olaeng/fastrt/VitD-ez_quartMED.html 10 minutes every other day, head/face, and arms. This is in Northern California, and assuming I am getting NO dietary Vit D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 I know we get dietary vitamin D from fish and fortified milk here. Plus, according to the calculator above, DD should need about 8 minutes and me about 11 of midday sun this time of year in our location to get enough exposure. Not really a problem! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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