What is your vitamin D level? You need to know it now. Here are 2 images + 3 video excerpts + summary + recommended call to action
My most recent video explains a deeper level of urgency regarding vitamin D, and the importance of optimizing your personal level; be sure you're on the email subscription list to get the new video
Executive expert summary + Recommended call to action
You need to know, and knowing requires testing: Everyone needs to know their/his/her own vitamin D level to ensure that they are in the “optimal range” for prevention of Cv19 and a long list of other diseases. Don’t be vague about this — if you can get tested, then get tested. The lab test for this is “25-hydroxy-vitamin D3”; it is a blood test. Virtually any commercial/clinical/hospital lab can measure this. Don’t be discouraged by medical misinformation and ignorance about this (eg, if your doctor foolishly tries to tell you that it’s not important) ; the data is clear and consistent regarding the importance of this—you can download/print my articles (free PDF) that discuss vitamin D.
The blood level of 25-hydroxy-vitamin D3 (25-OH-D3) should be at least 40 ng/ml = 100 nmol/L: To really be optimized and protective I think that 50 ng/ml = 125 nmol/L is better because it provides some cushion and reserve. In my 2004 review article (PDF), I recommended a minimum of 40 ng/ml = 100 nmol/L, but in my articles and books from 2011 to 2020, I think that a better minimal level starts at 50 ng/ml = 125 nmol/L. Use the image included below for the interpretation of the lab test and optimal levels; that same image is also available in the free PDF compilation of my articles.
Ask your doctor to help you optimize your levels: If your doctor isn’t knowledgeable about this by now, then seek a doctor who has kept up with the research for the past 17 years. Any doctor who does not know about vitamin D by now is probably ignorant about other things that are important, so vitamin D ignorance/knowledge is a reasonable surrogate indicator for ignorance/knowledge on other important topics.
Recommended call to action: If you have not had your blood levels of vitamin D (as 25ohD) measured within the past 12 months and/or if you’re taking less vitamin D now than you were previously, get your levels tested and work with your licensed clinician to get your levels optimized for *you*—with due consideration to any medications that you take or other health issues that you have.
VIDEOS: QUICK SUMMARIES (one above; one below)
These short videos are excerpts from other larger and very detailed presentations. The first/top video is the final closure of a 1-hour video that I just finished recently but which has not been publicly released yet; the second/bottom video is excerpted from the Antiviral Nutrition Protocol Self-Paced Learning Course which I’ve provided at healthythinking.substack.com/p/selfpaced-learning-antiviral-nutrition
INFOGRAPHIC FOR LAB INTERPRETATION (one above; one below)
Recommended call to action: If you have not had your blood levels of vitamin D (as 25ohD) measured within the past 12 months and/or if you’re taking less vitamin D now than you were previously, get your levels tested and work with your licensed clinician to get your levels optimized for *you*—with due consideration to any medications that you take or other health issues that you have.
ADDITIONAL DETAILS: What we knew about vitamin D
In 2004, I wrote the landmark article “The clinical importance of vitamin D (cholecalciferol): a paradigm shift with implications for all healthcare providers” in the peer-reviewed PubMed-indexed Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine (PDF).
For anyone completely new to the topic of vitamin D: you need to know that vitamin D (cholecalciferol) is made from cholesterol in the skin of mammals following exposure to ultraviolet B radiation from the sun (UVB) and/or is consumed in foods and nutritional supplements. UVB rays are weaker farther away from the equator, mostly because of the increase in reflection by the atmosphere; as such more than 35 degrees latitude is considered far enough away from the equator to signify the end of year-round strong vitaminD-producing sun rays. Once inside the body, vitamin D functions in every cell of the body to promote optimal function; deficiency of vitamin D from lack of UVB exposure and lack of dietary intake leads to a long list of problems including:
Moodiness: mental depression/anxiety,
Immunosuppression: suppression of immune function (thereby increasing the risks for cancer and infections),
Pain: bone pain and an increase in pain perception,
Inflammation: increased risk for inflammatory-autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.
Vitamin D supplementation helps prevent and alleviate these problems.
New video updates our perception of vitamin D3
Over the past several weeks, I 1) outlined, 2) envisioned, 3) built, 4) recorded, 5) re-visioned, 6) rebuilt, 7) re-recorded, 8) modified, and 9) re-re-recorded, and then 10) edited and 11) re-edited Video no.4 in my series on Redefining Vitamin D Deficiency in Adults. This final result is 59 minutes of high-density information focusing on the role of vitaminD in inflammatory modulation and immune balance; most of the attention went to reviewing 23 clinical trials with data from an estimated 15,000 patients. Essentially all of the data pointed to the same conclusions; I will be publicly sharing that video soon, but for now I want everyone to know that we have some exciting news coming, and please (per the video excerpt above) get to know your own vitamin D status and work with a professional who can give some additional insight and advice, especially if you’re taking medications or if you have any preexisting health/medical conditions.
Be sure you and your friends are subscribed to the newsletter to receive notification about the release of the next video (part 4) on the importance of vitamin D in controlling inflammation and promoting immunomodulation.
Dr Alex Kennerly Vasquez (introduction; brief Bio-CV) writes and teaches for an international audience on various topics ranging from leadership to nutrition to functional inflammology. Major books include Inflammation Mastery, 4th Edition (full-color printing, 1182 pages, equivalent to 25 typical books [averaging 60,000 words each]), which was also published in two separate volumes as Textbook of Clinical Nutrition and Functional Medicine (Volume 1: Chapters 1-4; Volume 2: Chapter 5—Clinical Protocols for Diabetes, Hypertension, Migraine, Fibromyalgia, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psoriasis, Vasculitis, Dermatomyositis and most other major inflammatory/autoimmune disorders); several sections have been excerpted including Antiviral Strategies and Immune Nutrition (ISBN 1502894890) (aka, Antiviral Nutrition [available as PDF download] and Brain Inflammation in Chronic Pain, Migraine, and Fibromyalgia. Dr Vasquez’s books are available internationally via bookstores such as BookDepository, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, ThriftBooks, AbeBooks, BetterWorldBooks, WaterStonesBooks and his new Telegram channel is https://t.me/DrAlexVasquez.
