Vitamin D is one of the most important vitamins you need for your health. Although you can make your own vitamin D upon exposure to sunlight, in some cases this is not enough. Vitamin D3 is the biologically active form of this vitamin used for supplementation. Several good quality vitamin D3 supplements are available in the market but most people don't know what is the recommended dose or what they need. Talk to your physician about your individual needs before you start taking any supplements.
Vitamin D Facts
Traditionally, vitamin D was associated with bone health; in the 19th century, physicians observed that children deprived of sunlight and proper diet developed rickets. It turns out that vitamin D can do a lot more for you. According to recent research conducted by the National Institutes of Health, vitamin D can reduce the risk of several serious diseases, such as cancer, heart disease and hypertension. It can also facilitate weight loss.
Determine Deficiency
Supplementation is a good option if you want to keep your vitamin D at the optimum levels. However, the amount you need depends on whether you are deficient or not. With a simple blood test, you can check whether you have enough vitamin D in your body. The test measures the levels of 25 OH vitamin D, which is the form of vitamin D circulating in the blood. Your vitamin D blood levels should be 100 to 160 nmol/L or 40 to 65 ng/ml for optimal health.
Optimal Daily Intake
As of November 2010, new guidelines provided by the Institute of Medicine clarify that an adult can safely take up to 4,000 IU of vitamin D per day. Dr. Mark Hyman, a registered family physician in Massachusetts, treats patients with serious chronic diseases in his private practice clinic, the UltraWellness Centre, by providing nutritional supplementation and lifestyle modifications. As a best-selling author and an international leader in his field, Dr. Hyman advocates that to stay healthy, it is necessary to keep your daily intake of vitamin D between 2,000 and 4,000 IU. If you are deficient, you need to take 5,000 to 10,000 IU of vitamin D per day for at least three months to refill your vitamin D storage. You need to monitor your vitamin D levels in your blood serum at this stage. It could take up to 10 months to reach the desired levels of vitamin D; this time frame simply reflects the fact that vitamin D is needed in many systems in the body. When you reach the optimal level of vitamin D in your blood, it is important to reduce your dose to the maintenance levels, between 2,000 and 4,000 IU. Your physician can determine exactly how much vitamin D you need and monitor your progress throughout this regimen.
Vitamin D3 5000 IU Supplement
Vitamin D3 5000 IU supplement is a biologically active vitamin D3 and each tablet is loaded with 5,000 IU. This means that each tablet can provide you with your daily dose of vitamin D. If you want to make the most out of your supplement, make sure that before or right after taking your vitamin tablet, you eat a small quantity of fat; a teaspoon of peanut butter will do the trick. Vitamin D is fat-soluble, so there must be some kind of fat present in the immediate environment for it to be absorbed in the gut. This helps you maximize the amount of vitamin D that passes through the gut cells into your blood.
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