I just bought the book The Vitamin D Solution: http://www.amazon.com/The-Vitamin-Solut ... 230&sr=1-1

I just started reading it but the reason I bought it was because I heard that the majority of people who live in northern countries with long winters have a vitamin D deficiency and that it can lead to all kinds of serious illnesses.
I was wondering if people here have ever had their levels tested and what they did to take care of a deficiency when there's a lack of sun.

Lui,

There's some really really interesting stuff around Vitamin D. The one thing I'd caution you is that it may be in the "Peak of Inflated Expectations" area of its hype cycle ( http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1447613 ), and no one ever got rich writing a book "such-and-such supplement has some good research and promise behind it, but don't go too crazy, we're not completely sure yet". You don't want to end up with the Vitamin D equivalent of Pollinquin's advice on fish oil. I've even seen questions recently about whether supplementing D3 really provides the same protection as sun-generated D.

Regarding testing, I got my vitamin D tested as part of my annual physical, I was at the low end of the normal range, and my doc suggested 2000 IU every day. We're actually re-testing this month to see where I am.

Thanks for your advice.
Odd that even you have low levels, considering that you live in sunny California.
I want to get my vitamin D levels checked this week.

I wouldn't mind knowing how it goes with your treatment.

Salto, can I ask what you're doing to increase your D levels? Are you supplementing, or changing something in your diet? If supplementing, which product?

I'm supplementing, it's not easy to get lots of vitamin D from diet. I think some daily sun would be ideal, but lifestyle-wise, I don't keep it up. D3 from cholecalciferol seems like the best bet, so I take two 1000IU pills from Jarrows Formulas. Nothing magic about Jarrows other than the their products are usually fairly priced, and Consumer Labs has found all their stuff to be good (proper dosage, no contamination, etc)

Lui, have you read the information on the website of the Vitamin D Council (yes, such a thing exists)? It's quite interesting.

I think I can shed some light here.

I started taking Vit D (at least 4000iu everyday, sometimes as much as 10K a day) around late summer of last year. I live up in Canada so our Vitamin D winter is a lot longer compared to anyone living near the tropics.

Anyways, the biggest differences I've noted have been the following:

No more shin splints. My shins don't get achy anymore after running on pavement like they used to.

My endurance has improved. My 5K run time dropped a good minute without having trained anymore than prior to taking vitamin D. There is some good research that supports this. There is also research that supports improved strength gains but I didn't really notice much in that department

Noticed an improvement in my skin. My feet used to get really dry during the winter but I noticed that that wasn't the case nearly as much this winter.

I didn't get sick at all this winter. I usually get 1 mild cold a year during the winter but I got nothing this year. Isn't really saying much but other people I know who have started taking vit D have noticed the same thing. There is also research that support this.

I highly recommend a book put out by the Vitamin D council on the effects of Vitamin D on athletes (check their site can't remember the name of the book). Lots of well researched advice in that book. The only thing I wish I had done was take a vitamin D test prior to supplementation in order to see where I was at and compare that to now. Other than that I'd recommend taking supplemental vitamin D. It's cheap and worth it.

Salto what's a good amount to take? How many IUs daily?

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Chente~Chente

My doc said he'd set the level based on what I tested. I tested low normal, so he told me to take 2000IU until it got higher (he's convinced there's something to vitamin D levels). But he intends to take that number back down once I reach normal/high-normal. Not sure what he'll reduce it to, but should find out soon enough

Note that differs greatly from the many folks who just say everyone should take 5000IU daily, or whatever. Again, i think that's the Polliquin version of vitamin D advice -- people with little training (or lots of training, taking advantage of people with little training), getting overenthusiastic about much too little evidence, and latching onto the idea that "more is always better".

^ Thanks for replying. So my best bet would be to get my vitamin D levels tested and go from there? I've taken D in the past, not because the Dr told me too or anything, simply becuz I read its one of those good supps to take, like Fish oil. When I was taking it, I was taking in 2,000 IU daily (sort of, there were times I would forget)

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Chente~Chente