penny
Senior Member
- Messages
- 288
- Location
- Southern California
My ESR was 2 (0-15) back when I was sick having quite a bit of inflammation, my D25 has always been low(ish). So not sure how reliable ESR as an inflammation marker is But the docs only care about high values anyways. Also we used to be out in the fields every day getting plenty of sunshine, likely getting multiples of Vit. D producing sunlight compared to today - so while we definitely should not oversupplement, be always critical of hype and get tested if in doubt, Vitamin D avoidance just sounds silly to me, esp. since I have an office job (just aiming for a stable value of 50 for now).
Hmmm, I'm torn. I do strongly agree with your statement to be "critical of hype" but I think the hype around vitamin D is that everyone is deficient, everyone needs large doses, and it can do no harm. That's the hype I'm wary of.
But I clearly don't think vitamin D avoidance is 'silly', maybe for some, even many folks, but not for everyone. My supplemental vitamin D intake has a huge impact on my health, so for me avoiding it simply = less illness, less pain, and better functioning. I can see this within days of a relatively small 'dose' (i.e. 2 servings of enriched cornflakes, approximately 120iu's, no dairy, caused an increase in muscle pain and cramping the second day after). A regular daily dose of 25iu's D and 100mg calcium coincided with a severe 6 week relapse. Why this is the case I don't know, maybe it's the theory these folks propose or maybe I have calcium regulation issues and D just happens to exacerbate that. I'd love to know why, but I don't need to know why to know that I feel and function much better when my 'oral' vitamin D intake is very low. I don't, for the record, avoid sunshine, but would say I probably only get a moderate amount (good location for sun, no day to day sunscreen, but office job with exposure normally limited to walking between buildings - not always short walks though).
But while I'm eager to share my experience, since it does deviate from the hype and I think it's important to be open about experiences that are contrary to conventional wisdom, I've never proposed this for everyone or even anyone else. While I seriously doubt I am such a special snowflake that there's no one else out there who has the same experience as me, I would never tell anyone else what their experience is, or what they should do with their bodies.
And that's exactly why the idea of increasing food enrichment dramatically on what seems dubious scientific basis scares me, it's attempting to force this on everyone whether they know or want it or not. You want to take huge amounts of vitamin D, fine, cool, I'd even be okay with governmental subsidies of such things to make it more affordable for those who want it, but further intertwining it in the food supply? That's a different proposition.