Optimal Vitamin D Levels

 

CHECK YOUR LEVELS TODAY FOR ONLY $39! All you have to do is order the test online and go to the nearest Quest Diagnostics center (you’ll see a list of centers near to you when ordering the test). Only takes a few minutes to get it drawn and you’ll have the results online within a few days! CLICK HERE TO ORDER!

 

• Optimal levels of 60-80 ng/mL is based on the reports done by Dr. Stasha Gominak M.D. a Neurologist on over 5000 patients. It has been a very consistent observation for more than 7 years of testing. Most patients test an average of 3-4 times per year in order to keep their sleep and health at its best.

 

• Low levels can cause depression and insomnia. Recent studies by Springer, and research results reported in the New England Journal of Medicine and by the Vitamin D Council, are indicating a link to depression. Of note: Canadian researchers reviewed 14 studies involving 31,424 participants and found a strong correlation between depression and a lack of Vitamin D. The lower the Vitamin D level, the greater the chance of depression.

 

• Darker skinned people have a harder time converting UVB rays into Hormone D.  Melanin reduces the penetration of UVB and thus contributes to vitamin D insufficiency in individuals with darker skin.  High prevalence of vitamin D deficiency is present in all races, even in temperate areas, and is particularly high among Black Americans. A recent survey found, for example, that 42% of Black women had seriously deficient 25(OH)D levels (< 15 ng/mL)

 

• Emerging health disparities data regarding African American and homeless populations suggest that vitamin D insufficiency (VDI) may be an underlying driver of COVID-19 severity. To better define the VDI-COVID-19 link, we determined the prevalence of VDI among our COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) patients.
• Methods: In an Institutional Review Board approved study performed at a single, tertiary care academic medical center, the medical records of COVID-19 patients were retrospectively reviewed. Subjects were included for whom serum 25-hydroxycholecalcifoerol (25OHD) levels were determined. COVID-19-relevant data were compiled and analyzed. We determined the frequency of VDI among COVID-19 patients to evaluate the likelihood of a VDI-COVID-19 relationship.
• Results: Twenty COVID-19 patients with serum 25OHD levels were identified; 65.0% required ICU admission.The VDI prevalence in ICU patients was 84.6%, vs. 57.1% in floor patients. Strikingly, 100% of ICU patients less than 75 years old had VDI. 8% were between 20-30 ng/mL, 65% had levels below 20 ng/mL and 27% below 10 ng /mL.  Coagulopathy was present in 62.5% of ICU COVID-19 patients, and 92.3% were lymphocytopenic.
  Conclusions: VDI is highly prevalent in severe COVID-19 patients. VDI and severe COVID-19 share numerous associations including hypertension, obesity, male sex, advanced age, concentration in northern climates, coagulopathy, and immune dysfunction. Thus, we suggest that prospective, randomized controlled studies of VDI in COVID-19 patients are warranted.

 

• Hormone D is made from the sun UVB light. When your skin is exposed to sunlight, it makes vitamin D from cholesterol. The sun’s ultraviolet B (UVB) rays hit cholesterol in the skin cells, providing the energy for vitamin D synthesis to occur.  There is no UVB light in the winter months.

 

• What you will need to have, in order to use vitamin D safely, is a blood test called the vitamin D3 25 OH blood level. In the past our vitamin D blood level fluctuated with the seasons, high in summer, low in winter. Because humans are hairless we developed our own sunscreen (melanin) to block the sun and the formation of D. In the summer, as we stay in the sun day after day we make vitamin D but we also make a tan, which blocks the formation of more D, regulating the amount we make.

 

• Most people can make 20,000 IU of vitamin D on a summer day, lying by the pool in a bathing suit. Darker-skinned people need longer sun exposure to make the same amount of D. There are break- down processes in the skin that prevent the D blood level from rising above 80 ng/ml from just sun exposure. So that level appears to be the “natural” upper limit. Supplementing vitamin D as a pill can easily take the D blood level above 80 ng/ml and it turns out that a D level over 80 usually makes sleep worse.

 

• The association of living at upper (and lower) latitudes (i.e., above or below the 35th parallels of latitude) with increased risk of dying from cancer, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and hypertension is well documented.  It has been assumed that living beyond the temperate zone at higher latitudes increases risk of vitamin D deficiency because of decreased sun exposure on account of longer winters and the angle of sun, which is such that there is decreased ultraviolet B radiation. It is also recognized that every tissue and cell in the body including immune, brain, colon, prostate, and breast cells, among many others, have a vitamin D receptor (VDR).

 

• Your Vitamin D blood level it should be tested by using D3 25 OH, (LCMS technique, not immunoassay) and not the D 1,25 OH level.

 

• Vitamin D status differs by latitude and race, with residents of the northeastern United States and individuals with more skin pigmentation being at increased risk of deficiency. A PubMed database search yielded 63 observational studies of vitamin D status in relation to cancer risk, including 30 of colon, 13 of breast, 26 of prostate, and 7 of ovarian cancer, and several that assessed the association of vitamin D receptor genotype with cancer risk.

  The majority of studies found a protective relationship between sufficient vitamin D status and lower risk of cancer. The evidence suggests that efforts to improve vitamin D status, for example by vitamin D supplementation, could reduce cancer incidence and mortality at low cost, with few or no adverse effects.

 

• The findings of the clinical trial, published today in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, could help reduce one of the leading causes of serious illness, debilitation and death among patients in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.”After studying these patients for a year, we found a 40 percent reduction in acute respiratory illness among those who took higher doses of vitamin D,” said the study’s lead author, Adit Ginde, MD, MPH, professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
• “Vitamin D can improve the immune system’s ability to fight infections because it bolsters the first line of defense of the immune system.”Ginde said in older people that first line of defense is often impaired. But vitamin D can reinforce it and prevent illnesses like pneumonia, influenza and bronchitis.

 

 

INDICATIONS FOR VITAMIN D TESTING

• Patients diagnosed with any of the Vitamin D related diseases (cancer, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, depression, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, epilepsy, and other others)

• Patients with osteoporosis or rickets

• Persistent and nonspecific musculoskeletal pain

• Signs of depression or lack of energy

• Patients with gastrointestinal disease and/or who have had a cholecystectomy

• Elderly individuals

• Overweight individuals with a BMI >25

• Infants that are exclusively breastfed or children without a well-balanced diet

• Individuals taking Vitamin D supplementation greater than 50 mcg (2,000 IUs) per day

• Individuals that reside above 42 degrees north latitude (a line approximately between the northern border of California and Boston)

• Individuals with medium to dark complexions or who do not regularly receive 20 minutes of direct sunlight each day

• Patients having problems sleeping

 

 

CHECK YOUR LEVELS TODAY! All you have to do is order the test online and go to the nearest Quest Diagnostics center (you’ll see a list of centers near to you when ordering the test). Only takes a few minutes to get it drawn and you’ll have the results online within a few days! CLICK HERE TO ORDER!

 

 

 

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Serology (Antibody) Testing: What you Need to Know

The Coronavirus [COVID-19] Antibody (IgG) Test is now available. This COVID-19 Antibody (IgG) test is not a test for an active infection. We have implemented a set of screening questions to help protect you from the unnecessary ordering of this test. Please read the complete information located on the test page carefully before ordering this test.

It usually takes around 10 to 18 days to produce enough antibodies to be detected in the blood. Please consider this should you decide to order this test. If you are tested too early, you may receive back a test result that is titled “Equivocal.” If your test results are equivocal, the laboratory is unable to confirm if you have IgG antibodies in the sample you provided. Equivocal means that the results were neither positive nor negative. You will need to be retested (purchase a new test) in order to confirm whether or not you have IgG antibodies in your blood. An equivocal result can happen if you do not have enough antibodies for the test to detect, such as if you test too soon after becoming infected.

Coronavirus [COVID-19] Antibody (IgG) Testing now available for $199 with promo code COVID19AB at checkout. Click here to order the test. Please do not order this test without adding promo code COVID19AB at checkout (and remember to click the green check mark to apply the code).

Click HERE to order the COVID-19 Antibody (IgG)  test.

 

Vitamin D as an effective treatment approach for drug abuse and addiction
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2251729413000050

The Possible Role of Vitamin D in Suppressing Cytokine Storm and Associated Mortality in COVID-19 Patients
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.08.20058578v3

Scientific Documentation of the Relationship of Vitamin D Deficiency and the Development of Cancer
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19817700/

The Role of Vitamin D in Cancer Prevention
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1470481/

Vitamin D deficiency puts you at much greater risk for cancer — there’s more
https://www.ksat.com/sponsored/2019/10/17/vitamin-d-deficiency-puts-you-at-much-greater-risk-for-cancer-theres-more/

The world epidemic of sleep disorders is linked to vitamin D deficiency

https://drgominak.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Med-Hypoth-vitamin-d-sleep-gominak.pdf

Vitamin D deficiency changes the intestinal microbiome reducing B
vitamin production in the gut. The resulting lack of pantothenic acid
adversely affects the immune system, producing a ‘‘pro-inflammatory”
state associated with atherosclerosis and autoimmunity
https://drgominak.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Med-Hypoth-2nd-article.pdf

Vitamin D Is Not as Toxic as Was Once Thought: A Historical and an Up-to-Date Perspective
https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(15)00244-X/abstract

Vitamin D for prevention of respiratory tract infections
https://www.who.int/elena/titles/commentary/vitamind_pneumonia_children/en/

New evidence that vitamin D prevents respiratory infections
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/315886

Vitamin D reduces respiratory infections in older, long-term care residents.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161116103005.htm

Association Between Vitamin D Deficiency and Allergic Diseases
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4975286/

Vitamin D: modulator of the immune system
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20427238

The Vitamin D Epidemic and Its Health Consequences
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16251641

Vitamin D Deficiency: A Worldwide Problem With Health Consequences
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18400738/

Low Vitamin D Raises Mortality Risk in Nursing Home Patients
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/760055

Vitamin D: Nutrient, Hormone, and Immunomodulator
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30400332

Vitamin D Insufficiency is Prevalent in Severe COVID-19   
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.24.20075838v1

Vitamin D Deficiency and Depression
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/reading-between-the-headlines/201307/vitamin-d-deficiency-and-depression