Here’s part 2 of my talk with Dr Fraser, this time about vitamin D. Dr Fraser is super knowledgeable about vitamin D and the limitations of vitamin D research that says supplementation doesn’t change outcomes.
I learned a ton. I hope you like it.
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You don’t need a form of vitamin D in your body already for UVB to make vitamin D. It’s converted from 7-dehydrocholesterol in the skin.
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So if you don’t have any cholesterol then maybe you can’t make vitamin D.
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All cells in the body produce cholesterol so you’ll never run out of it even if your serum apoB count is 0.
Heads-up: This is the last time I correct “Bicep”.
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Great hearing on the vitamin D (hormone) topic from 2 of my favorite people who post on rapamycin.news Joseph Lavelle and Dr. Fraser.
My vitamin D was as high as 89 regularly… then I slowed down on sun exposure. I do take a weekly Maximum D-3 supplement. With 13,000 IU.
Staying out of sun my Vitamin D dropped in half.
My vitamin D is fine… but…
My GP said start taking the Maximum D-3 twice weekly… every 3 days and get some sun.
He likes me at high normal on all my blood panels B-12, Testosterone, etc…
I will be getting 15 minutes of sun exposure front and back every 5 days. I will retest my vitamin D in 4 months.
BTW - the last time I tanned, because of taking rapamycin my tan, lasted for over a year and a half.
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Actually thanks for finding that. I’ve heard both ways and have not bothered to figure out if it’s true.
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Great podcast guys. Joe - I’m like you, eat lots of fatty fish, some sun (but regular sunscreen user). I’ve never gotten my Vitamin D levels tested - and I take 3000iu to 5,000iu daily just in case, but I honestly have no idea what my levels are - so this has motivated me to plan to get it tested.
Joe - I’m curious if you’ve gotten your vitamin D levels tested and how it came out?
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I am not sure what happens to large doses of Cholecalciferol (D3) that are not converted to 25OHD. I think in part it hangs around a bit, but also in part it gets effectively wasted.
I, therefore, take the view that it is far better to take D3 daily so the best conversion into 25OHD can be obtained.
Some of the experimentation in D3 supplementation uses monthly doses. I think that undermines any conclusions they come to.
I take a mixture of D3 and 25OHD. 25OHD itself is much more effective at increasing serum 25OHD rates (unsurprisingly). I wonder, therefore, whether eating food right in 25OHD might actually be one of the best practical routes towards a high serum level as obtaining 25OHD itself is quite hard.
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@RapAdmin My Vitamin D test hasn’t arrived yet. It’s from Omega Quant (via Fullscript to get a discount), so once I get it the results will take a couple weeks. Here’s the sample report they’ll provide. It looks good. I did their omega 3 index test earlier this year; it’s a good service plus it’s a test from home model.
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@Agetron Very impressive! After my test results come back I may look into the pulsed vit d approach. But today I will get my dosage of sunshine.
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That was a great podcast!!!
To the dismay of my gyn, I insisted on a bone density scan at 40 because my mom broke a hip at 60 from osteoporosis. Turns out I had osteopenia (bordering osteoporosis)… so they tested my vit d levels and they were 10! (I was even eating dairy at that time).
Once I started supplementing vit d, I felt so much better!!! My next scan showed improvement.
…long winded way of saying I’m a fan of testing vit d!
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Thanks for updating me on this — and yes - I was prepped to discuss levels and the research and it had literally been since medical school over 30 years ago that I’d gone through the pathways — you are absolutely correct and depending upon latitude, time in sun, and diet - there will be less or more from sun. Younger age is more from sun and wanes as get older to some degree. Dietary vitamin D gets hepatically converted.
As this wasn’t the main part of this topic I was discussing - I’d totally glossed over this as the topic was more on is it worth testing and normalizing.
Anyway, my incredible bad on this - and I’ll get updated audio for Joe on this as it needs to be corrected.
The stuff on supplement or not and test or not … that stuff is all correct … but my memory from 1990 doing pharmacology and physiology not reliable enough to have not reviewed! Again, appreciate this promptly being brought to my attention so I can remedy this.
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In January this year my vitamin D is 86nmol/L. In the last 4 weeks I’ve been taking 7000iu vitamin D3 daily and my last blood test shows it has only increased to 98. I thought I’ll at least get it over 125. Any suggestions? Am I taking it wrong?
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Just for everyone’s knowledge, essentially the nmol/L is divided by 2.5 to get ng/mL … so 100 is equivalent to 40 … which is close to acceptable. I’d encourage you to look at TARGET-D
Here is a reasonable summary on that data https://news.intermountainhealth.org/new-study-finds-current-dosing-recommendations-may-not-help-patients-achieve-optimal-vitamin-d-levels/
It will build up over time - may take 3-6 months … so a recheck in a while would be sensible given you are close to a sensible blood level.
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I don’t think it’s that important. 
Looking forward to listening to the rest of it.
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Thank you for being so gracious.
The content on the issue of claims of no value to supplementation was the focus.
However, the reason why I failed in knowing the basic science was the lack of clinical application, and it’s been 30 yrs. Regardless, I’ve updated the interview and Joe will republish, with everything corrected.
I appreciate your bringing the errors to my attention. My brain only holds so much as I still have to be cutting edge in an urban ER plus … this
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We are all in this to learn, to change and improve. We’re working together to live forever… Or as close to it as possible. 
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