Are you taking vitamin D supplements? Some suggestions.

Many patients come to me on vitamin D supplements, and there have been a lot of opinion pieces for and against vitamin D supplementation lately. Without getting into the data too deeply, it seems likely that vitamin D3 supplemention is probably going to turn out to be beneficial up to a point, but that over-supplementing is probably harmful even before you get to frank vitamin D toxicity (which is rare).

Three simple suggestions:

1. If you've got chronic medical conditions, talk to a doctor about vitamin D testing and dosing to avoid any unintended consequences;
2. Take vitamin D3 supplements with the meal of the day that contains the most fat/oils.  It's a fat-soluble vitamin and this will increase absorption;
3. If you are an adult and taking more than 2000 I.U. of vitamin D3 per day, it's important to have a 25-OH-vitamin D blood test checked to make sure you're in a reasonable range (in my view, 30-60 ng/mL).  It takes up to 6 weeks for levels to equilibrate after a dose change.

Of course, if you have specific questions about your health, please talk to your doctor, or come see us as a patient in San Francisco.