how vitamin d performance testing optimizes your health

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February 07, 2013 | 311,178 views

How Vitamin D Performance Testing Can Help YouOptimize Your Health, and Aid the Health Freedom Movement

By Dr. Mercola

A robust and growing body of research clearly shows that vitamin D is absolutely critical for good health anddisease prevention.

Vitamin D affects your DNA through vitamin D receptors (VDRs), which bind to specific locations of the hu-man genome. Scientists have identified nearly 3,000 genes that are influenced by vitamin D levels, and vita-min D receptors have been found throughout the human body.

Is it any wonder then that no matter what disease or condition is investigated, vitamin D appears to play acrucial role?

This is why I am so excited about the D*Action Project by GrassrootsHealth. It is showing how we can takeaction today on known science with a consensus of experts without waiting for institutional lethargy.

It has shown how by combining the science of measurement (of vitamin D levels) with the personal choice oftaking action and, the value of education about individual measures that one can truly be in charge of theirown health. In order to spread this health movement to more communities, the project needs your involve-ment, your health activism. This is an ongoing campaign during the month of February, and will become anannual event.

The D*Action Project

I believe this is a truly critical project that is already having an enormous impact not just on your own healthand those participating, but the health of people everywhere through the growing community involvement aswell as individual participation.

Since vitamin D affects virtually every aspect of your health, from bone health to heart health to the preven-tion of cancer and much more, determining the optimal serum levels for disease prevention for you couldquite literally result in a health revolution. It requires two measurements:

Vitamin D serum levels, and1.

Health status2.

With these two measurements, you can effectively begin to measure vitamin D performance, and discoverhow vitamin D affects your health. For example, at which vitamin D level will you achieve maximum protec-

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tion against pain? Colds and flu? Heart disease and cancer? Once this is established, taking a great degreeof control of your health will be as simple as getting your vitamin D levels tested, and if you find you’re toolow, you’ll have the tools to optimize your levels.

The key to turning our crippled health care system around is to shift from disease management into diseaseprevention and health optimization mode.

D*Action is an important step in a MAJOR health movement with the power to change our flawed medicalparadigm, which right now is married to the pharmaceutical industry via the revolving doors between BigPharma and our regulatory agencies. The individual is left powerless in this paradigm, because, aside fromexpensive pills (which kill over 106,000 people each year when taken as prescribed), it has little more to of-fer.

This health movement has already begun.

D*Action has multiple concurrent vitamin D programs going on. The D*Action International project is open toanyone, any age, anywhere in the world. The Protect our Children NOW! campaign is geared toward usingthe results of randomized trials to take action now to reduce preterm births and other complications of preg-nancy.

This program is already coalescing into community political action groups, so that when the study in anycommunity (a 24 month project) is completed, they can use the information obtained to push for public healthrecommendations that will benefit ALL pregnant women and their children. And, the Breast Cancer Preven-tion project, another subset, is open to women 60 and over with no current cancer or current treatment.

So, I encourage you to participate in the D*Action Project. Not only will you be able to take control of yourown health by participating, you’ll also become part of one of the most profound public health projects of the21st Century.

Why Measuring Vitamin D Performance Matters

Measuring vitamin D performance is about more than just getting your vitamin D levels tested every fewmonths. It’s also about discovering the impact of vitamin D on your health at various serum levels, and set-ting goals for your health. How can D*Action help you get healthier?

Let’s consider an analogy: If you want to win a bike race, you record the start time, the end time, and mea-sure the time it took you to get from point A to point B. You can also measure how many revolutions perminute you make with your pedals to determine the revolution rate required to achieve your timed result.Without these measurements, you won’t know what kind of effort it took to get you to the finish line, or howlong it took you to get there.

Without these measurements, you're not in charge because you don’t know what it takes to achieve the de-sired result. Now, let’s say you want to improve your race performance. If you already know how many revo-lutions per minute you needed to make it from start to finish line in a certain amount of time, you now knowhow much faster you have to pedal in order to beat your own time. There is a growing demand to be able toknow how to improve and control your own health, and to do this, you need to know:

What factors can be measured1.

How to measure them2.

How to affect change or alter that which is being measured3.

How to get feedback on the changes, both at individual and group levels, and4.

The true cost, weighed against the benefit of the measurement5.


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This knowledge, and the related tools, must be made available to everyone, as these pieces are required tobe successfully in charge of health behavior. Now, let’s apply these five criteria to the vitamin D performancemeasurements, to get an idea of how it can benefit you:

The vitamin D serum level can be measured with reasonable accuracy, and the serum level is themeasure associated with health effects. You can also measure the vitamin D status of many differenthealth conditions at different points in time, to correlate vitamin D status with improved or worsenedcondition.

1.

Vitamin D is measured using a blood test, which can be done via a dried blood sample or a bloodserum sample. A structured health questionnaire is used to track changes in health status.

2.

The actions that can be taken to affect change in vitamin D status would be a combination of UVBexposure (sun or safe tanning bed) and oral vitamin D3 supplementation.

3.

After measuring both your vitamin D level and your level of health (such as improvement or decline ofa health condition or disease), you’ll be able to get personalized feedback on how one affects orrelates to the other. New software applications are in development now to allow participants quickaccess to their own health performance information and recommendations.

4.

Many measures of health are most useful when both individual scores and group scores are kept--anindividual has only one picture of health conditions and can't necessarily answer questions about acondition not his/hers without a group picture. For example, the question “What's my chance of get-ting (a particular disease) at this serum level?” can only be answered from group information.

The cost/benefit picture for vitamin D testing is extremely compelling. More than 75 percent of theworld's population is vitamin D deficient and most don't know it! It is estimated that roughly 35 percentof health care costs could be reduced by having a serum level in the 40-60 ng/ml range.

5.

The cost of healthcare per person in the US was $13,710 in 2011. If that was reduced by 35 percent,that would amount to $4,798-worth of savings. The cost of the vitamin D measurement and feedbacksystems per person is $130 per year, equating to a net 37-times’ return on investment.

Optimizing Vitamin D is One of Your Most Cost Effective HealthStrategies

Many families have seen a rise in the proportion of their income spent on healthcare expenses. For many,the costs now exceed what they spend on food! Measuring your vitamin D performance and taking steps tooptimize your level is one of the easiest and least expensive things you can do for your health, and couldhelp you rein in out-of-control health care expenses.

GrassrootsHealth D*Action is an integrated set of performance and feedback systems to give you completecontrol of your individual vitamin D performance systems, which will help you gain a total picture of yourhealth. There’s no doubt in my mind that the D*Action programs can be a major key to help turn the currenthealth paradigm from 'treatment' to 'prevention.’

It’s truly exciting to consider that, within our lifetime, we will be able to prevent the majority of breast cancer,for example.

The D*Action Breast Cancer Prevention project began last year, and is a major step in that direction. While itstill needs four more years’ worth of data to be complete, the women enrolled in the project are already ex-hibiting fewer cases of breast cancer than would be expected within the general population. To learn moreabout this breast cancer prevention project, please see this previous article. (Women 60 and over with nocurrent cancer or current treatment are eligible for the breast cancer prevention study. You can sign up hereif you're eligible.)


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Tens of Thousands of Studies Attest to Vitamin D’s Health Impact

According to a January 17 press release by Orthomolecular Medicine, 3,600 medical papers with vitamin Din the title or abstract were published in 2012 alone, bringing the grand total to 33,800. That’s a lot of studieson vitamin D. The Top 16 vitamin D papers of 2012 selected by a panel of vitamin D experts focused on vita-min D’s beneficial impact on:

Pregnancy outcomes (reduced risk ofCesarean section and pre-eclampsia)

Autism

Childhood language impairment Cardiovascular disease

Type 1 diabetes Type 2 diabetes

Bacterial and viral infections Cancer

Falls and bone fractures All-cause mortality

Our Healing Sun — Beyond Vitamin D

Interestingly, sun exposure in and of itself is starting to experience a revival, as researchers are taking an-other look at the health benefits of sunshine, over and beyond vitamin D. For example, according to one2012 study :

“The number of studies reporting on the association between sunlight exposure, vitamin D and cancerrisk is steadily increasing. We reviewed all published case-control and cohort studies concerning col-orectal, prostate, breast cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and both sunlight and vitamin D toupdate our previous review and to verify if the epidemiological evidence is in line with the hypothesisthat the possible preventive effect of sunlight on cancer might be mediated not only by vitamin D butalso by other pathways.

We found that almost all epidemiological studies suggest that chronic (not intermittent) sun exposureis associated with a reduced risk of colorectal, breast, prostate cancer and NHL. In colorectal and to alesser degree in breast cancer vitamin D levels were found to be inversely associated with cancerrisk. In prostate cancer and NHL, however, no associations were found...

[I]t is concluded that the evidence that sunlight is a protective factor for colorectal, prostate, breastcancer and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is still accumulating. The same conclusion can be drawn con-cerning high vitamin D levels and the risk of colorectal cancer and possibly breast cancer. Particularlyin prostate cancer and NHL other sunlight potentiated and vitamin D independent pathways, such asmodulation of the immune system and the circadian rhythm, and the degradation of folic acid mightplay a role in reduced cancer risk as well.”

As discussed in a recent article by Sayer Ji , five noteworthy properties of sunlight exposure, beyond vitaminD production, include the following. (There are many more, however. To learn more, see this previous arti-cle.)

Pain-killing (analgesic) properties1.

Increased subcutaneous fat metabolism2.

Regulation of human lifespan (solar cycles appear to be able to directly affect the human genome,thereby influencing lifespan)

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Daytime sun exposure improves evening alertness4.

Conversion to metabolic energy (i.e. we may “ingest” energy directly from the sun, like plants do)5.

In the following TED Talk, dermatologist Richard Weller discusses recent research by his team, which showsthat nitric oxide, a chemical transmitter stored in huge reserves in your skin, can be released by UV light, andconfer great benefit for your cardiovascular system.

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Richard WellerCould the sun be good for your heart?

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Revised and Updated Recommendations for Optimizing Your Vitamin DLevels

Research on vitamin D is moving swiftly, so you’d be well advised to stay on top of the latest developmentsas recommendations are refined and updated. I will review some of the most important recent developmentshere, so you may want to share this article with your friends and family. First, it’s important to remember thatsun exposure is the best way to optimize your vitamin D levels as your body has built-in “fail-safe” mecha-nisms that prevent detrimental side effects from occurring.

Last year, I created a video to help you determine if you can get enough vitamin D from sun exposure in yourarea at different times of the year. Based on additional information received, I now believe that my previousposition was too strict... The good news is, you can likely get vitamin D under far less ideal conditions thanpreviously suggested.

The radiation from the sun that reaches the earth's surface (and hence your body) is partially filtered out bythe atmosphere. I had previously stated that UVB rays will only penetrate the atmosphere when the sun isabove an angle of about 50° from the horizon, and that when the sun is lower than 50°, the ozone layer willabsorb vitamin D-producing UVB-rays while allowing the longer, and more harmful, UVA-rays to get through,which would defeat the purpose of spending time in the sun.

This recommendation is likely too strict. According to experts in the field, you can likely get sufficientamounts of UVB radiation when the sun is as low as 30 degrees above the horizon, or whenever the temper-ature is warm enough to expose large amounts of skin.

I thank John Hochman, MSME, for bringing this to my attention. According to Dr. Ola Engelsen with the Nor-wegian Institute for Air Research, the creator of a calculator that takes a number of factors into considera-5


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tion give you an estimate of how many minutes of exposure you need to produce the equivalent of 1,000 IU’sof vitamin D, the sun must be more than 15 degrees above the horizon during cloudless conditions.

If You Take Vitamin D Supplements, Remember to Take Vitamin K2

Second, based on the latest investigations by Carole Baggerly, director of GrassrootsHealth, there is a chartshowing the average adult dose required to reach healthy vitamin D levels based upon the measured start-ing point. Many experts agree about 35 IU's of vitamin D per pound of body weight could be used as an esti-mate.

Here, it’s important to remember that if you’re taking high dose vitamin D supplements, you ALSO need totake vitamin K2. The biological role of vitamin K2 is to help move calcium into the proper areas in your body,such as your bones and teeth. It also helps remove calcium from areas where it shouldn’t be, such as in yourarteries and soft tissues. Vitamin K2 deficiency is actually what produces the symptoms of vitamin D toxicity,which includes inappropriate calcification that can lead to hardening of your arteries. The reason for this isbecause when you take vitamin D, your body creates more vitamin K2-dependent proteins that move cal-cium around in your body. Without vitamin K2, those proteins remain inactivated, so the benefits of thoseproteins remain unrealized.

So remember, if you take supplemental vitamin D, you're creating an increased demand for K2. Together,these two nutrients help strengthen your bones and improve your heart health.

While the ideal or optimal ratios between vitamin D and vitamin K2 have yet to be elucidated, Dr. KateRheaume-Bleue, author of Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox: How a Little Known Vitamin Could SaveYour Life, suggests that for every 1,000 IU's of vitamin D you take, you may benefit from about 100 micro-grams of K2, and perhaps as much as 150-200 micrograms (mcg).

Individual Variables that Affect Your Vitamin D Levels

Now, going back to optimizing your vitamin D through sun exposure, the production of previtamin D3 in yourskin varies depending on several factors, such as:

Antioxidant levels and diet in general Age

Skin color and/or current tan level Use of sunscreen

Latitude and altitude (elevation) Cloud cover and pollution

Ozone layer Surface reflection

Season Time of day

Weight

Keep in mind that while 35 IU’s of vitamin D3 per pound of body weight per day may put you closer to theballpark of what most people likely need, it is impossible to make a blanket recommendation that will covereveryone's needs due to the multi-variable factors listed above. The only way to determine your optimal doseis to get your blood tested. It’s the serum level that really matters, and ideally, you'll want to maintain a vita-min D serum level of 50-70 ng/ml year-round.


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Besides location, which has a major impact on how much vitamin D you can produce, your skin color is an-other really important factor. African Americans are actually at greater risk of vitamin D deficiency, because ifyou have dark skin, you may need as much as 10 times more sun exposure to produce the same amount ofvitamin D as a person with pale skin!

Yes, You have to Show Some Skin...

Many people are under the mistaken idea that you can get enough vitamin D just from exposing your fore-arms and face for a few minutes a day. This claim is patently false, as clearly demonstrated in a recentstudy . As reported by the Vitamin D Council :

“[R]esearchers in South Korea... studied the effect of brief sun exposure on vitamin D levels in 20young women for four weeks. The study was conducted between October and November at latitude37 degrees north, about the latitude of Washington DC. Initial mean 25(OH)D levels were 11 ng/mland no woman had levels greater than 20 ng/ml to begin the study. The women were told to get 20minutes of midday sun exposure on their hands, forearms and face every weekday for four weeks.Facial sunblock and sunglasses were permitted.

Guess how much 25(OH)D levels increased after a month of daily sun exposure? Vitamin D levels didnot increase at all; in fact, they were a little lower than when the study began!”

For most of us, exposing face and forearms is grossly inadequate to move vitamin levels into a healthyrange. For optimal benefit, strive to have at least 40 percent of your skin uncovered.

If you have light-colored skin, you can use the color of your skin to tell you when you’ve had enough sun andit’s time to get in the shade (or cover up using a long-sleeved shirt, pants, and a hat). Stay out just longenough so that your skin turns the very lightest shade of pink. Continuing UV exposure beyond the minimaldose required to produce skin redness will not increase your vitamin D production any further. In Caucasianskin, this equilibrium will typically occur within 20 minutes or so of ultraviolet exposure during ideal condi-tions. It can take 3 to 6 times longer for darkly pigmented skin to reach the equilibrium concentration of skinvitamin D.

How Vitamin D Performance Testing Can Help Optimize Your Health

Additionally, a robust and growing body of research clearly shows that vitamin D is absolutely critical for goodhealth and disease prevention. Vitamin D affects your DNA through vitamin D receptors (VDRs), which bindto specific locations of the human genome. Scientists have identified nearly 3,000 genes that are influencedby vitamin D levels, and vitamin D receptors have been found throughout the human body.

Is it any wonder then that no matter what disease or condition is investigated, vitamin D appears to play acrucial role? This is why I am so excited about the D*Action Project by GrassrootsHealth. It is showing howyou can take action today on known science with a consensus of experts without waiting for institutionallethargy. It has shown how by combining the science of measurement (of vitamin D levels) with the personalchoice of taking action and, the value of education about individual measures that one can truly be in chargeof their own health.

In order to spread this health movement to more communities, the project needs your involvement. This wasan ongoing campaign during the month of February, and will become an annual event.

To participate, simply purchase the D*Action Measurement Kit and follow the registration instructions in-cluded. (Please note that 100 percent of the proceeds from the kits go to fund the research project. I do notcharge a single dime as a distributor of the test kits.)

As a participant, you agree to test your vitamin D levels twice a year during a five-year study, and share yourhealth status to demonstrate the public health impact of this nutrient. There is a $65 fee every six months foryour sponsorship of this research project, which includes a test kit to be used at home, and electronic re-

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[+] Comments (116)

ports on your ongoing progress. You will get a follow up email every six months reminding you "it's time foryour next test and health survey."

[+] Sources and References

Grassrootshealth.net

Orthomolecular medicine press release January 17, 2013

European Journal of Cancer 2012 Dec 10 [epub ahead of print]

Activist Post January 14, 2013

Calculated Ultraviolet Exposure Levels for a Healthy Vitamin D Status

Korean Journal of Family Medicine 2012 Nov;33(6):381-9

Vitamin D Council January 16, 2013

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