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Today is the first blog post in the new series The Two-minute Health Fact*, discussing vitamin D3, a substance that is critical to our health but missing in many of us. It is called a vitamin, but is a hormone. The reason it is not a vitamin is the body can produce it. When the skin is exposed to sunlight, the ultraviolet UVB part, it produces vitamin D3. This for most of us is our main source of vitamin D3.

Yes, there is vitamin D added to dairy products, often though in the form of vitamin D2. Some studies show D2 is not as effective, for example, in bone formation, as D3. Regardless of the form, the vitamin D that is added to dairy products in US is small, at 400 IU’s per quart. This is a minor amount compared to what the body needs to function optimally.

For example, the recently increased and current, recommended daily allowance (RDA) determined by the US government for vitamin D is age dependent and is between 400-800 IU’s per day. The previous dosing was essentially developed to prevent rickets, a bone disease in young children. Rickets was until the discovery and use of vitamin D in the 1930’s a common and horrible disease. Made worse at the time, especially in industrial cities, due to the extensive air pollution which blocked the needed sunlight.

However, the current RDA isn’t much better and still severely inadequate as will be described and more in the soon-to-be-published book The Optimal Dose: Restore Your health With The Power of Vitamin D3. Here I will explain how we need 30,000IU’s per day and we are all severely deficient, causing “Winter Syndrome.” Find out how sunscreen and sun avoidance has made a bad situation worse, resulting in even lower vitamin D3 levels in people, and therefore, deteriorating health. This is a complex subject and more than can adequately explained here, the reason for the book, and future blog posts illuminating the essential facts of vitamin D3.

*The information posted above is for educational purposes only. Always check with your doctor before initiating any changes in your medical treatment. If you do not, then The Two-Minute Health Fact, Dr. Judson Somerville, nor The Optimal Dose is responsible!