Vitamin D

Is the Most Common Vitamin Deficiency

in the United States

Vitamin D is primarily responsible for:

1. Maintaining normal levels of calcium and phosphorus in
the blood, which are essential for bone mineralization.

2. However, it also has a significant impact on the

expression of over 2,000 genes involved in cellular
proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, and angiogenesis.

3. The immune-modulating effects of Vitamin D are

profound, and its deficiency is associated with many
common and serious diseases, including certain cancers,
diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and osteoporosis.

PRODUCT WE RECOMMEND: Vitamin D3 + K2 SUSPENSION

Dissolve 10 drops under tongue for great absorption. If just beginning Vitamin D, start
with 50,000 IU Capsules from Ortho Molecular, taking 1 capsule for 7 days then begin
the maintenance dose otherwise, it can take several months to get at the appropriate
blood level.

It is not expensive to get a Vitamin D lab value and we highly encourage a beginning
level and a follow-up level in 2 months to know the best dose. We can send a lab
requisition for those interested.
 Vitamin D
• Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that requires fat in the diet and a healthy
gut to be absorbed in adequate amounts.

• Vitamin D is not really a vitamin and has now been correctly classified as a
hormone that regulates hundreds of our genes to keep our immune system
healthy.

• Vitamin D levels should be measured and if low, supplements must be

given to help the immune system and reduce inflammation.

• Vitamin D is different from all other nutrients because it is mostly made in

our body from UVB light produced by the sun.

• Vitamin D is very low in most gluten-intolerant people, and this makes their
inflammation much worse.

• Vitamin D deficiency also leads to premature or severe osteoporosis, and

this is especially common in people with undiagnosed gluten intolerance.

• It is vitally important to check your blood level of vitamin D. The correct

blood test is called 25-hydroxyvitamin D3.

• The most important factor is your vitamin D serum level. It doesn’t matter
how much time you spend in the sun, or how much vitamin D3 you take, if
your blood level is low, then you’re at an increased risk of:

1. autoimmune diseases
2. cancer
3. osteoporosis.

KNOW YOUR VITAMIN D3 BLOOD LEVEL!

80ng/ml to90ng/ml or higher is the goal
 VITAMIN D3 + K2

WHAT DOSE OF VITAMIN D SHOULD I TAKE

• Dose: 5000 IU to 10,000 IU once a day with food.

• Blood Level Recommendations: 70 nanograms/ml

WHY TAKE VITAMIN D3 + K2?

• Vitamin D increases calcium levels in the body.

• Vitamin K helps the body use calcium by shuttling it to your bones instead of
allowing the calcium to be dangerously deposited in the arteries and soft
tissues.

• Increasing one’s intake of vitamin D without enough vitamin K can cause an

increase in calcium levels in the blood that deposits in arteries instead of
bones leading to heart disease, heart attack and even stroke.

• Because vitamin D is so good at improving calcium levels, by taking it alone

you could be working to increase the calcification of your arteries instead of
strengthening your bones so make sure to include K2 in your vitamin D
supplement regimen!

WHAT FUNCTION DOES VITAMIN D HAVE IN THE BODY?

Research has correlated vitamin D levels with over 53

different disease states including Alzheimer’s, cancer,
MS, osteoporosis, diabetes, depression,& COVID-19.
1. Vitamin D and calcium and bone homeostasis
• Promotes calcium homeostasis and promote bone health.
• Vitamin D enhances absorption of calcium in the small intestine and stimulates
osteoclast differentiation and calcium reabsorption of bone.

2. Vitamin D and Autoimmune Disease

• There is increasing evidence linking vitamin D deficiency and autoimmune
diseases (such as multiple sclerosis (MS), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), diabetes
mellitus (DM), inflammatory bowel disease and systemic lupus
erythematosus (SLE).
• Vitamin D has also been shown to facilitate progression of existing
autoimmune disease.

3. Vitamin D and Mental Health and Fatigue

• Vitamin D plays a role in the pathogenesis of mental health disorders such as
depression.
• Vitamin D has many additional functions in our bodies and has been related to
mental function, energy level and fatigue.

4. Vitamin D effects on cells within the immune system.

• Vitamin D is not just a nutrient; it’s a hormone with receptors in nearly every
cell and tissue of the body.
• Vitamin D functions as an immune booster and vitamin D deficiency is linked
to immune disorders and increased risk of infections.
• It is estimated that about 3% of the human genome is regulated by the
vitamin D endocrine system and over 1000 genes in the human body are
impacted.
 INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT VITAMIN D
Vitamin D Is More Than a Vitamin

• Multiple papers in the literature show that vitamin D has a host of roles across
multiple processes and organs. Most cells have a specific receptor for vitamin D,
and when the vitamin D molecule binds to its receptor, it can activate around
2,000 genes in the body.

• Vitamin D expert William Grant, who has published over 300 papers on vitamin
D, told The Epoch Times that vitamin D should be viewed as a hormone rather
than a vitamin. Vitamins are micronutrients; the body uses them in small
amounts for their assisting role in establishing health pathways.

• Vitamin D, however, acts on many genetic pathways as a direct contributor

rather than an assistant, regulating calcium levels and parathyroid hormones,
and interacting with immune cells, neurons, pancreatic cells, and many more.

• Most importantly, while all the other vitamins must be obtained through diet,
the body naturally produces vitamin D from sunlight. Many studies have also
shown that without sun exposure, it is quite difficult to obtain sufficient vitamin
D through a natural diet alone.

• Deficiencies in vitamin D are associated with poor cardiovascular health,

diabetes, hypertension, cancer mortalities, cognitive decline, infections,
autoimmune disease, and allergies.

• Board-certified internist and integrative physician Dr. Ana Mihalcea said that
most of her patients need 10,000 IUs a day to reach optimal function with
their cognition and energy levels.

• Many of her patients came to her with fatigue, muscle weakness, and poor
cognitive abilities, all of which may be linked to vitamin D deficiencies despite
these patients being at an “adequate” level of 20 ng/ml.

• Once she boosted their serum levels to 70 ng/ml or more using supplements,
some of them saw great improvements. Mihalcea indicates that vitamin D
deficiencies may have been the culprit for their symptoms.
Autoimmune Disease
Autoimmune diseases occur when the body’s immune system starts
attacking healthy tissues. It is associated with inflammation.

Vitamin D regulates immune cells, reduces inflammation, and activates immune

cells that counteract autoimmune responses.

Some autoimmune disease patients have vitamin D resistance; the person

becomes less responsive to vitamin D supplementation and sun exposure.
Therefore, they need higher doses of vitamin D to raise their serum vitamin D
levels to a suitable range.

Vitamin D3 has been estimated to lower the incidence of colorectal cancer

by 50%. Studies suggest that deficiency of vitamin D increases the
incidence of colon cancer and has a negative impact on the survival of colon
cancer patients.

Cancer

Higher doses of vitamin D are associated with lower risks of cancer

progression and mortality.

Vitamin D and Cancer with William Grant, PhD

William Grant is a leading expert on Vitamin D and cancer. He

is the founding director of Sunlight, Nutrition, and Health
Research Center (SUNARC) of San Francisco. He has a PhD in
physics from University of California at Berkley and is the author
of 284 articles on Vitamin D and 163 articles on PubMed related
to Vitamin D and cancer.

The grassroots health group has shown that half of the cancer rates could be
reduced by typically getting people up to 70 nanograms/ml. This could wipe 150
billion off the industry immediately, but Big Pharma makes money off illness and
therefore every obstacle imaginable is put in the way of cost-effective prevention
or treatment of cancer. (And other illnesses)
Deficiencies in B-group vitamins, vitamin C, iron, zinc, magnesium,
and selenium have also been linked with increased cancer risks.

Many observational studies on cancer patients have found vitamin D deficiency

to also be a risk factor.

A 2016 report found that women whose vitamin D levels were raised above 40
ng/ml had a more than 65 percent lower risk of cancer incidence. Another 2019
study that followed end-term colon cancer patients found that those who
increased their vitamin D levels experienced a slower worsening of their
symptoms.

Research shows that Vitamin D reduces the risk of cancer incidence by reducing
the formation of new blood vessels to sustain tumor growth and reduces
metastasis.

It is worth noting that cancer can be triggered by a multitude of factors including

environmental toxins, smoking, radiation, genetics, and inflammation, many of
which cannot be controlled by vitamin D intake alone.

Anesthesiologist Dr. Judson Sommerville said his patient’s wife

was told by highly renowned cancer center MD Anderson Cancer
Center in Houston, Texas, that she only had six months to live
due to advanced ovarian cancer. She figured she had nothing to
lose so she started taking high doses of vitamin D3 together
with magnesium.

The patient’s wife started feeling better, and after a few months,
she went to the doctor for a check-up. “They examined her and
to their surprise, found her cancer-free,” Sommerville said. It has
been almost 12 years and the cancer still hasn’t recurred.
Brain Health

Low vitamin D levels have been associated with higher risks of anxiety,
depression, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and autism.

Vitamin D regulates chemicals in the brain that help neurons in the cortex and the
hippocampus grow and survive. These two areas are involved in memory and cognitive
functions, processing emotions, and complex motor functions. Brain fog often is often
alleviated when Vitamin D levels are higher.

Psychiatrist Dr. John J. Cannell has said in an interview with ZME Science that in treating
children with autism, he has found that giving them a higher dose of 5,000 IUs a day
helped nearly 80 percent of these children with their symptoms.

“My experience, having treated about 100 children with autism, is that 25 percent
respond dramatically to high dose vitamin D, 50 percent respond significantly, and 25
percent do not respond at all,” he said.
It is advisable to take vitamin D with K2 and magnesium when supplementing, as this
will prevent vitamin D toxicity.

Both K2 and magnesium help deposit calcium in the bones rather than the arteries, and
therefore prevents hypercalcemia, which can occur because of vitamin D toxicity.

Mihalcea emphasized the importance of testing serum vitamin D levels as an indication

for dosage, since the following conditions may all impair the absorption of vitamin D:
• Inflammation
• Stress
• Obesity
• Poor gut health

Endocrinologist and vitamin D expert Dr. Michael Holick has shown obese people tend
to be deficient since the extra fat in their bodies sequesters more vitamin D in their
cells rather than allowing it to free-float in serum, which is why obese people tend to
need several times more than the recommended dosage.
 LOW VITAMIN D LEVELS HAVE A DIRECT CORRELATION WITH COLON
CANCER, PROSTATE CANCER

1. Vitamin D is an epigenetic regulator. This means that genes have an on

and off switch. Vitamin D helps to turn on the good genes.
2. Vitamin D influences 2500 genes (about 21,000 genes in the body)
3. Cancer (due to Vitamin D affecting genes)
4. Diabetes Mellitus
5. Acute Respiratory Tract Infections
6. Viral infections that cause Acute Respiratory Depression (ARDS)
7. Chronic Inflammatory Diseases
8. Auto-immune diseases
9. Multiple Sclerosis
10. Immunomodulatory Properties

Vitamin D receptors are all over the body, some examples:

✓ BONE
✓ INTESTINES
✓ PANCREAS
✓ IMMUNE SYSTEM CELLS
The importance of Vitamin D

✓ In a fascinating study conducted at the University of Copenhagen, researchers

found that vitamin D is essential in order to activate the body’s immune system.

✓ Without it — or with insufficient levels — the immune system’s killer T cells can’t
fight off serious infections and instead remain dormant.

✓ However, with sufficient levels of vitamin D, the T cells spring into action and
destroy viruses, harmful bacteria, and even cancer cells.

✓ “When a T cell is exposed to a foreign pathogen, it extends a signaling device or

‘antenna’ known as a vitamin D receptor, with which it searches for vitamin D.

✓ This means that the T cell must have vitamin D or activation of the cell will cease.
If the T cells cannot find enough vitamin D in the blood, they won’t even begin to
mobilize.”

✓ With an estimated 42% of the world’s population deficient in vitamin D, many

experts consider this deficiency to be a global health problem.

✓ Knowing your vitamin D levels is critical, especially if you have cancer.

Fortunately, a simple blood test is all you’ll need.

✓ You’ll want your vitamin D levels to be a minimum of 80 ng/mL on this test.

Anything below 25 is dangerously deficient.
Risk Factors

Obesity.
Because vitamin D is fat-soluble, people with higher amounts of body fat will store
vitamin D in fat cells, causing lower amounts of vitamin D to circulate in the
bloodstream. Those who are obese typically require higher amounts of vitamin D to
correct a deficiency

Ethnicity.
African Americans are of particular risk for vitamin D deficiency. A study states that this
class of people is 90% more likely to be deficient in vitamin D and that daily doses of
4,000IU may be necessary to combat the deficiency.

According to a study published in the Journal of Investigative Medicine, if you’re black

AND obese, you are 70% more likely to be deficient in Vitamin D.

Age.
For those aged 50 and older, vitamin D deficiency can be a problem. A variety of
reasons may account for this, such as excessive time spent indoors, reduced appetite
and malabsorption of nutrients. In addition, our skin becomes thinner as we age,
affecting the body’s ability to synthesize vitamin D.