[javadog]

Vitamin D is about the least toxic vitamin out there. There have been studies done where people had vitamin D levels in their blood as high as three times the level that I suggest and few participants had issues. Small numbers like four people in more than 100,000.

One characteristic of people that get problems from Covid is that they have vitamin D levels in their blood less than 50 ng/mL. Once you go below 30 ng/mL, the risk of death from all causes goes up. Almost everybody has insufficient vitamin D. This is especially true of blacks and Mexicans, not coincidentally two groups that suffer more from Covid than whites and Asians. Frankly, I think that the data regarding vitamin D is outdated and that “normal” should be much higher than what has typically been accepted.

You can get vitamin D from the sun, but that’s very unlikely, especially this time of year. First, the amount of UVB energy hitting your body must be above a certain level, before that process even begins. This is unlikely this time of year, because of the low angle of the sun at its zenith. For most people in the country, the sun doesn’t get high enough, except for a couple months in the summer. Second, you have to expose more of your skin than just your arms and face, that’s not enough exposure to generate any significant amount. You really need to expose most of your body for at least half an hour.

They are obviously foods you can get it from but you’ll be the size of Jaba the Hutt before you eat enough of those things to make a dent in your vitamin D levels. Speaking of fat people, the fatter you are, the lower your vitamin D levels will be. In fact, there’s a really good correlation between all of the risk factors associated with increased risk for Covid and low vitamin D levels.

Feel free to get tested and consult a doctor on this, as always. I recommended 10,000 international units because I can virtually guarantee that Denis has a low vitamin D level and he’s not gonna get to where he needs to be taking 2000 units a day. Once he gets his levels to where they need to be, he can probably cut back on the daily intake, but that’s a ways off.

One other thing I’ll mention is that the amount of vitamin D that your body absorbs is affected by other things, which is why I suggested taking certain other vitamins at the same time. It’s also impacted by the health of your liver and kidneys, as they play a role in converting the vitamins you take in to the chemicals that your body actually uses. Your liver does the first work, then the kidneys take that product and finish the conversion. Bringing up your vitamin D levels is not as quick as you think. Even the amount of cholesterol in your body plays a role, if you don’t have enough cholesterol your vitamin D levels won’t be good. If you take statins, it can be a problem.

One thing you do need to watch is your calcium levels. That’s particularly true if you’re deficient in magnesium. Get tested, see where you are, adjust as needed.