One major caveat here: Getting enough vitamin D from sunlight risks exposing you to unsafe skin practices. "Cutaneous production of vitamin D occurs when the sun is higher in the sky, as in summer, and the skin is exposed as long as it is not too heavily pigmented," says Connie Weaver, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Nutrition Science at Purdue University. The reason vitamin D is called the sunshine vitamin? You can get it from sunlight. Based on this science, you'd need closer to 5,000 IU per day to reach the optimal range.* So, if you want to hit 50 ng/ml, 1,000 or 2,000 IU of vitamin D per day won't get you there in fact, they won't even get you close. Now, here's where things get interesting: Research shows that 100 IU of vitamin D3 ( which is the body's preferred form) per day raises 25(OH)D levels in the average (healthy weight) adult by 1 ng/ml 7 7. This is the clinical measure of your whole-body vitamin D status-and necessary information if you want to track your baseline status and watch how optimizing your vitamin D intake makes a significant impact.*īrittany Henderson, M.D., a board-certified endocrinologist who specializes in hormones (including vitamin D) in her clinical practice, shares that "achieving optimal serum 25(OH)D levels in the 50+ ng/ml range is imperative for immune health, bone health, and more."* To support your personal health, you'll want to get familiar with your 25(OH)D levels, which means asking your health care provider for this simple blood test 6 6. In other words, you want to exceed 30 ng/ml daily for most of your life to reap the full benefits of vitamin D for health."* In fact, a vitamin D supplement less than 20 or 30 ng/ml is associated with suboptimal bone density (not something to mess with). As Ferira expounds, "to be clear, these cut points are numbers to avoid. The National Academies recommend a cutoff of 20 ng/ml for sufficiency, while The Endocrine Society more recently vetted the science and recommended a 30 ng/ml cutoff. As mbg's vice president of scientific affairs Ashley Jordan Ferira, Ph.D., RDN, explains: "The question of daily vitamin D needs is directly informed by your vitamin D status, measured via serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D from a blood test, or for short, 25(OH)D." Vitamin D needs are more nuanced than you might think.
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