Dr. Martin gets questions about vitamin D almost every day, and often those questions stem from bad information.Â
The number one question is how much vitamin D will cause toxicity. Because vitamin D is fat soluble, it can build up over time. Doctors are concerned about people taking too much, when they should really be more concerned with how deficient the population is in vitamin D.
Join Dr. Martin as he dispels common myths about vitamin D and shares why you absolutely need to be taking it, especially in the winter months!
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
Announcer: You're listening to The Doctor Is In Podcast, brought to you by martinclinic.com. During the episode, the doctors share a lot of information. As awesome as the info may be, it is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease. It's strictly for informational purposes.Â
Dr. Martin: Well, hello everyone, and again, welcome to another live this afternoon. Okay, what I wanna do, and I might do it all week actually, I'm thinking about vitamin D myths. And what I mean is I might do the two most common myths this week. Should have been lucky, not that. But I get questions almost every day about vitamin D. First of all, how much should I take? My doctor says to be careful, yada, yada, yada. All about vitamin D and vitamin D as you guys well know, sun, steak and steel. I should have an update in the next few days as to when our new book is coming out. Sun, steak and Steel, okay. Vitamin D myths of what we're gonna do this afternoon, okay? Now the first question we always get asked about vitamin D, since it is fat soluble, the body stores in it. Well, the body stores all vitamin D, okay? Even if they're water soluble, like vitamin B12 is water soluble, right? But you still store some in your liver, like you never get toxic from it.Â
But the question is always asked about vitamin D. Well, how much and how much is going to cause toxicity? Do you know that there's actually been studies done on toxicity and vitamin D? So here's the research. It will take 50,000 units, 50,000 IUs a day, every day for six months. Who does that? Nobody does that. And that's what it takes to be toxic from Vitamin D. Now, I'm not suggesting that anyone come even close to that number, but I wanna say this too. I have never, ever, and I was in practice for 46 years plus ever come across a physician who has seen vitamin D toxicity. Now they talk about it, health Canada talks about it, the FDA talks about it, physicians talk about it, but they haven't seen it. Like, it's not like the waiting rooms are full of people. Oh, I know why you're here. Your vitamin D is toxic.Â
So what happens if you get toxic on vitamin D? Well, they say it can create kidney stones. Well, I'm gonna tell you something, I'm gonna tell you something that's a myth. You know what creates kidney stones? You know what oxalates, you know what oxalates are? They're from veggies and fructose because they're gonna create uric acid stones in your kidneys. You got two type of stones, kidney stones, one of the MS calcium, okay? Calcium stones, oxalates, or the other one is uric acid. The two types of stones. Neither one of them is caused by vitamin D. Now listen, I guess it could happen. I guess it's possible, but it's a myth. And the reason in a myth is because the calculation on vitamin D was wrong from the beginning. It was bad math. I really go into some detail in my new book about the boo boo they made on vitamin D and they've been scared skinny ever since they scared people about vitamin D.Â
And it's because it's not soluble. It's because the math was bad right from the start and therefore it, it really became a monster vitamin toxicity. And it wasn't true at all. And I've been very, very consistent about this for many, many, many years, is that when you have a lack of vitamin D son, you are in trouble. Cancer, cardiovascular, brain autoimmune inflammation. As a matter of fact, we wrote an email about vitamin D and how it is an all cause mortality when you're low in, I mean, if you are low in vitamin D, you're going die young. It's just about conclusive.Â
So there's a lot of myths about vitamin D. Here's another one. Okay, here's another one. Okay, so we talked about the myth of it being fat soluble and toxic. It's not that it is in fat soluble but here's what that means. Fat soluble, okay? The more fat you have, the more vitamin D you need. That's a fact. There's a couple of things that you're extremely low in Vitamin D, almost invariably, if you are obese, you need a lot more vitamin D2. If you have dark skin, if you have dark skin, you need a lot more vitamin D than me. Okay? So anyone that's indigenous, anyone that is African-American or African whatever, or Indian, like East Indian, Mexican, they need more vitamin D. They're dark, they have dark skin, they're pigment. And of course, think about it, God gave them a protection.Â
You have skin, you have darker pigment. It's a protection against the sun. The problem is that most people, and I mean this when they have dark skin and have extra weight packed on, especially they're indeed do-do when it comes to vitamin D and vitamin D does so many things inside your body. I mean we talk about it all the time. Your immune system doesn't work without vitamin D. And if you think that I'm fudging about that, well, when you have the flu season, right? Smack dab in it right? Now, why is that? Why is the flu season the cold season? Why isn't that happened in the summer? It's not that you couldn't possibly get the flu, get a cold in the summer. It happens, but it's rare. That's the first thing you learn in public health. Even they admit, oh, but the flu season's coming.Â
They never ever, ever, ever, ever talk about your immune system and how important it is to keep that in shape. And the first thing you wanna do with your immune system is get your vitamin D levels up. And when your vitamin D is in the four hundreds in Canada, or let's say one 50 in the United States or 200 even in the United States, it's rare, but it does happen. Well what happens that, you know, you have high levels your doctor will just about pass out, but that doesn't make you sick. It just usually means there's a couple of things going on. One, your liver is usually gummed up fatty liver. Lots of medications will increase your levels of vitamin D. And that doesn't mean you're in good shape. It just means that it's a side effect of some medications, blood pressure, medications, diuretics can do that to your vitamin D.Â
So there's a lot of myths. One of the other myths is, I can eat my vitamin D every day. Well, I guess if you were an Inuit and you ate blubber every day and you ate cod liver oil every day, if you did that every day, I guess, because one thing about vitamin D levels, when it comes to food, most people just can't eat enough vitamin D, they can't eat it. The best source of it, of course is the sun. And I'm gonna tell you something, I talk to people all the time, and I mean this, that are scared of the sun. And you know what I mean? I tell people, look, you shouldn't be scared of the sun. Don't go burn in the sun, but you need sun. Okay? Cuz you're not going to get enough vitamin D from food.Â
Now I understand that the Inuit, you know, we used to call 'em Eskimos that live in the north. I mean they never see the sun, right? And if they do, I mean it's 50 below zero. So how do they get vitamin D? Well, they eat a lot of blubber seal cod liver oil, cod liver oil has vitamin D in it. It's not the highest source of vitamin D, but it's a source and vitamin A I like cod liver oil, by the way. Okay? So the myth is I'm just going to eat my vitamin D, I'm sorry, it's not gonna happen. And you know, if you are in the sun, I used to tell all my Floridian friends, my Arizona friends and California, I guess there's only two or three places in the winter that you're going to see enough sun to give you vitamin D, Florida, maybe Texas, Arizona, California, New Mexico. I guess give me a couple of others maybe.Â
But I'm big on supplementing with vitamin D. If you're not sure you're not getting enough, you need to supplement with vitamin D. Now, I can't tell you legally, I can't tell you how much to take. I can't, it's just the way the rules are. But I can tell you how much I take. Okay? Now when I can see the sun and I get in the sun, remember vitamin D has to come in on your arms, your forearms. I mean the best solar panels that you have. You've got solar panels everywhere on your eyes. You got solar panel, your brain has a solar panel, okay? Your eyes, they're not so much looking for vitamin D, they're looking for melatonin. Your body with the sun comes into your eyes. That's why I tell people for about 15, 20 minutes, don't put your sunglasses on.Â
Dr. Martin says, I can look directly in the sun. No, I didn't say that. I just said, let that bright sunshine, you're going to get melatonin power. Powerful antioxidant, a powerful, sleeping powerful. It really is. That's why you feel so much better when you're out in the sun. That's why you even feel better when it's a sunny day in the middle of winter. Even at 30 below you still get some melatonin. You're not getting vitamin D, but you're getting melatonin. So I can't tell people how much you should take, but for me, I'm usually somewhere between 4,000 IUs and 8,000. I use January, bad month. How many people have told me they got a real bad bug this year and they were sick as dogs? This is the time of the year. My friend February, a little bit less. You started seeing a little bit more sun.Â
But those dark months I always call, you know, December, January, February, they're got dark months and you need vitamin D. So for Dr. Martin personally, I take about 4,000, 8,000 I use a day, okay? Sometimes 10. Can I tell you about the vitamin D hammer at the first sign of a cold? And this research was done by a colleague of mine, I call it the vitamin D hammer. Hammer the vitamin D at the first sign of a flu or a cold, really important hammer, okay? With a higher dose. But again, it's very difficult for me to speak on this venue and tell you exactly for you. But the other myth is you don't need to get your vitamin D tested. That's a myth. And I know doctors are reticent to test vitamin D, that's too bad. That really is. It's just because they're training, they don't understand the significance of vitamin D.Â
They don't get it, they don't get the memo because they haven't been taught in medical school that you are a human solar panel that every cell in your body needs vitamin D, your T-cells, your navy seals of your immune system, those first responders, they don't work without vitamin D. You almost gotta bring a physician to a dentist and drill their teeth without anesthetic to get them to test your vitamin D. Last, you know, our province in Canada, oh, I was so upset this happened 10 years ago, maybe even more than not now, where they delisted the testing of vitamin D, meaning that in order to get a vitamin D test that the government pays for, okay, in Canada we have healthcare system. And if you get blood work done, you don't have to pay for blood work unless you want vitamin D tested. Unless the doctor puts, I'm suspicious of menopausal osteoporosis.Â
That is so stupid, I can't get over it. It frustrates the living life out of me. Here is a test that can save your life. Here is a test for all cause mortality. Here is a test to see how your immune system is working. Here is a test. Yeah, it's good for your bones too. Vitamin D is good for bones. So yeah, that's all right. You know, you wanna measure your immune system what test is better than taking a vitamin D level, but oh, it's not important to get your vitamin D. We don't do it. Who's Dr. Martin? That quack. I get a migraine when I think about it. This is a test that should be given to every man, woman, and even child at least once a year should have a vitamin D, dihydroxy 25 blood serum tests. It can save your life. I was talking to a cancer patient the other day and I said, I need your vitamin D levels.Â
What? Vitamin D and cancer. Yeah, I wanna know what your vitamin D levels. Well my doctor won't order it. Oh, well then tell your physician and you can actually order vitamin D tests online, by the way, in the United States, and I'm sure you can in Canada too, I know if you have to pay for it and I, you know, it's stupid. But you know what guys? I highly recommend getting your testing done because I can tell you this, I'm gonna tell you this. In the United States, I like it to be 60, between 60 and 80 and for cancer even up to a hundred, okay? US numbers, that translates, okay, a minimum of 1 50, 1 60 to 200 to 250 for cancer in Canada, research has been done. That proves if your vitamin D levels are optimized, not just bare bone minimums, you know, it's all right, no, no, no, you want it to be optimized.Â
And what they've shown when you are optimizing your vitamin D levels, your immune system's ability to fight viruses, bacteria, cancer cells is increased 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60%. Yep. There's been a lot of studies, by the way, on vitamin D, okay? There really has been. Now you won't see too many of them unless you watch this program. But vitamin D has been researched, they should do even more. But there's no money in, there's no money in vitamin D. Okay? There's no money. Nobody can patent the sun, okay? Can't patent it. I was watching a bird the other day and it kind of made me laugh a little bit because this bird, it's a bigger bird. I don't even know what it, what kind of bird it is. I mean, it looks like it comes, it's like a prehistoric bird and it's got its big wings. You don't, you know, it doesn't look too big till it spreads its wings.Â
My word that's a big bird and the sun zone and it's spreading its wings to the sun. And I watched it and I said, you know what, big bird, you're smarter than most people because most people are scared of the sun. They're scared of it. And if they go in the sun, they wanna lather up with sunscreen. You know how many sunscreens have been recalled by the FDA? I'd recall all of them if it was left up to me, you combine heat with chemicals never ends well, doesn't end well. And I've been saying that for 50 years. Your sunscreen with the sun on your skin, a formula for disaster. And I know, okay, I know I'm in the minority, I know that, you know, dermatologist and others, you know, oh, stay out of the sun. If you're gonna get in the sun where a sun block and uh, you know, make sure it's a 50 uh, SPFÂ or whatever they call it, and blah, blah blah, blah, blah.Â
I know I see it all the time and these poor people are walking around and they got no vitamin D and they don't know why. You know, they don't know why they're so low when we test. And I see that every day when you send me in your blood work, mom, we're 90% of the population close to, it'd be low levels, never optimized. Vitamin D. And by the way, with kidneys, because somebody said about kidney stones and I talked to you about oxalates and calcium stones and uric acid stones, but I'm gonna tell you how you get those stones too, by the way. If you're low in vitamin D, very, very common when you're low in vitamin D to get kidney stones. Not high in vitamin D, low in vitamin D I can't think of any area of your body that doesn't need vitamin D.Â
I can't think of one. And remember if it's the dead of winter, your arms is where your best solar panels are. So are your legs. That's why wearing shorts or whatever, of course in the summer, in the winter, what are you gonna do if you live in Keen you ain't wearing your shorts. Okay, so then you're supplementing, but you're still getting melatonin. You're still getting melatonin. If you get outside, you said get outside Dr. Martin, when it's 30 below, hey, US Canadians, we're pretty tough. Hey, I grew up and some of you are on today, olive was on today from Timmons. I grew up in Timmons and 40 below was nothing, man. We'd have that every day in January. It seems we'd be lucky to get a day that wasn't 40 below. And we still went out and played hockey. We still went up and did sliding and whatever else we did. When I got older, I had a snow machine. 40 below. Yeah, it's cold. You didn't wanna have one little bit of, uh, skin exposed, let me tell you that. Okay guys. So those are some of the myths about vitamin D. Don't believe it. Don't believe reliable about vitamin D. Everybody and their dog needs vitamin D. I take between four and 8,000 IUs, especially when I'm not in the sun. Okay? That's me, that's what I take. Okay, love you guys. Talk to you soon.Â
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